Debate has opened over the closure of Melbourne playgrounds to combat the coronavirus.
Police began patrolling parks on Tuesday and playgrounds were taped-off.
Authorities claim that 50 of Victoria’s 227 active cases yesterday involved children under 10 and that the Delta strain is more infectious for children, but deaths remain extremely rare.
Victoria’s Chief Health Officer Brett Sutton also said yesterday that his team was investigating a potential case of playground transmission.
However, Infectious diseases paediatrician Robert Booy questions whether the Victorian Government has adopted “evidence-based medicine” and whether policy should be based upon a possible single case of transmission in a playground?
From The Brisbane Times:
Infectious diseases paediatrician Professor Robert Booy questioned the basis of the government’s playground ban.
“There is a statement by the Chief Health Officer that perhaps one contact in a playground may have led to disease transmission,” the University of NSW academic said. “Is this evidence-based medicine? Do we really base policy on one possible case of transmission in a playground?”
Readers will know that I believe the playground ban is illogical and a cruel kick in the guts to families with young children (I have two, including a heavily autistic boy who is dependent on playgrounds).
A case in point is the below photo taken on my lunchtime walk yesterday. On the left in the foreground is a public playground that was taped-off by authorities. On the right at the back is the local kindergarten, which had kids happily playing on its playground equipment:
Public playground closed. Kinder playground open.
You cannot see the kids playing on the kinder playground in the photo. But trust me, you could easily see them and hear them from across the oval in real life.
Why are childcare centres, kinders, etc open while public playgrounds are not? Where is the evidence that these facilities are safe whereas public outdoor playgrounds are not?
The decision to close playgrounds is clearly political and not based on scientific evidence.
