Politics of Annastacia Palaszczuk just reckless needling

There are layers of nuance attached to how health officials should conduct themselves. We saw little of that on Wednesday.

Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk watches Chief Health Officer Dr Jeannette Young during a Covid update press conference. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Dan Peled

Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk and chief health officer Jeanette Young (who the Premier recently appointed Queensland’s next governor) used a media conference on Wednesday to deliver a reckless and self-serving message.

They verballed the Prime Minister and downright misled the public. Their actions undermined confidence in vaccinations, leading anti-vaxxers to jump with joy.

I rarely defend Scott Morrison, and I certainly don’t defend the errors the federal government has made rolling out vaccinations. But Palaszczuk and Young appeared to try and take advantage of those failures, using them to distract from their own problems: an unvaccinated 19-year-old worker spreading Covid in Queensland and forcing the state into lockdown.

That was a state government failure, so the Premier used a “look over there” strategy to deflect criticism. It was brazen but worse still, its consequences were alarmist in a way that will damage public confidence in vaccines.

Palaszczuk claimed Morrison wants to set up commonwealth mass vaccination hubs for AstraZeneca. That is absolute rubbish. He has not sought to do that privately, nor has he made one public utterance to that effect.

The Premier also refuted alleged claims by the PM that national cabinet made a decision to roll AstraZeneca out for people under 40. The problem with her rebuttal? He did no such thing.

Queensland’s Health Minister claims a shortage of Pfizer vaccines is behind the PM’s amplification of AstraZeneca as an alternative: “Maybe this is why the PM has come out and suggested that under-40s get AZ.” That statement is probably right; Australia does have a surplus of AstraZeneca and a shortage of Pfizer. Whether through bad luck or bad management (I lean towards the latter), that is where we find ourselves.

All Morrison did was remind people AstraZeneca has been approved by the TGA and could therefore be available for those under 60. He said people should consult with their GP. “If they wish to go and speak to their doctor and have access to the AstraZeneca vaccine, they can do so.” The commonwealth is moving to indemnify nervous doctors who might otherwise recommend AstraZeneca for their patients. Granted, there needs to be more meat on the bones of this decision.

However, the reaction to the PM’s entirely reasonable statement has been to claim he’s going against the health advice, which is utter rubbish.

Last week at Wimbledon the developer of the AstraZeneca vaccine, Dame Sarah Gilbert, was given a standing ovation when introduced to the crowd. A grateful nation expressing its thanks. If she came to Australia she might get pelted with tomatoes, such is the unnecessary hysteria surrounding AstraZeneca.

And it’s a hysteria Queensland’s CHO added to when she said “No, I don’t want under-40s to get AstraZeneca … I don’t want an 18-year-old in Queensland dying from a clotting illness who if they got Covid probably wouldn’t die.”

It is hard to know where to start with such black-and-white rhetoric by someone so senior who should know better. But let’s begin with the risk profile she’s talking about.

Around one in three younger people in every 100,000 who take AstraZeneca get blood clotting. Only 3 per cent of clotting cases result in death, according to professor of public health Julie Leask. That’s 3 per cent of three out of every 100,000 cases, which works out to be around one in a million.

Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk and Chief Health Officer Jeannette Young created hysteria during their Wednesday press conference, writes Peter van Onselen. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Dan Peled

A one-in-a-million risk Queensland’s Deputy Premier described as “very risky”. Ponder that fearmongering.

As far as medical risk profiles go, one in a million is extremely low, which is why the TGA approved AstraZeneca in the first place. But governments have been very cautious nonetheless. For context, in Britain, AstraZeneca is available to people under 40 but recommended for the over-40s. In France, it is fully available, as it is in many other nations. Australia is shipping it all over the Pacific, for all age groups, to help our neighbours.

As health expert Professor Nathan Grills points out, the risk of taking aspirin is “two hundred times more dangerous than AstraZeneca”. Which is why the absolutist rhetoric of Young, in my opinion, is so reckless. It took just minutes after she made her statements for former deputy chief medical officer at the federal level, Nick Coatsworth, to challenge what she said, tweeting “well, I guess that puts me at odds with the QLD CHO”.

And he’s far from alone. Since Young’s comments, a conga line of specialists has been critical of the message the CHO sent with her comments. As the vice-president of the AMA, Dr Chris Moy, told ABC radio on Thursday: “I was quite concerned, I actually thought that was inappropriate.”

It is worth noting that the 58-year-old CHO herself waited for the Pfizer vaccine, even though AstraZeneca was recommended for her age group at the time.

And the Queensland Premier also got a Pfizer shot when AstraZeneca was recommended. The reason? She had to get a flu shot, her dog bit her, she might go to the Tokyo Olympics, so she needed the faster turnaround time for the second jab. These were all excuses she used.

Not to be flippant about it but there’s probably a greater chance Queensland’s next governor hurts herself when cutting a ribbon at an opening than there is of an 18-year-old dying from AstraZeneca. Which is not to say that it can’t happen, like anything in life there are risks. In this case, a one-in-a-million risk. Public health advice includes subjective judgments, which is why it always irks me when politicians hide behind “health advice” in absolutist terms, suggesting their decisions are beyond reproach. That is not how public policy generally works, nor is not how health policy specifically works.

The reasons behind not actively discouraging young people to get AstraZeneca jabs are multifaceted. It undermines confidence; it ignores the benefits of more vaccinated Australians being less likely to transmit Covid to more at-risk communities. Young’s comparison of an 18-year-old’s risk of dying from Covid versus AstraZeneca ignores the risks of Covid during an outbreak, if ICU wards are at or near capacity, indeed the risks of 18-year-olds carrying Covid while unvaccinated and passing it on.

As the AMA has pointed out, even one shot of the AstraZeneca vaccine reduces the transmission rate of the virus by 50 per cent.

There are layers of nuance and responsibility attached to how health officials should conduct themselves in public, and we saw little of that at Wednesday’s media conference.

Frankly, I don’t know why I’m surprised. This is the same Premier and CHO who repeatedly rejected requests for a son to see his dying father, even though he was fully vaccinated, had tested negative three times, was prepared to wear a hazmat suit and fly in and out on a private jet. Despite NSW and federal health officials giving the mercy dash the green light.

Eventually, the Queensland Premier gave in, and he was able to see his dad. But only after media and public pressure was acutely applied. In other words, once a compassionate decision became a political problem in need of fixing.

That tells you everything you need to know.