Open Letter to Queensland Premier Hon Steven Miles MP

Hon Steven Miles MP
Premier of Queensland
By email: premier@ministerial.qld.gov.au

cc: Hon Shannon Fentiman MP
Minister for Health, Mental Health and Ambulance Services
and Minister for Women
By email: health@ministerial.qld.gov.au

1 May 2024

Open letter to the Premier:
Queensland needs a new Chief Health Officer

Dear Premier,

We write to you as concerned members of the public, medical professionals and researchers regarding Queensland’s Chief Health Officer, Dr John Gerrard.

Since his appointment in December 2021, Dr Gerrard has repeatedly failed to protect Queenslanders from COVID. Despite his background as an infectious diseases specialist, he has been responsible for a litany of false and uninformed statements about COVID that have downplayed the seriousness of the virus and led many Queenslanders to believe they do not need to take steps to protect themselves or others from infection.

Dr Gerrard’s most recent mis-step was to publicly state that Long COVID should be considered no different to the post-acute effects of influenza and other respiratory infections. He even made the astonishing suggestion that people should stop using the term “Long COVID”.

His comments drew international condemnation from clinicians, researchers and people living with Long COVID, who rightly pointed out that his remarks were not just disrespectful to the millions of Long COVID sufferers worldwide, but that they were exacerbating an already harmful misconception in the community that there are no serious health risks from COVID, and that people can treat it like a common respiratory infection.

As we outline in detail in Appendix 1, since taking on the CHO role Dr Gerrard has been profoundly wrong about many aspects of COVID. He has repeatedly made public statements that are objectively untrue, and which failed to reflect the substantial scientific evidence available at the time. They include:

That infection is “expected, inevitable and necessary” (Dec 2021);
That Queenslanders should all expect to “acquire the virus on a regular basis” (Jan 2022);
That a “substantial wall of immunity” would provide “significant protection” from future infections (Feb 2022);
That COVID is “just another respiratory virus” (2022);
That “COVID is mild in kids” (2022);
That masks are only needed when people are less than 1.5m apart (throughout 2022, 2023); and
That hand-washing is recommended as a primary means of protection against COVID, an airborne virus (2022-2024).

Dr Gerrard has advised on and publicly supported government policies that have not only allowed, but facilitated the spread of COVID. This unscientific “let-it-rip” approach has contributed to the avoidable deaths of thousands of Queenslanders and the disproportionate disablement and death of clinically vulnerable people. It has also put many thousands more at risk of serious long-term illness, including Long COVID.

Dr Gerrard has:

Failed to understand and act on the latest science and body of evidence on COVID and Long COVID;
Pushed for public health decisions that are in conflict with established consensus science;
Provided factually incorrect advice regarding the mode of transmission of SARS-CoV-2 and how to minimise the risk of infection;
Failed to warn Queenslanders of the substantial long-term health risks from COVID, despite growing scientific evidence that even a mild acute infection can cause serious long-term harm;
Attempted to downplay the reality of Long COVID, including by gaslighting Long COVID sufferers on International Long COVID Awareness Day; and
Failed to provide high-risk workplaces such as schools, aged care, disability and healthcare facilities with appropriate guidance, leading to avoidable deaths and chronic illness.

In the global scientific and medical community, Dr Gerrard is increasingly viewed as being poorly informed and unsuitable for the role of Chief Health Officer. A selection of recent comments from international experts and other commentators is provided in Appendix 2.

A growing segment of the public are also becoming aware of Dr Gerrard’s failings. A petition to replace him as CHO has gained over 1,600 signatures[1] and his anti-public health stance has earned him the online nickname “Dr Death”.[2],[3]

The role of Chief Health Officer is critical to Queensland’s ability to protect its citizens as we navigate the ongoing pandemic. It is essential that the CHO prioritise the lives and the long-term health of Queenslanders, stay abreast of the science, and give candid and well-informed advice at all times.

Dr Gerrard has demonstrated that by any objective measure he is unfit to hold this position, and we urge you to replace him as a matter of urgency.

We wish to be very clear that we are not calling for lockdowns or other restrictive measures. We are, however, calling for the government to adopt a public health response that is based on a sound understanding of the science, delivers clear and factually accurate information to the public, and is backed by a genuine commitment to reducing COVID transmission.

Sincerely,

[signatories listed in alphabetical order]

Yaneer Bar-Yam, PhD
Professor and President, New England Complex Systems Institute and Co-founder, World Health Network

Emeritus Professor Alan G Baxter
James Cook University and Monash University

Stephane Bilodeau, Eng, PhD, FEC
Adjunct Professor, Bioengineering, McGill University, and Chief Science Officer, Integrated Bioscience and Built Environment Consortium

Professor Kathy Eagar
Adjunct Professor, UNSW and QUT

Professor Andrew Ewing
University of Gothenburg, Sweden and Elected member of Swedish Academy of Sciences

Andrew Hewat
Former Assistant Secretary Victorian Allied Health Professionals Association; Retired Sonographer

Helen Goss
Long Covid Kids Charity (UK)*

Sue Jennings
Co-founder, Cleaner Air Collective

Colin Kinner
Creator, COVID Safety For Schools Course

Associate Professor Amanda Kvalsvig
Department of Public Health, University of Otago

