What I’m about to reveal could lead to me losing my job, or worse, ending up in prison. I’m whistle blowing and this is why.
The forced hotel isolation to prevent the spread of corona virus is a disaster. I’m working at the airport doing the screenings and I’m privy to how state and federal agencies have responded. Its not good. There’s no coordination between even departments at the same level of government. the interaction of state and federal government is hostile. There has been a complete failure by both levels of government to protect us from the coming wave of exponential community spread. And they’ve endangered us to play politics. Its true that the biggest threat of new infection with COVID-19 is from new arrivals but hotel isolation is not suitable for a small percentage of people and some people should be allowed to home isolate in their home state on a number of compassionate grounds. I’ve been applying for exemptions since the hotel isolation policy began. Until today the ministry of health had told me that everyone I’d flagged as vulnerable was given their exemption. Today I learned this was a lie. It hadn’t actually been done. The person i spoke with seemed quite reasonable and i believe he was told the same thing by whoever his line manager is. They’re all still in the hotel rooms. And its worse than prison. They have cramped rooms with windows that don’t open, no balcony and are not allowed to leave even for some fresh air and exercise. Some hotels aren’t cleaning the rooms for the 2 weeks and aren’t offering people products to clean their own bathrooms. The Hilton Hotel in Sydney is exploiting people. Detainees there have been told that they can’t go out for fresh air or exercise because they don’t have enough space for 600 people and that the detainees are an infection risk to other paying guests. Despite the fact that the NSW Health handout given to new arrivals regarding the hotel isolation that we continue to hand out says that they can have Uber Eats and Deliveroo, these have been banned by the Hilton. As have any deliveries from Woolworths.
I’ve attached documents that demonstrate this conflicting information. Apparently the food delivery services are also and infection risk. If they are why are the rest of us advised that its is otherwise. The government give every person detained $50 per day per person for food and $20 per day for alcohol. $50 doesn’t go a long way with the Hilton’s inflated room service menu if you want to eat something nutritious. So they’re force to buy junk food. I’ve also attached pics of the food offered. So the Hilton are forcing people to eat only their shitty food. Worse though, detainees are allowed to have care packages delivered by family but one detainee I’m in contact with reported that the bottle of wine in the care package his mother dropped off was confiscated. The Hilton are however quite happy to sell them alcohol. The detainees don’t have access to a laundry and the Hilton charges $20 to do the washing. This is not covered by the government. And how do you know who’s been handling the washing anyway. The Hilton apparently have shitty internet so people can’t access the streaming services they subscribe to for entertainment and they only have free-to air TV. The Hilton will rent you movies though for $20 a pop. No movies are from anytime earlier than the 1990s. NSW Health claim that the hotels are under the jurisdiction of the NSW Police. How many of you absolutely trust the NSW Police? Just recall that this same organization strip searches unaccompanied minors and psychotically traumatizes people, particularly females, and then stand up in public trying to discredit women who had reported being made to feel this way. If they’re willing to “follow orders” at all costs like that then why would you trust them to be literally in charge? Just to make sure you really understand what I’m saying here. Last Friday night 2 flights landed from South America. They had on board people who’d been on 2 cruises to Antarctica. One was in the news because it was all Australian doctors and they weren’t able to get off the ship in Peru because of concerns about COVID-19. Some on board were epidemiologists and infectious disease specialists. They’d been measuring everyone’s temperatures every day with nobody having a fever in the more than 2 weeks they spend on board. When they arrived in Sydney none of them had a fever or any symptoms. They arrived at 10pm which is 2 hours prior to the compulsory hotel isolation taking effect. The NSW Ministry of Health (MOH) and the federal agencies wanted some additional information from the passengers that wasn’t already available on their arrivals card. I had to create a document to hand out to get this so that (apparently in consultation with each other) the state and federal authorities were to use the information to help make a decision about what to do with these passengers. I had this printed off and I personally walked down the socially distanced line of passengers that extended all the way back to the gate the plane was parked at. Everyone completed their forms and then i walked along the line and collected them. At the last minute the MOH wanted some additional information which was how was each person planning on getting to their homes or accommodation from the airport. I began handing these back to the passengers to fill in with these additional details. Fortunately one of the epidemiologists pointed out to me the infection risk of handing them back out so I stopped and apologized. I then walked down the line and wrote the answer out for all the passengers. Because of this I was also able to read all the answers people had been given. They had truthfully reported plans to travel onward to their home states if not from NSW. They had recorded the flight numbers and times of departure and destinations. I heard the NSW Police tell them all a few times that they were going home. The next day there was these articles:
The Age – they-haven-t-listened-medical-professionals-skipped-quarantine-and-flew-interstate –> see comments below for link
Then this one:
Sydney Morning Herald – bewildered-and-confused-doctors-on-flight-say-they-were-following-orders – see comments below for link
So the Minister of Health and NSW Police outright lied about these doctors. The police had come and taken copies of all the sheets I’d had passengers fill out so there’s literally no way they could have lost 33 people and not know their whereabouts. Why would they lie about this and discredit doctors. Isn’t it the case that fascist regimes or revolutionaries like Pol Pot discredit or kill those most respected by the public at the time? Why would you want to discredit doctors in the middle of an evolving worldwide health crisis? Because if “even doctors can’t be trusted to obey the rules” then nobody can and that justifies rolling out the Australian Defense Force, the Australian Federal Police and the NSW Police being deployed to force hotel isolation and guard the hotels. Once you have police and military in charge and people hiding in their homes because there is widespread fear don’t you effectively have total control over the population? Sounds very suspicious to me.
