Analysis and advice
Scientific Advisory Panel
COVID-19
The Scientific Advisory Panel COVID-19 provides independent analysis and advice on behalf of the Swiss federal government and the cantons during the current phase of the coronavirus pandemic. The panel’s expert knowledge allows it to develop various scenarios for political action on the basis of scientific analyses of the situation. New scientific findings are taken into account in this process, as are existing uncertainties and different social values.
Reports & News
Consultation on the revision of the Epidemics Act
Update on COVID-19 variants
Consultation on the revision of the Epidemics Act
Update on COVID-19 variants
Experts
The members of the panel represent a broad spectrum of scientific disciplines. They are very well-connected in their fields and draw on further expertise from their networks as needed.
Tanja Stadler (ETH Zurich) is an expert on molecular epidemiology. Since April 2020, her team sequences and analyses SARS-CoV-2 samples (link) detecting and tracking new variants (link). Furthermore, her team calculates the reproductive number of COVID-19 for Switzerland and 180 countries since the start of the pandemic (link).
Tanja Stadler (ETH Zurich) is an expert on molecular epidemiology. Since April 2020, her team sequences and analyses SARS-CoV-2 samples (link) detecting and tracking new variants (link). Furthermore, her team calculates the reproductive number of COVID-19 for Switzerland and 180 countries since the start of the pandemic (link).
Jacques Fellay (EPFL / Lausanne University Hospital) is a medical doctor and researcher, specialist in infectious diseases, human genomics and data science. He studies the genetic factors involved in immune regulation and response to infection by various pathogens, including SARS-CoV-2.
Alain Di Gallo (University Psychiatric Clinics Basel) is a medical doctor specialised in child and adolescent psychiatry. As medical director of the Clinic for Children and Adolescents of the University Psychiatric Clinics Basel and co-president of the Swiss Society for Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, he has been dealing clinically and scientifically with the psychological consequences for the youngest generation since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Caspar Hirschi (University of St. Gallen) is an expert on scientific advisory procedures. He examined the expertise provided to governments in several crises (link, link) and co-authored a report for the Swiss Science Council on the role of science advisory bodies during the acute phase of the corona pandemic (link). He will serve this committee in developing viable policy options under conditions of epistemic uncertainty and value pluralism.
Samia Hurst-Majno (University of Geneva) is an expert for biomedical ethics. She is based at the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Geneva, where she chairs the Institute for Ethics, History and the Department of Community Health and Medicine. She is a member of the Senate at the Swiss Academy of Medical Sciences and of the Swiss National Advisory Commission on Biomedical Ethics. Her research focuses on ethical issues arising in clinical practice, health care systems, and public health, with a particular focus on the protection of vulnerable persons.
Urs Karrer (Winterthur Cantonal Hospital) is a medical doctor specialized in infectious diseases with additional experience in clinical microbiology and virology. He has a long-standing research interest in antiviral immunity and vaccines. He served as an internal and external adviser for COVID-19 related health strategies since the beginning of the pandemic.
Sean Müller (University of Lausanne) is an expert on Swiss politics. He works on the pros and cons of federalism and its link with (direct) democracy, in general, and cantonal and communal governance, in particular.
Richard Neher (University of Basel) is an expert in the evolution of RNA viruses with a particular focus on antigenic evolution and immune escape. He is co-founder of the platform nextstrain.org, that is used worldwide for new real-time analysis of SARS-CoV-2 and influenza virus evolution and spread.
Milo Puhan (University of Zurich / Zurich University Hospital) is an expert in epidemiology and public health. Since April 2020, he led the Corona Immunitas research program and the Zurich based studies Ciao Corona and the Zurich Coronvirus and Vaccination cohort studies. These studies provide evidence on population immunity in Switzerland, the burden from Long Covid and several other public health aspects of the pandemic.
Sarah Tschudin Sutter (University of Basel / University Hospital Basel) is a medical doctor who is board-certified in general internal medicine and infectious diseases. She is head of the Division of Hospital Hygiene within the Clinic for Infectious Diseases & Hospital Hygiene and is deputy chief physician at the University Hospital Basel, Switzerland. Her area of research is in infection prevention and control.
Volker Thiel (University of Bern) is an expert in coronavirus biology working since the 1990s on basic aspects of coronavirus replication, immune responses and virus-host interactions. Since 2014 he is leading the division Virology at the Institute of Virology and Immunology (IVI) in Bern and Mittelhäusern and is chair in Virology at the Vetsuisse Faculty, University of Bern. He is member of the Technical Advisory Group on SARS-CoV-2 Virus Evolution (TAG-VE) of the WHO.
Contact
Do you have any questions or comments about the Scientific Advisory Panel COVID-19?
Media enquiries
Gian Casutt
gian.casutt@ethrat.ch
Information
ETH Board
kommunikation@ethrat.ch
