Covid NSW: Pathologists are the hidden heroes of pandemic

While frontline medical workers are the courageous public face in the war against Covid, they are supported behind the scenes by an army of hidden heroes such as the pathologists processing tests.

When Professor Jock Harkness first started hearing reports about the new coronavirus out of Wuhan, the veteran pathologist and his microbiology colleagues were immediately worried.

“It was the perfect storm,” said Prof Harkness at St Vincent’s Hospital.

“A new virus that no one in the world was immune to, no one had any antibodies and it was fairly easily spread from person to person … we thought: ‘Well, here it is, we’ve been waiting for it’.”

Over the next 18 months the team he leads conducted more than 780,000 Covid tests and beefed up its workload 5000 per cent.

One of the first labs in Australia to develop local testing, St Vincent’s SydPath outfit has also become a 24-hour operation, more than doubling its staff as tests arrive for processing from across the state.

Senior hospital scientist David Lorenz described the past 18 months as “a rollercoaster”.

“Previous to this our respiratory testing would be 60 swabs a day and now we are doing upwards of 6000 to 8000, and we did reach more than 10,000 on one day which was massive,” he said.

“This surge testing is really hard to predict so day to day it’s a rollercoaster ride.”

Pathologists at St Vincent's Hospital, from left: David Lorenz (senior hospital scientist), Hibah Harakeh (specimen reception), Jock Harkness (micro biologist), Michael Alexander (specimen reception manager) and Damien Stark (principal head scientist). Picture: Toby Zerna

While frontline medical workers are the courageous public face in the war against Covid, they are supported behind the scenes by an army of hidden heroes such as the pathologists processing the tests that track the pandemic’s path.

The responsibility weighs heavily on this team from the inner Sydney hospital.

“It’s crucial work for us to be putting the correct result out, so there is a lot of time spent ensuring that there is credibility and accuracy to all our results,” said Mr Lorenz.

Dr Damien Stark said he was proud of his team, which had diagnosed 1300 positive Covid cases from 750,000 swabs.

“It’s been incredibly busy and we are stretched,” said Dr Stark, SydPath’s principal hospital scientist and senior operations manager of microbiology.

“We are working 24/7. We’re working long hours, there’s a lot of overtime. It’s been hard but it’s such an important role, an important job that needs to be done and all our staff have stepped up and are performing remarkably.”

Principal head scientist Damien Stark and his team have diagnosed 1300 positive Covid tests. Picture: Supplied

David Lorenz performs Covid pathology testing. Picture: Supplied

Prof Harkness said Covid-19 had reminded him and his colleagues of the early days of the AIDS epidemic in the 1980s.

“HIV was very worrying at the beginning because we didn’t know what it was,” he said.

“We didn’t know if it was a virus or what it was so there was a lot of angst then.

“This is just so much bigger than that. Not every citizen of Sydney was at risk of HIV but they are at risk of Covid so that makes it very different and much more easily spread.”

He said the only path for Australia out of lockdowns was for more vaccines to be available.

“This is the biggest epidemic the country has seen in a hundred years,” he said.

“Vaccination is the only answer. It doesn’t take many people to break the rules and then it can spread everywhere.

“And there’s always idiots that won’t follow the rules.”