John Gerrard confronted Australia’s first coronavirus cluster

John Gerrard is only hours from getting the COVID-19 jab, and not before time. If anyone knows how dangerous the virus is, it is him.

Gold Coast University Hospital infectious diseases physician Dr John Gerrard, who treated Queensland's first cases of COVID-19. Picture: Nigel Hallett

John Gerrard is only hours from getting the COVID-19 jab, and not before time.

If anyone knows how dangerous the virus is, it is him.

As director of infectious diseases at the Gold Coast University Hospital, Professor Gerrard confronted the country’s first cluster in January last year before the disease even had a name.

A 44-year-old Chinese tourist from Wuhan, sick with flu-like symptoms, had presented at the hospital and the alarm bells were ringing.

Another holidaymaker from the hotzone in central China had tested positive in Melbourne that week, but the case on the Gold Coast was even more worrying.

The man had been travelling with his wife, son and two other Wuhan families, nine people all up. Australian doctors were still divided about how serious the threat was, some insisting talk of a pandemic was premature.

Professor Gerrard was sure of two things: the virus was highly contagious and there were probably many more cases in China than Beijing was owning up to. After discussions with Queensland Chief Health Officer Jeannette Young, he decided to bring all nine in the group into isolation at the hospital. Six of them turned out to be infected.

“I don’t know how much ­people appreciate what a critical decision that was,” he said.

“It aborted an early outbreak here in Queensland … it also gave us an opportunity to understand what we were dealing with.”

His appointment to receive the Pfizer vaccine at 1.30pm on Monday, V-Day for the rollout, brings his experience with COVID-19 full circle.

Since the Wuhan tour party cluster, Professor Gerrard’s team has treated nearly 300 people for COVID, increasingly effectively, partly accounting for the Queensland government’s decision to site the state’s first vaccination hub at the Gold Coast hospital.

He is deeply relieved that a “faint wish” for a vaccine a year ago has now been realised. “When we saw these three families from Wuhan here, it was very apparent there weren’t just 2000 cases in China,” he said.

“There were many thousands more, and there were only two ways this outbreak was going to end: either in a catastrophic pandemic with many thousands of people dead, including many thousands of Australians, or the development of a vaccine that might stop it.”

While arrival of the jab is critical, Professor Gerrard says it is far from the end of the COVID story.

“This is a virus we will have to learn to live with,” he said. “Half of people who get it get no symptoms at all, and can still transmit it. That’s tricky.

“Most of the respected research groups … doubt very much whether the virus is going to be eradicated.

“But what we can at least do with the vaccine — and this is critical — is protect people from getting serious illness. If the virus transmits like a normal respiratory virus and doesn’t cause serious illness, then that’s not a problem.”

Personally, he is also grateful that the vaccine has finally arrived. As a frontline health worker, Professor Gerrard, 59, is a 1(a) category recipient but his 97-year-old mother, Norma, is not far behind him in the queue and has been notified she will be getting her initial dose on Thursday or Friday.

His daughter, Catherine, 21, is in the army and also in line for early vaccination.

“I certainly didn’t want to bring this home to my family,” he said.