Jonathan Van-Tam on Covid communication and the power of football analogies

The Life Scientific

BBC

Technology, Personal Journals, Society & Culture, Science

4.6 • 1.4K Ratings

🗓️ 12 March 2024

⏱️ 37 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Sir Jonathan Van-Tam, or ‘JVT’ as he's arguably better known, first came to widespread public attention in his role as Deputy Chief Medical Officer during the Covid-19 pandemic.

But even before that, Jonathan had built an impressive career based on a long-held fascination with respiratory illness and infectious diseases. He’s worked across the public and private sectors, contributing significantly to improving our understanding of influenza and treatments to address such viruses.

It’s hard to believe that back in his teens, JVT – the man who advised the nation on pandemic precautions and helped make the UK’s vaccine roll-out possible – nearly didn’t get the grades he needed to go to medical school. But early challenges aside, Jonathan went on to discover a love for both medical research and public speaking: making complex public health messages easier to digest – not least by using analogies relating to his beloved football.

Speaking to Professor Jim Al-Khalili in the first episode of a new series of The Life Scientific, Jonathan discusses his life and career: from academic emphasis in childhood and imposter syndrome at medical school, to pandemic pressures around Covid-19 and big birthday celebrations.

Produced by Lucy Taylor.

Transcript

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0:00.0	You're about to listen to a BBC podcast and trust me you'll get there in a moment but if you're a comedy fan
0:05.2	I'd really like to tell you a bit about what we do. I'm Julie Mackenzie and I commission comedy
0:10.2	podcast at the BBC. It's a bit of a dream job really.
0:13.0	Comedy is a fantastic joyous thing to do because really you're making people laugh,
0:18.0	making people's days a bit better, helping them process, all manner of things.
0:22.0	But you know I also know that comedy is really
0:24.4	subjective and everyone has different tastes so we've got a huge range of comedy on offer
0:29.6	from satire to silly shocking to soothing profound to just general pratting about. So if you
0:36.2	fancy a laugh, find your next comedy at BBC Sounds.
0:41.0	BBC Sounds, Music, radio podcasts.
0:44.8	Hello and welcome to the podcast edition of The Life Scientific.
0:48.2	I'm Jim Alkaleely and this is the show where I get to talk with some of the world's
0:51.9	leading scientists and you get to find
0:54.1	out what drives them.
0:55.6	So sit back, get comfortable and enjoy the episode.
0:58.9	I've had the pleasure of speaking to some very accomplished and well-recognized scientists on this program, some of whom
1:04.8	or even household names.
1:06.9	Very few of them, however, have been so widely known that they've been given a nationally
1:11.0	accepted nickname. But that's the case for my guest today who first came to
1:15.2	widespread attention in his role as deputy chief medical officer during the COVID-19 pandemic.
1:21.0	Professor Jonathan Van Tam or JVT as was popularised by then
1:25.5	Prime Minister Boris Johnson and subsequently the nation's media has built a
	...

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