Sutton’s Career in Balance as Hotel Quarantine Saga Enters Final Lap – Case Study – Medical Science Assignment Help

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Sutton’s career in balance as hotel quarantine saga enters final lap.
An hour before the gates of Albert Park were due to open for the 2020 Formula 1 Grand Prix Victoria’s Chief Health Officer Professor Brett Sutton informed the Victorian State Government the event should be cancelled. As Prof Sutton detailed that in a ‘Melbourne hospital, Victoria’s first mystery case had just been diagnosed; a confirmed COVID-19 infection which could not be traced to international travel’. With an unknown source there was potential for rapid transmission. There were numerous additional factors for consideration which included:

• Cancellation of the Grand Prix would have significant economic and social impact upon Victoria
• Covid19 and various new strains was rampant in Europe where most of the teams and crews would arrive from
• Major events such as the Grand Prix must be considered as ‘Super Spreader’ activities which could place the broader community at risk. An hour before the gates of Albert

Park were due to open to grand prix fans, an email from Brett Sutton landed in the inbox of Health Minister Jenny Mikakos. Its tone was matter of fact, its reasons laid out and its conclusion clear: the race should not go ahead as planned.

The night before, a member of the McLaren Formula One team had tested positive to COVID-19, the novel coronavirus raging across Europe. In a Melbourne hospital, Victoria’s first mystery case had just been diagnosed; a confirmed COVID-19 infection which could not be traced to international travel or another case. Victoria’s Chief Health Officer told Ms Mikakos he’d consulted with Australia’s Chief Medical Officer and infectious disease and epidemiological experts.

Chief Health Officer Professor Brett Sutton. Credit: Justin McManus
“I therefore recommend the cancellation of the remainder of the Australian Grand Prix, as soon as feasible,’’ Professor Sutton wrote in the previously unpublished advice obtained by The Age under freedom of information laws. He added that, as an alternative, the public health risk of staging the event could be mitigated by keeping the gates closed and having the cars lap a deserted circuit.
Victoria’s Chief Medical Officer Brett Sutton has been asked for an explanation over contradictory evidence to the Hotel Quarantine inquiry. Within two hours, Premier Daniel Andrews stepped out of a COAG meeting in western Sydney and made public the advice.

The lights at Albert Park never turned green. Professor Sutton, a little known public health official in the first year of his job, had wheel-clamped an $8 billion global motor sport.

After Professor Sutton issued his advice, race organisers cancelled the Australian Grand. Contrast this with Professor Sutton’s inaction two weeks later when Victoria and other states and territories moved to block the importation of coronavirus by subjecting returned travellers to 14 days of mandatory hotel quarantine.