Richard Hatchett is an American oncologist and epidemiologist who has been serving as

chief executive officer A chief executive officer (CEO), also known as a chief executive or managing director, is the top-ranking corporate officer charged with the management of an organization, usually a company or a nonprofit organization. CEOs find roles in variou ...

of the

Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations The Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI) is a foundation that takes donations from public, private, philanthropic, and civil society organisations, to finance independent research projects to develop vaccines against emerging ...

(CEPI) in Oslo and London since 2017. He was awarded the

Secretary of Health and Human Services The United States secretary of health and human services is the head of the United States Department of Health and Human Services, and serves as the principal advisor to the president of the United States on all health matters. The secretary is ...

's Award for Distinguished Service.

Early life and education

Hatchett grew up in

Alabama Alabama ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern and Deep South, Deep Southern regions of the United States. It borders Tennessee to the north, Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia to the east, Florida and the Gu ...

. He graduated from

Vanderbilt University Vanderbilt University (informally Vandy or VU) is a private university, private research university in Nashville, Tennessee, United States. Founded in 1873, it was named in honor of shipping and railroad magnate Cornelius Vanderbilt, who provide ...

and

Vanderbilt University School of Medicine Vanderbilt University School of Medicine (VUSM) is the graduate medical school of Vanderbilt University, a private research university located in Nashville, Tennessee. The School of Medicine is primarily housed within the Eskind Biomedical Libra ...

. He completed an internship and residency in Internal Medicine at New York Hospital – Cornell Medical Center, and a fellowship in Medical Oncology at the

Duke University Hospital Duke University Hospital is a 1062 -bed acute care facility and an academic tertiary care facility located in Durham, North Carolina, United States. Established in 1930, it is the flagship teaching hospital for the Duke University Health Sys ...

. He was also a research associate at the National Heart & Lung Institute at

Imperial College London Imperial College London, also known as Imperial, is a Public university, public research university in London, England. Its history began with Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, Prince Albert, husband of Queen Victoria, who envisioned a Al ...

and spent three months in northeast

Gabon Gabon ( ; ), officially the Gabonese Republic (), is a country on the Atlantic coast of Central Africa, on the equator, bordered by Equatorial Guinea to the northwest, Cameroon to the north, the Republic of the Congo to the east and south, and ...

investigating three closely related

Ebola Ebola, also known as Ebola virus disease (EVD) and Ebola hemorrhagic fever (EHF), is a viral hemorrhagic fever in humans and other primates, caused by ebolaviruses. Symptoms typically start anywhere between two days and three weeks after in ...

outbreaks.

Career

Early career

In 2001, Hatchett worked as an attending in the

urgent care center An urgent care center (UCC), also known as an urgent treatment centre (UTC) in the United Kingdom, is a type of walk-in clinic focused on the delivery of urgent ambulatory care in a dedicated medical facility outside of a traditional emergency depa ...

Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center (MSK or MSKCC) is a cancer treatment and research institution in Manhattan in New York City. MSKCC is one of 72 National Cancer Institute– designated Comprehensive Cancer Centers. Its main campus is ...

in New York City and was planning to start an oncology fellowship in the summer of 2002. In the immediate aftermath of the

September 11 attacks The September 11 attacks, also known as 9/11, were four coordinated Islamist terrorist suicide attacks by al-Qaeda against the United States in 2001. Nineteen terrorists hijacked four commercial airliners, crashing the first two into ...

, he volunteered at the

World Trade Center site The World Trade Center site, often referred to as " Ground Zero" or "the Pile" immediately after the September 11 attacks, is a 14.6-acre (5.9 ha) area in Lower Manhattan in New York City. The site is bounded by Vesey Street to the north ...

. He subsequently moved to

Washington, D.C. Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly known as Washington or D.C., is the capital city and federal district of the United States. The city is on the Potomac River, across from Virginia, and shares land borders with ...

to help set up the new

Medical Reserve Corps The Medical Reserve Corps (MRC) is a network in the U.S. of community-based units initiated and established by local organizations aimed at meeting the public health needs of their communities. It is sponsored by the Administration for Strategic ...

