COVID-19 risk management and proportionate policy in light of Omicron variant | 7.30

The Queensland government did a backflip on Wednesday on its COVID policy after forcing two full planeloads of fully vaccinated people into 14 days quarantine, to include Christmas Day, after one positive case on each flight. An immediate public outcry forced a change of direction, with almost all of the passengers freed once they posted a negative test. At the other end of the spectrum, the New South Wales government moved to end mandatory mask-wearing in all but a few high-risk settings.

Both those developments raise questions about risk management and proportionate policy. Professor Catherine Bennett is the chair of epidemiology at Deakin University.

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