Michael Baker

Michael George Baker is an epidemiologist with the University of Otago. Baker is a member of the New Zealand Food Safety Authority's Academy and of the New Zealand Ministry of Health's Pandemic Influenza Technical Advisory Group (PITAG).

Baker studied at the University of Otago, where he graduated MB ChB and earned a Diploma in Public Health, and the University of Auckland where he obtained a Diploma in Obstetrics.

He originally wanted to specialise in emergency medicine or psychiatry, but got a job as a medical advisor for the Minister of Health. In that role he worked on the response to the HIV/AIDS epidemic, and helped to set up a needle exchange programme.

He was appointed to the faculty at Otago in 1997, rising to the rank of professor in the Department of Public Health at the University of Otago, Wellington in 2013.

He has campaigned to reduce campylobacter contamination in chicken in New Zealand.

In 2013, Baker was awarded the HRC Liley Medal for his contribution to the health and medical sciences.

COVID-19 pandemic

In January 2020, Baker began to read reports about the COVID-19 outbreak in China, and he was eventually asked to join the Ministry of Health's COVID-19 Technical Advisory Group. In February 2020 he was advocating with colleagues at the University of Otago to 'stamp out' COVID-19 and keep it out, rather than trying to 'flatten the curve'. The Government eventually introduced a countrywide lockdown.

In April 2020, Baker stated that New Zealand had the "most decisive and strongest lockdown in the world at the moment" and that it is the only western country where the goal is to eliminate COVID-19. Baker thinks we will look back on COVID-19 as "the most profound public health intervention in our history".

He lives in Brooklyn, Wellington with his family.

• Baker, Michael; Kvalsvig, Amanda; Verrall, Ayesha; Telfar-Barnard, Lucy; Wilson, Nick (2020). "New Zealand's elimination strategy for the COVID-19 pandemic and what is required to make it work". New Zealand Medical Journal. 133: 10–14.
• Wilson, Nick; Turner, Nikki; Baker, Michael (2019). "One hundred years ago in 1919: New Zealand's birth reduction shock associated with an influenza pandemic". New Zealand Medical Journal. 132: 57–62.
• Boyd, Matt; Baker, Michael; Mansoor, Osman; Kvizhinadze, Giorgi; Wilson, Nick (2017). "Protecting an island nation from extreme pandemic threats: proof-of-concept around border closure as an intervention". PLOS ONE. 12. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0178732.
• Baker, Michael; Zhang, Jane; Blakely, Tony; Crane, Julian; Saville-Smith, Kay; Howden-Chapman, Philippa (2016). "Collaborating with a social housing provider supports a large cohort study of the health effects of housing conditions". BMC Public Health. 16 (1). doi:10.1186/s12889-016-2730-9.