(MRC) in 2002.

Career in government

From 2005 until 2006, Hatchett served as Director for Biodefense Policy on the

United States Homeland Security Council The Homeland Security Council (HSC) is an entity within the Executive Office of the President of the United States tasked with advising the president on matters relevant to Homeland Security. The current homeland security advisor is Stephen M ...

and was a principal author of the National Strategy for Pandemic Influenza Implementation Plan. He was also on a pandemic planning team, under

President President most commonly refers to: *President (corporate title) * President (education), a leader of a college or university *President (government title) President may also refer to: Arts and entertainment Film and television *'' Præsident ...

George W. Bush George Walker Bush (born July 6, 1946) is an American politician and businessman who was the 43rd president of the United States from 2001 to 2009. A member of the Bush family and the Republican Party (United States), Republican Party, he i ...

. In this capacity, he devised the concept of

social distancing In public health, social distancing, also called physical distancing, (NB. Regula Venske is president of the PEN Centre Germany.) is a set of non-pharmaceutical interventions or measures intended to prevent the spread of a contagious dise ...

as a

non-pharmaceutical intervention Non-pharmacological intervention (NPI) is any type of healthcare intervention which is not primarily based on medication. Some examples include exercise, sleep improvement, and dietary habits. Non-pharmacological interventions may be intended to ...

intended to prevent the spread of a

contagious disease A contagious disease is an infectious disease that can be spread rapidly in several ways, including direct contact, indirect contact, and droplet contact. These diseases are caused by organisms such as parasites, bacteria, fungi, and viruses. ...

. From 2005 until 2011, Hatchett served as associate director for Radiation Countermeasures Research and Emergency Preparedness at the

National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases The National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID, ) is one of the 27 institutes and centers that make up the National Institutes of Health (NIH), an agency of the United States Department of Health and Human Services. NIAID's mis ...

(NIAID), under the leadership of

Anthony Fauci Anthony Stephen Fauci ( ; born December 24, 1940) is an American physician-scientist and immunologist who served as the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) from 1984 to 2022, and the chief medical ...

. In 2007, he was the lead author of a study in ''

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America ''Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America'' (often abbreviated ''PNAS'' or ''PNAS USA'') is a peer-reviewed multidisciplinary scientific journal. It is the official journal of the National Academy of Scie ...

'' comparing public-health responses to the

Spanish flu The 1918–1920 flu pandemic, also known as the Great Influenza epidemic or by the common misnomer Spanish flu, was an exceptionally deadly global influenza pandemic caused by the H1N1 subtype of the influenza A virus. The earliest docum ...

in cities like

St. Louis St. Louis ( , sometimes referred to as St. Louis City, Saint Louis or STL) is an independent city in the U.S. state of Missouri. It lies near the confluence of the Mississippi and the Missouri rivers. In 2020, the city proper had a populatio ...

and

Philadelphia Philadelphia ( ), colloquially referred to as Philly, is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania, most populous city in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania and the List of United States cities by population, sixth-most populous city in the Unit ...

. He also advised on the US government's handling of the

2009 swine flu pandemic The 2009 swine flu pandemic, caused by the H1N1/swine flu/influenza virus and declared by the World Health Organization (WHO) from June 2009 to August 2010, was the third recent flu pandemic involving the H1N1 virus (the first being the 1918� ...

. In addition to his role at NIAID, Hatchett served as Director for Medical Preparedness Policy on the

Homeland Security Council The Homeland Security Council (HSC) is an entity within the Executive Office of the President of the United States tasked with advising the president on matters relevant to Homeland Security. The current homeland security advisor is Stephen Mi ...

under

Barack Obama Barack Hussein Obama II (born August 4, 1961) is an American politician who was the 44th president of the United States from 2009 to 2017. A member of the Democratic Party, he was the first African American president in American history. O ...

from 2009 until 2011. Hatchett was the Chief Medical Officer and deputy director of the United States

Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority The Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA) is a center within the Administration for Strategic Preparedness and Response (ASPR) located within the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) responsible for the p ...

