Renowned Australian epidemiologist Professor Mary-Louise McLaws has sadly lost her battle to cancer at age 70.
The prolific health expert whose guidance during the COVID-19 pandemic on television helped limit the spread across the country, died in her sleep on Saturday night — 19 months after she was diagnosed with a brain tumour.
In a statement released on Sunday, Prof McLaws’ husband, Richard Flook said:
“Our dear Mary-Louise passed away in her sleep on Saturday night. She had been so well cared for by the nurses and doctors at Wolper Hospital in Woollahra and had enjoyed the visits of her many friends, who have been so supportive of her and our family.”
“We will be planning her funeral service at Emmanuel Synagogue in the next few days.”
In January 2022, Prof McLaws announced her diagnosis on Twitter, saying severe headaches had prompted her to seek medical help.
“After a severe headache on Thursday, I was diagnosed with a brain tumour,” she wrote. “Thank you media for helping me spread knowledge. Now it is time with my family. Best wishes to you all.”
In February 2022, treatment for her cancer began. She told the ABC a few months later she had been “very fortunate to be well-organised by doctors and nurses.”
“Right now, I’m enjoying the family, the kids, some friends while I’m on leave,” she said. “I have a perfect husband who makes great dinner and lunches. So for the moment, I’m going to enjoy this change.”
“I assume that I will die. I don’t know when. And I’m just enjoying life and friends, and I think that’s what you have to do.”
The Professor of Epidemiology at the University of New South Wales devoted herself during the pandemic to helping Australians reduce the spread of the disease. She called on the government to tighten restrictions and advocated for strict border closures and social distancing.
Since 2002, she has offered her expertise on an advisory panel with the World Health Organisation, working in Hong Kong to help control SARS, and in Malaysia, where she was a member of WHO’s Infection Prevention and Control Global Unit.
Fellow University of New South Wales colleague and friend Professor (Robyn) Richmond described her as “the focal point of reason and information.”
In June 2022, she was named Officer of the Order of Australia in the Queen’s Birthday honours list, for her “distinguished service to medical research, particularly epidemiology and infection prevention”.
ABC radio host Virginia Trioli penned a tribute to Prof McLaws this morning, describing the respected expert in epidemiology a “nationally loved and recognisable hero of those dark times.”
“In the darkest days of the pandemic… epidemiologist and infection control expert Professor Mary-Louise McLaws became the most trusted, compassionate and calming voice of reason in the lives of many Australians,” Trioli wrote.
“Her legacy will not only be the major work she did in evidence-based research to control and limit the spread of disease and infection in this region and around the world, but in the words of her friend Professor Richmond, it will be the decades she spent translating science from her research into her teaching, and in guiding communities in safe public health practises.”
“For most of us, her legacy will be her enduring presence as the kind, calm, wise figure holding firm in the eye of the most terrible storm.”
Professor of epidemiology at the University of South Australia, Dr. Adrian Esterman expressed his sadness over Prof McLaws’ death on Twitter, describing the late national health expert as “an esteemed colleague and a voice of reason.”
Medical expert Professor Kathy Eagar called Prof McLaws’ death a “tragic loss for Australia” and the professor as “a voice of reason on Covid, among a lifetime of achievement.”
SBS journalist Naveen Razik tweeted, “This is very sad news.”
“A stellar career, excellent communicator and a pleasure to deal with whenever I asked her to have a chat for SBS News during the dark days of Covid, giving calm, reasoned, well-researched insights, without any agenda.”
Two months ago, the NSW Jewish Board of Deputies (JBD) hosted a reception at the Emanuel Synagogue to congratulate Prof McLaws for her lifetime of achievement and service. JBD president David Ossip presented McLaws with a certificate of appreciation, saying, “We, as a Jewish community, are so proud that a member of our community played such a key role on the world stage, at such a critical moment.”
Mary-Louise McLaws was born in Tasmania in 1953. She moved to Bondi, NSW, before heading north to the central coast to finish her secondary education at the selective school, Gosford High.
She completed a Bachelor of Science degree at the Sydney University before undertaking a postgraduate degree in public health. In 1992, she graduated with a PhD in Epidemiology. Over the next several decades, she wrote over 180 research papers and supervised and supported dozens of PhD students.
McLaws is survived by her husband of 35 years, Richard Flook and two children, Zachary and Zia Flook, who works as a climate scientist. Zia told The Australian Jewish News in June this year, “Mum has always been very passionate about her religion, and a proud Jew.”
“My mother would like to thank you – those who organised this, who have joined us here, and who have shared her journey,” she said, speaking at the JBD reception in Sydney’s east.