Australia needs to be more transparent when it comes to how official bodies make public health decisions during a pandemic, a group of experts have argued.

A number of infectious diseases experts spoke during a wide-ranging panel discussion – The Pulse of the Pandemic – on Saturday as part of the World Science Festival Brisbane.

Moderator Dr Norman Swan, a doctor and ABC science journalist, asked the panel whether Australia’s response to the pandemic had been “too secretive” compared to other nations.

University of Queensland professor Paul Young, a leader of the research into the halted UQ COVID vaccine, agreed that Australia played its cards close to its chest on pandemic decisions.

“There’s been debate in infectious disease circles about the need in Australia for a CDC [the US Centres for Disease Control],” Professor Young said.

“Personally, I don’t think that [specific model] would work … but we need a combination model of what we have now. We have some state health departments that really run the show quite well. What we need is interconnectedness and common protocols.”

The Australian Health Protection Principal Committee is made up of all state and territory medical officers and their federal counterparts, and has been meeting regularly during the pandemic to come up with common goals for measures like contact tracing and when to implement lockdowns.

Dr Swan pointed out that unlike a body such as the CDC in the US, which is required by law to provide the minutes of its meetings and the reasoning behind its decisions, the Australian Health Protection Principal Committee (AHPPC) meets behind closed doors and is under no obligation to make its reasoning public.

Despite that, several state health officers, including Queensland’s Dr Jeannette Young, have publicly explained the reasoning behind their decisions during the pandemic.