"The inconvenient truth for Scott Morrison is that the Doherty modelling does not say it is safe to end lockdowns once the vaccination rate hits 70 or 80 per cent. Indeed, according to the Doherty modelling we could spend up to 39 per cent of our time in lockdown if we begin to open up when vaccination hits 70 per cent." [Chief economist at the Australia Institute Richard Denniss, in The New Daily, 24 August 2021]
"And no matter how many times the PM quotes the Doherty modelling, his false distinction between vaccines or lockdowns is all about messaging, not medicine." [Chief Economist at the Australia Institute Richard Denniss, 25 August 2021]
“What's actually happened is the virus is considerably more infectious than the first variant that emerged. It also appears to be more virulent so you're seeing higher mortality levels, particularly in younger people. That's a much worse place we are now than I thought we'd be in a year or so ago." [Professor Edward Holmes FAA, FRS (Syd Uni), ABC News, 26 August 2021]
“Analysis: the route Gladys Berejiklian is taking is defined by vaccination rates and hospitalisations – and it’s going to be brutal” [Gold Walkley-winning investigative reporter Anne Davies, writing in The Guardian, 26 August 2021]
"But our new authority figures are a bunch of modellers who aren't physically at the daily press conferences but whose work is quoted, and more often misquoted, as the source of instruction for what politicians do, rather than being what it is: advice on what happens if politicians make certain decisions." [Chief political correspondent ABC “7.30” program Laura Tingle, ABC News, 28 August 2021]
"It’s galling then, to tune in every day at 11am to watch the NSW premier reframing her abject failure as an act of courageous leadership." [Political Editor Katharine Murphy, The Guardian, 28 August 2021]
"Berejiklian is a Liberal team player who keeps her grievances about Morrison private. But, in private, she is scathing. The NSW Premier has told Liberal colleagues she’d have preferred that Peter Dutton had won the last federal leadership ballot – she’d rather be dealing with Dutton because Morrison is so unpleasant, she’s said. She’s described the PM as a “bully”. Berejiklian went so far as to tell a colleague that Morrison’s behaviour was “evil”." [Political & International Editor Peter Hartcher, The Sydney Morning Herald, 28 August 2021]