Professor Deborah Lupton
Centre for Social Research in Health and Social Policy Research Centre, UNSW

Dr Dominic Meagher
Deputy Director And Chief Economist, John Curtin Research Centre

Distinguished Professor Lidia Morawska
Director, International Laboratory for Air Quality and Health, QUT

Dr Anne-Marie Newton
Public Health advocate

Dr Elisa Perego
Honorary Research Fellow, University College London

Professor David Putrino
Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai

Dr Jeremy Rossman
Chair of the Board of Trustees, Long Covid Kids Charity (UK)*

Tracey Spicer AM
Award winning journalist and broadcaster recovering from Long COVID*

Dr Blair Williams
Lecturer in Politics and International Relations, Monash University

Amanda
Long COVID sufferer

Erin
Parent of Long COVID sufferer

Sarah
Long COVID sufferer

* Additional signatories added after 1 May 2024

_____________________

Appendix 1 - Specific areas in which Dr Gerrard has failed in his role as Chief Health Officer

1. Advocated for a pro-infection pandemic response

Since late 2019, COVID has killed an estimated 28 million people worldwide, and it is now among the top ten causes of death in many countries, including in Australia.[4]

COVID has also left hundreds of millions of people with chronic disease, including an estimated 400 million people suffering Long COVID, and has led to more than 10 million children losing a parent or caregiver.[5],[6]

Over the last four years there has been a substantial global research effort to understand the health risks associated with SARS-CoV-2 infection. There is now overwhelming scientific evidence that even a mild acute infection can lead to serious long-term health impacts[7] including cardiovascular disease[8],[9], neurological disease[10],[11], immune system damage[12] and Long COVID, including in otherwise healthy adults and children.[13] Evidence of these serious long-term impacts has been available since late 2021.[14],[15]

However, guided by Dr Gerrard’s health advice, the Queensland government has adopted a “let-it-rip” approach of unmitigated spread in which almost all efforts to limit transmission of the virus have been abandoned.

The decision to let COVID spread widely appears to have been based on a number of incorrect assumptions put forward by the CHO — namely that the Omicron variant caused mostly mild symptoms, that the population would build substantial immunity as more people became infected, and that the virus would become milder over time.

Dr Gerrard has stated on multiple occasions that widespread infection is “expected, inevitable and necessary”[16], and that we should all expect to “acquire the virus on a regular basis”.[17]

He has told Queenslanders this will lead to the virus becoming endemic (which means at a constant level in a population, as opposed to epidemic, which means spreading in waves). He has said many times that this will enable us to build a “wall of immunity” that will protect us from future infections.[18]

These comments have led many Queenslanders to willingly accept the notion of repeated infection, and have convinced people to not take steps to avoid getting infected or to prevent spreading the virus to others.

As a result, since late 2021, the vast majority of Queenslanders have been infected with SARS-CoV-2,[19] and a growing number are now on their second, third, fourth or fifth infection.

The idea of a “wall of immunity” conflicts with the available scientific evidence. It has been shown that due to the rapid evolution of the SARS-CoV-2 virus, an infection with one COVID variant gives limited protection against reinfection with subsequent variants.[20]

It has also been shown that the effectiveness of current COVID vaccines wanes over time, so there is no basis on which to expect lasting immunity to be developed through a combination of vaccination and infection.[21]

In Australia most children under 5 are not eligible for vaccination, and most children under 18 are not eligible for boosters, meaning they are exposed to repeat infections without the benefit of up-to-date vaccination. In light of recent changes at a federal level, most children are now not even eligible for a primary course of vaccination.

Research has shown that a COVID infection can do the opposite of building up people’s immunity: it can cause immune system dysregulation, for example via depletion of T and memory B cells, which play a vital role in the body’s ability to recognise and fight infections. Immune system dysregulation in turn increases susceptibility to other infections, as well as reactivation of latent pathogens such as Epstein-Barr virus and varicella zoster virus.[22],[23]

A COVID infection in children and adolescents can lead to a range of adverse health outcomes, including a significant increase in their risk of pulmonary embolism, myocarditis, thromboembolism, renal failure and Type 1 diabetes in the year following their infection.[24],[25]

Importantly, research has also shown that the harm from COVID is cumulative — that is, the risk of adverse health outcomes increases with each infection.[26]

We can look to countries such as the UK for a window to the future if we continue to allow COVID to spread unchecked in Queensland.

Currently there are an estimated 2 million people living with Long COVID in England and Scotland (3.3% of the population), of whom 75% (1.5 million people) report that their condition adversely affects their ability to undertake day-to-day activities.[27],[28],[29] The prevalence of long-term illness is at an all-time high in the UK, with 2.8 million people now unable to work due to long-term sickness – an increase of 700,000 since the beginning of the pandemic.[30]

The clear message from the many thousands of studies into COVID over the last four years is that we should treat it as a very serious health threat, and do everything we can to avoid infection and reinfection.

Encouraging rampant COVID transmission in an attempt to achieve endemicity or population immunity has been widely discredited in the scientific community.

