Queen’s honour for top covid professor
WOKINGHAM borough is pouring praise on its World Health Organisation professor honoured by the Queen for his groundbreaking and life-saving Covid-19 work.
A spokesperson for Professor Ben Cowling’s home village of Sonning says it and the whole world owe him a huge debt of gratitude.
His former primary and secondary school headteachers say he is an inspirational role model for their pupils.
Wokingham Borough Council Leader Councillor John Halsall, speaking for the borough’s council and residents said: “I am delighted that Professor Cowling … has been awarded an MBE … His work at this time has been invaluable.”
The award, making Professor Cowling a Member of the Order of the British Empire and revealed in the Queen’s birthday honours list last Saturday, is for “services to public health and to research on Covid-19.”
Professor Cowling, 42, brought up in Sonning, gives exclusive interviews to Wokingham.Today.
This means our readers have updates on his globally important research and views on Covid-19.
This included his prediction, weeks before the country went into its first lockdown, that the UK could face an epidemic and that world health was at risk.
Last Saturday he told us: “I feel really honoured to receive the award.”
Professor Cowling’s mother Elaine, a member of Twyford Singers, said she and her husband Tony, a Twyford Bridge Club member, were “absolutely delighted” about the well-deserved honour.
Asked how his work had affected the health of the world’s people, Professor Cowling said: “The work I've been doing in Hong Kong on Covid has been a team effort so I would be reluctant to take sole credit.
“But I think the work we have done in recent years prior to the pandemic particularly on face masks [showing they can prevent virus transmission] has made an impact, as well as the work done in the early months of 2020.”
In January last year Professor Cowling went with colleagues to China to work on a study which gave the first official estimates of how easily Covid-19 was passed on.
This was urgently needed information when Covid-19 was taking off to eventually become a pandemic.
The scientists were looking at details about the first 425 people to have Covid-19 confirmed in Wuhan, China, in December 2019 and January 2020.
Soon after the study’s publication on January 29, 2020, Professor Cowling, speaking to Wokingham.Today, made, what seemed then, astounding predictions.
When there were just two Covid19 cases in the UK, he predicted the possible start of a coronavirus epidemic in the UK by early March. He also warned the new virus was “a real risk to global health.” He was proved right on both.
Later he said the Wuhan study was one of the most important in his career.
Professor Cowling director of the World Health Organisation Collaborating Centre in Hong Kong, went to Hong Kong in 2004 after the SARS (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome) outbreak, to work on emerging infections and possibly the new SARS whenever it arose. Sixteen years later he was still there when Covid-19 emerged.
Last Saturday he said: “My wife and two children are here with me in
Hong Kong. I’m enjoying life out here and doing a lot of exciting research. I will be spending more time in the UK in the coming years as my younger son will be going to school in Reading.”
He continues the fight against Covid. “I am doing research on the durability of vaccine responses to see when boosters might be needed, we should have some preliminary results in the next few months,” he said.
MP Theresa May, from Sonning like Professor Cowling, said his vital work “helped to see us through the worst of the Coronavirus pandemic.” The whole community would join in congratulating and thanking him.
Sonning Primary School headteacher Luke Henderson said, of the school’s former pupil: "We were extremely proud to hear that Ben Cowling has been awarded an MBE…
“It is wonderful to have someone of Ben's stature associated with our school and local community. He is a wonderful role model for our children.”
His achievements would inspire current pupils to achieve great things.
On behalf of Sonning Parish councillors, chairman Tony Farnese, congratulated Professor Cowling.
He said the honour illustrated the huge debt of gratitude the people of Sonning and the whole world owed to him.
“That [he] began his education at Sonning Primary School is very heartening and this award is a source of pride for the parish council and for the people of Sonning,” he added.
The young Ben Cowling went on to Reading School. Headmaster now, Asley Robson, said: “We are extremely proud of the achievements of Ben Cowling (Old Redingensian 1990-1997), a highly valued member of the Reading School family.
“Indeed, all the Reading School community are truly inspired by Professor Cowling’s recent award of an MBE…
“Ben is a role model who has demonstrated commitment and dedication to excellence and has successfully sought to use his talent to serve others.”