Daniel Koch (physician)

Last updated

Daniel Koch
Born (1955-04-13) 13 April 1955 (age 69)
NationalitySwiss
Alma mater University of Berne
Johns Hopkins University
Known forCOVID-19 pandemic Swiss federal spokesperson (since end 2019) and BAG/OFSP/UFSP official

Daniel Koch (born 13 April 1955) is a Swiss physician and federal employee. From 2008 to 2020 he was the head of the Swiss federal section "Communicable Diseases" of the Federal Office of Public Health.

Contents

Life, education, employment

Koch studied medicine at the University of Berne in the 1970s, [1] then he worked as an assistant doctor for several years. From 1988 to 2002 he worked for the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) in Geneva, first as medical coordinator in crisis areas, including during the civil war in Sierra Leone, Uganda, South Africa and Peru. From 1997, he worked as a medical officer at the ICRC headquarters, where he was responsible for the medical programmes in Africa. In 1996/97, Koch complemented his education with postgraduate studies at the Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, USA, which he completed with a Master in Public Health (MPH). Since 2002, he has worked for the FOPH in various departments. He was a member of the task force against the 2002/2003 SARS pandemic and H5N1 avian flu. [2] Until 2006 he was head of the "Vaccinations" section. From 2006 to 2008 he headed the "Pandemic Preparedness" section, and again until 30 April 2020 he was the head of the section. [3]

Koch gained nationwide recognition during the worldwide COVID-19 pandemic in Switzerland through his media presence in the Swiss media as head of the FOPH's "Communicable Diseases" section. During the pandemic's first wave in spring, Koch continued to work as the FOPH's delegate and public representative for COVID-19 [4] through June 2020, [5] [6] despite being due to go into pension in April 2020. He was succeeded by Stefan Kuster in his post. [7]

Personal life

Koch lives in Schwarzenburg is divorced and has two adult daughters. [1] In addition to his commitment in the health sector, Koch works for animal protection, [8] and he is a passionate canicross runner. [9]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Flavio Cotti</span> Swiss politician (1939–2020)

Flavio Cotti was a Swiss politician who served as member of the Federal Council from 1986 to 1999. He was a member of the Christian Democratic People's Party from the canton of Ticino. In the 1990s, Cotti led the Swiss government's unsuccessful attempts to further Switzerland's political integration into the European Union. He was President of the Confederation in 1991 and 1998 and headed the departments of Home Affairs and Foreign Affairs.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ticino League</span> Political party in Switzerland

The Ticino League is a regionalist, national-conservative political party in Switzerland active in the canton of Ticino.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Healthcare in Switzerland</span>

Switzerland has universal health care, regulated by the Swiss Federal Law on Health Insurance. There are no free state-provided health services, but private health insurance is compulsory for all persons residing in Switzerland.

Swiss Standard German, or Swiss High German, referred to by the Swiss as Schriftdeutsch, or German: Hochdeutsch, is the written form of one (German) of four national languages in Switzerland, besides French, Italian, and Romansh. It is a variety of Standard German, used in the German-speaking part of Switzerland and in Liechtenstein. It is mainly written and rather less often spoken.

The Swiss Film Awards are national film awards awarded in several categories of Switzerland, first given out in 1998.

Kurds in Switzerland are residents in Switzerland of full or partial Kurds origin. The Kurds in Switzerland mainly reside in the Cantons of Zurich, Aargau and Basel-Stadt and are descendants of migrants of refugees from the regions around Pazarcık, Kahraranmaraş or Erzincan. There are also shia kurdish migrants from Iranian Kurdistan, the region around Ilam and Kermanshah along with Feyli Kurds from Baghdad who mainly reside Geneva and Zürich

The 2025 UEFA Women's Championship, commonly referred to as UEFA Women's Euro 2025 or simply Euro 2025, will be the 14th edition of the UEFA Women's Championship, the quadrennial international football championship organised by UEFA for the women's national teams of Europe. The tournament will be played in Switzerland from 2 to 27 July 2025. It will be the third edition since it was expanded to 16 teams. The tournament will return to its usual four-year cycle after the previous tournament was delayed to 2022 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The COVID-19 pandemic in Switzerland is part of the worldwide pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2. The virus was confirmed to have spread to Switzerland on 25 February 2020 when the first case of COVID-19 was confirmed following a COVID-19 pandemic in Italy. A 70-year-old man in the Italian-speaking canton of Ticino which borders Italy, tested positive for SARS-CoV-2. The man had previously visited Milan. Afterwards, multiple cases related to the Italy clusters were discovered in multiple cantons, including Basel-City, Zürich, and Graubünden. Multiple isolated cases not related to the Italy clusters were also subsequently confirmed.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Christian Drosten</span> German virologist researching emergent viruses

Christian Heinrich Maria Drosten is a German virologist whose research focus is on novel viruses (emergent viruses). During the COVID-19 pandemic, Drosten came to national prominence as an expert on the implications and actions required to combat the illness in Germany.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bärbel-Maria Kurth</span> German statistician and epidemiologist

Bärbel-Maria Kurth is a German statistician and epidemiologist. From 1998 to 2019, she headed the Department of Epidemiology and Health Monitoring at the Robert Koch Institute in Berlin. In 1998, she initiated the first nationwide health survey. Subsequently, she and her department established a continuous health monitoring system for Germany.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">COVID-19 vaccination in Switzerland</span> Plan to immunize against COVID-19

