Here is a transcript of the Sunday broadcast commentary by AMA WA spokesperson Dr Andrew Miller.
“Hello, thank you for your time. We continue to see great stress on our hospital system with essentially the same number of beds as Royal Perth have been out of circulation due to the COVID illness,” Dr Miller said.
“We know that there are large numbers that are spreading in the community and we know that BA Five does not build a large immunity.
“Unfortunately, we are seeing people re-infected after 30 days or so, this is not a unique situation. We have to be very careful to reduce transmission.
“The government says they encourage us to wear masks, but they let people when they do, which means no one is doing it on a significant level and no one cares too much about it.
“I think we Australians are very compliant with government requirements to get things done. But if it’s not necessary, people think it can’t be that important so they don’t bother doing it.
“It’s time for the government to step up and say: listen, we can’t have our hospital system constantly full with this number of patients.
“We don’t want to see this amount of disease and suffering. We need to cut transmission so that we can allow the immunocompromised and the elderly to move about in the community as normal, and that means the rest of us taking responsibility to try protect them by using masks and improved ventilation around the site.
“Monkey pox, declared by the WHO, is a public health emergency worldwide. It has the right to be a serious disease.
“The good news with this one is that the jab and similar to the one previously used for smallpox can also be used for this disease and actually works even during the exposure time.
“It’s an easier disease to control if we have the will and the resources and people don’t decide too much, ‘I’m too tired to bother.’
“Governments are keeping a watchful eye, it’s going to grow exponentially, it’s spreading around the world, and hopefully much easier containment using fairly simple public health methods, we’ll be dealing with soon.
“This is evidence again that just because the situation is bad with COVID doesn’t mean something else can’t come along and cause more complications.
“We need to keep an open mind and our eye on the ball when it comes to controlling these types of threats to public health.
“The good news is that we have all the tools to do it. We just need the political decisions and the resources to put in, because like with COVID, we certainly can’t afford to pretend it’s gone.
“Then we’ll see a much bigger cleanup task. Just like with every problem you have, whether it’s weeding your yard or a fire.
“Things that grow exponentially, you don’t control them early, then it’s a much harder job to sort them out later. Thanks for the time.”