Michael Joseph Ryan[1] (born 1965) is an Irish epidemiologist and former trauma surgeon, specialising in infectious disease and public health.
[1][3][9] Ryan worked with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation on their efforts to eradicate infectious diseases in Africa.
[1][2] He developed measles outbreak response guidelines as part of the Expanded Programme on Immunization (EPI) team who implemented surveillance for acute flaccid paralysis, which is how polio is eradicated.
He worked on the implementation of the International Health Regulations (IHR), among other duties to do with infectious disease and emergency responses to pathogens and epidemics.
[5] He coordinated operational and technical support to polio outbreak response activities in the region which included Syria and Iraq.
In 2014, Director General Margaret Chan appointed Ryan to the WHO Advisory Group on the Ebola Virus Disease Response, which was co-chaired by Sam Zaramba and David L.
[2][13] He delivered remarks via pre-recorded video to participants of Event 201, a pandemic preparedness exercise held in October 2019 by the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and the World Economic Forum.
[14] As part of his work with the World Health Organization, Ryan appears in regular press conferences by the WHO regarding the COVID-19 pandemic.
Based on his experience in the Democratic Republic of the Congo with Ebola, Ryan has said that while physical distancing, lock-downs, and movement restrictions will stop the spread of COVID-19, eradicating the virus will require large scale public health interventions with a focus on the central tenets of containment: community-based surveillance, contact tracing, isolation, and quarantine.
[4] On 5 January 2022, Ryan received an award from Irish President Michael D. Higgins at Áras an Uachtaráin in recognition of his "enormous service to global public health over the course of a number of decades.
[20] Connolly is also a doctor and author who has specialized in infectious disease by training and also worked at the World Health Organization.