Professor Brendan Crabb, Director of the Burnet Institute, describes it as “flawed, not scientifically sound. . . and dangerous”.[31]

Former Medical Director of the United Nations, Dr Jillann Farmer, has described allowing mass infection as “grossly irresponsible”.[32]

Thousands of scientists from around the world signed a memorandum,[33] published in October 2020, which calls on governments to abandon misguided attempts to achieve population immunity via mass infection, describing it as “a dangerous fallacy unsupported by scientific evidence”.[34]

Similarly, the World Health Organisation has described allowing COVID to spread unchecked as “unscientific and unethical”,[35] and “epidemiological stupidity”.[36]

There was clear evidence that it was a mistake to adopt the “let-it-rip” strategy in late 2021. The fact that it is still at the core of our pandemic response in 2024 should be of grave concern to all Queenslanders.

2. Told Queenslanders that COVID is a mild illness

Dr Gerrard has claimed that for most people COVID is nothing more than a “simple respiratory infection”.[37] He has stated on multiple occasions that the illness is “mild in children”, that “children don’t get sick” with COVID,[38] and that parents “should not be unduly concerned about it”.[39]

It is true that for many people, including most children, the acute phase of a COVID infection has not been life-threatening, especially for those who are vaccinated.

However, a small percentage of acute infections have led to severe illness, hospitalisation and death. Given the massive numbers of infections, this small percentage has translated to a substantial number of adverse outcomes.

Perhaps more importantly, Dr Gerrard has focused narrowly on the acute phase of COVID infection, and has been conspicuously silent on the long-term harms.

As noted above, there is now substantial evidence that COVID is a long-term multi-system vascular disease that can affect the entire body.[40]

Dr Gerrard has not only led Queenslanders to believe that COVID is a “mild” illness, he has failed to inform the public about the serious long-term harm that can follow a COVID infection.

There have been two undesirable consequences of this “COVID is mild” narrative:

Firstly, many Queenslanders have treated it as a mild virus like a cold and haven’t taken any precautions against getting infected or infecting others. Coupled with a steady winding back of mitigations and poor public health messaging, this narrative has led to a widespread (but incorrect) perception that COVID is not a serious health threat.

Secondly, vaccination has stalled and Queensland now has one of the lowest vaccination rates in the country. Influenced by reassuring but factually inaccurate messages from the Queensland CHO, a majority of Queenslanders have opted not to stay up to date with boosters, and many have chosen not to have their children vaccinated.[41]

3. Advised hand-washing as the best way to protect against an airborne virus

A fundamental tenet of any pandemic response is to prevent as many infections as possible. The first step in reducing infections is to understand and communicate the mode of transmission. The Queensland CHO has failed to do this.

The government has based much of its pandemic response on an incorrect belief that SARS-CoV-2 is spread via (1) respiratory droplets, which are blobs of virus-containing liquid that are expelled from people’s mouths and noses when they cough or sneeze, and (2) surfaces that are contaminated with these droplets.

An assumption that COVID is spread via droplets would mean that our best protections would be “social distancing”, since these droplets would be large enough to fall quickly to the ground, and hand-washing.

Messaging about social distancing and hand-washing has been front and centre of the government’s COVID communications — including on government web sites,[42] in posters,[43] in videos[44], on social media[45] and in news briefings.[46]

Unfortunately this advice is profoundly wrong. It has been known since at least mid-2020 that COVID is an airborne virus[47] — meaning it is transmitted primarily by aerosols.[48],[49]

Aerosols are microscopic particles produced by breathing. When a person with COVID exhales, they expel aerosol particles containing the virus into the air. Anyone who inhales these virus-laden particles can potentially be infected.

Aerosols can travel long distances and can remain suspended in the air for hours in poorly ventilated indoor spaces,[50] similar to cigarette smoke. A person can be infected by breathing in virus particles regardless of how far away they are from the infected person, and even if the infected person is no longer in the room.

Research has shown that people are at least 1,000 times more likely to catch COVID via the air they breathe than by touching a contaminated surface.[51],[52]

Telling people that hand-washing or social distancing will somehow protect them from a highly contagious airborne virus is wrong, and dangerous.

Unfortunately most Queenslanders have believed what they have been told. This has led many to let their guard down and assume that they are safe in shared indoor spaces as long as they wash their hands and are separated by more than 1.5m, when in reality they could be breathing in infectious aerosols from an infected person much further away.

4. Given inadequate guidance to schools

Schools are hot-beds of COVID transmission. Research has shown that approximately 70% of household COVID transmission starts with a school-aged index case.[53] This shouldn't be surprising, since schools place large numbers of students and staff in close proximity for long periods of time, mostly in indoor spaces breathing shared air.

Illness due to COVID is contributing to the current high levels of teacher and student absence, causing disruptions to school staffing, and jeopardising academic outcomes.

A growing number of teachers are being affected by Long COVID, and concerns about their health and safety are leading many teachers to leave the profession, adding to an already worrying teacher exodus.[54]

A lack of action to reduce COVID infection in schools is also preventing disabled and clinically vulnerable students, or those with vulnerable family members, from safely accessing education. This has forced some families into home-schooling, while others have had no choice but to accept the substantial risks of in-person school attendance.

