COVID-19 Immunity Task Force

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The COVID-19 Immunity Task Force (CITF) is one of the Government of Canada's early efforts to track the 2020 coronavirus pandemic. [1] An external, dedicated secretariat was established in order to maximize the efficiency of the CITF's work. [2]

Contents

Task Force membership

The CITF Board is composed of doctors, infectious disease experts, and policy makers. [1] [3]

Leadership Group

Executive Committee

Government of Canada representatives

Members

The CCITF leadership group expanded on 2 May 2020. [4] Its additional members as of March 2022 are:

Provincial & Territorial representatives

Purpose and goals

The CITF was to use a serology "to survey representative samples of the population for the presence of antibodies to the virus". [5] Trudeau's press release on 23 April 2020, on the initiation of the CCITF listed several goals it would help to achieve notably that it would: [2]

establish priorities and oversee the coordination of a series of country-wide blood test surveys that will tell us how widely the virus has spread in Canada and provide reliable estimates of potential immunity and vulnerabilities in Canadian populations.

A Vaccine Surveillance Reference Group (VSRG) was also established within the CITF to monitor the safety and effectiveness of COVID-19 vaccines made available in Canada. [6]

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References

  1. 1 2 "WHO set pandemic response back by 2-3 weeks, says doctor on new federal task force". CBC. 23 April 2020.
  2. 1 2 "Prime Minister announces new support for COVID-19 medical research and vaccine development". Justin Trudeau, Prime Minister of Canada. 23 April 2020.
  3. Labonne, Simon. "Leadership Group". COVID-19 Immunity Task Force. Archived from the original on 2022-03-23. Retrieved 2022-03-31.
  4. Letterhead of CCITF: List of Members - CCITF Leadership Group (Tweet photo from C. David Naylor)
  5. "Canada launches serological testing initiative to help manage COVID-19". McGill University Institutional Communications. 23 April 2020.
  6. "Vaccine Surveillance Reference Group (VSRG)". COVID-19 Immunity Task Force. Archived from the original on 2021-04-28. Retrieved 2023-04-23.