Georgina Ferry interviews Sir John Bell, Regius Professor of Medicine, 22 February 2022.
Topics discussed include (00:00:18) JB's early interest and training in medicine, work with Sir David Weatherall, studies as Rhodes Scholar at Oxford and Stanford and later work at Oxford including as Nuffield Chair of Medicine and Regius Professor of Medicine; (00:01:10) interest in the mechanisms of different diseases and molecular medicine; (00:02:12) the evolution and expansion of medicine at Oxford; (00:07:05) involvement in public and national bodies, including the Academy of Medical Sciences, the Office for Strategic Coordination of Health Research, Roche and work with David Cooksey; (00:12:44) nomination as Life Sciences Champion for the U.K, work with Government, the Treasury and Prime Minister David Cameron in an advisory capacity; (00:16:20) 100,000 Genomes Project and Genomics England; (00:19:18) work with Prime Minister Theresa May and Greg Clark, Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy; (00:22:04) JB's first awareness of COVID-19, communication with Jeremy Farrar (Director of the Wellcome Trust), George Gao (Director of the Chinese Center for Disease Control) and Roche Board members; (00:25:40) NHS preparedness; (00:26:16) meeting of Oxford medical researchers called by Richard Cornall, including Sarah Gilbert, Adrian Hill, Gavin Screaton, Alain Townsend, Andy Pollard, David Stuart, Peter Horby; (00:28:20) first cases of COVID-19 in the U.K. and comparison with outbreak in Italy; (00:29:33) meeting at the beginning of March (in the capacity of Government Advisor on Life Sciences) at Whitehall in the capacity of Government Advisor on Health, called by William Warr (Health Advisor) including Prime Minister Boris Johnson, Jeremy Farrar to discuss supply of PCR tests; (00:33:25) setting up of large-scale 'Lighthouse' laboratories to process PCR tests; (00:35:35) communication with James Bethell MP relating to vaccine passports and serological testing, work with Derrick Crook on antibody testing; (00:36:40) antibody testing platform set up by David Stuart and Richard Cornall; (00:38:03) communication with Mike Webb (Special Advisor, Treasury), work with Tamsin Barry (Director of the Office for Life Sciences) on surveillance and antibody testing, work of Sarah Walker on Office for National Statistics surveillance; (00:40:19) the development of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine, communication with individuals including Roger Perlmutter (Head of R&D at Merck) relating to global production, Trevor Mundel (President, Global Health at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation) and Pascal Soriot (Chief Executive Officer of AstraZeneca). Note: the following section of audio is redacted (00:41:30) to (00:42:07).
