The man who led Victoria through the world’s longest lockdown has spoken out about the mistakes the state made during the pandemic.
Brett Sutton, who served as the Chief Health Officer of Victoria between March 2019 and July 2023, has spoken out during an interview with Neil Mitchell.
He said the cleaning of surfaces was most likely a waste of time.
‘Touching elbows was probably never necessary. They’re the things that we learn as we go,’ Mr Sutton said.
‘And through a hundred years of understanding infectious diseases, we overemphasised the idea that it’ll pass through surfaces or handshakes or droplets spread when the reality was, it’s in our breath.
‘It’s very unlikely to spread through surfaces. You didn’t have to wash down the groceries. It’s not like washing your hands and using hand sanitiser is a bad thing.
‘But it’s probably more important for the bacterial infections that occur in hospitals than it is for pandemic viruses that are mostly about the air we breathe.’
He also admitted that Aussies may never put up with a lockdown again.
Brett Sutton, who served as the Chief Health Officer of Victoria between March 2019 and July 2023, has spoken out during an interview with Neil Mitchell.
Between March 2020 and October 2021, Melbourne and wider Victoria endured six separate lockdowns.
In total, the restrictions added up to 262 days under stay-at-home orders.
‘Maybe we will agree as a society that we never want to do that (lockdown) again,’ Sutton said.
‘I’m okay with that.
‘There are other ways to manage stuff. And if we all wore masks and we all got vaccinated and we all kept distances without them being mandated.
‘That’s a potential path we can take.’
He also said children sacraficed the most during the pandemic.
‘I think absolutely we should recognise that they made a significant sacrifice when they were least at risk, at medical risk.
‘They made a sacrifice for people who were most at risk, people on chemotherapy, people with immune suppression, people who are very elderly and in nursing homes.
‘The children were constrained in their lives and that didn’t benefit them as much as it benefited others.
‘But those other people, by God, needed the support of everyone.’
He said there were many moments during the pandemic that he wanted to quit – describing the pandemic as a horror show.
‘We don’t want to talk about it much. The reality is we should do our utmost by continuing to focus on the planning and prevention so that the response and recovery bits are made easier.’
