Talk:Jonathan Van-Tam

References and verification

I understand EranBot has reported a potential copyright violation on revision 946631344. This refers to my original version of the article. I assume it is implying there is a problem that most of the initial text has been copied from The Old Bostonian Association Wiki. Please be assured that I also wrote that and I have no issue with me copying it. I realise that may disqualify the Old Bostonian Association Wiki from being quoted as a reference. If this is the case I have no problem with removing that reference or with someone else verifying the reference. There are plenty of other places where the information can be verified. SMeeds (talk) 11:27, 24 March 2020 (UTC)

Actual verification needs to be clear. I did not see any references on the Boston wiki webstie, so I have removed it as a source. Much of the article needs verification with reliable sources. Snowman (talk) 13:21, 4 April 2020 (UTC)

Nationality

There appears to be a disagreement on whether to call Jonathan English or British. It's not quite at the level of an edit war and it doesn't seem to be two people counter-reverting, but the last few edits show that something is going on and it needs to be acknowledged before it escalates. I am not involved in this but I would suggest using "British" since that is a legal nationality unlike English. Ideally I suppose we would ask Jonathan how he identifies, but while I know him a little I am not currently in contact with him and in any case such information would not be appropriately referenced. It is worth noting perhaps that his role is as a Deputy Chief Medical Officer for England, but that does not affect his status as a "British public health physician" or as "a British healthcare professional". SMeeds (talk) 10:23, 13 July 2021 (UTC)

This is widespread throughout WP - I see it often in motorsport; I suspect it will continue, especially with partisan-supporters, dual nationalities, pro-separatists and devolved aspects of government and budgets. Occasionally, one sees (words to the effect of) 'UK subnations'. I just wanted to give a couple of instances on David Coulthard, someone with a thick Scottish accent (it's not that long ago that they were often referred to as Scotch): 28 March 2021 and 8 May 2021

'They' will also wikilink to [[Spain|Spanish]] even though it is contrary to WP:OLINK, and sometimes [[Spanish people|Spanish]], which in turn redirect/defaults to Spaniards. Here's another off the top of me 'ead - 3 March 2021 - the ethnic edit summary appears from Google translate to equate to: 'But Bo is an Indonesian of Dutch descent'.--Rocknrollmancer (talk) 00:45, 15 July 2021 (UTC)

Another thing just sprang to mind - in my early days here (writing this from memory), I used "Great Britain" (without the quotes) - someone has just changed it to UK - no real reason, but they have a right to effect change.--Rocknrollmancer (talk) 00:51, 15 July 2021 (UTC)

I don't intend to keep adding to this but I've just chanced upon Andrea Catherwood, intro line: "Andrea Catherine Catherwood (born 27 November 1967) is a Northern Irish television presenter and journalist." In turn this reminded me of Talk:Eugene Laverty#Nationality from Toomebridge, N. Ireland, who - apparently - races under a southern-Ireland (Eire) racing licence and flag. If this is correct I'm unsure why - I suspect he may be domiciled in Andorra. A lot of WP biographies are affected by fancruft. SMeeds I see your contributions have mostly been small, but now that you have declared a connection I trust you will no longer make direct edits to this bio.--Rocknrollmancer (talk) 00:06, 17 July 2021 (UTC)

I assume I'm the "someone" that changed "Great Britain" to "UK", but my reason was nothing to do with the English/British distinction being discussed here, or my personal preference, but rather geographical accuracy and unambiguity. As I noted in my response on my talk page, my change at Rocker (subculture) was merely because the context was that of an American slang term ("greaser") used throughout the UK, and using "Great Britain" seemed to imply that the term isn't used in Northern Ireland. "Great Britain" (=England, Scotland and Wales) is not the same as "United Kingdom" (=England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland). Dave.Dunford (talk) 15:06, 20 July 2021 (UTC)

Rocknrollmancer I will fully disclose my involvement. My main interest in Jonathan is that we attended the same school (he was the year above me). I document elsewhere the history of the school and that occasionally overflows to Wikipedia - making corrections or more major edits. In the case of JVT I originally created this page, not all as well referenced as it should have been, but it was a start. Since then I and many others have made additions and improvements. I would still protect the article from obvious errors or vandalism if I noticed it first, but I don't have much more to contribute at this stage. I have not met Jonathan since 1982 at the latest and I didn't know him well then. His father was a teacher of mathematics at the same school, so I knew him a little, and I also knew Jonathan's brother a little. I was briefly in touch with Jonathan via Facebook in the early days of the pandemic. I don't think my connections with him are sufficient to prevent me editing the page, but as already mentioned I don't have any intention to make major edits. SMeeds (talk) 13:08, 31 July 2021 (UTC)

New role at Moderna

JVT has just taken a new role at Moderna as senior medical consultant and has also been a consultant to the World Health Organization on influenza since 2004. My eyes are not up to add the detail in properly to the article right now. But it would be good to drop the detail in. Anna (talk) 17:04, 24 August 2023 (UTC)