This is a week that will be forever immortalised in our collective national memory, for it has been the week in which approaching a friend—or a lover or a harmless-looking stranger on the street—and promptly clawing at the bags under your eyes to offer a wider berth for amateur diagnosis, while screaming and/or weeping to the heavens, “IS IT JUST ME OR DO MY EYEBALLS LOOK FUCKING YELLOW TO YOU???” becomes accepted, nay, encouraged, by universally unspoken social etiquette. It is a truly terrifying time to be alive, Australia.
Jokes aside, this is, of course, all in relation to the genuinely shocking Hepatitis A outbreak that has been making headlines this week, following a batch of contaminated Nanna’s and Creative Gourmet frozen berries that have been distributed in Australia. The outbreak is claiming more related cases of Hep A by the day, with the current count sitting at 13.
Today, Señor Stefanovic has come to our fair country’s rescue, after absolutely grilling the Food Standards Australia & New Zealand CEO Steve McCutcheon over the outbreak this morning, starting off an interview by saying, “Gee, you’ve dropped the ball on this one, haven’t you?” Following that, Karl went on to ask how many cases of Hep A are expected, and if any changes have been made to the current testing and import process (unknown, and, no, respectively). Karlos also cited other Hepatitis A outbreaks overseas, asking why those cases failed to set off alarm bells for Food Standards Australia.
Frustrated over the issue and the interview, Karl said, “Here’s the thing though – and you’re well-versed in answering these kinds of questions, and layering it and also fobbing off some of the responsibility (but) despite these outbreaks of hepatitis A across the world as a result of contaminated frozen berries, you didn’t consider them high-risk at any point.”
You can watch the full interview with Karl and Steve McCutcheon over here. Meanwhile, Karl also grilled Barnaby Joyce on the issue with similar finesse yesterday, which you can have a squiz at below.
As a reminder, the list of recalled berries can be found here. Consumers are encouraged to seek medical assistance if they present symptoms of Hepatitis A: fatigue, nausea, loss of appetite, diarrhoea, jaundice of the skin and the whites of eyes.
Via 9 News.
