The Chief Medical Officer of Health of Ontario is an independent officer of the Legislative Assembly of Ontario who is supposed to be responsible for the public health of Ontario residents. [1] The office has existed since prior to 1990. [1]
Carolyn Ann Bennett is a Canadian physician and politician who has served as minister of mental health and addictions, and associate minister of health since October 26, 2021. A member of the Liberal Party, she has represented Toronto—St. Paul's in the House of Commons since 1997. She previously served as the minister of state for public health from 2003 to 2006, and the Minister of Crown–Indigenous Relations from 2015 to 2021. Bennett worked as a physician for 20 years before entering politics.
Dafydd Rhys Williams OC OOnt CCFP FCFP FRCPC FRCP FRCGS is a Canadian physician, public speaker, CEO, author and a retired CSA astronaut. Williams was a mission specialist on two Space Shuttle missions. His first spaceflight, STS-90 in 1998, was a 16-day mission aboard Space Shuttle Columbia dedicated to neuroscience research. His second flight, STS-118 in August 2007, was flown by Space Shuttle Endeavour to the International Space Station. During that mission he performed three spacewalks, becoming the third Canadian to perform a spacewalk and setting a Canadian record for total number of spacewalks. These spacewalks combined for a total duration of 17 hours and 47 minutes.
James Jude Orbinski, is a Canadian physician, humanitarian activist, author and leading scholar in global health. Orbinski was the 2016-17 Fulbright Visiting professor at the University of California, Irvine, and as of September 1, 2017, he is professor and inaugural director of the Dahdaleh Institute of Global Health Research at York University in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. He was previously the CIGI Chair in Global Health Governance at the Balsillie School of International Affairs and Wilfrid Laurier University (2012-2017), Chair of Global Health at the Dalla Lana School of Public Health (2010-2012) and full professor at the Faculty of Medicine, University of Toronto (2003-2012), where he was the founding Saul Rae Fellow at Massey College. Orbinski's current research interests focus on the health impacts of climate change, medical humanitarianism, intervention strategies around emerging and re-emerging infectious diseases, and global health governance.
Christopher David Naylor, is a Canadian physician, medical researcher and former president of the University of Toronto. He is ICES scientist emeritus and founding CEO. In 2016, he was inducted into the Canadian Medical Hall of Fame.
Jane Philpott is a physician, academic administrator, and former Canadian politician who represented the riding of Markham—Stouffville in the House of Commons. Philpott was first elected in the 2015 federal election as a member of the Liberal Party and was appointed to the Cabinet of the 29th Canadian Ministry, headed by Justin Trudeau, on November 4, 2015. On March 4, 2019, Philpott resigned from her cabinet position as President of the Treasury Board over the SNC-Lavalin affair. On April 2, 2019, she and Jody Wilson-Raybould were both expelled from the Liberal caucus in the aftermath of the controversy.
James Nicholas Sears is a Canadian neo-Nazi who was convicted of willful promotion of hatred in 2019.
The Ontario Agency for Health Protection and Promotion is the Ontario Government agency responsible for providing scientific and technical advice to those working to promote and protect the health of people in Ontario, Canada.
Kwame Julius McKenzie is a British-Canadian psychiatrist employed as the CEO of Wellesley Institute, a policy think tank based in Toronto, Ontario. Born in the United Kingdom, McKenzie is a physician and full professor in the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Toronto. He has worked as physician, researcher, policy advisor, journalist and broadcaster.
The COVID-19 pandemic in Ontario is an ongoing viral pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), a novel infectious disease caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The first confirmed case of COVID-19 in Canada was announced on January 25, 2020, involving a traveller who had recently returned to Toronto from travel in China, including Wuhan. Ontario has had the largest number of confirmed COVID-19 cases among Canada's provinces and territories, but due to having the largest population, only ranks sixth adjusted per capita. Ontario surpassed one million lab-confirmed COVID-19 cases on January 24, 2022; one day before the anniversary of the first confirmed case on January 25, 2020.
Bonnie J. Fraser Henry is a Canadian physician and public servant who has been the provincial health officer at the British Columbia Ministry of Health since 2014. Henry is also a clinical associate professor at the University of British Columbia. She is a specialist in public health and preventive medicine, and is a family doctor. In her role as provincial health officer, Henry notably led the response to COVID-19 in British Columbia (BC).
Eileen Patricia de Villa is an American-Canadian physician and public servant who has served as Medical Officer of Health for the City of Toronto since 2017, leading the Toronto Public Health unit.
Allison Joan McGeer is a Canadian infectious disease specialist in the Sinai Health System, and a professor in the Department of Laboratory Medicine and Pathobiology at the University of Toronto. She also appointed at the Dalla Lana School of Public Health and a Senior Clinician Scientist at the Lunenfeld-Tanenbaum Research Institute, and is a partner of the National Collaborating Centre for Infectious Diseases. McGeer has led investigations into the severe acute respiratory syndrome outbreak in Toronto and worked alongside Donald Low. During the COVID-19 pandemic, McGeer has studied how SARS-CoV-2 survives in the air and has served on several provincial committees advising aspects of the Government of Ontario's pandemic response.
The Walker Panel is also known as Ontario's Expert Panel on SARS and Infectious Disease Control. The Panel was established by the Ontario Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care in May 2003. On 15 December 2003 the Panel released its Initial Report, which provided a series of 53 recommendations requiring urgent action. The Final Report of the Walker Panel was released in April 2004. It contained 103 recommendations.
Richard Schabas, M.D. is a retired public health physician who served as the Chief Medical Officer of Health in Ontario from 1987 to 1997. Schabas also served as the Head of Preventive Oncology at Cancer Care Ontario from 1997 to 2001 and served as chief of staff at York Central Hospital from 2002 to 2005 during the 2002-2004 SARS outbreak. In 2005, he became the public health officer of Hastings, Ontario and Prince Edward, Ontario and remained in this position until his retirement in 2016. In 2021, Schabas criticized the Ontario government's response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Heather Morrison is a Canadian emergency room physician who serves as the Chief Public Health Officer for Prince Edward Island. She was the first woman to receive the Rhodes Scholarship in the Prince Edward Island region, and was named The Guardian’s Newsmaker of the Year in 2020.
David Cecil Williams is a Canadian physician and public servant who served as Chief Medical Officer of Health for the province of Ontario from 2015 to 2021. He served as acting Chief Medical Officer of Health for the province from 2007 to 2009 and again from 2015 to 2016 until taking the position permanently. He previously held the role of Medical Officer of Health for the Thunder Bay District health unit.
Kieran Michael Moore is a Canadian physician and public servant who serves as the current chief medical officer of health of Ontario. Prior to his appointment, he served as the medical officer of health for Kingston, Frontenac, Lennox and Addington from 2017 to 2021.
The Immunization of School Pupils Act (ISPA) is a law in Ontario, Canada, that requires children and adolescents under the age of 18 to receive certain vaccinations to attend primary and secondary school unless a valid exemption is provided, which includes medical, religious, and conscience exemptions. The law applies to both private and public schools. ISPA was adopted in 1990 and was last amended in 2017.
COVID-19 vaccination in Ontario began in December 2020, when the first doses of the Pfizer vaccine were administered. In February 2021, shipments for both the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines increased significantly. By May 2021, over 50 percent of Ontarians had received their first dose.
The Ontario COVID-19 Science Advisory Table, often referred to simply as the Ontario Science Table (OST), was a group of independent scientific experts that provided advice to the Government of Ontario about COVID-19.