How faith helps me as a scientist: epidemiologist Raina MacIntyre

Each week, Benjamin Law asks public figures to discuss the subjects we’re told to keep private by getting them to roll a die. The numbers they land on are the topics they’re given. This week, he talks to Raina MacIntyre. The epidemiologist, 58, has been a familiar face to Australians during the COVID-19 outbreak. As a professor specialising in pandemics and respiratory viruses, she heads the biosecurity program at Sydney’s Kirby Institute.

“The federal government needs to help the university sector or we’re going to become really backward.”Credit: Jennifer Soo

MONEY

You were born in Sri Lanka in 1964. You migrated here with your Tamil family in 1973 when you were nine. What was money like growing up? When we moved to Australia, my parents had ordinary working lives. They weren’t rich, but I never felt the want of anything and we weren’t brought up to feel entitled. We had food, I had toys, I had books, I went to a good school in Sydney. I had a very caring, loving family – and that’s something a lot of people don’t have. It was shocking to realise that.

You considered being a policewoman and an artist. How did you land on medicine with a focus on public health? I had an interest in justice. I was very good at art: I did it as a subject for the Higher School Certificate and had my work exhibited. All my friends in the school art class were going to Alexander Mackie [teachers’ college], and I really wanted to go, too. But I was worried about not being able to earn enough money to look after myself. I was also interested in people, in humanity, so medicine seemed like a good alternative.

What has work been like during the pandemic? Very busy. Having the opportunity to work from home has actually made me much more productive. I live about an hour away from work, so I’ve gained two hours a day. It’s not a chore – I enjoy it – but I do have a lot on my plate. We’ve built this platform called Epiwatch [an open-source observatory for early-outbreak warning and rapid risk analysis], which we started developing in 2016. We got a government grant that really allowed us to take it to the next level, as well as a very generous philanthropic donation.

How does funding within your realm work? Oh, Australia is dreadful in terms of supporting research. Generally, the grants do not fund the research fully, so the university – or you – has to pick up the rest. The universities now take a bigger cut. The federal government needs to help the university sector or we’re going to become really backward.

Say I give you $100 and you have to spend it in the next hour on yourself. What are you going to buy? An eyeliner pencil. And a lipstick.

RELIGION

Is it correct that you were raised in the Uniting Church and you’re now Catholic? I don’t brand myself as anything, but I do go to a Catholic church – well, I did until 2020. I tried to go to Mass this Easter. I thought, “Oh, the Omicron wave’s over, it’ll be okay,” but it was so jam-packed I just thought, “Nup, not going to risk it” and I turned around and went home.

Has it been hard losing that sense of physical, church-based community during COVID? Not at all. To me, the church is a man-made institution. It doesn’t necessarily reflect the actual religion. We see child sex abuse by clergymen; we see all kinds of financial scandals. For me, religion is private and spiritual.

Tell me about the rhythm of faith in your life. I pray in the morning. I pray in the evening. It’s the first thing I do in the morning and the last thing I do at night.

May I ask what you pray for? For my family and the people I love.

Do science and religion always have to be at loggerheads? No, they don’t. I believe that our existence is more than just our physical body and I think a lot of people lose that. They spend their whole lives focused on material things that are not connected with that spiritual side of our being. I believe also in good and evil, and that what happens in the world is part of a greater battle between good and evil on a spiritual level.

Are there any ways that having faith actually makes you a better scientist? It certainly helps me to be resilient. I can deal with hardship and suffering because I have faith in a grander plan.

Has COVID, and how it has panned out, shaken or made you question your faith in anything at all? Only in government … and in some colleagues.

POLITICS

How would you rate Australia’s response to COVID-19? Five out of 10. Some things were good: closing the border bought us time until the vaccines were available. Some things could have been done better, such as the vaccine procurement. There was also either outright deception or just incompetence in the reopening plan, which was trumpeted far and wide as: “See? The modelling says it’s gonna be fine.” [But] the modelling included things like widespread testing, contact tracing, quarantine being retained and some level of mask use. Those things just fell over.

Was the Australian political system fit for purpose for this moment? A pandemic is a natural disaster, a crisis. What you need is good leadership. When you’ve got bad leadership, you get polarisation; divisions are stoked. That’s exactly what happened. I even had a politician publicly attack me in a press conference. He didn’t name me, but it was clear he was talking about me. It’s gutter politics.

What has it been like for you to have your role so scrutinised, politicised and attract abuse? I’m extremely resilient. This isn’t the first time I’ve been attacked and I’m not somebody who bootlicks. My remit is public health. What you see is what you get, and I’m very well qualified to talk about pandemics and their management.

MacIntyre will appear at the Sydney Opera House on September 11 as part of Antidote 2022.

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