Much has been written on the damage of playground closures on young children during lockdowns. To add insult to injury, a Victoria health official has admitted that playgrounds in the state weren’t closed because children were spreading Covid – for which there was (and still is) no evidence – but to stop parents from being able to meet. The Mail Australia has the story.
Victorian children who have spent months living in fear of becoming infected at their local playground have finally been told there was no real evidence they were going to catch Covid playing on the swings.
In a stunning admission sure to enrage Melbourne families, Victoria’s Chief Health Officer Professor Brett Sutton admitted on Wednesday the parks were banned for the last month to get at parents.
It is not the first time Professor Sutton has taped-up Victorian playgrounds because of their supposed threat to children.
Last year he closed them for months during Victoria’s second deadly wave, which killed more than 800 after leaking out of his own bungled hotel quarantine scheme.
On Wednesday, the Professor told long suffering Melbourne parents the actual reason he closed playgrounds in the first place was because of them.
“My advice on playgrounds originally was because we saw that people were using it as a loophole to have de facto meetings across households, neighbourhoods, families,” he said.
“In allowing playgrounds to open again, absolutely with the wellbeing and considerations of kids in mind, but we’re going to have QR codes as a mandated requirement.”
Melbourne parents had pleaded with Premier Daniel Andrews to introduce such a scheme back on August 16th, when he announced for the second time the only avenue of enjoyment many kids had would be banned.
Their calls had fallen on deaf ears at the time as Professor Sutton claimed he was acting on evidence that playgrounds were a serious transmission risk to children who played at them.
“We are investigating a potential transmission in a playground,” he claimed.
“It is not definitive and maybe we will not be able to make it definitive but it looks like there has been transmission in a playground.”
He backed-up the cruel plan with news the Delta variant of Covid had been spread between children walking home from school.
The next day, playgrounds across Melbourne were taped off under threat of serious fines if children attempted to use them. …
On Wednesday, Professor Sutton said he would allow just one parent or guardian to attend playgrounds with their kids.
He warned those parents not to even contemplate removing their masks while there.
“You will not be removing your mask to eat or drink because that’s when transmission occurs, It’s been said across Australia this virus moves with people. If we don’t have those human interactions, we can’t infect others'”
When pressed again for any scrap of evidence to support transmission of the virus at playgrounds, Professor Sutton could provide none.
“We have suspicions about transmission maybe occuring at playgrounds, but you don’t have to jump to specific instances to know how transmissions have occured [sic] indoors and outdoors between adults, between kids round the world,” he said.
Worth reading in full.
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