I wish Jenny Mikakos all the best for her future. I’m sure she worked hard and to the best of her ability in the health portfolio and in managing the response to the pandemic. #SpringSt (thread)

We need to be aware that the farcical collective evasion of responsibility for the viral transmissions sparking the hotel Q outbreak that led to Victoria’s second wave, distracts us from other important failures, which had more to do with bad management than bad luck.

Over 3000 health workers became infected in Victoria, despite their training in infection control, so we can’t be certain that using police, defence personnel, or even nurses instead of security guards, however inept, would have prevented the hotel quarantine outbreak.

Testing, contact tracing, isolation of positives, and promoting the need to stay home if sick, all failed to stop the hotel Q outbreak exploding. Slow test results & overwhelmed contact tracing weren’t mentioned in Andrews’ pressers boasting of an army of disease detectives.

The Andrews Govt tightly controls info to non-govt MPs, but apparent failures in contact tracing and in preventing health worker infections, seem more significant. However Mikakos made the right call in March, to follow the CHO’s advice and treat this as more than a bad flu.

The pandemic has exposed many flaws in our health system: DHHS needing restructure and clearer lines of responsibility, state/federal and public/private divisions, need for a national CDC, more openness from Governments. #SpringSt