Northern Ireland

Retiring virologist Dr Conall McCaughey warns further lockdowns could be psychologically damaging but urges caution in months ahead

“Humble, unassuming and disarmingly brilliant” is how one medic describes Dr Conall McCaughey. The Belfast virologist, who led the team which played a key role in developing Covid testing in the UK, is retiring after 30 years. Intent on beginning a new life beekeeping, he looks back on an extraordinary career. Health correspondent Seanín Graham meets him in his Co Down garden

 Dr Conall McCaughey relaxing in his garden. Picture by Hugh Russell
 Dr Conall McCaughey relaxing in his garden. Picture by Hugh Russell  Dr Conall McCaughey relaxing in his garden. Picture by Hugh Russell

BEES, an "ancient" pony called Ranger and New York punk band The Ramones are among Dr Conall McCaughey's escapes from Covid.

Embarking on the ninth week of his official retirement - he is doing a few hours of locum weekly shifts - the quietly-spoken consultant virologist is weather beaten and relaxed as he greets me in the idyll that is his wildlife garden in Annacloy outside Downpatrick.

The last time we met was in a cramped office at the Regional Virology Laboratory (RVL) on the Royal Victoria Hospital site in early March last year, just days after a woman travelling back from Italy became the first person to test positive for coronavirus in Northern Ireland.

Dressed in his lab coat, Dr McCaughey (60) was focussed that day on 'surge planning' for the months ahead and testing up up to 90 samples a day. Within 10 months at the height of the post-Christmas surge, he and his team were assessing 2,300 tests in a single day.

 Dr McCaughey plans to spend more time tending to his four beehives in retirement. Picture by Hugh Russell
 Dr McCaughey plans to spend more time tending to his four beehives in retirement. Picture by Hugh Russell  Dr McCaughey plans to spend more time tending to his four beehives in retirement. Picture by Hugh Russell

Sitting alongside five hens, Ranger (36), four beehives and a wildlife pond he has dug to attract damsel flies, the virologist - who failed his 11-plus and "didn't see the point of school" until he discovered science - reflects on a crisis which he believes made he and his colleagues work much better on a regional basis.

"I've always been quite a big critic of how badly in microbiology we worked across the different health trusts. I'm known for criticising decision making. With Covid, because it was such a priority, the resources and timeliness of change were able to take place," he said.

"Covid made it easier to do things - once we got a taste for that, things got better and better. We all worked together. Sometimes a crisis can rescue dysfunctionality.

"There was so much troubleshooting at the beginning. Every day, we were looking at problems and working out ways to do thing. But I think as a region we worked extremely well."

In February 2020, the Northern Ireland RVL was chosen as one of the UK's main 12 testing facilities for Covid-19. 

Realising the scale of the task ahead, the Belfast team of virologists and bio-medical scientists led by Dr McCaughey knew they had to rapidly increase their staffing and equipment.

"On February 7, our total testing capacity was eight. But we felt so proud that day as we were the third UK laboratory to start. There were lots of hurdles and we had to change the components of the test so many times," Dr McCaughey explained.

"We were running out of everything - even the simple plastic ware. There was a worldwide shortage of Lysis buffers' (which 'lyse' and burst the cells). Queen's University then started to produce them.

"We were lucky as there was so much redeployment. The regional fertility unit got switched off so we got a lot of good people with very good technical skills. 

"Lots of people were redeployed from genetics who did have the skill set required. So virology really did go from being a 9am to 5pm set-up to 8am to midnight with one person on overnight. 

"We worked in shifts and tried to keep in separate bubbles as there were a lot of labs in the world that ended up with outbreaks."

 Dr Conall McCaughey at work. Picture by Hugh Russell
 Dr Conall McCaughey at work. Picture by Hugh Russell  Dr Conall McCaughey at work. Picture by Hugh Russell

The Belfast laboratory team would become one of the first in the UK to develop a diagnostic test for Covid, with the north's Chief Medical Officer Sir Michael McBride singling out the leadership of Dr McCaughey - his former university classmate - in its success.