(BARDA) from 2011 to 2016 before becoming the organization's acting Director in 2016. At BARDA, he oversaw programs to develop medical countermeasures against chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear threats, pandemic influenza, and emerging infectious diseases and led or helped lead the development of vaccines, therapeutics and diagnostics for a number of emerging viruses, including the H3N2v and H7N9

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 ...

viruses,

MERS Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS) is a viral respiratory infection caused by '' Middle East respiratory syndrome–related coronavirus'' (MERS-CoV). Symptoms may range from none, to mild, to severe depending on age and risk level. Typi ...

and

Zika Zika fever, also known as Zika virus disease or simply Zika, is an infectious disease caused by the Zika virus. Most cases have no symptoms, but when present they are usually mild and can resemble dengue fever. Symptoms may include fever, conju ...

CEO of CEPI, 2017–present

In 2017, Hatchett was appointed as CEO of the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations, succeeding interim CEO

John-Arne Røttingen John-Arne Røttingen (born 27 March 1969) is a Norwegian medical scientist, research administrator and civil servant. He is currently the Chief Executive Officer of the Wellcome Trust. Previously, he served as Ambassador for Global Health in the ...

. In May 2020, amid 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 ...

, he was appointed to the expert advisory group for the UK Government's Vaccine Task Force. When the UK held the rotating presidency of the

Group of Seven The Group of Seven (G7) is an Intergovernmentalism, intergovernmental political and economic forum consisting of Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom and the United States; additionally, the European Union (EU) is a "non- ...

(G7) in 2021, the government also appointed him to serve as a member of the Pandemic Preparedness Partnership, 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 ...

. Under Hatchett's leadership, CEPI funded early development of

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 ...

candidate vaccines. CEPI also teamed up with the

African Union The African Union (AU) is a continental union of 55 member states located on the continent of Africa. The AU was announced in the Sirte Declaration in Sirte, Libya, on 9 September 1999, calling for the establishment of the African Union. The b ...

to fund African vaccine production. Together with

Seth Berkley Seth Franklin Berkley (born October 18, 1956) is an American medical epidemiologist and a global advocate of the power of vaccines. He is the founder and former president and CEO of the International AIDS Vaccine Initiative (IAVI) and former CEO o ...

, he developed the concept for

COVAX COVID-19 Vaccines Global Access, abbreviated as COVAX, is a worldwide initiative aimed at equitable access to COVID-19 vaccines directed by the GAVI vaccine alliance, the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI), and the World He ...

in early 2020. CEPI is organizing a 2022 Covid summit. In March 2020, Hatchett warned about

. He does not think

Intellectual property Intellectual property (IP) is a category of property that includes intangible creations of the human intellect. There are many types of intellectual property, and some countries recognize more than others. The best-known types are patents, co ...

rights significantly contribute to

vaccine A vaccine is a biological Dosage form, preparation that provides active acquired immunity to a particular infectious disease, infectious or cancer, malignant disease. The safety and effectiveness of vaccines has been widely studied and verifi ...

shortages. He is concerned about

supply chain A supply chain is a complex logistics system that consists of facilities that convert raw materials into finished products and distribute them to end consumers or end customers, while supply chain management deals with the flow of goods in distri ...

problems, and

export control Export control is legislation that regulates the export of goods, software and technology. Some items could potentially be useful for purposes that are contrary to the interest of the exporting country. These items are considered to be ''controlled ...

References

External links

* https://cepi.net/about/whoweare/
Interview with Richard Hatchett
International Finance Corporation, ''October 2020'' {{DEFAULTSORT:Hatchett, Richard American epidemiologists Year of birth missing (living people) Living people Vanderbilt University alumni Members of the National Academy of Medicine