Covid Qld: No need to wait for children to be vaccinated, say experts

Medical experts and politicians have come out in droves to slam Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk for saying children's welfare is the reason she still can’t lay out a plan for reopening the state. VOTE IN OUR POLL

Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk has been accused of scaremongering by political foes and lacking common sense by “appalled” top doctors as she seizes on children's welfare as the reason she still can’t lay out a plan for reopening the state.

Ms Palaszczuk yesterday appealed to parents, grandparents, aunts and uncles as she declared the fate of children was “the most serious issue that our country will face” and opening up would be exposing the most vulnerable.

After committing to a National Cabinet plan to relax restrictions last month, the Premier said she now needed extra Doherty Institute modelling to show how children would fare before she could tell Queenslanders what life would look like when vaccination rates reached 80 per cent.

“Unless there is an answer on how these young people are going to be vaccinated, you are putting the most vulnerable population at risk,” she said.

“So anyone who has grandchildren, or young children, or nephews or nieces know how that plays on people’s minds.”

She added: “What’s going to happen to the children?”

Queensland LNP Senator Matt Canavan said it was disgraceful for the Premier to use children as “blackmail” to justify harsh restrictions continuing.

“Annastacia Palaszczuk is fast becoming ‘the Karen’ of the coronavirus pandemic for her heartless approach,” he said.

The term ‘Karen’ is a slang term for an entitled person making demands beyond what is considered normal, often associated with someone who “demands to speak to the manager”.

Her comments were also questioned by health experts, who said keeping borders shut to protect children was not sensible.

Veteran paediatrician and vaccine expert Professor Robert Booy, who is also a member of the national Immunisation Coalition, said Ms Palaszczuk needed to use common sense in her decision, as children were not at high risk.

Prof Booy, who described himself as a “devout Queenslander”, said he was appalled by the Premier’s stance.

“I have been a paediatrician and have worked in the promotion of vaccinations for decades,” Prof Booy said.

“If I thought young children needed urgent vaccination, I would say so.

“Keeping borders shut because of the children is not a sensible measure.”

He said young children would not be vaccinated until next year, and Ms Palaszczuk did not need to wait for new modelling.

“We know from international data around the world that unless they have existing chronic conditions they are not at high risk,” he said.

Professor Fiona Russell, Murdoch Children’s Research Institute.

Murdoch Children’s Research Institute paediatrician Professor Fiona Russell said children exhibited similar flu-like symptoms to adults but few had become seriously ill, even with the Delta strain.

“What we do know is that Covid in kids is nothing like what occurs in adults,” she said.

Opposition Leader David Crisafulli last night called on Ms Palaszczuk to back her concerns with evidence as the business community again cried out for some certainty to be able to plan.

“If the Premier is now walking away from the national agreement that she signed up to based on the Doherty modelling then she needs to release the health advice driving that new direction and release to Queenslanders what her new plan is,” he said.

That modelling shows an estimated 25 children under 16 would die over 6 months, 93 would need ICU and 135,408 would become infected should restrictions ease when 80 per cent of adults are vaccinated and measures like contact tracing and quarantine were only partially working.

But if control measures were working well, no child aged under 16 would die from Covid-19, one would need the ICU and 687 would become infected.

Federal Health Minister Greg Hunt said the Doherty Institute modelling specifically took into consideration children.

“The claim that children were not considered is false, wrong and inaccurate,” he said.

He said the Premier was being irresponsible in claiming 2240 people would die a month under the Doherty modelling.

“She is selectively misusing the Doherty modelling, it breaches good faith and damages public confidence,” Mr Hunt said.

“There was a very selective misuse of the Doherty report which undermines public confidence.”

He said the Doherty Institute made it clear that “with optimal public health measures and no lockdowns this can be significantly reduced to 2787 infections and 13 deaths’’.

If NSW is the model of what lies in store for all of us, then serious discussions are needed.

Doherty Institute modelling predicts, even with 70% of the population vaccinated, 80 people will die each day six months after the outbreak.

That’s 2,240 who will die each month.

— Annastacia Palaszczuk (@AnnastaciaMP) September 2, 2021

Mr Hunt also said locking children out of the state through its strict border measures, like three-year-old Memphis, was a “profound moral failure”.

Chief Medical Officer Paul Kelly declined to address the Premier’s claims directly, to avoid politicisation of his role, but he said people needed to learn to live with Covid.

“There will be people that die from Covid,” Dr Kelly said.

“We need to start recognising that’s the case, particularly in unvaccinated people.”

Paul Kelly said data from the NSW, Victoria and the ACT showed 3815 children under 12 had contracted the Delta strain of Covid since January.

Of those 134 were hospitalised, most of those were for social reasons not medical reasons, just three had been admitted to intensive care and none had died.

Treasurer Josh Frydenberg said it would be “ludicrous” if the rest of Australia was able to “travel to Canada before Cairns” and if Ms Palaszczuk didn’t stick to the national plan, “businesses will close … jobs will be lost”.

“It is not realistic that you can keep your borders closed indefinitely,” he said.

Home Affairs Minister Karen Andrews slammed Ms Palaszczuk for using “every available opportunity” to shut the state down, for “scaremongering” and for recent statements that have “quite frankly not made a lot of sense”.

“The Queensland Premier is quite clearly doubling down on her ‘let’s keep Queensland closed’ (rhetoric) and the Federal Government is of the view that Queensland should be open,” she said.”

Senator Matt Canavan in Parliament House in Canberra. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Gary Ramage

Deputy Premier Steven Miles said Ms Palaszczuk’s comments did not necessarily mean children would have to be vaccinated before Queensland opened up and lockdowns ended.

But he cautioned that if restrictions were lifted once adults were vaccinated “then the only place for the virus to move around rapidly would be among children”, the unvaccinated and the vulnerable.

“As this virus has changed, the susceptibility of children to catching it and to get sick by it has changed and we want to see consideration of what this means for young people,” he said.

I sympathise with people in other states enduring months of lockdown, but my job is to protect the people of Queensland. That's why I'm calling to see the detailed modelling. #covid19 pic.twitter.com/Q10Gyb2OW1

— Annastacia Palaszczuk (@AnnastaciaMP) September 2, 2021

Meanwhile, Queensland Health’s advice to parents is that international data consistently shows the lowest rates of the virus in children.

“Preschool and primary school age children in particular appear less likely to acquire the infection and make up less than 5 per cent of reported cases in Australia and elsewhere,” the document says.

“Importantly, the published data also suggests that children tend to have less severe cases of Covid-19 than adults,” Children’s Health Queensland Director of Infectious Diseases Julia Clark said in the advice.

“In most cases the virus causes mild or moderate symptoms, which can include fever and cough, but also milder cases of pneumonia sometimes requiring hospitalisation.”

“Severe complications in children are uncommon,” Dr Clark adds.

It says infants were at an increased risk of developing severe cases compared to young children, but the rate was comparable to adolescents.

“Approximately 10 per cent of babies appear to need admission to hospital to receive oxygen, in a similar way to other winter viruses,” it says.

“These are important and serious infections, but these babies almost all recover without needing support from intensive care.

“This is very different to the experience in the elderly, particularly those with existing health problems.”

Additional reporting Matthew Killoran, Domanii Cameron