Dr Tim Read MP Profile picture
Aug 10, 2020 16 tweets 12 min read Read on X
The #PAEC inquiry is now being livestreamed by Vic Parliament #SpringSt. Andrews grilled at Vic virus inquiry aap.com.au/andrews-to-be-…
You can watch the Premier, Health Minister, CHO and others respond to questions today from Victorian MPs. It's a bit like a prolonged question time with no interjections. All online of course. parliament.vic.gov.au/video-and-audi… #SpringSt #COVID19Vic #PAEC
Between the Dorothy Dixers (how is the ADF helping us Premier?) and the accusatory (will you apologise?) interesting information does emerge. The real importance of #PAEC is that Govt knows that a hard question MAY be asked. Oversight leads to better government. #SpringSt
Premier asked by @Sam_Hibbins about lead-up to hard lockdown of public housing towers. About people unable to source insulin needles, provide breast milk to prem infant. #SpringSt #PAEC
Answer from @VictorianCHO to q from @_davidlimbrick on the COVID-19 endgame, indicates that the only reason Vic isn't pursuing "elimination" is a rather semantic distinction. The goal is to end local community transmission if humanly possible. Can't eliminate risk of importation.
CHO and Prof Allen Cheng @peripatetical hopeful that one of the 200 prospective vaccines in development will work.
Under-appreciated reason for current epidemic control-measures is the growing list of serious non-fatal complications of COVID-19 says @VictorianCHO, in response to q from @_davidlimbrick on cost vs benefit of restrictions. #PAEC #COVID19Victoria #SpringSt
LNP MPs in #PAEC's inquiry into the Vic Govt's handling of #COVID19Vic aren't having much luck learning where the hotel quarantine buck stopped. @DannyOBrienMP visibly frustrated as @JennyMikakos points to Byzantine network of departments possibly responsible.
In #PAEC inquiry #Greens @Sam_Hibbins asks Health Minister will any healthworker wanting an N95 mask be supplied with one? @JennyMikakos says N95s available in COVID wards, ICU and ED. A healthworker wellbeing taskforce is being set up. #SpringSt #COVID19Vic
@peripatetical Allen Cheng adds that N95s are uncomfortable and you wouldn't want to wear them if you didn't need to.
Health Minister and Dep Sec uncertain how many public hospital staff off work due to COVID-19 infection or contact. Estimated an additional 1000 staff off work as contacts. SaferCare Vic suggests 90% of healthworker infections are not from patients, answering q from @Sam_Hibbins
Responding to @Sam_Hibbins,@JennyMikakos says she and DHHS are talking about ventilation hoods that limit aerosol transmission from infected patients, in trial at Western Health ICU. #SpringSt #COVID19Aus #auspol ccr.cicm.org.au/supplementary-…
Other hospitals have requested ventilation hoods but support required to manufacture this University of Melb developed product. Trial shows better than N95 reduction in aerosols in room. Great reusable protection for nurses. Reduce infections, reduce waste. #SpringSt #PAEC
Alarming numbers of infected healthworkers & furloughed as contacts, justifies more effort to protect workforce. Including N95 masks for all in close patient contact who want them, accelerate development of ventilation hoods, reusable respirators in high risk settings. #SpringSt
Thanks @Sam_Hibbins for prioritising protection of healthworkers in your #PAEC questions today. Looks like some promising developments, but more to be done on N95 mask access and facilitating manufacture of ventilation hoods.
Some hospitals doing well, others not providing adequate masks to staff at high risk such as ENT, says @eyerait58 (AMA), responding to @Sam_Hibbins. Says all staff should have access to N95 masks. #SpringSt #PAEC

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More from @TimRRead

Dec 2, 2022
The Victorian Government must protect our hospital system by curbing the spread of COVID, now that hospital inpatient numbers have hit 550, after a lull in October.

With six consecutive weeks of increases in COVID hospitalisations, we’re clearly in another wave. (thread)
The govt must promote masks in crowded indoor spaces including public transport and promote improvements to indoor air quality where people mix, using open windows and air purifiers.
Hospitals will be getting busier with COVID cases occupying this many beds and we can’t afford to ignore this. We should also be prepared for other measures the CHO may recommend such as density limits or compulsory masks on PT.
Read 7 tweets
Oct 2, 2020
I’m seeing justified concern about the COVID-19 Omnibus (Emergency Measures) etc Bill, but I fear some is misdirected. I’ll try to clear some of that up in this thread, to aid the discussion on how it should be amended. #SpringSt theguardian.com/australia-news…
Like most Omnibus bills it’s a varied menu of dubious items alongside necessary and uncontroversial measures which the Victorian government should split into another bill, rather than subjecting parliament to the “no dessert if you don’t eat your veggies” tactic. #SpringSt
The least palatable item on this menu would change the Public Health and Wellbeing Act (PHWA) in two respects. The first broadens who can become an “authorised officer” and give health directions, including using the power of detention. Currently they must be public servants.
Read 11 tweets
Sep 26, 2020
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.
Read 6 tweets
Sep 16, 2020
#Greens will amend the Omnibus bill in #SpringSt today, so police, PSOs, security guards are not given power to decide who gets detained under health emergency powers. Currently health officials decide and police enforce. Too much power for one police/PSO to be judge and jailer.
People from communities with a poor experience of policing won't want to increase their risk of contact with the police, so this could mean fewer will get tested. Let's not mess with the current health-led response. #SpringSt
The bill doesn't create new powers, but gives police, potentially PSOs or security guards, power to preemptively decide someone is unlikely to comply with isolation orders and must be detained. Recent episodes show this is too much power and responsibility for one police officer.
Read 4 tweets
Jun 3, 2020
Uncomfortable truths from @TaniaMaxwell14's motion in the Vic Legislative Council: Victoria's prison population booming, reoffending very high: 43% return to prison within 2 yrs. So corrections system failing to correct. Govt admits changed bail laws contribute. #springst
So it's high time we reformed bail laws to correct this. Prisons are bursting at seams with unsentenced prisoners. Accused should get bail unless unacceptable risk to public safety. Govt knows this, so let's not delay bail reform. #SpringSt #Greens
Enver Ergodgan for Andrews Govt is justifying their big build of prisons, with the jobs it will create! Celebrating job creation is not how we should respond to the growing numbers of Victorians behind bars. You could maybe, I dunno, think about human rights. #SpringSt #Greens
Read 7 tweets
Jun 2, 2020
I'm about to speak against this bill to lift the ban on gas drilling in Victoria. Looks like I'll be the only one. Six LNP, one ind and six Labor speakers are speaking in support. #SpringSt #ClimateEmergency #VicGasBan #Greens
Andrews Govt and LNP speakers trotting out the same arguments:
1. Gas is a transition fuel.
No it's not. Fugitive emissions remove any advantage it had over CO2. This gas is methane, 84 times more potent than CO2 as a greenhouse gas over 20 years.
2. Gas drilling in Vic will lower gas prices.
No it won't. There's not a large enough quantity there. If there was, Australia's cartel of gas producers and the link to overseas oil prices wouldn't allow the price to fall. #springst #VicGasBan
Read 5 tweets

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