Schools are reliant on the government to give them appropriate guidance on how to minimise the spread of COVID and protect the health and safety of students and staff.

However, Queensland schools have been given very limited guidance[55] that often lacks critical information — such as warnings about the long-term health risks from COVID, explaining the airborne nature of COVID transmission and explaining that a large proportion of infections come from people who have COVID and are infectious but asymptomatic.[56]

As a result, most schools are taking very few steps to prevent the spread of COVID. Schools and parents have been told they can treat COVID like a simple respiratory illness, so that is exactly what they are doing.

They have been told that COVID is mild in children, that infection is inevitable and necessary to build a “wall of immunity”, and that handwashing is the best defence against the virus. These statements are fundamentally at odds with established consensus science.

Not only have schools been mis-informed, they have not been supported to provide a safe environment for staff and students.

Most Queensland schools have not had ventilation assessments completed, nor been given adequate funding to address problems with ventilation.

Very few classrooms have HEPA air purifiers, despite compelling evidence that they are effective in removing infectious virus particles from the air.[57],[58]

In contrast, the Victorian government has deployed 111,000 air purifiers in schools over the last two years, in recognition of the fact that removing COVID from the air is an essential step in curbing transmission.[59]

Principals in many Queensland schools appear to be oblivious to the importance of ventilation to reduce COVID infection, and the level of knowledge among most school leaders about air purifiers or masks to reduce transmission is extremely low.

Similarly, parents have not been given accurate information about COVID. As a result, many parents are not testing their children if they have symptoms, and children are being sent to school with COVID because parents genuinely believe it is no longer a health risk.

Failing to suppress COVID transmission in schools is leading to children and teachers being infected and re-infected, and is contributing to the ongoing spread of COVID in the wider community.

It is also exposing school staff and the government to future legal action for breach of workplace health and safety laws by failing to ensure schools are taking reasonable steps to minimise risks relating to COVID.

Our children have their whole lives ahead of them. The Queensland Government should be doing everything possible to prevent them getting infected and re-infected at school with a virus that could cause lifelong harm and chronic illness.

One tangible step that your government could take immediately to improve the safety of schools is to adopt the COVID Safety For Schools Course [60] as a required professional development activity for all school staff in Queensland.

The course was created by Queensland-based science communicator Colin Kinner (also a signatory to this letter) with the help of some of Australia’s leading scientific, medical and health and safety experts in fields relevant to COVID. It is a free course, and intended as a source of factually accurate information that schools can use to help them make informed decisions about COVID and keep students and staff as safe as possible.

5. Refused to implement infection control measures in healthcare

A COVID infection can have devastating consequences for those who are at highest risk, including people who are already in hospital seeking treatment for other health problems.

Data obtained under Right-To-Information shows that in the first half of 2022 an average of 14 people per day were infected with COVID in Queensland hospitals. Shockingly, one patient per day was found to have died from hospital-acquired COVID ー a 7% fatality rate.[61]

Infection of healthcare staff in the workplace is also leading to unprecedented levels of staff illness, leaving some hospitals dangerously short-staffed and adding additional pressure to an already strained healthcare system.[62],[63],[64],[65]

The President of the Australian Medical Association (Queensland), Dr Maria Boulton, has written to the Chief Health Officer expressing concerns that Queensland hospitals are not implementing basic infection control measures such as isolation of COVID-positive patients, using HEPA air purifiers and consistent use of N95 / P2 masks by healthcare staff.[66]

Dr Boulton also noted that Queensland Health is currently giving inappropriate advice to healthcare workers, focusing on handwashing, despite COVID being airborne — and has urged Dr Gerrard to take action to address these serious issues.

Despite the preventable deaths from hospital-acquired COVID, Dr Gerrard stated in November 2023, at the height of the JN.1 wave, that in his view requiring masks in healthcare settings would be “disproportionate” to the risk.[67]

In February this year, Dr Gerrard announced that he would personally undertake a fact-finding mission to examine the infection prevention and control practices in Queensland hospitals. To our knowledge there has been no public statement about outcomes from this process, or even confirmation that it has happened.

There is no evidence that Dr Gerrard has taken any substantive steps to strengthen the infection control measures in hospitals, nor has he clarified under what circumstances mitigations would be proportionate and warranted.

Dr Gerrard’s position is unsupportable. It is in direct conflict with the Australian Charter of Healthcare Rights which states that everyone has a right to access care that meets their needs, is safe and respectful.[68]

He is failing to protect the most vulnerable Queenslanders by refusing to implement basic infection control measures in healthcare settings during an ongoing pandemic, leading to avoidable deaths and chronic illness.

6. Attempted to downplay the reality of Long COVID

On 15 March this year Dr Gerard held a press conference[69] at which he made several startling remarks about Long COVID, including:

“We believe it is time to stop using terms like ‘Long COVID’. They wrongly imply there is something unique and exceptional about longer-term symptoms associated with this virus.”
“This terminology can cause unnecessary fear, and in some cases, hypervigilance to longer symptoms that can impede recovery.”; and
“Our evidence suggests that. . . it is not dissimilar to other viruses.”

