In the United Kingdom,a Chief Medical Officer (CMO) is the most senior government advisor on matter relating to health. There are four CMOs in the United Kingdom who are appointed to advise their respective governments:
Marc Van Ranst is a Belgian public health doctor and Professor of Virology at the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven and the Rega Institute for Medical Research. On 1 May 2007,he was appointed as Interministerial comissionar by the Belgian federal government to prepare Belgium for an influenza pandemic.
Sir Jeremy James Farrar is a British medical researcher who serves as Chief Scientist at the World Health Organization since 2023. He was previously the director of The Wellcome Trust from 2013 to 2023 and a professor of tropical medicine at the University of Oxford.
John Brownstein is a Canadian epidemiologist and Professor of Medicine at the Harvard Medical School as well as the Chief Innovation Officer at Boston Children’s Hospital. His research focuses on development of computational methods in epidemiology for applications to public health also known as computational epidemiology or e-epidemiology He is also the founder of several global public health surveillance systems including HealthMap. He is most known for his work on global tracking of disease outbreaks.
Theresa Tam is a Canadian physician and public servant who currently serves as the chief public health officer of Canada,who is the second-in-command of the Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC). Tam initially took the role as acting CPHO following the retirement of her predecessor,Gregory Taylor,on 16 December 2016. She was formally appointed on 26 June 2017.
Sir Christopher John MacRae Whitty is a British epidemiologist,serving as Chief Medical Officer for England and Chief Medical Adviser to the UK Government since 2019.
Dame Jennifer Margaret "Jenny" Harries is a British public health physician who has been the chief executive of the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) and head of NHS Test and Trace since May 2021. She was previously a regional director at Public Health England,and then Deputy Chief Medical Officer for England from June 2019 until her UKHSA appointment in 2021.
Neil Morris Ferguson is a British epidemiologist and professor of mathematical biology,who specialises in the patterns of spread of infectious disease in humans and animals. He is the director of the Jameel Institute,and of the MRC Centre for Global Infectious Disease Analysis,and head of the Department of Infectious Disease Epidemiology in the School of Public Health and Vice-Dean for Academic Development in the Faculty of Medicine,all at Imperial College London.
Dame Sarah Catherine Gilbert FRS is an English vaccinologist who is a Professor of Vaccinology at the University of Oxford and co-founder of Vaccitech. She specialises in the development of vaccines against influenza and emerging viral pathogens. She led the development and testing of the universal flu vaccine,which underwent clinical trials in 2011.
Richard Hatchett is an American oncologist and epidemiologist who has been serving as chief executive officer of the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI) in Oslo and London since 2017. He was awarded the Secretary of Health and Human Services's Award for Distinguished Service.
The Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (SAGE) is a British Government body that advises central government in emergencies. It is usually chaired by the United Kingdom's Chief Scientific Adviser. Specialists from academia and industry,along with experts from within government,make up the participation,which will vary depending on the emergency. SAGE gained public prominence for its role in the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic in the United Kingdom.
The New and Emerging Respiratory Virus Threats Advisory Group (NERVTAG) is an advisory body that advises the United Kingdom Government's Chief Medical Advisor / Chief Medical Officer for England,who in turn advises the UK Department of Health and Social Care and relevant ministers regarding threats from viral respiratory tract infections. The body replaced the UK Scientific Pandemic Influenza Advisory Committee (SPI) as part of a move to expand the scope to cover the threat of other respiratory viruses,besides pandemic influenza. The inaugural meeting was held on 19 December 2014 where the terms of reference were agreed. The group has been advising the Department of Health for some years and minutes of meetings are now regularly published,backdated to 2014. As of 2020,the group has been advising specifically on the COVID-19 pandemic.
Bonnie J. Fraser Henry is a Canadian physician and public servant who has been the provincial health officer at the British Columbia Ministry of Health since 2014. Henry is also a clinical associate professor at the University of British Columbia. She is a specialist in public health and preventive medicine,and is a family doctor. In her role as provincial health officer,Henry notably led the response to COVID-19 in British Columbia (BC).
Sir Andrew John Pollard is the Ashall Professor of Infection &Immunity at the University of Oxford and a Fellow of St Cross College,Oxford. He is an Honorary Consultant Paediatrician at John Radcliffe Hospital and the Director of the Oxford Vaccine Group. He is the Chief Investigator on the University of Oxford COVID-19 Vaccine trials and has led research on vaccines for many life-threatening infectious diseases including typhoid fever,Neisseria meningitidis,Haemophilus influenzae type b,streptococcus pneumoniae,pertussis,influenza,rabies,and Ebola.
The Vaccine Taskforce in the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland was set up in April 2020 by the Second Johnson ministry,in collaboration with Chief Scientific Advisor Patrick Vallance and Chief Medical Officer Professor Chris Whitty,in order to facilitate the path towards the introduction of a COVID-19 vaccine in the UK and its global distribution. The taskforce coordinated the research efforts of government with industry,academics and funding agencies in order to expedite vaccine development and deployment.
Dame June Munro Raine,is a British doctor who is currently serving as the Chief Executive Officer of the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) in the United Kingdom. Raine spent much of her career in the Medicines Division of the MHRA.
Shabir Ahmed Madhi,is a South African physician who is professor of vaccinology and director of the South African Medical Research Council Respiratory and Meningeal Pathogens Research Unit at the University of the Witwatersrand,and National Research Foundation/Department of Science and Technology Research Chair in Vaccine Preventable Diseases. In January 2021,he was appointed Dean of the Faculty of Health Sciences at the University of the Witwateratand.
Anthony Harnden is Professor of Primary Care,General Practitioner and Fellow of St Hugh's College at Oxford University. He is also director of graduate studies for the Nuffield Department of Primary Care Health Sciences and sits on the General Medical Council,which is responsible for the regulation of all UK doctors and UK medical schools. He is also editorial advisor for the British Medical Journal. Harnden "has been the General Practitioner member of the Joint Committee of Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) since 2006 and Deputy Chairman since 2015."
The following is a timeline of the COVID-19 pandemic in England during 2022. There are significant differences in the legislation and the reporting between the countries of the UK:England,Scotland,Northern Ireland,and Wales.
The following is a timeline of the COVID-19 pandemic in the United Kingdom in 2023.