The first man i identified as vulnerable and worked toward getting an exemption arrived on 29/3/20. He told me his whole reason for returning to Australia wasn’t to escape corona virus but to be with his family for support with his mental health. He had been socially isolating since the end of November 2019 predominantly due to anxiety. He had to call an ambulance twice during that time as his anxiety became so bad that he had thoughts of self harm. When i saw him he wasn’t currently experiencing thoughts of self harm but was teary and very anxious because he was concerned that being in a small unfamiliar confined space would result in similar outcomes. Prior to leaving the UK the position of the Australian government was still allowing home isolation so he had arranged with his parents for them to go away and stay elsewhere, stock the house prior to leaving and he would have home isolated there in familiar surrounding and with yard to walk around in. This passenger recorded a video on day 2 of his detention and sent it to me. He consented to me using it to help him and others with it. I’ve attached the video to this post. I forwarded this several times to MOH but nothing was done. He was taken to hospital for mental health reasons just yesterday. I spoke to the psychiatrist who had reviewed him. The psychiatrist also thought home isolation was in his best interest. He was returned to the Hilton. I’d been told he was given an exemption but he was told he wasn’t allowed to leave.
Another passenger sent to the Hilton against my medical advice had survived being in a 5th floor hotel room in Katmandu during the Nepal earthquakes. He’d been trapped for some time with dead bodies nearby. Understandably he didn’t want to end up in a hotel with windows that didn’t open, no balcony and no scope for getting out of the room to exercise and feel normal. He held grave fears for his mental health and I agreed. I escalated his case a few times to MOH with no communication back to me and no action taken. He’s only sane because his girlfriend is with him. He was told by Hilton staff that the reason the detainees were in such rooms was because of the risk of suicide (jumping from the balcony). Without it being a threat he told them that he could just as easily off himself with a belt or bed sheet. Still nothing has been done. On his first night there he was very anxious so I prescribed, had the prescription filled and then delivered Valium to the hotel. From this detainee on day 2 of isolation:
“”we spoke to a representative from the police and the army today and they both said there is no one they can talk with and they are only acting on orders. They have no one to discuss implementing an out door area for us. They also said the hotel has other guests staying here so there would be no way of getting permission for the 600 detainees an area to get fresh air or sunlight as we could infect the other guests. I can’t imagine this is true as I’m sure they wouldn’t allow general public in the same building breathing infected air conditioning. Has anyone even thought of the air-
con system spreading the virus to other rooms?!!!!”
I share his concern about the air conditioning and food in all the hotels.
Leslie – age 63 – was planning on home isolating with her daughter (with whom she traveled and who was also home isolating anyway) in a nearby inner city suburb. Returning home from visiting another daughter in the USA. The daughter living in USA had a baby whilst Leslie was there. They had been in complete isolation as a result. She traveled home to Australia via New Zealand and reported wearing a mask and glove with generous use of hand sanitizer the entire way home. She was also fastidious about social distancing. She has a severe anxiety disorder and was so anxious she was shaking, crying and wringing her hands whilst being assessed by me. The NSW Police questioned me about her because she became distraught when told she was still going to a hotel that she had a panic attack. I explained to the NSW Police that the MOH had said anyone within 20 minutes of the airport would be allowed to home isolate. NSW Police informed me that this had changed. They asked what I thought should be done from a medical perspective. I clearly stated that she should be allowed to home isolate. They told me that even if she were allowed that her husband and daughter would still be in a hotel. I told them that both situations would be harmful and the only solution was for all 3 of them to be allowed to home isolate. I advised she be transported to the nearest ED for mental health assessment if all else failed. She did relatively well the first 2 days but 2 weeks might stretch that well beyond her capacity to endure.
