On Thursday 29 June, Professor Van-Tam delivered the Attenborough Award Lecture, awarded annually by the Royal Society for outstanding public engagement in science.

The award honours Professor Van-Tam’s work as UK Deputy Chief Medical Officer (DCMO), when he received international acclaim for his ability to explain complex Covid-19-related issues including transmission risks and the importance of vaccines using creative – often sports-based – analogies during the regular televised Downing Street press conferences.

His dedication to public communication has been fundamental in educating people about the risks posed by Covid-19, the science behind the disease epidemiology and promoting expected behaviours in citizens around issues including testing and vaccination which played a pivotal role in controlling the spread of the virus.

In his lecture, JVT reflected on the challenges of leadership and communication during the pandemic and explained how he developed his now famous analogies to connect with people across the UK to assist their understanding of the novel virus and to encourage them to take simple measures to help to control its spread.

The 45 minute lecture is available to view on the Royal Society’s YouTube channel.

Speaking after his lecture, JVT said: “I feel very humbled to have been chosen for this award by the Royal Society because so many UK scientists do really great work making science accessible to the public. This is quite simply a huge honour.

“I am passionate about people from all walks of life and backgrounds being able to engage with science in a way that meets their needs and allows them in turn to benefit from science discoveries in their daily lives; there is no better example than the Covid-19 vaccines which have literally allowed our society to re-open after a devastating pandemic. But it is always our job as scientists to meet the public at their point of need and understanding.”

As an epidemiologist and the DCMO for Health Protection, Professor Van-Tam has played important roles in a number of different incidents, including domestic outbreaks of MERS and Monkeypox; the severe 2017/18 influenza season; the response to the Novichok attacks; and the Covid-19 pandemic where he worked on the Vaccine Taskforce and supported the development of treatments.

He is an author on over 200 scientific papers including major studies into the transmission of the flu, the efficacy of anti-viral drugs to treat it and the success of the drug Tamiflu in protecting patients during the Swine flu pandemic of 2009-10.

More recently he has contributed to academic papers on the clinical impact of Covid-19, the safety and immunogenicity of vaccine combinations and boosters for Covid-19 and the world’s first human challenge study with Covid-19.