Victorian CHO Brett Sutton: ‘Disappointing to be taken out of context’ by The Age article

Victoria’s chief health officer says his comments at a private seminar were ‘taken out of context’ as The Age is forced to issue a clarification.

Victorian Chief Health Officer Brett Sutton. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Luis Enrique Ascui

Victoria’s chief health officer Brett Sutton says it is “pretty disappointing to be taken out of context” by The Sunday Age after the newspaper suggested he was critical about the state’s handling of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The article — “We can’t just sit on our hands” — ran at the weekend and included comments made by Professor Sutton when he spoke at a recent private seminar.

“Professor Sutton also revealed he had been ‘shocked’ at the Victorian government’s ‘steadfast’ refusal to adapt and acknowledge mistakes during the coronavirus pandemic,” the piece, written by political reporter Michael Fowler, read.

But Professor Sutton, in a social media post, said it was “pretty disappointing to be taken out of context”.

“It’s very clear that Victoria has been more adaptive, agile and informed by lessons than almost anywhere in the world,” he wrote in a post on Sunday.

Pretty disappointing to be taken out of context. It's very clear that Victoria has been more adaptive, agile and informed by lessons than almost anywhere in the world. https://t.co/Goco587l4L

— Chief Health Officer, Victoria (@VictorianCHO) May 15, 2021

Failures in the Victorian hotel quarantine program, and a lack of early contract tracing capacity, led to the state going into a lengthy lockdown that lasted 112 days.

Of the 910 deaths from COVID-19 in Australia, 820 were in Victoria followed by NSW, where there were 54.

The Age corrected the story on Monday, and said it accepted that “in that passage of his speech Professor Sutton did not refer directly to Victorian people and agencies”.

Fowler, in a now-deleted social media post, denied misrepresenting Professor Sutton.

The Department of Health and Human Services told The Australian that The Age had been provided with a statement before publication explaining Professor Sutton’s comments did not refer to the Victorian government or agencies.

Professor Sutton said: “I regularly reflect on the approach taken by some people and agencies around the world who did not act as early and as robustly as they needed to – but these remarks were in no way a reference to the Victorian government.”

“I did not say the words ‘Victorian government’, and it’s disappointing that this has been taken out of context.”

“No one can accused the Victorian government of not adapting quickly in the face of this virus.”

The Age had not commented at the time of publication.