Covid Qld: Petition seeks pandemic advice that doesn’t exist

Health advice underpinning Queensland’s controversial Covid-19 lockdown rules and vaccination mandates won’t be released by the government – because a conclusive document doesn’t exist.

Health advice underpinning Queensland’s controversial Covid-19 lockdown rules and vaccination mandates won’t be released by the government – because a conclusive document doesn’t exist.

Health Minister Shannon Fentiman said truncated advice used each day by chief health officer John Gerrard and his predecessor Jeannette Young during the state’s two-year fight against Covid-19 wasn’t available.

Instead, she said both top doctors drew insight from a range of sources before deciding what action to take.

A petition of 3561 people lodged with the Queensland Parliament has called for the advice used by Dr Gerrard and Dr Young that led to vaccination mandates and movement restrictions to be released.

The petitioners argued Queensland’s response to the pandemic was the “harshest crackdown on civil liberties in living memory”.

Ms Fentiman, however, said no single piece of medical advice existed.

“Queensland’s chief health officer issued public health directions to manage the spread of Covid-19 throughout the community, including requirements for Covid-19 vaccination,” she said.

“In making these public health directions the chief health officer relied on advice from a variety of sources.

Dr John Gerrard succeeded Dr Jeannette Young as chief health officer.

“Specifically, the chief health officer met daily with doctors, epidemiologists, infectious diseases specialists and public health experts about Covid-19 and the extraordinary and emergency measures necessary to protect public health.”

The petition called on the parliament to direct Premier Steven Miles to release “medical advice relied used to enforce the Covid-19 mandates that would; discriminate people on the basis of their Covid vaccination status, isolate our most vulnerable from their families, force Queenslanders to have Covid vaccinations that appear to have increasingly alarming safety and efficacy statistics”.

The World Health Organisation said the benefits of Covid-19 vaccinations outweighed the risks of getting ill.

Ms Fentiman said the state’s response to the pandemic resulted in one of the lowest mortality rates in the world.

It was revealed the state government, led by Annastacia Palaszczuk, spend more than $500,000 to poll Queenslanders at the height of the Covid-19 pandemic about whether borders should reopen.

During the pandemic, Ms Palaszczuk repeatedly insisted she relied only on the health advice provided by Dr Young to inform the state’s response to the coronavirus.