Expert warns Tasmanians: virus clusters ‘here to stay’

A Hobart-born disease expert has warned Tasmanians the state’s border closure is delaying the inevitable when it comes to coronavirus, and issued a controversial warning. READ IT >>

A WORLD-leading infectious diseases expert has urged Tasmanians to “learn to live with coronavirus”, warning the state’s closed border is simply delaying the inevitable.

“You can’t bunker down forever,” said Dale Fisher, senior consultant in infectious diseases at Singapore’s National University Hospital, and an adviser to the World Health Organisation on controlling COVID-19.

Tasmania has not recorded a case of coronavirus for seven weeks, but Professor Fisher, who grew up in Hobart and attended the University of Tasmania, said community expectations that the state could remain virus free were unrealistic.

“We have to live with the virus and, at the moment, you’re not living with the virus because it’s seemingly eradicated,” he said.

“The virus is going to be around forever. The vaccine may not come. If it comes, it may not come quickly, and even when it comes, it’s unlikely to be completely effective.”

He said that meant authorities had to ensure they had the ability to “shut down” inevitable clusters of the virus that would still emerge for years to come.

Professor Dale Fisher, Senior Consultant and Head of Division Infectious Diseases at the National University of Singapore. Picture: Paul Miller

“There will be a fair degree of community immunity, whether that’s natural or by vaccine, but you’re always going to have to be good at identifying cases, testing and diagnosing, contact tracing and preventing super spreader events.

“You can’t bunker down forever, and what locking down has done has given you the opportunity to get all your systems in place, and I suspect what happened in Burnie probably wouldn’t happen again because you have good systems in place,” he said.

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Prof Fisher also urged the community to view the situation in Victoria in a different light: “What Victoria has done, I actually think is good,” he said.

“What they’ve done is shown their capacity to ramp up all the efforts and shut down a cluster, without having to inconvenience the whole state.

“I don’t think Australia should close its borders, or that states should close their borders to each other, because this could go for a really long time, and even when you do open you are still going to have cases. You’re just sort of delaying it.”