Xian of Ermington NSW
Returning home from Indonesia and arrived in Sydney 29/03/20. Due to numerous flight cancellations he became separated from his wife who was to travel to Sydney on 1/04/20. Both were quite happy to isolate in a hotel but he wanted his wife to be able to stay with him. His wife has depression and anxiety. She is on medications for these. Some of those medications were in her husband’s luggage. They have not been apart for more that a few days for their entire married life. He had grave concerns for her mental health if she were isolated alone. He was unable to find any way to put in the request for his wife to stay with him. I was also in contact with her prior to her arrival. I directed her to this site:
https://immi.homeaffairs.gov.au/…/Pages/covid19-enquiry-for…
The site is for applying for an exemptions from being prevented entering Australia but we thought it would be worth a try. She never received a response.
I sent details of her and her husband to MOH but I never received a response. I advised her to ask for me when being screened so that we had an opportunity to make the arrangement they had very politely requested. In this case we were able to arrange for him to be taken to her hotel to isolate with her but there had been no mechanism to enable this other than our goodwill.
S – 34 year old female from Tasmania
Returning home to Australia from 6 months on a remote island in Indonesia. She had found out she was approx 15 weeks pregnant only 1-2 weeks prior to arriving on 29/3/20. Due to being somewhere so remote she has so far had no antenatal screening and this is her first pregnancy. She had arranged to be seen by an O&G specialist in Hobart but was unable to travel there due to Tasmania’s travel restrictions which meant that, even after completing 2 weeks isolation in NSW, she and her husband would be required to do the same again in Tasmania. They have a property with distant boundaries and would have been able to safely home isolate. She works in an emergency service. She was very anxious about not having any antenatal screening until the end of another 4 weeks. She reported to me that she spoke to the onsite doctor and that she is not allowed out of her room so could get antenatal screening. She discussed her anxiety with that doctor and was threatened she would be scheduled under the mental health act and taken directly to a nearby mental health unit and remain there alone for the remainder of the isolation period. Also not an appealing option.
R – 30 year old female – citizen of another country but married to an Australian – of NSW. Coming home to Australia to be with her husband. She had found out she was pregnant days before traveling and had not yet had a chance to tell her husband. This is her first pregnancy and she has had 2 episode of vaginal spotting (bleeding). She was wanting to have review by an obstetrician. She was sent to a hotel alone. Given that there is only one doctor allocated to 6 hotels its unlikely her medical needs were adequately addressed.
I learned that a woman with a new born baby, who arrived on 29/03/20 on a flight from Chile, was sent for isolation in a hotel alone. She was returning to be with her husband and his family. She is a high risk for developing post natal depression if isolated this way.
I also learned of an older couple where the husband has dementia. They were to be isolated in a hotel despite having a home in Sydney. The unfamiliar environment and confinement is likely to result in behavioural disturbances for her husband.
K – 29 year old female whose parents live in the Blue Mountains. She didn’t have a SIM card to contact her family so I loaned her mine and she was able to tell them she was home in Australia safe. They have already sequestered part of the house off for her to isolate there. She has borderline personality disorder and severe anxiety. She is on medication for this. She believes, and I agree, that this environment is likely to provoke thoughts of self harm otherwise. She had just come from the UK after breaking up with her husband.
Jane – her father is terminally ill and in a hospice in a small town in Victoria. She would like to be nearby so as soon as she is out of home isolation she can visit him and hopefully get to see him. Her family have already vacated and stocked a house remotely located.
V – severe depression and anxiety + PTSD (she retired from the Victorian Police as a result). She has a very proactive psychiatrist and requires medication. She has been doing very well over the last 6 months but was becoming increasingly anxious about being locked up in a small room. She was terrified. I have received several messages back from her. She was not supplied with her antidepressant. I have given her a script at the airport as she was to take it again the next morning. She told me how brittle her symptoms were if a dose was missed. She was distraught and crying when she called me the following afternoon having been given no medication. I believe she received it in the evening. She has a property outside a town in Victoria that has been stocked for her.
Susan – a T7 paraplegic woman with a high-flow ileostomy, a suprapubic catheter and needing an air mattress so that she doesn’t get pressure sores. She has a full time care who she has been traveling with her and who was happy to isolate with her again. In order to bathe she needs a lifter operated by the carer. Neither had symptoms or required swabbing. A friend was going to drive up from Wollongong and leave a fully fueled car at the airport (or hotel) for the carer to drive to her home (not shared) in remote coast southern NSW. Friends had already stocked the house. To my knowledge she is still languishing in a hotel in Sydney.
There are many more stories like this but even I need some downtime so I’m going to finish here and hope this motivates all of you to protest and reminds those in this situation to have hope that you are not alone and haven’t been forgotten.
I can’t in good conscience sit and wait for the authorities to rectify any of this because there’s evidence that they know and still wont do anything. I’d prefer to be in prison than turn a blind eye after days of trying though official channels to have all of this addressed.
I urge you all to share this post widely and with haste. It may be removed from Facebook and if more people know about it I might have some protection from the fallout.
Ærchies Archive - Digital Detritus 