Sir Jeremy James Farrar (born 1 September 1961)[6] is a British medical researcher who has served as Chief Scientist at the World Health Organization since 2023.

[6] During his time at the Wellcome Trust, with Chris Whitty and Neil Ferguson, he co-authored an article in Nature titled "Infectious disease: Tough choices to reduce Ebola transmission",[31] explaining the UK government's response to Ebola in Sierra Leone, including the proposal to build and support centres where people could self-isolate voluntarily if they suspected that they could have the disease.

[32] In July 2015, he co-authored a paper in The New England Journal of Medicine (with Adel Mahmoud and Stanley A. Plotkin), titled "Establishing a Global Vaccine-Development Fund", that led to the founding in 2017 of the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI).

[44] From 2018 to 2022, he served on the joint World Bank/WHO Global Preparedness Monitoring Board (GPMB), co-chaired by Elhadj As Sy and Gro Harlem Brundtland.

[52] [49] In July 2021 he published the book Spike: The Virus vs The People, co-authored with Financial Times journalist Anjana Ahuja, giving his account of the UK government's response to the Covid-19 pandemic.

Farrar stated, “The longer this virus continues to spread in largely unvaccinated populations globally, the more likely it is that a variant that can overcome our vaccines and treatments will emerge.

This political drift and lack of leadership is prolonging the pandemic for everyone, with governments unwilling to really address inequitable access to the vaccines, tests and treatment.

There have been wonderful speeches, warm words, but not the actions needed to ensure fair access to what we know works and would bring the pandemic to a close.”[57] Farrar is a member of the Royal College of Physicians and a Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences.

[78] His citation on election to the Academy of Medical Sciences reads:[79] Jeremy Farrar is director of the Wellcome Trust-funded Oxford University Clinical Research Unit.

These Pivotal clinical and virological studies have identified the dual importance of viral burden and the cytokine response to the lethal pathogenesis of avian influenza, and have described the rapid emergence of resistance to neuraminidase inhibitors.