I am honoured to receive the AO today. It has been my privilege, with the help of the media, to assist Australians during the pandemic through infection control. Thank you for your support and for looking after each other. Remember, get a booster shot!

Thank you lovely people for wishing me well. My treatment is underway. We are fortunate with our fabulous medical, nursing, cleaning & support groups. If you are able to support future brain tumour research donate, any amount carriesbeanies4braincancer.com
Reference say 'Hi MaryLouise”

After a severe headache Thursday, I was diagnosed with a brain tumour. I will now be on a month's sick leave from UNSW and WHO. Thank you media for helping me spread knowledge. Now it is time with my family.
Best wishes to you all.

4 of 3: Real leaders can be honest, here is what a real leader could say: case numbers & testing are important, COVID infects within minutes & travels more than 1.5m, long-covid is real & hospital numbers only part of story, gov can supply free RATs & better than PCR 3 days ago.

3 of 3: Without (1) & not providing free RATs to households, only privileged & wealthy will be able to protect themselves & reduce wider risk of spread.

2 of 3: COVID in health workers mostly from community outbreaks. Without implementing (1) above, health workers need daily RATs before entering hospitals to reduce spread to patients.

1 of 3: When gov made changes to testing, I estimate 2 year cost may have reached $3.7bill for 54mill PCR tests (at possible 50% priv & pub path). To reduce $ test hubs could use PCR on those with symptoms & rapid antigen test (RATs) on all others. Cheaper but still effective.

Boosters at 4mths (Jan 4),3mths (end Jan) should now be prioritised for those with 2 doses of AZ (after 4 months v.low protection against Omicron).
International positive cases now match when India ban was imposed. Travellers need booster & rapid antigen test on arrival to Aus

WHO Guideline 22 Dec: policies should be developed, strengthened & implemented to encourage appropriate adherence to a comprehensive package of preventive measures to reduce transmission IN PARTICULAR MASK ADHERENCE BY THE GENERAL PUBLIC.

I calculate just 30-35% of Australians have symptomatic protection from Omicron based on UK study & Australian data. Boosters 3 months after 2nd dose & free rapid antigen tests are essential. Everybody can reduce spread with masks & avoiding indoor crowds. assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/upl…

Omicron is associated with high ability to evade immunity from previous infection doi.org/10.1101/2021.1… & potentially vaccine immunity. Israeli experience with Delta showed immunity waned at 4-6months. With risk from Omicron circulating we should boost around 4mths after dose 2

Omicron still not fully understood - is transmission faster, does it reduce vaccine efficacy, is it as hard to mitigate outbreaks Delta? Until +90% vacc coverage of total pop (not just +12yr) quarantine must be supervised for every traveller from every country. Test day-1, 4, 5.

Kid vaccines prevent illness, spread & prevents rare complications - brain inflammation due to mumps 1 in 200 & 1 in 1000 due to measles; 1 death/year from rotavirus. Approx 20,000 kids 0-9 & 22,000 10-19yr had Delta in Vic & NSW. That's enough reason to COVID vacc 5-11 yr.

First indicator of Vic peaking came yesterday. Same trend today & death rate lower than NSW. Well done Vic. Keep safe, stick to the rules & get vaccinated. Getting vaccinated lowers circulating virus which lowers cases and lowers death rates.

Rapid antigen tests are ideal for screening and allowing us to open up more safely