Andrew Bolt: Brett Sutton is now a public health liability

Brett Sutton misled us about how this “beast” of a virus was infecting people — proving we need a better qualified person in his job.

What kind of a virus is terrifying Victoria and locking down Melbourne for two weeks? One that can’t even kill a 99-year-old.

In fact, the virus strain hyped by Victorian chief health officer Brett Sutton as an “absolute beast” has not managed to kill any of the three residents of an aged care centre that it has so far infected.

The trio – ages 99, 95 and 79 – aren’t even symptomatic.

That’s astonishing, when two thirds of the 910 Australians who died last year were in nursing homes.

The difference this time: All three residents were vaccinated.

That’s the good news. The bad news: Anti-vaxxers still aren’t likely to admit they were wrong.

That’s because Victoria just proved to them they’re right not to trust the health officials telling them vaccines are safe.

That is what makes Sutton now a public health liability.

Victorian Chief Health Officer, Brett Sutton. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Daniel Pockett

He and his team did mislead us, saying this “beast” of a virus strain was infecting us “faster” and “in places where normally it would not be likely”, like an outdoor dining place and in a “fleeting” contact between strangers merely “looking at phones in a Telstra shop”.

But infectious disease experts said this virus had always infected strangers who merely breathed in infected air.

Sutton’s deputy then admitted this latest strain might merely seem to act “faster” because cases were being detected faster.

Then, most embarrassing, the infections outdoors and in a Telstra shop turned out to be false positives.

By last weekend, unnamed Victorian government “insiders” were complaining to journalists that Sutton “catastrophises by nature”.

Then why listen to him? Get a cooler expert, like Sutton’s better qualified deputy, Professor Allen Cheng.

This is not just a Victorian problem. South Australia’s Chief Public Health Officer, Nicola Spurrier, made herself a national laughing stock by advising fans at the AFL game between Adelaide and Collingwood “to duck” if the ball was kicked into the crowd.

:South Australian chief public health officer Nicola Spurrier.

But what possible danger was there of an essentially airborne virus being transmitted by touching a ball kicked by virus-tested players?

Spurrier later tried to laugh it all off, but remember: This is the same official who recommended a shut-down of Adelaide after a single person got infected and – Spurrier warned – could have passed on the virus via pizza boxes.

So can we finally agree to stop making such fearful fools of ourselves?