★★★★★ 0/5

7News Spotlight: June 30

Michael Usher moderates a discussion around Australia's response to COVID.

0
Leave a comment

On Sunday’s 7News Spotlight host Michael Usher will moderate a discussion around Australia’s response to COVID.

COVID changed the world. But did Australia’s leaders get it right?

Michael Usher said: “Looking back at what our leaders and experts did right and wrong during the COVID pandemic was never going to be an easy exercise. The impact on people was deep.

“We found it’s still a very emotional issue to discuss. It’s a very honest debate. Some will never be happy with Australia’s pandemic response, some think we did the right things for the greater good, and we found now is the right time to discuss how some people were failed.”

Three years on from the pandemic, the impacts are lasting – on our health, our children and the elderly.

Did lockdown serve us well? What impact has COVID had on school children? Were we deprived of our civil liberties? Did we rush the jab? What are the positives to come out of the pandemic? And what have been the key lessons?

Former Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk leads a panels of experts who were directly involved in Australia’s COVID response. She’ll be joined by Professor Robert Boyd, a vaccinology, epidemiology and infectious diseases specialist; Professor Kerryn Phelps, former president of the Australian Medical Association, former federal MP and one of Australia’s most high-profile doctors and public health commentators; Gigi Foster, professor with the School of Economics at the University of NSW and author of multiple books on the pandemic; and Associate Professor Sanjaya Senanayake, a practicing doctor and infectious diseases specialist at the Australian National University College of Health and Medicine.

The decisions they made and advice they gave is put under the microscope in a heated interrogation by a live studio audience.

This unmissable edition of 7NEWS Spotlight will offer an unflinching look at the strategies employed by authorities. Were they effective? Were they necessary? Were they right? And, most importantly, what we could do differently next time?

Sunday, 8.45pm on Seven.