17 Feb 2021

'I can't see a consistency in our risk appetite' - Prof Des Gorman

From Checkpoint, 5:23 pm on 17 February 2021

Auckland University Professor of Medicine Des Gorman talks to Lisa Owen about the latest Covid-19 alert level decision.

He said he felt unease with the decision to lower the alert levels.

"I think the reason I share that unease is because the level of risk we seem to be tolerating is going up and down almost imperturbably," he told Checkpoint.

"For example, the Ministry of Health found out about these cases on Saturday night but didn't think it was necessary to tell the prime minister for 12 hours. So things which should have been cancelled if we needed to be in alert level 3... weren't.

"I can't see a consistency in our risk appetite, it seems to go up and down depending upon the optics of the situation."

The most reassuring thing was the absence of virus particles in wastewater test results, he said.