How the pressure is rising on Chief Health Officer Brett Sutton
Victoria’s Chief Health Officer Brett Sutton has been the face of the pandemic response five days a week since March and his calm way has brought comfort in uncertain times, but as the numbers soar, he may now be sagging with the burden of grim tidings, writes Patrick Carlyon.
Patrick Carlyon
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A week is a long time in a pandemic. So, sometimes, is a few days.
On Wednesday, there were 238 new cases overnight. State Chief Health Officer Brett Sutton fronted the daily press conference and said he felt encouraged.
Perhaps the case numbers were stabilising, he said.
“There’s no guarantee with a drop-off,” he said. “We should see it by the end of this week, but it absolutely will be a reflection of how well people are doing the right thing in the week past.”
On Thursday, there were 317 new cases overnight.
“It’s a big number,” Prof Sutton said.
Yet he “expected” better news ahead; the cases could plateau in the next few days.
“It needs to turn around,” he said.
“In some ways I expect it to turn around this week, but as I’ve always said, it’s no guarantee.”
On Friday, there were 428 new cases overnight. The numbers were not dropping, nor stabilising, but surging.
Prof Sutton was no longer expecting improvements. His confidence had been replaced with hope.
“Certainly, 428 new cases is both disappointing and concerning,” he said. “We have not turned the corner.”
Prof Sutton has been the face of the pandemic response five days a week since March. His calm way has brought comfort in uncertain times.
Fatigued or not, Prof Sutton has avoided preaching and declined invitations to buy into political discourse.
“He doesn’t say anything by accident, ever,” said one close observer.
He has never looked rattled, even in the opening weeks when the daily numbers — and consequential deaths — sparked demands for instant solutions.
In May, knowing he was about to front a hostile press about the Cedar Meats debacle, Prof Sutton bantered with the media on his way to the stage.
On Friday there was a kind of turning point — just not the one Prof Sutton had hoped for.
He was as personable as ever. But was he understandably sagging with the burden of grim tidings?
Prof Sutton spoke of the new numbers as a “daily tragedy”.
Unlike Wednesday or Thursday, he was not foreshadowing improvements.
“If we keep seeing ongoing numbers, even if the modelling is telling us it will go down, we have to respond to the realities on the ground,” he said.
Prof Sutton wouldn’t be drawn on specifics, citing the unknowable permutations of community transmission rates.
But the message seemed clear. There were fewer guarantees than ever.
At the end of this week, Prof Sutton’s job seemed trickier than at any other time in this pandemic.
As he said on Friday: “Everything is on the table.”
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