By The Age’s View
One parent told The Age not enough was being done to reach people from non-English-speaking backgrounds, as he had encountered parents confused about what they needed to do. The diverse cultural makeup of the affected suburbs should have seen proactive measures taken in this regard.
The Department of Health鈥檚 notifications have added to the confusion. Initial text messages instructed some parents to have their children tested for gonorrhea and chlamydia, only for later messages to recommend additional testing for syphilis. If, as Allan said, everything was planned 鈥渢hrough the frame of how parents would react鈥, it could surely have been anticipated that the public鈥檚 experience of COVID testing would have left them bewildered at waiting for news on the awful prospect of their child being infected with a sexually transmitted disease.
The trauma of having to repeatedly visit clinics for tests as the advice varied has understandably left many parents angry and upset.
A representative of one group told us that children who attended affected childcare centres at the same time had received different sets of advice.