Medical Expert - Jon S. Abramson, MD

Abramson has been on faculty at Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center for 30 years and has devoted his career to the clinical and research aspects of influenza disease. Additionally, he has served as the chair of the Committee on Infectious Diseases of the American Academy of Pediatrics and the chair of the CDC Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP). In both of these roles he was involved in the U. S. influenza pandemic planning efforts including the process for developing a prioritization scheme for which groups would get the pandemic vaccine as it became available. 

Currently, he is one of 15 people serving on the World Health Organization (WHO) Strategic Advisory Group of Experts on Immunization (SAGE) and a member of the WHO 2009 pandemic task force. SAGE is charged with advising WHO on overall global policies and strategies, ranging from vaccine and technology, research and development, to delivery of immunization and its linkages with other health interventions. In July 2009, SAGE provided recommendations to the WHO Director General about worldwide use and prioritization of pandemic H1N1 influenza vaccine.

From 2003 until 2007 he was a member and chair 2005 to 2007, of the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, CDC, Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices.

Abramson has been named to: Best Doctors in America; the National Registry of Who's Who; and Alpha Omega Alpha Honor Medical Society. Abramson is a fellow in the American Academy of Pediatrics and the Infectious Disease Society of America.

He has written two books, “Families Fighting Flu,” and “Inside the 2009 Influenza Pandemic.”