Virgin boss Jayne Hrdlicka explains ‘some people may die’ comments

The Virgin boss has explained in a memo to staff her controversial comment that borders needed to reopen even if ‘some people may die’.

Virgin Australia boss Jayne Hrdlicka has explained her controversial comment that Australia’s borders need to reopen even if “some people may die” in a memo to staff.

Ms Hrdlicka sparked outrage earlier this week when attempting to make the case that Australians needed to accept COVID in the community.

“It will make us sick but won’t put us into hospital. Some people may die but it will be way smaller than the flu,” she told a Queensland University of Technology forum in Brisbane on Monday.

In an internal memo to all Virgin employees on Wednesday, Ms Hrdlicka softened her language.

“I absolutely understand how those comments, taken in isolation, have upset some in the community — and that was never my intention,” Ms Hrdlicka said.

“If I had my time again, I would make my point a bit differently.”

Virgin CEO Jayne Hrdlicka. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Sarah Marshall

The comment was made in response to a question about when vaccination numbers could spark a reopening of Australia’s international border.

“At the end of a Q&A session, a question was put to me about the positions of Victorian chief health officer Brett Sutton and former deputy chief medical officer Dr Nick Coatsworth, on eradication of COVID-19, and once a population is vaccinated, what the next steps around opening borders should be,” Ms Hrdlicka said. “My starting point was — and always will be — that our critical priority should be to protect our vulnerable and get them vaccinated, and then make vaccination available to the rest of our population.”

The federal budget said international travel in and out of Australia would remain low until mid-2022.

The Brisbane-based airline has been hit hard from the pandemic. Picture: Nev Madsen.

In the statement, Ms Hrdlicka said reopening the border should occur once vulnerable people are vaccinated.

“Only when vulnerable members of our community have access to the vaccines they need, and vaccines are available more broadly, and therefore our hospital system is protected, can we begin to open up and learn to live and work safely with COVID in the community,” she said.

“I was not and would never advocate opening borders before we have protected the vulnerable and others who want vaccination.”

Ms Hrdlicka said reopening the borders is as much about families being able to reunite as it is about jobs, with one in three Australians being born overseas and having relatives in other countries.

“Just as we have learned to open our domestic borders and keep the community safe, we can do the same with international borders,” she said.

“We need to be open again as a country — it is just a question of doing that in a gradual way that keeps the community safe.”