Dr Thomas Waite
Biography
Dr Thomas Waite is the Deputy Chief Medical Officer leading on health protection. His role covers emergency response and preparedness, infectious diseases, vaccines and therapeutics.
Dr Waite is a consultant epidemiologist and completed his clinical and public health training in south Wales. He is a graduate of the European Programme for Interventional Epidemiology Training and has postgraduate qualifications in public health, medical toxicology and medical education.
Dr Waite has a wide range of experience dealing with outbreaks and environment emergencies in the UK, Africa, South East Asia and the Caribbean. He helped establish the UK Public Health Rapid Support Team and led their first deployment to the Somali region of Ethiopia. In 2017 he was deployed to support health protection work in the Caribbean region as part of the recovery from hurricanes Irma and Maria.
In the UK held a range of leadership roles in Public Health England including the Extreme Event Health Protection team, NIS Global Public Health team and as Director of the Field Epidemiology Training Programme. During the COVID-19 pandemic, he helped create the Joint Biosecurity Centre and subsequently became Director of Health Analysis.
He was Interim Deputy Chief Medical Officer from July 2021 to April 2022 supporting the Chief Medical Officer on the COVID-19 response.
Declarations of interest:
- honorary professor, University of Bolton (unpaid)
- trustee, Terrence Higgins Trust (unpaid)
- lay member of council, University of Birmingham (unpaid)
Deputy Chief Medical Officer
Three Deputy Chief Medical Officers support the Chief Medical Officer (CMO) in their role as independent adviser to government on medical matters and the Head of Profession for all directors of public health in local government.