‘It’s hard if you can never escape it’: An epidemiologist’s three years of fame

It was nearing Christmas in 2022 when Professor Catherine Bennett received a message on her phone.

The young woman had emailed before, accusing the prominent epidemiologist of downplaying the value of COVID mitigation measures.

Professor Catherine Bennett welcomed Australia into her home during an extraordinary number of Zoom interviews.Credit: Justin McManus

“I thought, given the time of year, I’d ring and wish you a very merry long COVID,” the woman spat down the line. “You really do deserve it.”

Bennett, one of Australia’s most recognisable and prolific COVID commentators, was by now accustomed to receiving a mountain of correspondence from fans and detractors.

The emails and messages were mostly kind and complimentary. For every hundred she received, she estimated there would only be one person, like the young woman who called before Christmas, who would say something awful and cruel.

But what this caller didn’t know when she was wishing ill-health on Bennett, was that the scientist had already been living with the lingering symptoms of an infectious disease.

Bennett caught a nasty respiratory infection on an international flight in late 2019. This quickly spiralled into pneumonia and then a post-viral syndrome, which stuck around as Melbourne bounced in and out of lockdowns and Bennett spent most of her waking hours at her desk.

The chair of epidemiology at Deakin University, who had been an avid walker, was constantly short of breath and fatigued.

“The thing that saddens me most is that someone thinks it’s OK to ring up a scientist and say that on the basis of one media clip, not knowing the facts, or the research we are doing,” Bennett said.

It will surprise few that Bennett has had a busy few years. What the public may not fully appreciate was, in her words, how “totally insane” her work schedule was and how all consuming it became.

As the early pandemic conspiracy theories began doing the rounds (remember the claims drinking hot drinks cures COVID?), Bennett made herself available to a spectrum of media outlets: from the BBC to Australia’s conservative news channel, Sky News.

It wasn’t unusual for her day to start well before dawn, when she would begin prepping at 5am for breakfast television appearances. Often the networks would send a camera to her house, so she could stand on her front lawn in Melbourne’s north, both in freezing conditions or while being bitten by mosquitoes.

During lockdowns, Bennett said, she worked every day, 100 hours a week, and did up to 25 media interviews daily. She was also in high demand for writing opinion pieces, which she learnt to write in 45 minutes.

Typically, her days finished around 1am, when she posted on professional networking site LinkedIn, following an evening of international media, participating in vaccine forums and meeting with overseas research colleagues.

Professor Mary-Louise McLaws says she wanted to reassure Australians in her hundreds of media interviews.Credit: Dominic Lorrimer

As COVID-19 became Bennett’s life, it also invaded her home.

Those who watched the epidemiologist during her hundreds of television interviews might remember she often sat in front of a cabinet decorated with an old radio from her childhood and a glass cabinet holding her mother’s childhood tea cup and other sentimental pieces. This was her dining room in the middle of her house, where she had set up office.

There was little time for her partner, who made his presence known by quietly placing a book in the backdrop of Bennett’s television appearances. First, it was The Plague by Albert Camus.

“After that it became a thing where he would find a book each Sunday to put up that was amusing to him, but the novelty wears off,” she said.

Working around the clock was also hampering Bennett’s recovery from illness, and some television viewers felt the need to send her messages commenting on her appearance.

“You can’t go to the hairdressers because of the lockdown. You have wild hair anyway. You’re now putting on weight because you’re not able to exercise in the way you would normally,” she recalled.

“Then people are writing to you, the one in a hundred, and saying, ‘Oh, well clearly you like to eat lollies or sweet cakes’ and I’m thinking, ‘No, I’m actually working 16-hour days and I’m not well’.”

Almost immediately after Bennett began doing media appearances in early 2020, she was recognised when out and about in her neighbourhood.

For a little while, people didn’t say anything, though she clocked the recognition in their faces. One day, while at the post office, the manager loudly declared, “You’re looking good on television.” All the other customers looked up and stared at her.

There are perhaps just a handful of people who can relate to this unique type of celebrity status.

University of NSW epidemiologist Professor Mary-Louise McLaws, who was diagnosed with brain cancer in 2022, said she had wanted to reassure Australians with her regular COVID commentary. “I was at home, always wearing the same thing and always sounding the same way,” she said.

Professor Sharon Lewin says she tried to avoid getting tangled in the politics of the pandemic.Credit: Simon Schluter

When she fell ill last year, she was overwhelmed by well-wishes from everyday Australians and celebrities.

The head of the Doherty Institute, Professor Sharon Lewin, said she was careful not to comment directly on the merits of public policy, but to stick to interpreting the science in her media appearances. The leading HIV researcher was often stopped on the street by people who said they appreciated her sensible counsel.

Her “core demographic” of admirers are people over 40 who watch television, though she said she was also recognised several times by the sound of her voice.

“I was in a shoe shop once in Kyneton and asked for a pair of shoes and [the attendant] said, ‘I know that voice’.”

In the three years since January 2020, Bennett was quoted 1380 times in print newspaper stories. McLaws was mentioned on 743 occasions, Lewin 343 times, infectious diseases physician Professor Peter Collignon 1357 times and University of Melbourne epidemiologist Professor Tony Blakely 717 times.

In comparison, Victorian Chief Health Officer Professor Brett Sutton was mentioned 6873 times.

Bennett’s work schedule has eased in 2023, as she made a deliberate decision at the end of last year to take a break and reduce her commitments. She would now average about five to 10 interviews a week and is now feeling healthier and can walk further.

One thing that hasn’t changed though is her unlikely celebrity; not “15 minutes of fame” as some people quip, but now three years and counting. It is still impossible for her to go anywhere in Australia without being recognised.

“Thank you,” people tell her. “You were the one we liked to listen to. You reassured us. You gave us the information we needed.”

The scientist has a distinctive look. Her dark curly hair is topped with a streak of grey, created by a natural discolouration, and she has what you’d call a radio voice. Rich and resonant.

Bennett said she recently travelled to Echuca in the very north of Victoria, past what used to be the ring of steel that separated Melbourne from the rest of the state. She enjoyed a blissful few days walking in the bush and not being recognised.

Catherine Bennett has found she is easily recognised by the public.Credit: Justin McManus

On the way back, she and her partner stopped in Nagambie. As they walked along the lake the town is famous for, looking for somewhere to stop for lunch, another couple passed by.

“Good morning, professor,” the woman said.

Bennett said it was “lovely to know that people value what you do, but it’s hard if you can never escape it”.

“I tie my hair up, I wear it out, you try different things, but you don’t realise how distinctive you are until you try to go incognito.”

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