Researchers’ potential link to Covid origins needs investigation

There has always been suspicion that the COVID-19 virus escaped from the Wuhan virus laboratory and new evidence (“China Covid research team ‘in first cluster’”, 22/3) adds weight to that suspicion. It is difficult to know the truth in the age of fake news but, if true, the confirmation that the first group of patients with symptoms (who were hospitalised in Wuhan in 2019, before the outbreak was identified) were three workers from the lab adds to that suspicion. Disturbingly there was also evidence of vaccine development relating to this virus, suggesting its possible development for biological warfare; whether intended or not, it has been highly successful worldwide in this role. Yet again, it appears that the Chinese government has not been transparent.

WHO were apparently notified but their belated and inadequate investigation did not, or could not, follow up on this information; further clarification is required.

Dr Graham Pinn, Maroochydore, Qld

Shot in the arm

As a retired GP I understand the problems of managing a massive vaccination program without disturbance to the normal work flow of a busy clinic. The problem seems to me to be worsened by the decision to use multi-dose ampoules. The result of these is that a separate booking arrangement for groups of clients who may well be seeing the doctor regularly anyway. Flu vaccines can come in single-dose preloaded syringes and the GP can simply take a dose from the fridge and give it in the course of a normal consultation, with no disruption. Why not offer single-dose units of COVID vaccine to GPs?

Euan Walker, Mount Annan, NSW

Chris Mitchell (“Journalists covering vaccine rollout play into hands of anti-vaxxers’”, 22/3), commenting on AstraZeneca vaccinations, quotes a European medical authority’s finding of “no increase from background levels of clots in the community”. But if the reported level of anti-vax noise on social media is any measure, the incidence of “clots in the community” is already regrettably high.

Eric Lockett, South Hobart, Tas

Show stopper

Bryan Brown makes an impassioned plea to the federal government not to reduce the tax offset for making Australian films (“Australia has the best stories — help us tell them”, 22/3).

One only has to reflect on productions like A Town Like Alice, Picnic at Hanging Rock, The Chant of Jimmie Blacksmith and Strictly Ballroom to appreciate the importance of telling Australian stories to our culture.

Australian filmmakers don’t have the luxury of the wealth of Hollywood to bankroll them.

As Brown says, Australian producers continually struggle to find ways to finance our films, often at significant personal financial cost to themselves. Keep the tax offset for Australian films at 40 per cent for the sake of our culture.

David Muir, Indooroopilly, Qld

Under the weather

The Bureau of Meteorology predicted a wetter than usual summer as a result of a La Nina weather pattern. Although this pattern was late to develop, develop it did. Those of us who have seen many a season know that floods follow droughts and fires in Australia, as night follows day. The management of dams affecting suburban development is critical, as the Wivenhoe Dam tragedy demonstrated in Brisbane in 2011. Our thoughts and prayers go out to those who are seeing their homes go under flood waters in NSW’s Hawkesbury-Nepean basin.

Vicki Sanderson, Cremorne, NSW

Graham Lloyd is right to emphasise the recurring cycles of drought and flooding rains in Australia driven by the oceanic weather systems — now all simplistically explained by “climate change” (“Floods prove the weather’s not broken”, 22/3). I recall as a 16-year-old scout travelling by train from Melbourne to Brisbane to attend a scouting adventure. In northern NSW our train passed through extensively flooded landscapes near Kempsey, while the 1978 film Newsfront recorded the Maitland floods of 1949 and 1955.

Thomas Hogg, East Melbourne, Vic

On your mark

Will Swanton has another point-scoring column validating his argument with facts and figures on why NRL boss Peter V’landys is wrong about AFL being boring (“V’landys gets it wrong: AFL is everything the NRL should be”, 22/3). I originally followed NRL because residing in NSW it was the done thing. Views changed with my husband showing me the benefits of AFL: the stamina, speed and expertise, the crowd atmosphere, the thrill of it all. And like Swanton, channel surfing from AFL to NRL, there is no comparison; it’s like driving a Ferrari compared to an old Daewoo.

Susan McLochlan, Caboolture, Qld