Sir Jonathan Stafford Nguyen Van-Tam (born 2 February 1964) is a British physician specialising in

influenza Influenza, commonly known as the flu, is an infectious disease caused by influenza viruses. Symptoms range from mild to severe and often include fever, runny nose, sore throat, muscle pain, headache, coughing, and fatigue. These sympto ...

, including its

epidemiology Epidemiology is the study and analysis of the distribution (who, when, and where), patterns and Risk factor (epidemiology), determinants of health and disease conditions in a defined population, and application of this knowledge to prevent dise ...

, transmission,

vaccinology A vaccine is a biological preparation that provides active acquired immunity to a particular infectious or malignant disease. The safety and effectiveness of vaccines has been widely studied and verified. A vaccine typically contains an ag ...

antiviral drug Antiviral drugs are a class of medication used for treating viral infections. Most antivirals target specific viruses, while a broad-spectrum antiviral is effective against a wide range of viruses. Antiviral drugs are a class of antimicrobials ...

s and

pandemic A pandemic ( ) is an epidemic of an infectious disease that has a sudden increase in cases and spreads across a large region, for instance multiple continents or worldwide, affecting a substantial number of individuals. Widespread endemic (epi ...

preparedness. After hospital work, Van-Tam was involved variously as a university lecturer and within the pharmaceutical industry. Van-Tam became a Deputy Chief Medical Officer for England on 2 October 2017. He played a very significant part in the UK's response to the Covid-19 pandemic which started in 2020 as one of two deputies. In May 2023 he joined Covid-19 vaccine maker Moderna as a consultant.

Early life

Van-Tam was born and grew up in

Boston Boston is the capital and most populous city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Massachusetts in the United States. The city serves as the cultural and Financial centre, financial center of New England, a region of the Northeas ...

Lincolnshire Lincolnshire (), abbreviated ''Lincs'', is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the East Midlands and Yorkshire and the Humber regions of England. It is bordered by the East Riding of Yorkshire across the Humber estuary to th ...

. He is partially of Vietnamese descent; his grandfather was Nguyễn Văn Tâm, the Prime Minister of the State of Vietnam, and his uncle, Nguyễn Văn Hinh, was

Chief Of Staff The title chief of staff (or head of staff) identifies the leader of a complex organization such as the armed forces, institution, or body of persons and it also may identify a principal staff officer (PSO), who is the coordinator of the supportin ...

of the Vietnamese National Army and the first Vietnamese officer in the

French Armed Forces The French Armed Forces (, ) are the military forces of France. They consist of four military branches – the Army, the Navy, the Air and Space Force, and the National Gendarmerie. The National Guard serves as the French Armed Forces' milita ...

to be promoted to the rank of general. He attended

Boston Grammar School The Boston Grammar School is an 11–18 boys selective grammar school and sixth form college located in Boston, Lincolnshire, England. By October 2021, a total of 812 pupils attending the school, 201 of which were in the sixth form provision ...

where his father, Paul Nguyen Van-Tam, was a teacher of Mathematics. He graduated in medicine from the

University of Nottingham The University of Nottingham is a public research university in Nottingham, England. It was founded as University College Nottingham in 1881, and was granted a royal charter in 1948. Nottingham's main campus (University Park Campus, Nottingh ...

in 1987. He was awarded bachelor's degrees in Medical Sciences in 1985 and a

Bachelor of Medicine, Bachelor of Surgery A Bachelor of Medicine, Bachelor of Surgery (; MBBS, also abbreviated as BM BS, MB ChB, MB BCh, or MB BChir) is a medical degree granted by medical schools or universities in countries that adhere to the United Kingdom's higher education trad ...

(BM BS) in 1987. He was awarded a Doctorate of Medicine (DM) in 2001, supported by a thesis on epidemiology.

