Mary Ramsay

Dr Mary Ramsay is currently Director of Public Health Programmes in the UK Health Security Agency and Honorary Professor of Vaccine Policy at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. She has more than 30 years experience of developing and managing national and international surveillance and is an internationally recognised expert in the epidemiology of vaccine preventable diseases.

Between 2009 and 2021 she was Head of Immunisation at Public Health England (PHE), where her department hosts the secretariat for the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI), one of the most highly regarded national technical advisory groups, and the UK WHO EPI Programme Manager. She is chief editor of “Immunisation Against Infectious Disease”  colloquially known as the green book – and the key guidance used by all UK vaccinators. During the pandemic, she authored the first ever COVID-19 chapter and helped to steer JCVI decision-making on the COVID-19 vaccine programme. She also oversaw the analysis of real-world effectiveness from COVID-19 vaccine, publishing the first global evidence on Delta and Omicron variants, and providing data to government to inform each step out of lockdown. She was also a member of the WHO Strategic Advisory Group of Experts COVID-19 sub-committee, supporting the worldwide vaccine response.