Mark McGowan hits the spin cycle on Covid-19

WA Premier Mark McGowan speaks to the media. Picture: Matt Jelonek

Confusion is spreading in WA as Covid-19 begins to infiltrate the state.

There are 12 clusters scattered throughout Perth’s southern suburbs, the southwest and the wheatbelt, including one case that has been detected in the small town of Cunderdin, a farming community that is more than 160km from the nearest ICU ward.

Many of the cases that were reported this week don’t have clear links to other clusters, so chains of transmission and whether there are more infectious people in the wider community remain to be seen.

WA chief health officer Andy Robertson said “pings” had been detected in the effluent of the affluent areas of Subiaco and City Beach.

“What it means is we have detected viral particles within that wastewater. That could be somebody passing through the area, it’s obviously somebody who has used the toilet in the area,” Dr Robertson said.

West Australians have not been immune to misinformation being circulated online and at “freedom rallies” about the vaccines and the virus. Now they’re getting a front-row seat to crisis communications 101 instead of learning about what’s being done ahead of a looming health crisis.

After the “safety transition plan” to reopen WA’s hard border on February 5 was abandoned due to threat of the Omicron strain, this week Mark McGowan freestyled.

The most popular WA Premier in history did more backflips than an Olympic gymnast and his spin machine turned up its settings from delicate to heavy duty.

McGowan’s inner circle, including his chief of staff who tweeted furiously in defence of his boss, dropped the kumbaya beat and instead started banging the drums on a new hymn of fear.

Even the Queen’s representative in WA joined the chorus.

“The enemy is at the gates now, and sooner or later we will open to the world and we cannot stem the tide of this virus completely,” Governor Kim Beazley said during his official Australia Day address for the City of Perth.

“We need to be fully vaccinated. Above all, our kids need it. Delta was a threat to adults. Omicron is also, but it is particularly a threat for kids. Now Delta wasn’t a threat for kids. Omicron is a big threat for kids. Most of them will scoot through it fine, with a cold and a bit of a headache.

“But for a small percentage — we don’t know how many but it’s suggested about five to 10 (per cent) when we look at experience now elsewhere — after two months, all of a sudden, when you think they’re recovered, their systems will shut down and they’ll face death.”

He has since apologised for the inaccuracy that 10 per cent of kids who catch Covid-19 will die.

“During the presentation at the City of Perth the Governor referred to an illness that has been recently associated with Covid in children. This illness is called Multisystem Inflammatory Syndrome in children,” the Governor’s spokeswoman told The Australian.

“During his ad lib commentary he conflated the statistic for long Covid (across all ages) with the statistic for MIS-C. He recognised that he had inadvertently mixed up the percentages and has apologised for the mix up.”

Beazley is McGowan’s political mentor. The Premier appointed him Governor in 2018. He is also the father of the newly elected Labor member for Victoria Park, Hannah Beazley.

There is a sense this new, yet to be seen, “plan” has got nothing to do with health advice.

McGowan and his team now seem more focused on sticky taping their smashed glass jaws instead of repairing WA’s health system which has been on life support long before Covid.