AAP

The University of Melbourne’s epidemiologist professor Tony Blakely disagreed with Latham, advocating not for a shutdown, but slowly allowing 60% of Australians to become infected. Perhaps it was Blakely's mention of 130,000 deaths in Australia that finally got through to Jones.

Jones: "This is where the debate now stands... Tony Blakely has argued that the move to shut down pubs and cinemas has happened too quickly, or too slowly, depending on what Australia is trying to achieve. Do you think the public understand what the goal is of the government?"

Blakely: "We got utter clarity last night from Scott Morrison: the direction we've chosen, we're going to flatten the curve, we're not going for eradication [like] New Zealand, we're going to ride this one out ... it's up to people — you, me — to try and get that across today, that we are going down the flattening the curve approach."

Jones: "If we flatten the curve, I understand you say we're in for the long haul, where if we'd gone down the eradication curve we may have crossed the bridge earlier?"

Blakely: "It's possible. It's theoretical now. If we'd gone for eradication it would've been utter lockdown for three months, with a 50-50 chance of success. We might have come out of that by about June-July with a country where we could move around freely but with no-one coming in or out.

"That's what New Zealand is doing. But we have made the decision to flatten the curve and we all need to get on board with that. So many facets of society need to assist with that response... if we just let this thing roll we're talking 130,000 deaths. If we lower the infection rate among those people 60-plus from 60% [total infections] to 20%, we will half the death rate ... protecting our elderly, those with chronic conditions, and just letting the infection slowly spread through the rest of the population. We need 60% of Australians to slowly get infected in a way where it is managed and we have the least harm."

Jones: "Are governments getting advice ... that our health services may not be ready for peak loads within six weeks?"

Blakely: "It's a major concern. I think the settings we've set now will slow that curve down and the whole idea here is when we get to the peak, which will be about May, that we are not exceeding the capacity of the health services."