Stop the presses: The Australian has discovered a link between the Black Lives Matter protesters and the cluster of coronavirus cases in Melbourne’s public housing towers. This link hasn’t been confirmed by anyone else, but like, sure guys. Go off.
The “exclusive” report published today cites “Victorian health authorities” confirming the link. Its report has been picked up by News Corp titles the Herald Sun, News.com.au, and Sky News, as well as by 7 News.
So let’s dive into it, shall we?
The Australian reports that two people who attended the Black Lives Matter protest a month ago, who later tested positive for COVID-19, are linked to the Flemington tower outbreak, where at least 242 people have tested positive.
It cites “Victorian health authorities” as confirming the link, but doesn’t say who they are or when they confirmed this link.
It also says the confirmation “stops short of establishing the protest as a cause of the public housing megacluster”, but would the average person glean that from the headline? Probably not.
Reading on much, much further, we get some answers into this supposed link: a person who attended the Black Lives Matter rally in Melbourne “but was not infectious at the time of the rally” also worked in an H&M store while they were infectious. Within days, where were several more infections linked to the H&M store, including a second person who attended the rally. That person is also not thought to have acquired the infection at the protest.
As the H&M cluster grew to 30 people, it was renamed the North Melbourne family cluster. Here’s where we get to the public housing towers in Flemington. A Department of Health and Human Services spokesperson confirmed the tower outbreak was linked to the North Melbourne family cluster, as well as other clusters.
That’s it. That’s the link. Not exactly a straight line, is it?
In fact, Chief Health Officer Brett Sutton has said, explicitly, he does not think the Black Lives Matter protests contributed.
“We’re not seeing people who’ve clearly acquired it there,” he said.
How do I know that? BECAUSE THE AUSTRALIAN REPORTED IT.
“But the Department of Health and Human Services has refused to say whether members of the cluster, which includes the protest attendees, live in the public housing towers.
“DHHS says it has still not established the source of any of the interlinked clusters, with Chief Health Officer Brett Sutton on the record expressing scepticism that the protesters caught the virus at the rally.”
I also reached out to the DHSS to see if there was something I’d missed.
But I hadn’t. Here’s what they said:
“We are aware of six confirmed cases who attended the Black Lives Matter protest. Currently there is no evidence to suggest they acquired the virus from the protest.
“None of these cases are known to reside at a major public housing complex.
“Currently no known nor suspected episodes of transmission occurred at the protest itself.”
Again – not much of a link really, is it?
The DHSS hasn’t outright refuted claims there was a confirmed link (which I asked). It just said none of the BLM rally attendees who tested positive for COVID-19 lived in the public housing complex.
Crucially, however, it did not confirm the link – which again, is less of a link and more a game of “six degrees of separation”. The supposed link was also not mentioned by either Premier Dan Andrews, deputy police commissioner Rick Nugent, nor Chief Medical Officer Brett Sutton at today’s press conference. Remember: this link was supposedly confirmed by “Victorian health authorities”, according to the report.
If the outbreak had been traced back to the BLM rally, then that’s news and worth reporting, regardless of your support (or disdain) for the cause.
It’s vital for public health to understand where these outbreaks are occurring, as well as keeping the public informed as to whether or not they may be at risk. (For example, NSW Health has genomically linked the outbreak at the Crossroads Hotel in Casula to a Melbourne cases, eliminating fears there’s another, unknown source.)
But the BLM-public housing link? That’s about as tenuous as it gets – but it sure is spicy, which is why it’s been picked up by several other news outlets for their commenters to self-congratulate that they KNEW the protests were stupid / dangerous / unnecessary all along.
And when you consider the history of The Australian demonising people of colour, lower socio-economic people, and anyone prepared to fight for a more tolerant society, then it becomes something a little more sinister altogether.