Dr Gerrard was referring to a 2022 Queensland Health study in which people who had COVID, influenza or other respiratory illnesses were asked to respond to a three-question text message questionnaire regarding their symptoms 12 months after infection.

The study is yet to be published and has not been peer-reviewed, but we understand it was the subject of a poster presentation at the ESCMID infectious diseases conference[70] in Spain this week.

In parallel with the press conference, Dr Gerrard and the ESCMID conference organisers issued a media release[71] which contained similar quotes (see Appendix 3). The media release was embargoed until the morning of International Long COVID Awareness Day, Friday 15 March 2024.

A significant number of media outlets reported on Dr Gerrard’s comments, giving them credence by virtue of his position as a senior public health official. Many media reports latched onto and amplified the key messages that Long COVID is somehow no more serious than the post-acute effects following other viral illnesses such as influenza, and that we should stop using the term “Long COVID” (see Appendix 4).

Outlets from Australia and overseas reported that the Queensland Health study showed “Long COVID doesn’t exist as we know it”[72], that it had “debunked Long COVID”[73], and that “There is no such thing as Long COVID”.[74]

Dr Gerrard’s remarks were substantially wrong. They predictably drew an immediate response from the international scientific community, as well as from people living with Long COVID, who felt justifiably victimised.

Many valid concerns were raised about Dr Gerrard’s remarks, including:

They were made on International Long COVID Awareness Day. This timing directly undermined international efforts to raise awareness of this condition, to acknowledge the challenges faced by Long COVID sufferers, and to address misconceptions about it.
They conflict with a large body of international peer-reviewed research which shows that Long COVID is a chronic condition that can affect every organ system and is physiologically distinct from the post-acute effects of other viruses.[75],[76],[77],[78]

Long COVID occurs following an estimated one in ten Omicron infections.[79] Given the massive number of infections worldwide, researchers at Imperial College London have estimated that by mid-2023 Long COVID affected 400 million people globally.[80]

Researchers and clinicians who are studying Long COVID believe that it will be the most significant chronic health condition of our lifetime[81], and that it is leading to “a tsunami of disability”.[82]

Long COVID can cause debilitating symptoms that leave some sufferers unable to work or care for themselves or others. The World Health Organisation has warned that Long COVID will result in “hundreds of millions of people needing longer-term care”.[83]

The economic burden of Long COVID is also substantial. The condition is already estimated to cost the Australian economy at least $5.7 billion a year due to its impact on the workforce.[84],[85]

Suggesting that the effects of Long COVID are somehow no different to post-acute effects from influenza is a gross distortion of the facts. It adds to an already widespread misconception (both in the community and in the medical profession) that Long COVID is inconsequential.

As well as causing symptomatic chronic illness, Long COVID can cause significant elevation in the risk of other serious conditions that may not manifest clinically for some time after a COVID infection. These include cardiovascular disease, neurological disease, atherosclerosis and Type 1 diabetes.

The comments made by Dr Gerrard fail to recognise this substantial health burden, and the Queensland Health study did not address this critical aspect of Long COVID.

The suggestion that use of the term “Long COVID” could somehow cause or worsen symptoms of a serious post-viral condition is unfounded. It implies that symptoms are in people’s minds as a consequence of media coverage of the condition, and fails to recognise the large body of evidence demonstrating that Long COVID has measurable physiological effects.

It is also highly disrespectful to people living with Long COVID for whom their condition is very real, and it contributes to institutionalised ableism and discrimination.

This is not the first time Dr Gerrard has attempted to downplay the seriousness of Long COVID. In the Queensland Health submission to the federal government’s Parliamentary Inquiry into Long COVID, Dr Gerrard made unfounded assertions that Long COVID is rare and can be triggered by negative media coverage. The Queensland Health submission was ultimately the subject of a paper on “What To Do When You Spot Official Misinformation”.[86]

____________

Appendix 2: Comments from Australian and international experts regarding Dr Gerrard’s performance as CHO

(Previously published online where indicated)

_____

As a scientist, an Australian and one of the world's leading authorities on Long COVID I was disgusted to see John Gerrard's irresponsible comments regarding Long COVID in the media.

The most prominent scientific journals in the world have published systematic reviews of the literature highlighting the fact that 7-12% of acute SARS-CoV-2 infections result in Long COVID - a chronic disease state that has no approved treatments.

Long COVID can affect people of any age, gender and health status and according to Dr David Cutler, a leading health economist, it is on track to cost the US government $3.7 Trillion dollars. All consensus science points to the fact that Long COVID is a serious health crisis that requires the immediate attention of public health officials.

In John Gerrard's careless, callous and unfounded comments we see a public health official who has failed his people. His dangerous and uninformed comments have placed hundreds of thousands of Queenslanders at risk of severe and permanent disability.

He has placed a politically expedient, personal opinion ahead of four years of high-quality scientific research on the topic, and if he had any integrity left he would resign.

- Professor David Putrino, Director of Rehabilitation Innovation - Mount Sinai Health System; Professor - Department of Rehabilitation and Human Performance at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai
(published on Twitter, 15 March 2024)[87]

_____

It's extraordinary that any public figure could say that there is little difference between long-term sequelae of COVID-19 and influenza, especially from such a superficial study. It would never pass peer review. . . It’s a piece of crap.