Studying medicine together at Queen's and later working with him in the early days of HIV research, the CMO said he was "humble, unassuming and disarmingly brilliant". 

"There are few who have contributed as much over so many years as Conall. We started medical school together although he was much brighter and even then destined for a career in science and academia," Sir Michael McBride said.

“We didn’t finish together as he took a year out to do a secondary degree, as if one wasn’t enough... He led the way with others in the development of so many other new assays and tests which genuinely transformed the treatment and care of people with HIV and many other viral infections.

“Whether it be SARS, Zika, Ebola, Swine flu or COVID-19, Conall and his team have been at the forefront of our planning and preparation - providing expert advice, developing diagnostic tests and representing NI nationally and internationally."

He added: "A true leader, an innovator, a researcher, a teacher, a mentor, a source of wise counsel and advice over many years – and I’m so proud to say a former classmate and a friend."

Alongside testing, the Belfast team worked with their colleagues across the north on sequencing techniques as new coronavirus variants emerged.

While sequencing work has been ongoing at the regional lab for over 20 years, Dr McCaughey said the scale of what the team has achieved overall is "extraordinary".

The Carryduff man and former pupil of De La Salle high school in Downpatrick - he transferred to 'the grammar' in third year - also reflected on how the science of virology has transformed over three decades.

"When I got my virology training post in the early 1990s after studying medicine, it was full of techniques. It was full of virus cultures and growing cells. All of these tests were quite hands-on and intuitive. 

"It's gone from that, lots of fancy techniques, to something that's a bit like bee keeping, where everything has gone ‘black box’. We have commercial assays (tests) that work within a box and come out with a number.

"A lot of virologists my age can feel quite nostalgic and feel like we’re ‘de-skilling’ the people coming after us. That’s not really true. Those very labour intensive techniques were messy.

"In our whole lab we used to test about 2,500 samples a year in the early 1990s. Now, even before Covid we were testing 200,000 samples a year. Within the walls of our labs we have tested around half a million Covid tests in the last year."

The father-of-three said he is happy to retire as this point as his team are in a "really healthy state" but admitted his final day as lead consultant was an emotional one:

"My retirement do was a virtual, lunchtime meeting. The funny thing was it was really intimate. My main thing was not to cry as everyone said such nice things. It was so much more personal than an event with a big crowd. It was recorded and I could watch it back.

"I’m a big Ramones fan and I went into work in my shirt as usual and realised everyone in my duty virology team was wearing Ramones t-shirts. They handed me one to put on. When I went to the three labs upstairs everyone was opening their lab coats to show me they were wearing Ramones t-shirts."

 Dr Conall McCaughey and his colleagues on his final day at work, wearing their Ramones t-shirts
 Dr Conall McCaughey and his colleagues on his final day at work, wearing their Ramones t-shirts  Dr Conall McCaughey and his colleagues on his final day at work, wearing their Ramones t-shirts

For the consultant, the rollout of vaccines represents the "endgame" for Covid and he believes it will become a seasonal virus, similar to other winter viruses. He is against another all-out lockdown and thinks it will be psychologically damaging - but urged caution to "get ahead" of the more transmissable Delta variant.

"It is absolutely inevitable that Delta variant is going to become the dominant one, we’ve seen that happen across the water. The slower we can make that happen the better," he said.

"It’s also very clear two vaccines offer better protection, both against symptomatic disease and people being able to transmit it.

"It’s fortunate we’ve been a bit behind England because our vaccine uptake is very good. Delta is much more transmissible than the Alpha (Kent) variant and that brings problems with it. Those problems are going to be much worse for countries that have low vaccination. So much of the world has very little vaccination. But the vaccine is the endgame - it clearly is."

When asked if he could foresee another lockdown, he said: "No, I don’t think so. If it was the advice that came from Sage and local modelling group and politicians, I would support it - but I don’t think so.

"I think the idea of going backwards would be so difficult now. We’ve glimpsed the light at the end of the tunnel so we have to make sure we approach that in a sensible way. 

