Anthony Harnden is Professor of Primary Care, General Practitioner and Fellow of

St Hugh's College St Hugh's College is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford. It is located on a site on St Margaret's Road, to the north of the city centre. It was founded in 1886 by Elizabeth Wordsworth as a women's college, and accepte ...

Oxford University Oxford () is a city in England. It is the county town and only city of Oxfordshire. In 2020, its population was estimated at 151,584. It is north-west of London, south-east of Birmingham and north-east of Bristol. The city is home to the ...

. He is also director of graduate studies for the Nuffield Department of Primary Care Health Sciences and sits on the

General Medical Council The General Medical Council (GMC) is a public body that maintains the official register of medical practitioners within the United Kingdom. Its chief responsibility is to "protect, promote and maintain the health and safety of the public" by c ...

, which is responsible for the regulation of all UK doctors and UK medical schools. He is also editorial advisor for the ''

British Medical Journal ''The BMJ'' is a weekly peer-reviewed medical trade journal, published by the trade union the British Medical Association (BMA). ''The BMJ'' has editorial freedom from the BMA. It is one of the world's oldest general medical journals. Origi ...

''. Harnden "has been the General Practitioner member of the Joint Committee of Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) since 2006 and Deputy Chairman since 2015."

Career

Harnden has specific research interests 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 symptoms ...

pertussis Whooping cough, also known as pertussis or the 100-day cough, is a highly contagious bacterial disease. Initial symptoms are usually similar to those of the common cold with a runny nose, fever, and mild cough, but these are followed by two or ...

and

Kawasaki disease Kawasaki disease is a syndrome of unknown cause that results in a fever and mainly affects children under 5 years of age. It is a form of vasculitis, where blood vessels become inflamed throughout the body. The fever typically lasts for more tha ...

. In September 2020, Harnden won (along with co-authors) the

Ig Nobel The Ig Nobel Prize ( ) is a satiric prize awarded annually since 1991 to celebrate ten unusual or trivial achievements in scientific research. Its aim is to "honor achievements that first make people laugh, and then make them think." The name of ...

Diagnostic Medicine Prize for "determining that

acute appendicitis Appendicitis is inflammation of the appendix. Symptoms commonly include right lower abdominal pain, nausea, vomiting, and decreased appetite. However, approximately 40% of people do not have these typical symptoms. Severe complications of a rup ...

can be accurately diagnosed by the amount of pain evident when the patient is driven over speed bumps."

Other recognition

Some of Harnden's other titles or accomplishments include: *Governing Body Fellow of St Hugh's College *Chair of the Adolescent sub-committee of the JCVI *

NICE Nice ( , ; Niçard: , classical norm, or , nonstandard, ; it, Nizza ; lij, Nissa; grc, Νίκαια; la, Nicaea) is the prefecture of the Alpes-Maritimes department in France. The Nice agglomeration extends far beyond the administrative c ...

Quality Standards Advisory Committee for Immunisation Uptake in the Under-19s *National Clinical Champion for Child Health at the

Royal College of General Practitioners The Royal College of General Practitioners (RCGP) is the professional body for general (medical) practitioners (GPs/Family Physicians/Primary Care Physicians) in the United Kingdom. The RCGP represents and supports GPs on key issues including l ...

* Confidential Enquiry in Child Deaths *Board Trustee at the Centre for Maternal and Child Enquiries *

Department of Health A health department or health ministry is a part of government which focuses on issues related to the general health of the citizenry. Subnational entities, such as states, counties and cities, often also operate a health department of their ow ...

Pandemic Influenza Operational Advisory Group

COVID-19

Because "In order to prevent any perceived conflict of interest it was agreed that the JCVI Chair (Professor Andrew Pollard), who is involved in the development of a

SARS-CoV-2 Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS‑CoV‑2) is a strain of coronavirus that causes COVID-19 (coronavirus disease 2019), the respiratory illness responsible for the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. The virus previously had a ...

vaccine at Oxford, would recuse himself from all JCVI COVID-19 meetings", JCVI Deputy Chair Harnden acts in his stead on these matters. On 2 December 2020, he was interviewed by American news channel ''

CNN CNN (Cable News Network) is a multinational cable news channel headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, U.S. Founded in 1980 by American media proprietor Ted Turner and Reese Schonfeld as a 24-hour cable news channel, and presently owned by the M ...

'' for more than 15 minutes because of his status on the JCVI, and forecast that "Priority groups in the UK will get vaccine by Easter." He mentioned the "JCVI statement" on Covid vaccines. On 7 December 2020, he was interviewed on ''

Sky News Sky News is a British free-to-air television news channel and organisation. Sky News is distributed via an English-language radio news service, and through online channels. It is owned by Sky Group, a division of Comcast. John Ryley is the hea ...

'' on the vaccine rollout, and he stressed that the scientific data on vaccines were studied very closely by the authorities and "the public should be reassured the vaccine has undergone “clear and rigorous safety trials”" and said "it is up to us all, if we’re offered the vaccine, to take it for not only ourselves but our friends and family and wider society in general." He disclosed that he had contracted Covid in March 2020 and that he had recurring

long covid Long COVID or long-haul COVID (also known as post-COVID-19 syndrome, post-COVID-19 condition, post-acute sequelae of COVID-19 (PASC), or chronic COVID syndrome (CCS)) is a condition characterized by long-term health problems persisting or appe ...

. In January 2021, Harnden opined that "doctors should not ‘mix and match’ different types of

COVID-19 Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a contagious disease caused by a virus, the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The first known case was COVID-19 pandemic in Hubei, identified in Wuhan, China, in December ...

jabs". In February 2021 while on air at BBC Radio 4 where he was explaining his aforementioned vaccine opinion, Harnden was in such demand that he was "repeatedly interrupted" by

LBC LBC (originally the London Broadcasting Company) is a British phone-in and talk radio station owned and operated by Global and based in its headquarters in London. It was the UK's first licensed commercial radio station, and began to broadcast ...

producers.

Personal life

Harnden is married with three grown-up children, the eldest of whom studied at

Leeds Medical School The School of Medicine is the medical school of the University of Leeds, in the city of Leeds, West Yorkshire, England. The School of Medicine was founded in 1831. The School of Medicine now forms part of the University's Faculty of Medicine an ...

and is on the Yorkshire rheumatology training scheme.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Harnden, Anthony British general practitioners Fellows of St Hugh's College, Oxford Living people Year of birth missing (living people)