- Professor Peter Doherty AC FRS FMedSci, Queenslander and Nobel Laureate in Medicine
(published on Twitter, 15 March 2024)[88],[89]

_____

The claims by the Qld CHO were not just frivolous. They were deliberately designed to downplay the impact of COVID, to undermine long COVID sufferers & to deny the need for effective long COVID treatment & care services. Queensland needs a new CHO.

- Professor Kathy Eagar, Foundation Director, Australian Health Services Research Institute
(published on Twitter, 16 March 2024)[90]

_____

As a parent I have a keen interest in how schools are dealing with COVID. Over the last two years I’ve spoken to many principals and teachers, and it is clear that most Queensland schools are clueless about COVID. They have no idea of the long-term health risks, they don’t know how COVID spreads, what can be done to prevent it spreading, or even why they should care about it.

For schools to be so uninformed in the fifth year of the pandemic is inexcusable. They desperately need reliable information and guidance from the CHO, and they have not received it. In my view the current CHO should be replaced.

- Colin Kinner, Founder, COVID Safety Australia and Creator of the COVID Safety For Schools Course

_____

The Covid pandemic is one of the greatest health disasters in recent history. An estimated 20 to 30 million have died from Covid in four years. As a comparison, an estimated 32 to 51 million have died from HIV/AIDS in four decades.

Omicron alone has claimed millions of lives. Hundreds of millions are estimated to have experienced Long Covid. It is crystal clear that SARS-CoV-2 is an especially dangerous threat to global health. It continues to evolve and reinfect at a fast pace.

Covid and Long Covid are among the most studied diseases in medical history. Long Covid is proven to affect basically all organs and body systems. It can be disabling and fatal. We cannot afford erroneous, misleading speculation on this topic, as people's lives are at stake.

As a patient and a researcher who endured Covid in the early epicenter of Lombardy, Italy, it is my hope that Queenslanders and people worldwide receive timely and accurate information on SARS-CoV-2.

Sadly, this appears not to have been the case with Dr Gerrard. The statements of Dr Gerrard are both staggering and of grave concern. In my opinion they demonstrate he is unfit to hold his current CHO role.

- Dr Elisa Perego, researcher, health and disability patient-researcher; Long Covid advocate; Honorary Research Fellow, University College London

_____

The office of Chief Health Officer for the state represents the highest medical authority. The community relies on, trusts and looks to their CHO for guidance on how best to protect themselves and their family. Victorians benefited from the leadership of successive CHOs who followed the latest science and the precautionary principle. Queensland's CHO has repeatedly undermined the efforts of other health leaders, and in doing so has fostered an environment of confusion, mistrust and misinformation.

- Andrew Hewat, Former Assistant Secretary, Victorian Allied Health Professionals Association

_____

Dr Gerrard has failed to grasp and to communicate the basic science of airborne transmission of SARS-CoV-2, and appears to hold fringe and anti-science views regarding long-term sequelae of COVID-19. He has used his position of authority as Chief Health Officer to promote falsehoods about COVID-19 such as droplet mode of transmission and that recurrent infection will lead to population-wide immunity, neither of which are accepted science.

Thanks to his downplaying of the need for basic mitigations in healthcare, we now see patients exposed to infections from staff, visitors and fellow patients, with Australian data demonstrating a 5-10% mortality rate from hospital-acquired COVID-19 seemingly being ignored.

We also see staff neglecting to protect themselves from recurrent COVID-19 and other viral infections while dealing with symptomatic patients. This is contributing to staff shortages and record levels of sick leave across all professional streams.

Patients deserve to be safe when visiting Queensland Health facilities. They deserve accurate public health information, presented in a way that they can understand and use it. Staff deserve a safe workplace where infection control is managed in an appropriate way.

Dr Gerrard has proved beyond any doubt that he does not possess the attributes required to be the state's Chief Health Officer. He should be replaced immediately.

- (Name withheld), a senior doctor employed by Queensland Health

_____

The most egregious statements made by Gerrard today are those where he insults people with long COVID by calling it a 'rag bag' term, trashing all the years of patient-led expertise since patients first invented this term, and suggests the term itself is making people sick.

These statements have nothing to do with the findings from his study, which simply showed the percentage of people with long-term symptoms/impairment from C19 and respiratory disease.

- Professor Deborah Lupton, Centre for Social Research in Health and Social Policy Research Centre, UNSW
(published on Twitter, 15 March 2024)[91]

_____

Dr Gerrard’s denial of the realities of COVID and Long COVID is part of “COVID Hegemony”, or the manufacturing of the public’s consent to "living with COVID" by normalising the impact of widespread infection.

Initially downplaying the acute disease's severity, he now seeks to eliminate the term “Long COVID.” This neglects hundreds of thousands of Queenslanders suffering from Long COVID, as without descriptive language, their experiences are obscured. It attempts to erase those who are suffering, while hiding reality from those who could be at risk in the future - which, really, is all of us. We are all susceptible to COVID and Long COVID.

