Bruce Aylward is a Canadian physician and epidemiologist who currently serves as Assistant Director-General of the World Health Organization (WHO) and is also the head of the WHO-China Joint Expert Group on COVID-19. Dr. Bruce Aylward is an infectious disease expert who has long been engaged in responding to large-scale infectious diseases and public health outbreaks as well as humanitarian emergencies.
Wiki/Biography
Bruce Aylward was born in 1962 (now 58 years old, 2020) in St. John’s, Newfoundland, Canada. Aylward grew up in Atlantic Canada. He studied medicine at Memorial University of Newfoundland (MUN). In 1984, Aylward decided to become a surgeon and traveled to Uganda through a school program to work in a hospital for six months. In 1985, he received his Doctor of Medicine degree from Memorial University. After graduation, he studied internal medicine at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver. After that, he obtained a diploma in tropical medicine from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. Later, he studied for a master’s degree in public health at Johns Hopkins University.
Bruce Aylward in his graduation gown
appearance
Height (approximate): 5′ 10″
Hair Color: Super Light Ash Blonde
Eye color: moss green
Family and Race
Bruce Aylward was raised by a Halifax woman and her lawyer husband, and he is one of six children they raised. Bruce Aylward is married to Italian cancer researcher Alisa Lapiti. Their marriage took place in Geneva. Dr. Aylward met Alisa Lapiti at Johns Hopkins University. The couple lives in Geneva with their son Nico, who was born in 2000.
Profession
In 1992, Bruce Aylward joined the World Health Organization (WHO), leading the organization’s infectious disease control, immunization and polio eradication programs in many countries in the Western Pacific, the Middle East, Europe, Central and Southeast Asia, and North Africa.
Bruce Aylward speaks at WHO meeting
In 1993, the global polio eradication campaign entered its fifth year, and Dr. Aylward came to Phnom Penh to organize Cambodia’s first large-scale immunization campaign. Speaking of Aylward, Chris Maher, a WHO epidemiologist who worked with Aylward in Phnom Penh, said:
Cambodia was in turmoil. The Khmer Rouge had killed many people, and the conflict was still raging. Aylward arrived in Cambodia and immediately “ran around. He was like the Energizer Bunny. As soon as someone pressed the on button, he would run around until the battery ran out. He could work long hours in a day and the quality of his work was very high.”
Chris Maher (left) and his colleagues in Cambodia in the early 1990s
In 1998, WHO invited Aylward to return to Geneva to contribute to the global polio eradication effort led by WHO, UNICEF, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and Rotary International. Aylward agreed. In an interview, Aylward said:
There was no way the world would stop spreading by the end of the year 2000. But you know, you can’t say that. My goal was to make sure that by the year 2000, every country in the world had started an eradication program.”
Bruce Aylward vaccinates a child in Angola in 2002
Dr. Aylward led the successful polio eradication campaign, with Sierra Leone and the Democratic Republic of Congo becoming the last countries to join the fight in 1999. To make the polio eradication program a success, he expanded his Geneva staff from four to dozens, and his field team from about 80 to 2,500. Over decades, Dr. Aylward and his team took a pragmatic approach to eradicating polio. On the fight against polio, Dr. Aylward said:
This is about fairness. This is about social justice and about making sure every child has a better future. The day you leave is the day you say some kids don’t deserve it.”
Bruce Aylward speaks at polio eradication symposium
From 2013 to 2015, he led a newly created Change Management Unit in partnership with the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), having previously led the inter-agency process that resulted in the first-ever system-wide activation of a major infectious disease emergency.
Bruce Aylward during his tenure at the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA)
As Special Representative of the Director-General for the Ebola Response (September 2014-July 2016), he provided strategic and technical leadership to the United Nations Ebola Emergency Response (UNMEER).
Bruce Aylward works with UN health agency on Ebola response
While in charge of WHO’s preparedness, preparedness and response for humanitarian emergencies (2011-2016), Dr Aylward completely reorganized WHO’s work on humanitarian emergencies. During the COVID-19 outbreak, Bruce Aylward led the WHO team in China.
Bruce Aylward attended the press conference of the China-WHO Joint Expert Investigation Team on COVID-19
Dr. Bruce Aylward said in an interview about COVID-19,
“Never underestimate a new disease because there are so many unknowns. What we do know is that it kills young people and it makes young people sick in large numbers. You have to respect that.”
Taiwan Skype interview controversy
On March 28, 2020, Aylward dodged a question about Taiwan’s membership in the WHO during a Skype interview with RTHK reporter Yawen Tong. When the reporter tried to repeat the question, he asked her to continue and hung up. When the reporter called back, he officially ended the interview. After the interview, Dr. Aylward and the WHO faced accusations of Chinese government influence around the world, with the WHO accused of “playing the game for China.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RLvg0KnTKhU
Canadian Parliament summons
In April 2020, Dr. Bruce Aylward received a summons from the Canadian Parliament’s Health Committee to appear before Ottawa. The Canadian Parliament’s House of Commons Health Committee voted unanimously to request Dr. Aylward to appear before the committee. Speaking on the matter, NDP health critic Don Davis said,
Clearly, he and the WHO are willing to have Dr. Aylward answer questions from the media, so I don’t see any principled reason for them not to do so. [him] so that the committee can answer questions like these.”
Awards and Honors
- The Globe and Mail and the Dominion Institute of Canada named him one of Canada’s Nation Builders in 2002.
- In 2002, Dr. Aylward became the first recipient of Memorial University’s Outstanding Professional Achievement Alumni Award.
Facts/Trivia
- He credits Dr. Ian Bowmer, former dean of the Memorial University of Newfoundland’s medical school, for getting him interested in infectious diseases.
- He dated Italian girlfriend Elisa Rapiti for years, spending time in at least 20 different countries, before marrying her.
- While leading the global polio eradication campaign, Dr. Aylward brought in many innovative initiatives, including young MBA graduates and communications experts, and invited many major funders to join the board, such as the Gates Foundation and the United Nations Foundation.
- Dr Aylward led the design and implementation of a far-reaching reform of WHO’s emergencies work (December 2015 to July 2016), culminating in the launch of the new WHO Health Emergencies Programme, which brought about the most substantial reform in WHO’s 68-year history.
- In addition to being a physician and epidemiologist, Dr. Bruce Aylward has authored more than 100 peer-reviewed scientific articles and book chapters.
- During his involvement in the Ebola response, his TEDx talks were very popular.
- During the COVID-19 pandemic, Bruce Aylward proposed curbing the spread of the coronavirus through “isolation, contact tracing and testing.”
Categories: Biography
Source: HIS Education