Chief Health Officer Doctor Jeannette Young — the most powerful person in Queensland

Doctor Jeannette Young neither looks nor acts like an autocrat.

But she is arguably the most powerful person in Queensland.

That’s underlined by 13 words in a public health bill, rushed through by Queensland lawmakers early last year so the state could respond swiftly to the unfolding new coronavirus threat.

The law allows Dr Young, as Chief Health Officer, to make any direction she sees fit to protect public health.

The bespectacled doctor has become known to many through daily media briefings as a calm and reassuring figure in a disturbingly unpredictable pandemic.