Tony Holohan helped to win public backing needed in Ireland’s Covid-19 response

Even by the extraordinary standards of the Covid-19 pandemic, Dr Tony Holohan has had a tumultuous two years.

As the public face of the fight against the virus, the Department of Health’s chief medical officer (CMO) was lauded widely and at times elevated to near-sainthood at the height of the crisis.

Unflappable “Uncle Tony” filled the void left by a post-election political stalemate in early 2020, amid public concern as Covid-19 spread across the country.

While the politicians dithered, Holohan pushed for the most swingeing lockdown Ireland had ever seen, in the name of restricting its spread.

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The daily National Public Health Emergency Team (Nphet) media briefings became required, but grim, viewing as cases multiplied and deaths soared.

As the measured voice of science, he captured the broad swathe of public support needed to make the restrictions work. Cases shrank away to almost nothing and Holohan was made a freeman of Dublin.

An ever-present in the early months of the crisis, Holohan had to check into hospital for a night after feeling “a bit funny” during one of the briefings.

Then, in July 2020, he went on leave to care for his wife Emer, who was dying of cancer.

Kept coming back

As we know now, Covid-19 kept changing and kept coming back. Holohan returned in the autumn after his wife’s death and further waves followed. The crisis lengthened from months into years, there were rows with newly assertive Ministers and the public grew tired of the pandemic and the misery it was inflicting.

Some of the blame was directed at Nphet and Holohan, its chairman. There were disputes over issues such antigen tests, ventilation and mask wearing policy. The membership of Nphet, dominated by public servants, was seen as too narrow.

The rollout of newly developed vaccines stuttered at first, but eventually came good. Ireland’s high take-up of vaccines is largely the result of the trust placed in Holohan and his officials.

It helped that the Dublin-born, Limerick-raised doctor was 12 years in the role of chief medical officer by the time the pandemic kicked off.

On his first week in the job in 2008, he was thrown into a public health crisis, dealing with the fallout from the pig-meat dioxins scandal. The following year, he had to manage the response to the global swine flu outbreak.

In 2018, he found himself at the centre of controversy around the HSE’s failure to disclose incorrect results of old smear tests in the CervicalCheck screening programme to affected women and their families. There were calls from patient advocates on him and other senior health officials to resign.

The then minister for health Simon Harris stood by Holohan but commissioned an external report on the scandal rather than taking up the CMO on his suggestion of an internal investigation.

While the pandemic continues to this day, Holohan’s approach has relaxed considerably now that most of the population has been vaccinated.

Favourable indications

Once, he was criticised by people for the length of Ireland’s lockdown; now, surprise is expressed at how quickly he recommended the lifting of restrictions and how reluctant he has been to return to them when cases have again spiked.

Ultimately, Holohan should be judged by how Ireland did in the crisis. That should be decided by an independent review or investigation, as is happening in other countries.

The initial indications are favourable as Holohan prepares to leave his role as CMO and take up a job as Professor of Public Health Strategy and Leadership at Trinity College, Dublin, Earlier this month, a study published in The Lancet found Ireland had one of the lowest rates of excess deaths of any country during the pandemic.