Michael J. Ryan

Michael Joseph Ryan (born 1965) is an Irish epidemiologist and former trauma surgeon, specialising in infectious disease and public health. He is executive director of the World Health Organization's Health Emergencies Programme, leading the team responsible for the international containment and treatment of COVID-19. Ryan has held leadership positions and has worked on various outbreak response teams in the field to eradicate the spread of diseases including bacillary dysentery, cholera, Crimean–Congo hemorrhagic fever, Ebola, Marburg virus disease, measles, meningitis, relapsing fever, Rift Valley fever, SARS, and Shigellosis.

Early life and education Mike Ryan was born in London to Irish parents, moving to Mayo as a two-year-old. He grew up in the town of Charlestown in County Mayo. His father worked as a merchant sailor.

Career Early career In July 1990, Ryan moved to Iraq with his girlfriend, later his wife, to train Iraqi doctors. Very shortly after his arrival the Invasion of Kuwait happened, which suspended his work and meant he and his wife were made to work as doctors under captivity, often working under duress. A military convoy ran a vehicle Ryan was in off the road, crushing multiple vertebrae. Eventually Ryan and his wife were allowed to leave Iraq due to their injuries. Ryan's severe back injury prohibited him from working as a surgeon. He made a shift into the fields of public health and infectious disease.

Ryan worked with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation on their efforts to eradicate infectious diseases in Africa.

Career at WHO In 1996, Ryan joined the World Health Organization to work in a newly opened unit that focused on epidemics and infectious diseases under the direction of the infectious disease expert, David L. Heymann. During this time, he was in areas of conflict like the Democratic Republic of the Congo, where aid workers were often attacked and murdered. During this time he was based in Islamabad, Pakistan at the National Emergency Operations Centre (NEOC), where he liaised with the Government of Pakistan. 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.

As part of his work with the World Health Organization, Ryan appeared in regular press conferences by the WHO regarding the COVID-19 pandemic. Ryan has provided answers to common questions about strategies to combat the COVID-19 pandemic and find a vaccine. 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.

Since 2022, Ryan has been chairing the Technical Advisory Panel of the joint World Bank/WHO Pandemic Fund.

In addition to his activities at WHO, Ryan has worked as a Professor of International Health at University College Dublin. He has taught and lectured on medicine and public health on the undergraduate and post graduate level. He gave his final press conference in his WHO role in June 2025.

Other activities Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI), Non-Voting Member of the Board (since 2023) Global Outbreak Alert and Response Network (GOARN), Founding Member

Personal life In 1988, Ryan met his wife, Máire Connolly, in medical school in Galway. They were married in 1997. Connolly is also a doctor and author who has specialized in infectious disease by training and also worked at the World Health Organization. She is a professor of health security and infectious disease at National University of Ireland Galway. They have three children.

Selected works and publications