Career

After five years of hospital-based clinical medicine, Van-Tam pursued academic training in public health and epidemiology and developed an interest in influenza and respiratory viruses, mentored for many years by Professor Karl Nicholson. He became a senior lecturer at the University of Nottingham (and consultant regional epidemiologist,

Public Health Laboratory Public health laboratories (PHLs) or National Public Health Laboratories (NPHL) are governmental reference laboratories that protect the public against diseases and other health hazards. The 2005 International Health Regulations came into force in ...

Service) in 1997, before joining the pharmaceutical industry as an associate director at

SmithKline Beecham GSK plc (an acronym from its former name GlaxoSmithKline plc) is a British multinational pharmaceutical and biotechnology company with headquarters in London. It was established in 2000 by a merger of Glaxo Wellcome and SmithKline Beecham, w ...

in 2000. In April 2001 he moved to

Roche F. Hoffmann-La Roche AG, commonly known as Roche (), is a Switzerland, Swiss multinational corporation, multinational holding healthcare company that operates worldwide under two divisions: Pharmaceuticals and Diagnostics. Its holding company, ...

as head of medical affairs, before joining Aventis Pasteur MSD in February 2002 as UK medical director. Van-Tam returned to the public sector in 2004 at the Health Protection Agency Centre for Infections, where he was head of the pandemic influenza office until October 2007. He then returned to Nottingham as professor of health protection. He has published over 100 scientific papers and written four textbooks. He chaired the

European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control The European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) is an agency of the European Union (EU) whose mission is to strengthen Europe's defences against infectious diseases. It covers a wide spectrum of activities, such as: surveillance, e ...

(ECDC) Expert Advisory Group on

H5N1 Influenza A virus subtype H5N1 (A/H5N1) is a subtype of the influenza A virus, which causes the disease avian influenza (often referred to as "bird flu"). It is enzootic (maintained in the population) in many bird populations, and also panzoo ...

human vaccines, sits on the UK national Scientific Pandemic Influenza Committee (SPI), and was a member of the UK Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (SAGE) during the 2009-10 pandemic. He is co-editor of the textbook ''Introduction to Pandemic Influenza'' and was editor-in-chief of the journal ''Influenza and Other Respiratory Viruses'' from 2014 to 2017. His unit is an officially designated WHO Collaborating Centre for pandemic influenza and research and a UK Faculty of Public Health "National Treasure" research training location. Since 2014, he has been chair of the UK government's

New and Emerging Respiratory Virus Threats Advisory Group 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 an ...

(NERVTAG). On 2 October 2017, he took up the role of deputy chief medical officer for England. In this capacity, he gained nationwide visibility during the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic. In May 2020, he was appointed to the expert advisory group for the UK Government's Vaccine Taskforce, chaired by

Patrick Vallance Patrick John Thompson Vallance, Baron Vallance of Balham (born 17 March 1960), is a British physician, scientist, life peer, and clinical pharmacologist who has served as Minister of State for Science in the Department for Science, Innovatio ...

. It was announced in January 2022 that Van-Tam would step down from the role of deputy chief medical officer for England at the end of March 2022. His new academic post as Faculty Pro-Vice-Chancellor for Medicine & Health Sciences at the

was due to start on 1 May 2022. On 2 May 2023, Van-Tam began work as a senior medical consultant to the Covid-19 vaccine maker

Moderna Moderna, Inc. ( ) is an American pharmaceutical and biotechnology company based in Cambridge, Massachusetts, that focuses on RNA therapeutics, primarily mRNA vaccines. These vaccines use a copy of a molecule called messenger RNA (mRNA) to carry inst ...

Awards and honours

Van-Tam was appointed

Member of the Order of the British Empire The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding valuable service in a wide range of useful activities. It comprises five classes of awards across both civil and military divisions, the most senior two o ...

(MBE) in the 1998 New Year Honours as an acting major in the Lincolnshire

Army Cadet Force The Army Cadet Force (ACF), generally shortened to Army Cadets, is a national Youth organisations in the United Kingdom, youth organisation sponsored by the United Kingdom's Ministry of Defence (United Kingdom), Ministry of Defence and the Bri ...

