What did a poobah of public health just say?

Excuse me? Excuse me? What did Queensland’s poobah of public health (and governor to be) Jeannette Young say today? Really say.

There’s her headline remarks — that healthy young people under 40 should not receive the AstraZeneca vaccine because of the risk of blood clots but instead wait until Pfizer shots are available:

We are not in a position that I need to ask young, fit, healthy people to put their health on the line getting a vaccine that could potentially significantly harm them … I don’t want an 18-year-old in Queensland dying from a clotting illness who, even if they got Covid, probably wouldn’t die.

But isn’t there also a tacit admission here that coronavirus isn’t like a suicide bomber about to detonate an explosive vest; that it’s not going to mow everyone down in its proximity?

And if a state chief public health officer, particularly one to such a lockdown happy Premier as Annastacia Palaszczuk, is making that admission, how can the states defend the dogmatism and the harshness of their Covid regimes?

There’s been some suggestion that a tired Scott Morrison may have “misspoken”, to use the modish euphemism, when he offered AstraZeneca to anyone on Monday night and has been too stubborn, silly and self-conscious (as he always is) to admit he erred.

What Young has said — presumably as a result of a little more thought than the PM’s slip of the tongue — is far more significant for pandemic management.

The cat is out of the bag.