Coronavirus: Second opinion from doctors: lift lockdown

A group of more than 500 ­Victorian doctors has urged Premier Daniel Andrews to end current lockdown restrictions.

A group of more than 500 ­Victorian doctors has urged Premier Daniel Andrews to end current lockdown restrictions and abandon mandatory wearing of face masks and a 5km limit on movement when he announces the next step of easing on ­Sunday.

The group, calling themselves the Covid Medical Network, this week penned a petition arguing Victoria‘s lockdown was ­“unnecessary” and ”disproportionate”, and was likely to cause many more deaths than it would save by exacerbating mental illness and discouraging people from seeking medical attention for life-threatening conditions such as cancer.

Their views have been criticised by some in the medical community, with AMA national president Omar Khorshid saying that while he sympathised with the sentiments in the petition, the notion of immediately lifting restrictions in Victoria without ensuring contact tracing, testing and infection control measures were up to standard was “fatally flawed”.

On Friday the Covid Medical Network renewed its push, with a statement from anaesthetist and group spokesman Eamonn Mathieson.

“We want (Mr Andrews) to end current lockdown restrictions, including abandoning the mandatory wearing of face masks and lifting the 5km limit, to enable Melburnians to lead normal lives once again,” Dr Mathieson said.

“The lockdown has had devastating economic and wellbeing ­effects on the community as a whole, with an alarming increase in mental health cases, and cancer screening appointments being cancelled. Retail businesses and bars and restaurants should be allowed to reopen to help get the economy moving.”

Dr Mathieson also cited comments from World Health ­Organisation special envoy on COVID-19 David Nabarro, who said this week that the WHO “do not advocate lockdowns as the primary means of control of this virus”, highlighting the role they were playing in “making poor people an awful lot poorer”.