. It was awarded in recognition of his work in designing a medical kit to meet the special requirements of large groups of teenagers on camping expeditions. This sprang from his work with the Lincolnshire Army Cadets since 1988. His ideas were accepted by the

Ministry of Defence A ministry of defence or defense (see American and British English spelling differences#-ce.2C -se, spelling differences), also known as a department of defence or defense, is the part of a government responsible for matters of defence and Mi ...

. His other qualifications include Fellowships of the Faculty of Public Health ( FFPH), the Royal College of Pathologists ( FRCPath) and the Faculty of Pharmaceutical Medicine Hon ( FFPM). He is also a Fellow of the Royal Society of Public Health ( FRSPH), of the Royal Society of Biology ( FRSB) and the Academy of Medical Sciences ( FMedSci). He delivered the

Royal Institution Christmas Lectures The Royal Institution Christmas Lectures are a series of lectures on a single topic each, which have been held at the Royal Institution in London each year since 1825. The lectures present scientific subjects to a general audience, including yo ...

in 2021. In 2021, the

Royal College of Physicians The Royal College of Physicians of London, commonly referred to simply as the Royal College of Physicians (RCP), is a British professional membership body dedicated to improving the practice of medicine, chiefly through the accreditation of ph ...

invited Van-Tam to hold the Harveian Oration, the most prestigious lecture of the learned society. On 1 December 2021 he was announced as one of the Boston Heroes along with 9 other residents of Boston out of 240 put forward by the people of his home town. In March 2022 he was awarded the Freedom of the Borough of

in appreciation for his work on the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

. Van-Tam was knighted in the 2022 New Year Honours for services to public health. He was unable to attend his scheduled investiture ceremony at

Windsor Castle Windsor Castle is a List of British royal residences, royal residence at Windsor, Berkshire, Windsor in the English county of Berkshire, about west of central London. It is strongly associated with the Kingdom of England, English and succee ...

on 17 May 2022 due to self-isolating, having contracted

COVID-19 Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a contagious disease caused by the coronavirus SARS-CoV-2. In January 2020, the disease spread worldwide, resulting in the COVID-19 pandemic. The symptoms of COVID‑19 can vary but often include fever ...

. He was invested by the

Duke of Cambridge Duke of Cambridge is a hereditary title of nobility in the British royal family, one of several royal dukedoms in the United Kingdom. The title is named after the city of Cambridge in England. It is heritable by agnatic, male descendants by pr ...

Buckingham Palace Buckingham Palace () is a royal official residence, residence in London, and the administrative headquarters of the monarch of the United Kingdom. Located in the City of Westminster, the palace is often at the centre of state occasions and r ...

on 7 July 2022. In 2023, he was awarded the David Attenborough Award by

The Royal Society The Royal Society, formally The Royal Society of London for Improving Natural Knowledge, is a learned society and the United Kingdom's national academy of sciences. The society fulfils a number of roles: promoting science and its benefits, r ...

for his 'outstanding public engagement with science' through communicating COVID-19.

Army Cadet Force (ACF)

In October 2022, Van-Tam was promoted to Honorary Colonel for Medical Support, in the

(ACF). Van-Tam has many years of experience working with the ACF. He was appointed Honorary Colonel Lincolnshire Army Cadet Force on 1 December 2024.

Personal life

Van-Tam is a supporter and season ticket holder at

Boston United F.C. Boston United Football Club is a semi-professional association football club based in Boston, Lincolnshire, England. The club participates in the National League (division), National League, the fifth level of the English football league system. ...

He has three children.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Van-Tam, Jonathan 1964 births Alumni of the University of Nottingham People from Boston, Lincolnshire People educated at Boston Grammar School Living people Members of the Order of the British Empire Army Cadet Force officers British epidemiologists 20th-century English medical doctors 21st-century English medical doctors Civil servants in the Ministry of Health (United Kingdom) English people of Vietnamese descent Knights Bachelor