"I think we should be confident in the vaccines. The vaccines have worked better than most thought they would have. The public buy-in has been terrific."

Dr McCaughey said that with younger people who are not vaccinated now getting the virus, the link between cases and hospitalisations was broken.

 Dr Conall McCaughey and Ranger, the 36-year-old pony. Picture by Hugh Russell
 Dr Conall McCaughey and Ranger, the 36-year-old pony. Picture by Hugh Russell  Dr Conall McCaughey and Ranger, the 36-year-old pony. Picture by Hugh Russell

But he warned that a large outreak could still impact on a pressurised hospital system.

"There was a standard link you could do as ratios between the number of cases and hospitalisations, and between ICU admissions and deaths. All that has been broken down now," he said.

"You look at the experience from the north west of England. People predominantly hospitalised had no vaccinations and then the next group had one.

"So I think we have to be optimistic in the medium term. We still have to be careful and cautious. This new variant - there will be many more - is more transmissible which is why modelling changes.

"We can’t go gung ho, the strategy has to be a 'watch and see'. Psychologically, I think it would be very difficult to feel as if we were going backwards. It’s better to delay things slightly than to do something that’s over-optimistic and then go back.

"Planning for the autumn is going to be a very important part of it."

With experts yesterday urging detailed planning ahead of a booster jab this autumn, Dr McCaughey said it will "get to the point where essentially Covid-19 is just another seasonal coronavirus".

"We’ve got four seasonal coronaviruses that circulate every winter. We don’t notice them much because everyone’s had them as a child and therefore doesn’t get a severe infection. That is the way it will happen."

For now, Dr McCaughey and his wife Paula are planning a "tiny" wedding for the eldest of their three grown-up daughters, Melissa, - it's been postponed twice due to the pandemic - in August.

A bigger party is planned for next year - the consultant has 10 siblings - complete a with string quartet (he and Melissa are working on a Ramones playlist for them).

"Of my five brothers, I’m the introvert. That playlist would get the six of us up," he said.

After completing his locum shifts next April, Dr McCaughey said he will keep a "watchful interest" on virology but will focus on his bee keeping.

"At the moment I’ve got four hives, I’d like to get that to a slightly bigger scale. It’ll take me a couple of years to get up to that but I think I have the skill set to do it and turn it into a small business," he added.

"My mother always said that my hobby from when I was two - and still is my hobby - is looking under stones. So I've got the wildlife pond, the bee keeping and fishing, which I love. Ranger, our ancient pony, is also still with us.

"I bought fishing rods I couldn't buy in my twenties and I’ve also bought myself a two-wheel walking tractor as a retirement present. I don't need very much.

"I'd just like some looking under stones time."

 Studying medicine together at Queen's and later working with him in the early days of HIV research, Chief Medical Officer Dr Michael McBride said Dr McCaughey was "humble, unassuming and disarmingly brilliant". Picture by Hugh Russell
 Studying medicine together at Queen's and later working with him in the early days of HIV research, Chief Medical Officer Dr Michael McBride said Dr McCaughey was "humble, unassuming and disarmingly brilliant". Picture by Hugh Russell  Studying medicine together at Queen's and later working with him in the early days of HIV research, Chief Medical Officer Dr Michael McBride said Dr McCaughey was "humble, unassuming and disarmingly brilliant". Picture by Hugh Russell
 "My mother always said that my hobby from when I was two - and still is my hobby - is looking under stones. So I've got the wildlife pond, the bee keeping and fishing, which I love. Ranger, our ancient pony, is also still with us," Dr McCaughey says. Picture by Hugh Russell
 "My mother always said that my hobby from when I was two - and still is my hobby - is looking under stones. So I've got the wildlife pond, the bee keeping and fishing, which I love. Ranger, our ancient pony, is also still with us," Dr McCa  "My mother always said that my hobby from when I was two - and still is my hobby - is looking under stones. So I've got the wildlife pond, the bee keeping and fishing, which I love. Ranger, our ancient pony, is also still with us," Dr McCaughey says. Picture by Hugh Russell