- Dr Blair Williams - Lecturer in Australian Politics, Monash University

_____

Misinformation from the Queensland CHO has meant that clinicians and healthcare workers are needlessly endangering patients in healthcare settings, including those who are most at risk for adverse outcomes from COVID.

This has also excluded clinically vulnerable patients who have been forced to forgo necessary healthcare and treatments in order to avoid further disability in the form of healthcare-acquired COVID infection.

- (Name withheld), disabled person who has been unable to safely access healthcare since late 2021

_____

I think that even if you accept the premise of this paper, on a numbers game Covid is much worse. And if you accept the data based on a much larger, less selective study…unless the patients were less selected, it was more population based, Long Covid symptoms are in fact worse. And also the Queensland study contradicted the Victorian study that you and I covered last year, which is a much more population based survey in Victoria which showed really quite high levels of Long Covid symptoms in the community.

There is a tendency, both at the federal level and at state level, to try and normalise COVID-19 in the sense that it is just like the flu. It's never been like the flu.

- Dr Norman Swan on ABC Health Report, 15 March 2024[92]

_____

The [Queensland Health] study indicates that 3-4% of people have significant symptoms a year after either COVID-19 or influenza, hence the authors argue that they are effectively the same.

Unfortunately, this question cannot be simply answered in this work. The study is observational, based on reported symptoms with no physiological or detailed functional follow-up data. Without laboratory pathophysiological assessment of individual patients, it is impossible to say that this is indistinguishable from flu-related or any other post-viral syndrome.

Also, there are many long-term effects of COVID-19 that do not have significant early-stage symptoms e.g. heart disease, atherosclerosis, and diabetes. These conditions do however have associated metabolic signatures which were not measured in the current study.

The absence of evidence is different from evidence of absence - so the authors' assertion that Long COVID is the same as flu-related post viral syndrome, is not proven, even if Long COVID is indeed a post-viral syndrome (which it is).

- Professor Jeremy Nicholson, Professor of Medicine and Director of the Australian National Phenome Centre at Murdoch University
(quoted in Scimex, 15 March 2024)[93]

_____

Unfortunately, there are thousands of people that are still suffering from post-acute COVID sequelae … and just because you don’t want to talk about something doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist.

It’s a recognised condition, it still affects people and we’re still doing lots of research on it for that very reason. [Suggesting we scrap the term ‘Long COVID’] is completely the wrong message and it’s very disappointing to me that a Chief Health Officer is making these comments.

- Associate Professor Anthony Byrne, consultant respiratory physician in the Long Covid Clinic at St Vincent’s Hospital
(quoted in The Medical Republic, 15 March 2024)[94]

_____

The lack of scientific rigour with which Dr Gerrard’s study was carried out has been highlighted by a range of eminent, highly credentialed clinicians and researchers — and rightly so.

But there is an additional, problematic issue here. Surely the Queensland Government must be deeply concerned about the ethics of a Chief Health Officer choosing to publicly delegitimise the suffering of a significant cohort of patients on the very day they were appealing for worldwide support.

According to Queensland Health’s governance principle of integrity, staff should act ethically and in the best interests of the public. In making such a strident and grievously timed statement, Dr Gerrard, a high-ranking public servant, did not consider the distress this would cause large numbers of Long COVID sufferers. This action constitutes unethical behaviour and breaches a key Queensland Health governance principle.

- Dr Anne-Marie Newton, Academic and Public Health advocate

___________________

Appendix 3: Media release about the Queensland
Health study

Download PDF

Appendix 4: News articles citing Dr Gerrard’s remarks about Long COVID [95]

‘Long COVID’ doesn’t exist as we know it, according to new research — The Sydney Morning Herald[96]
Queensland’s top doctor wants you to stop saying ‘long COVID’ following new study — 9 News[97]
Time to stop using term ‘long Covid’ as symptoms no worse than those after flu, Queensland’s chief health officer says — The Guardian[98]
Queensland’s Chief Health Officer says it’s time to stop using the term ‘long COVID’ — ABC News[99]
Study ‘debunks’ long COVID: Queensland research suggests symptoms are not unique — Channel 7[100]
Why this health official says it’s time to stop using ‘long COVID’ — SBS News[101]
There is no such thing as long Covid, say health officials — The Telegraph[102]
Stop calling it ‘Long Covid’, doctors told… because illness is ‘indistinguishable’ for other post-viral syndromes — Daily Mail Australia[103]
Is it time to lose the term Long COVID? — Cosmos[104]
Time to stop using ‘long COVID’ — Qld health chief — The Canberra Times[105]
‘Long Covid’ should be scrapped over fears it’s ‘probably harmful’: QLD chief health officer — news.com.au[106]
On Long COVID Awareness Day, remember this: Long COVID is fake — New York Post[107]

Footnotes

[1] https://www.change.org/p/replace-queensland-s-chief-health-officer

[2] https://twitter.com/search?q=(gerrard%20OR%20CHO)%20%22dr%20death%22&src=typed_query&f=live

[3] Signatories to this letter do not endorse name-calling, but we note it as an indicator of negative public sentiment

