Politics with Michelle Grattan
News:Politics
In light of Victoria’s cautious roadmap out of lockdown, with some experts claiming the exit is too fast, and others believing it is unnecessarily slow, the modelling underpinning the decisions is under close scrutiny.
University of Melbourne Professor Jodie McVernon is director of epidemiology at the Doherty Institute, and a modelling expert.
She tells the podcast, “I think the broad qualitative conclusions of the model would have been reached by really any kind of model formulation - that the lower numbers can be driven down, the less likely a resurgence would be”.
This week saw a pause in the progress towards a hoped-for Oxford vaccine, when a clinical trial produced an unexplained illness in one participants.
But McVernon remains optimistic. “I think we will get vaccines. I don’t think we’ll get perfect ones, but I’m hoping we’ll get useful ones – because without vaccines, we only have behaviour to prevent this disease. … So I think [a vaccine will] be one of a suite of things that we’ll be using into the future to control the spread of Covid.”
The pandemic has seen ‘experts’, including public health officials and academics, come centre stage as public figures – as policy heroes but, latterly, also targets for some critics who think their voices are carrying too much influence.
“I would have to say I’m a very reluctantly public figure,” McVernon says.
“[I] was convinced by others early on that it is important …in these times of uncertainty that people are reassured by having the evidence explained.
"If we we do have expert knowledge and we can help to clarify things for the public - I think that’s an important responsibility. Part of having knowledge is sharing that knowledge.”
Dean Smith on the pros and risks of new religious freedom protections
Politics podcast: Mathias Cormann and Jim Chalmers on Budget 2018
Tim Colebatch on the 2018 budget
Chris Bowen on the budget and Labor's policies
Robert Kelly on the Korean summits
Clive Hamilton and Richard Rigby on Chinese influence in Australia
Politics podcast: Michael Keating on a Fair Share
John Blaxland on Australia’s expulsion of Russian spies
Sarah Hanson-Young on the Greens Batman setback
The Batman byelection battleground
Politics podcast: the "X factor" in the South Australian election
Politics Podcast: Jacinda Ardern on her political life
Peter Dutton on balancing interests in Home Affairs
Brian Howe on revisiting Henderson, poverty and basic income
Mark Dreyfus on refining foreign interference legislation
Bill Ferris on Australia’s innovation mission
John Blaxland on new foreign interference laws
Matt Canavan on divorce in the LNP and discipline in the Coalition
Greens Jordon Steele-John on being an 'accidental' senator
Swinging into the Sunshine State's election
Create your
podcast in
minutes
It is Free