COVID-19 vaccination in Switzerland is an ongoing immunization campaign against severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), the virus that causes coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), in response to the ongoing pandemic in the country.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mattea Meyer</span> Swiss politician (born 1987)

Mattea Julia Meyer is a Swiss politician who currently serves as member of the National Council (Switzerland) for the Social Democratic Party since 2015. Concurrently she co-chairs the Social Democratic Party of Switzerland together with Cédric Wermuth. Previously, Meyer served on the Cantonal Council of Zürich from 2011 to 2015.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jacqueline Badran</span> Swiss businesswoman and politician

Jacqueline Badran also referred to as Jackie Badran is a Swiss businesswoman and politician. She currently serves as a member of the National Council (Switzerland) for the Social Democratic Party of Switzerland since 2011. She is primarily known for being one of the survivors from Crossair Flight 3597 and her campaigns for additional affordable housing and banning Airbnb. She also holds Australian citizenship.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">German government response to the COVID-19 pandemic</span>

The government of Germany initially responded to the COVID-19 pandemic in the country with preventive measures to curb the spread of the coronavirus disease 2019 in the country. With the nationwide spread of the disease from March 2020, preventive measures were replaced by containment measures, including a lockdown from March. On 25 March, the Bundestag made the determination of an epidemic situation of national significance. This created a legal framework for the government of chancellor Angela Merkel and the heads of the 16 German states to agree on nationwide pandemic restrictions. Implementation of decisions by that panel remained a matter of individual states, however, leading to differences in anti-pandemic rules and regulations across states. The Bundesnotbremse in force from April to June 2021 sought to establish uniformity.

The Ambassador and Permanent Representative of Switzerland to the United Nations office was established in 2002, after Switzerland joined the United Nations. It is located at 633 Third Avenue in New York.

Tatjana Ingeborg Haenni is a former Swiss soccer player and current official in women's soccer.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Epidemics Act</span> Federal act of the Swiss Confederation

Epidemics Act,EpidA(German: Epidemiengesetz; also known as Federal Act on the Control of Communicable Human Diseases) is a Swiss federal act designed to protect people from infections and to prevent and control the outbreak and spread of communicable diseases. The current version of the Epidemics Act is the result of the revision of September 28, 2012. The revision was necessary because the environment in which communicable diseases occur and pose a threat to public health has changed, and the law needed to be adapted accordingly.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bigna Silberschmidt</span> Swiss journalist and news presenter

Bigna Sereina Silberschmidt is a Swiss journalist and news presenter for Swiss Radio and Television. Since 2020, she is an anchor for the daily news program 10vor10 and deputy of Einstein. Previously she worked as presenter of Schweiz aktuell and in the domestic news department. She is a second cousin of National Councilor Andri Silberschmidt.

Anne Lévy is a Swiss manager and Director-General of the Federal Office of Public Health (FOPH) in Switzerland since 2020.

The Robert Koch Institute Files, or RKI Files, are a series of internal documents, primarily meeting minutes, from the Robert Koch Institute (RKI) COVID-19 crisis management team. A first batch of documents, extending from January 2020 to April 2021, was released in heavily redacted form in March 2024 by the RKI following a Freedom of Information request by journalist Paul Schreyer. In July 2024, journalist Aya Velázquez released the fully unredacted documents from 2020 to 2023, which were leaked to her by a whistleblower at the RKI. The documents detail the deliberations of the RKI team in charge of the crisis response to the COVID-19 pandemic in Germany. The revealed documents sparked an ongoing controversy in Germany, where critics question the political influence on the RKI, and the extent to which measures against COVID-19 followed scientific evidence or political criteria.

References

  1. 1 2 Sven Altermatt (27 March 2020). "Daniel Koch, unser Corona-Krisenmanager beim Bund – kurz vor der Pension". tagblatt.ch. Retrieved 1 April 2020.
  2. Katy Romy (26 February 2020). "Er ist die Ruhe im Corona-Sturm - aber nicht nur beliebt". swissinfo. Retrieved 1 April 2020.
  3. "Abteilung Übertragbare Krankheiten". Bundesamt für Gesundheit (BAG). Archived from the original on 18 March 2020. Retrieved 1 April 2020.
  4. "Neuer Leiter der Abteilung Übertragbare Krankheiten des BAG" (in German). Bundesamt für Gesundheit (BAG). 31 March 2020. Retrieved 1 April 2020.
  5. "Abschied von "Mr. Corona" - Hatten Sie nie Zweifel, Daniel Koch?". Schweizer Radio und Fernsehen (SRF) (in German). 28 May 2020. Retrieved 26 October 2020.
  6. "10 Dinge, die wir an Daniel Koch vermissen werden". Schweizer Illustrierte (in German). Retrieved 26 October 2020.
  7. "Der neue "Mister Corona" Stefan Kuster tritt nach kurzer Zeit bereits wieder zurück". Aargauer Zeitung (in Swiss High German). 23 September 2020. Retrieved 26 October 2020.
  8. Adrian Müller (5 March 2020). "Das Gesicht der Krise – so tickt "Mr. Coronavirus" Daniel Koch". Watson . Retrieved 1 April 2020.
  9. Nico Menzato (26 February 2020). "Daniel Koch: Dieser Mann schützt die Schweiz vor Coronavirus". Watson . Retrieved 1 April 2020.