[4] https://www.economist.com/graphic-detail/coronavirus-excess-deaths-estimates

[5] https://www.nature.com/articles/s41577-023-00904-7

[6] https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/fullarticle/2797407

[7] https://www.nature.com/articles/s41591-022-02051-3

[8] https://thrombosisjournal.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12959-023-00504-4

[9] https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-022-00403-0

[10] https://theconversation.com/mounting-research-shows-that-covid-19-leaves-its-mark-on-the-brain-including-with-significant-drops-in-iq-scores-224216

[11] https://theconversation.com/mounting-research-shows-that-covid-19-leaves-its-mark-on-the-brain-including-with-significant-drops-in-iq-scores-224216

[12] https://www.nature.com/articles/s41590-021-01113-x

[13] https://www.nature.com/articles/s41591-022-01840-0

[14] https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-021-03553-9

[15] https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33785495/

[16] https://twitter.com/Lost1nSpace/status/1472040783691747329

[17] https://twitter.com/rizzizzy/status/1477097807253159938

[18] https://vimeo.com/737886395/1569719f63

[19] https://www.smh.com.au/national/up-to-90-per-cent-of-australian-children-have-had-covid-20221102-p5buxs.html

[20] https://time.com/6187762/ba-4-ba-5-omicron-subvariants-symptoms-risk/

[21] https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(21)01589-0/fulltext

[22] https://www.nature.com/articles/s41418-022-00936-x

[23] https://whn.global/scientific/covid19-immune-dysregulation/

[24] https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/71/wr/mm7131a3.htm

[25] https://abcnews.go.com/Health/covid-19-infection-increases-risk-developing-diabetes-study/story?id=83597348

[26] https://www.nature.com/articles/s41591-022-02051-3

[27] https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/healthandsocialcare/conditionsanddiseases/articles/selfreportedcoronaviruscovid19infectionsandassociatedsymptomsenglandandscotland/november2023tomarch2024#long-covid

[28] https://www.camecon.com/macroeconomic-impact-long-covid-uk/

[29] https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/healthandsocialcare/conditionsanddiseases/datasets/selfreportedcoronaviruscovid19infectionsandassociatedsymptomsenglandandscotland

[30] https://www.theguardian.com/business/2024/feb/17/record-long-term-sickness-bodes-ill-for-uk-economic-growth

[31] https://twitter.com/CrabbBrendan/status/1508578298690883587

[32] https://insightplus.mja.com.au/2022/28/covid-19-time-to-put-people-ahead-of-politics/

[33] https://www.johnsnowmemo.com/john-snow-memo.html

[34] https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(20)32153-X/fulltext

[35] https://www.rte.ie/news/coronavirus/2020/1013/1171168-coronavirus-world/

[36] https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(20)32153-X/fulltext

[37] https://vimeo.com/737886395/1569719f63

[38] https://twitter.com/rizzizzy/status/1489776812410679296

[39] https://vimeo.com/737886395/1569719f63

[40] https://covidactuaries.org/2022/05/24/long-covid-2/

[41] https://www.health.gov.au/sites/default/files/2024-04/covid-19-vaccine-rollout-update-12-april-2024.pdf

[42] https://www.qld.gov.au/health/conditions/health-alerts/coronavirus-covid-19/health-advice/about-covid-19/protect-yourself-from-covid-19

[43] https://www.qld.gov.au/health/conditions/health-alerts/coronavirus-covid-19/health-advice/support-and-resources/resources

[44] https://vimeo.com/636912240

[45] https://www.facebook.com/100066421526888/posts/3354797884628270/

[46] https://southburnett.com.au/news2/2023/12/21/rises-in-covid-19-flu-cases/

[47] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7151430/

[48] https://www1.racgp.org.au/newsgp/clinical/a-welcome-step-who-acknowledges-aerosol-spread-of

[49] There was also evidence predating the COVID pandemic that SARS-CoV, the virus responsible for SARS, and sharing many similarities with SARS-CoV-2, was airborne.

[50] https://theconversation.com/covid-how-the-disease-moves-through-the-air-173490

[51] https://www.nature.com/articles/s41370-022-00442-9

[52] https://www.genano.com/infobase/statistics-show-the-risk-of-catching-the-coronavirus-from-surfaces-is-low

[53] https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamanetworkopen/fullarticle/2805468

[54] https://uqschoolsnet.com.au/article/2024/04/teacher-exodus-queenslands-education-crisis

[55] https://alt-qed.qed.qld.gov.au/covid19/covid-safe-for-education

[56] https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamanetworkopen/fullarticle/2774707

[57] https://journals.plos.org/plosmedicine/article?id=10.1371/journal.pmed.1004226

[58] https://sites.manchester.ac.uk/covid19-national-project/2023/01/09/how-we-know-that-hepa-filter-based-air-cleaners-are-likely-to-be-beneficial-for-reducing-transmission-of-respiratory-infections/

[59] https://www.premier.vic.gov.au/extending-covidsafe-measures-keep-classrooms-safe

[60] https://www.covidsafetyforschools.org/

[61] https://www.couriermail.com.au/news/queensland/revealed-one-queenslander-a-day-dying-with-covid-in-hospital/news-story/dbcb1c5a0581c8d2abaacce0c66785ef