On Saturday morning the QLD Health called us to say they'd rejected the case yet again. So we wrote an open letter to the Premier and the Health Minister to make a compassionate plea for reconsideration. In the meantime my Dad is holding on but is very weak and every day that goes by is another day lost.
Please share, sign, write, call and tweet to maintain pressure on QLD Health. #AnastasiaPalaszczuk #qldpremier #Queensland #QLDhealth
We would all like to thank all of you from the bottom of our hearts for all your support. It makes it easier to continue the fight.
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An Open Letter To the Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk and the Queensland Chief Health Officer Dr Jeannette Young
My Father is still alive. But that could change at any moment. We have applied, appealed, interviewed, petitioned, cried, called, written, been tested and cried again. What has been so amazing to us is the warmth and compassion that the Australian people have shown us. From the NSW Health people to the private air charter company to all the journalists and doctors we’ve been in touch with.
But Queensland Health have so far have not shown us this compassion. So we are appealing to you in the light of the generosity of spirit that we’ve experienced since we’ve been here, to reconsider our case on the compassionate grounds that the privilege of being able to say goodbye to ones’ own Father or son might outweigh the extremely low risk that 2 vaccinated people pose to the people of Queensland.
We are willing to do whatever it takes to avoid risk to the people of Queensland. We’ve offered to wear masks 24/7. We’ll wear hazmat suits and tracking devices if needs be. We’ll limit our movement only within the family. We are still offering to fly on our previously booked charter flight to Coolangatta Airport which would further reduce the risk to the people of Queensland. Especially that this charter company will transport us door to door from hotel to house and are a fully covid rules compliant operation, as stated in their flight plan which you have received.
As it stands now we have been in the country for 4 days. Our most recent covid test was on Thursday which returned a negative result for both of us. That means we’ve had 3 negative covid tests in the last 5 days. I would argue, therefore, that it is scientifically sound to assume that if we got infected now, it would be from the hotel and not from Los Angeles. Given that we are in what you have to consider the safest place possible in the country, a quarantine hotel, it would seem to make sense both logically and scientifically that we must be the least likely of people at the moment to pose a risk to the people of Queensland. And especially that we are fully vaccinated and come from Los Angeles who’s covid landscape has been thoroughly changed only because of the efficacy of the vaccine.
I don’t for a minute doubt your commitment and dedication to keeping your constituents safe. In fact when I was here in January helping my Dad through chemo, I actually made a few episodes on my You Tube channel about how amazing I thought the Australian quarantine system was as I was going through it at a different hotel in Sydney. And on leaving quarantine after 14 days how wonderful it was, coming from Los Angeles, to walk the streets of Brisbane free from masks or the threat of Covid. It was beautiful to be able hug my brother at the airport after not having been able to hug anyone other than my wife for almost a year at that point. It was emotional. So I am by no means critical of the system Australia has in place.
Every single person of the many thousands we've heard from and interacted with over the last 4 days have identified emotionally with our compassionate claim, often with a good deal of passion. Our petition on change.org/SayGoodbye now has over 20 000 signatures from people who support our case, a good deal of whom are your constituents.
My wife and I are American citizens and we have the full support of the American Consulate in our plight. We understand that as Americans you don’t represent us nor our interests. However, Frans Kilian, my Father, is an Australian citizen from Coombabah in Queensland, and as such is one of your constituents. A person who’s interests you do represent.
So I beg you, we beg you, my family begs you, from the bottom of all of our hearts, please reconsider our case and allow a Father to say goodbye to his son in dignity and love.
Mark Kilian