They include Dr Rod MacKenzie, the chief development officer and executive vice president at Pfizer, and Sean Marett, the chief business and commercial officer at BioNtech, who are made Companions of the Order of St Michael and St George for their services to support vaccine development and distribution. “This year, the Honours List rightly recognises those whose efforts have helped us deliver world-leading testing and vaccination programmes, and I am deeply grateful for their hard work.”īritish bosses involved in vaccine development abroad are recognised on the overseas honours list. Sajid Javid, the Health Secretary, said: “It has been a privilege to work with such dedicated professionals who have worked relentlessly throughout the pandemic providing expert advice so we can keep people safe.
“This is thanks to the dedication and commitment of all our talented staff, who work so tirelessly to make sure vaccines, therapeutics and medical devices are safe and effective for people across the UK.” Vaccine producers honoured for help in rollout Sir Patrick said: “I am really pleased to see so many outstanding scientists and engineers recognised in this year’s honours, including those that have been working tirelessly as part of the response to the Covid-19 pandemic.”ĭame June said: “I am enormously honoured by this recognition of the substantial contribution which the MHRA has made to the nation’s response to Covid-19 over the last two years. Sir Patrick had already received a knighthood in 2019, but both himself and Sir Chris are awarded the more senior title of Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath. The Cabinet Office said that nearly one in five, 19 per cent, of the New Year Honours are for Covid-related service. The omission of Sir Chris Whitty and others from previous honours lists was seen as a sign that the Government was reluctant to hand out awards to those in charge while the worst news might still be to come. The awarding of honours to the most senior members of the nation’s Covid response will be interpreted as a sign that the Government believes the worst of the pandemic is now over.
To date, more than 130 million shots have been administered. Madelaine McTernan, the director general of the Government’s vaccines taskforce, is made a Companion of the Order of the Bath. There are also damehoods for Dr June Raine, the chief executive of the Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency (MHRA), and for Dr Emily Lawson, who was in charge of operational delivery of the UK’s vaccine rollout. There are also knighthoods for Dr Frank Atherton and Dr Gregor Smith, the chief medical officers of Wales and Scotland respectively, while Dr Jenny Harries, the head of the UK Health Security Agency, is made a dame.
Prof Chris Whitty, the Chief Medical Officer for England, is knighted, together with his deputy Prof Jonathan Van-Tam, while Sir Patrick Vallance, the Government’s Chief Scientific Adviser, receives a second knighthood.Īll three have been an almost constant presence on TV screens at Downing Street press conferences and in public information films since the start of the pandemic in 2020. The medical advisers who became some of the nation’s most familiar faces during the Covid pandemic have been recognised in the New Year Honours list for their services to public health. Chris Whitty and Jonathan Van-Tam knighted as Covid heroes make up a fifth of New Year Honours listĪdvisers who became household names during the pandemic honoured along with Sir Patrick Vallance, who receives a second knighthood