Editorial: Dr. Cleary’s legacy secure

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New Brunswick has prematurely lost its former chief medical health officer Dr. Eilish Cleary to cancer, but she leaves a sterling legacy in Canada, the province and the global public health community. Among many accomplishments, she is rightly celebrated for taking a major lead in fighting deadly Ebola outbreaks in Nigeria and Sierra Leone in 2014 and 2015, fearlessly going where many dared not.

Before that, it was impossible to say how many lives Dr. Cleary, a specialist in infectious disease control, saved in northern Manitoba, and then in New Brunswick with her effective response to the 2009 H1N1virus, ensuring 400,000 eligible residents (70 per cent) were vaccinated within the year.

It’s perhaps not surprising Dr. Cleary ran into political controversy. Safety watchdogs are expected to be outspoken. Nor is it surprising that her lawsuit, stemming from her dismissal by the Brian Gallant government under dubious circumstances, was settled out of court with a standard non-disclosure agreement. We may never know the government’s reasoning, but she did obtain a rare, explicit acknowledgement her dismissal was without cause.

She established a private practice, remained in the province, and quietly moved on, only occasionally commenting on important public health approaches while steering clear of judging her successors.

Those who knew Dr. Cleary best – politicians, co-workers, and friends – consistently praise her enormous courage, her commitment to moral action, her dedication to improving public health and education, and her desire to improve our environment and thus lives.

She led by being the first in line to take her own advice. She’ll be well remembered.