YSPH EMD Seminar: “Emerging Reflections on Emerging Infections”

Dr. Dunning will describe his involvement in different outbreaks, from novel respiratory virus pandemics to viral haemorrhagic virus disease outbreaks, through to expected and unexpected monkeypox outbreaks. Reflecting on his work over the last 13 years, he will propose his own wins, failures, regrets, controversies, and lessons learned, using some of his published papers as points for discussion. Jake will describe how a multidisciplinary work-life works for him, and how his experiences have influenced and sometimes changed his views on evidence, public health policy making, collaborative science, global health, and how we should - but sometimes cannot - prepare for the next ‘big event’.

Jake Dunning is a Consultant Physician and Associate Professor in Infectious Diseases at the Royal Free Hospital, London, and Senior Research Fellow in Emerging and High Consequence Infectious Diseases at the Pandemic Sciences Institute, University of Oxford. He qualified in Medicine and Pharmacology at Imperial College London in 2001 and went on to specialize in Infectious Diseases and Internal Medicine, becoming a consultant in 2014. During his specialist training, he intended to do a 3-year PhD in tuberculosis in Cape Town but ended up spending 5 years doing a PhD on pandemic influenza in London; this heralded the start of an unintended career in emerging and re-emerging infections, covering virology, immunology, clinical research, drug trials, clinical care, outbreak response, and public health work, in the UK and overseas. Between 2015 and 2021, Jake worked for England’s national public health agency (PHE, now UKHSA), eventually becoming Head of Emerging Infections and Zoonoses. After twelve months of working as a National Incident Director for COVID-19, Jake opted for a (slightly) quieter life; he now splits his time between research at Oxford, leading the UK’s preparedness and response efforts for high consequence infectious diseases, and doing clinical work at the Royal Free, although increasingly these areas combine. His Public Health work and associated research continues via an honorary position at UKHSA, and he’s an advisor to WHO on several disease