AMA Queensland president reveals police follow Chief Health Officer Dr Jeannette Young “everywhere”
Queensland has reported no new cases of the pandemic coronavirus on Monday, as it was revealed Chief Health Officer Dr Jeannette Young has been the subject of death threats, while the Premier has promised to stare down the people “who are trying to tear Queensland apart”.
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Queensland has reported no new cases of the pandemic coronavirus on Monday, as it was revealed Chief Health Officer Jeannette Young has been the subject of death threats.
AMA Queensland President Dr Chris Perry earlier revealed Dr Young has police officers who “follow her everywhere” after she received death threats over border policies and funeral exemptions, the state’s peak medical body president says.
Dr Perry said criticism towards Dr Jeannette Young has been “toxic”.
Dr Young said the pandemic had taken an enormous toll on her, but she also acknowledged it had taken a toll on many Queenslanders.
“It has taken an enormous toll on me but then this has taken an enormous toll on every single person in our community.
“We can’t see a clear end to this so we’re going to have to work this through together. I think this has been tough on everyone.”
She said the support the government had shown to her had made her feel safe.
Premier Annastacia Palaszcuk described Dr Young as one of the most professional women she had ever met.
“I’m making no apologies for keeping Queenslanders safe during this time,” the Premier said.
“I am relying on the best medical advice given to me by Dr Young. We have to keep Queenslanders safe and accept the medical advice.
“It has stood Queensland in good stead. We are the envy of some other parts of Australia.”
Ms Palaszczuk said she would stand on her record and stare down the people “who are trying to tear Queensland apart”.
“In Queensland, people are going about their normal jobs as if life was back to normal,” she said.
Detective Superintendent Tony Fleming confirmed police were assisting the Chief Health Officer but could not confirm if officers were investigating if she had death threats against her.
“We have police who will look at social tension within the community,” he said.
“And where there is postings and information that gives us concern for the wellbeing of anyone, we will take action.
“Either they will come to us or we will go to them and give them advice on their safety,” he said.
“My understanding is police have engaged with the CHO and given her some advice but the specific of what strategy we have put in place, I don’t want to go there.
“But it’s a general policing response where you essentially have got the trolls increasing their angst there.
“My understanding is we are satisfied that the CHO is safe and those general responses that we have put in place are satisfactory.”
Supt Fleming said “we live in challenging times”.
“We are hyper alert to community safety,” he said.
“We will often act on something just in case there is a problem we will go that step and then assess and I can only surmise that would be the case here,” he said.
Dr Young admitted that her role in keeping Queenslanders safe was “tough”.
She said she went for a long walk on Saturday to help her deal with the stress.
“That helped enormously being out in the fresh air and being able to see our beautiful, beautiful scenery here in Queensland,” she said.
Dr Young said of course she had had moments of self-doubt, but said there was no rule book over how to deal with this pandemic.
“We’re still learning every single day about this virus,” she said.
Dr Young said her decisions regarding the pandemic were based purely on health outcomes.
“There’s no rule book for dealing with this,” she said.
Dr Young said it was too early to say whether the latest outbreak of 48 people linked to the Brisbane Youth Detention Centre and the Queensland Corrective Services Academy was under control.
It comes as Deputy Premier Steven Miles announces that Queensland has recorded its second straight day of no new cases. It means there are currently 30 active cases in the Sunshine State, with 2134 tests conducted in the past 24 hours.
Mr Miles said 24 of the active cases were in the West Moreton and Metro South regions, the epicentre of the state’s latest cluster.
Mr Miles said while Queensland reported no new cases, the World Health Organisation overnight had reported more infections than any other day throughout the pandemic.
“This thing isn’t over,” Mr Miles said. “Globally, this pandemic is still getting worse. More people are still dying.”
Dr Young said it was still too early to relax.
She said there was still an ongoing risk of transmission, particularly in the Ipswich area as she urged anyone in Goodna and Redbank to come forward for testing if sick.
“We want to find the first case in a cluster,” Dr Young said.
“There are still some chains of transmission that we need to cap off.”
Dr Young said the virus affected every cell in the body and left long lasting impacts on a number of organs.
Dr Young said she was particularly concerned about the possibility of transmission in the Ipswich region, particularly in Redbank Plains and Goodna, and urged people to get tested if they developed any symptoms at all.
“This is a disease that we’re learning more and more about every day,” she said.
“This is a disease … that affects every single cell in the body. It is really important that we minimise the number of people who get this disease.
“That is really, really important. That’s why we have the very strict protocols in Queensland for quarantine.”
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Earlier, Dr Perry said: “Jeannette now has a couple of police outside of her house, who go with her everywhere.
“She has had to have extra help with sorting through the applications for quarantine exemptions; she was getting over 100 per day which she was trying to deal with herself, so working through five in the morning to nine at night was quite hard work.
“It’s been quite stressful and it hasn’t been helped by cowardly people who are threatening to take the life of a woman.”
Dr Perry on Sunday fronted a media conference in vigorous defence of the CHO, warning “online trolls” and bullies to “back off”.
Originally published as AMA Queensland president reveals police follow Chief Health Officer Dr Jeannette Young “everywhere”