'Leave her alone': Queensland doctors step in to defend Chief Health Officer - Brisbane Times

Having held her position since 2005, Dr Young is the longest-serving Chief Health Officer in Australia.

She has advised four premiers through six epidemics, including MERS, swine flu and the 2009 dengue outbreak.

Dr Young faced an onslaught of attacks after she denied 26-year-old Canberra nurse Sarah Caisip's plea to leave hotel quarantine to attend her father's funeral with her grieving mother and sister.

Dr Perry said she was highly qualified, and of all the chief health officers in the country, "she is probably the one they look up to the most".

"We would prefer to have fewer funerals than to have more people at those funerals," he said.

"I know she is under stress.

"There are a lot of people asking for exemptions from quarantine, or a different way of doing quarantine, and she has been very fair with that.

"It hasn't just been footballers and wealthy people, she has been listening to people all the way through [the pandemic] and giving exemptions when she can, when it is safe for the rest of the state."

Dr Perry recognised the Morrison government had "a different view about borders" and he "did not want to get into that".

"We follow what the Chief Health Officer says, and we will leave it alone at that.

"Our political representatives are entitled to have a point of view, so they can put their point of view to the health officer and she can take their points of view and work through the science as to whether what they are saying is valid or not."

His comments came as Queensland detected no new cases of COVID-19 on Sunday after 4933 tests on Saturday.

Deputy Premier and Health Minister Steven Miles described it as "a great day for Queensland".

There are now 30 active cases across the state, with a total of 1149 people diagnosed with the disease since late January.

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2020-09-13 00:48:00Z
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