A Victorian health official who was told by the prime minister to stick to her day job after she likened COVID-19 to Captain Cook's arrival in Australia, says she regrets the distraction her comments caused.
But Deputy Chief Health Officer Annaliese van Diemen has no plans to delete her controversial tweet, stressing the damage has already been done.
Dr van Diemen faced media for a coronavirus update on Sunday, weeks after making the post on 29 April to mark the 250th anniversary of Captain James Cook's landing.
"Sudden arrival of an invader from another land, decimating populations, creating terror. Forces the population to make enormous sacrifices & completely change how they live in order to survive. COVID-19 or Cook 1770?" she tweeted.
The tweet was investigated by the state's public service watchdog, which found the public health official had not breached her department's code of conduct.
She was spoken to about the potential for social media use to undermine community trust in the public service and deleted Twitter from her work phone.
The post - which has not been removed - prompted the state opposition and some federal Liberal MPs to call for Dr van Diemen's resignation.
The official said she saw no need to remove the post after it received attention.
"The tweet was out there, there had been extensive reporting. Removing it wasn't going to change anything," she told reporters on Sunday.
"I'm just focused on moving forward and continuing to manage this pandemic and manage my very large team now of very hard-working officers."
Asked whether she stands by the view expressed in the post, she said: "look, it was an opinion".
"I regret that it caused a large amount of distractions and I don't think it's necessary to dwell on it any further."
At the time the tweet was attracting attention, Prime Minister Scott Morrison commented that Dr van Diemen "wouldn't get the job as chief historian".
"I applaud the work she is doing as a medical officer in Victoria, that's her expertise, I would strongly suggest she keep to that, because those sort of comments don't inspire confidence," Mr Morrison said on 1 May.
At the time, Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews praised the "amazing job" Dr van Diemen was doing and said his focus wasn't on her views.
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