Canadian Alliance to Support Immunization

March 1, 2015
Meric Gertler, PhD, FRSC, FAcSS, MCIP
President
University of Toronto
27 King’s College Circle,
Toronto, Ontario, M5S 1A1
Dear President Gertler,
Thank you very much for your long and distinguished service to the University of Toronto.
As you know, the University of Toronto is “committed to being an internationally
significant research university, with undergraduate, graduate and professional programs
of excellent quality.” We are concerned about the quality of one of the University’s
undergraduate courses and respectfully request that you inquire into this matter.
We refer to the course titled, “Alternative Health: Practice and Theory, HLTD04H3-S,
Special Topics in Health”. We have examined only the syllabus, which, on its face,
raises a number of concerns. A significant concern is its presentation of vaccine safety
and efficacy; we draw your attention to Week 9 (the week after next), the reading for
which is pasted below:
Week 9 March 12
Vaccination – the King of Controversy
Required Readings/ Viewings for this week:
• VIDEO: Interview with Andrew Wakefield:
http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2010/04/10/wakefieldinterview.aspx
• VIDEO: Shedding: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VKSeiAs_A4w (new
addition to syllabus)
Canadian Alliance to Support Immunization • Alliance Canadienne pour l’Immunisation
Can.Immunization@gmail.com
• VIDEO: Vaccine's Safety A Crime Against Humanity,
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9N3oHLe80O4
• Dissolving Illusions, Disease, Vaccines, and the Forgotten History, pp viixvi, 445-479
Optional Reading:
• Vaccination, Social Violence and Criminality; The Medical Assault on the
American Brain, Harris Coulter – Ch. 7 (Medical Hubris and Its
Consequences), Ch 3 (The Post-Encephalitic Syndrome)
• ARTICLE: http://www.collective-evolution.com/2013/09/12/22-medicalstudies-that-show-vaccines-can- cause-autism/
• ARTICLE: http://www.collective-evolution.com/2014/12/03/mit-scientistshows-what-can-happen-to- children-who-receive-aluminum-containingvaccines/?utm_content=buffer251df&utm_medium=social&utm_source=face
book.com&utm_campaign =buffer
• 96 Research Papers Autism/ Vaccination.
http://www.scribd.com/doc/220807175/86-Research-Papers- Supporting-theVaccine-Autism-Link
• This Physician’s Assessment of Flu Vaccines in Pregnancy
http://www.safeminds.org/blog/2014/09/24/physicians-assessment-fluvaccines-pregnancy/
Is this reading list designed to foster distrust of vaccines that have been accepted by
Health Canada, among other government bodies and professional organizations, to be
safe and effective?
The required viewing includes an interview of Andrew Wakefield. In the video, the
interviewer begins by referring to vaccines and asks, “How safe are they?” The
interviewer then introduces Andrew Wakefield as “One of the most prominent
researchers in answering that question with respect to the safety and adverse effects that
could be caused.” But Andrew Wakefield is the lead author of an infamous retracted
Lancet article; the United Kingdom medical licensing body stripped Wakefield of his
medical licence because of his malevolence.
We would be happy to recommend articles for undergraduates to address vaccine safety
and efficacy, and public health controversy such as that created by Andrew Wakefield.
We would be grateful if your office would please inquire into this matter and issue a
report describing the quality of the course and its place in the University of Toronto
undergraduate curriculum.
Canadian Alliance to Support Immunization • Alliance Canadienne pour l’Immunisation
Can.Immunization@gmail.com
Thank you very much.
Respectfully submitted on behalf of CASI-ACI by the signatories below.
1. François Boucher, MD, FRCPC, Associate professor of Paediatrics, Laval University
School of Medicine; Chief, Pediatric infectious diseases, Centre Mère-Enfant, CHU de
Québec-Université Laval.
2. Sumontra Chakrabarti, MD FRCPC DTM&H, Infectious Diseases and Tropical
Medicine, Trillium Health Partners, Lecturer, University of Toronto
3. Anne Doig, MD, CCFP, FCFP, LLD, Family Physician, Associate Clinical Professor of
Obstetrics and Reproductive Sciences, University of Saskatchewan
4. William A. Fisher PhD, Distinguished Professor, Department of Psychology,
Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, Western University, London Ontario
Canada, Fellow, Canadian Academy of Health Science
5. David Fisman, Professor, Dalla Lana School of Public Health, University of Toronto
6. Eduardo Franco DrPH, James McGill Professor in the Departments of Oncology and
Epidemiology & Biostatistics, Director, Division of Cancer Epidemiology, and
Chairman, Department of Oncology, at McGill University's Faculty of Medicine
7. Lori Frappier PhD Professor Department of Molecular Genetics at the University of
Toronto, Canada Research Chair in Molecular Virology
8. Arnaud Gagneur, M.D, Ph.D. Professeur agrégé Département de Pédiatrie Unité de
Néonatalogie CHUS Fleurimont , Sherbrooke (QC)
9. Jack Gauldie PhD, DSc, FRSC, Distinguished University Professor, Department of
Pathology and Molecular Medicine
10. Sergio Grinstein PhD, Senior Scientist, The Hospital for Sick Children (SickKids),
professor of Biochemistry at the University of Toronto
11. Juliet Guichon BA, MA BCL SJD (Toronto), University of Calgary, Assistant Professor,
Cumming School of Medicine
12. David S. Guttman Director, Centre for the Analysis of Genome Evolution and Function;
Professor, Department of Cell & Systems Biology; Associate Chair, Research,
Canadian Alliance to Support Immunization • Alliance Canadienne pour l’Immunisation
Can.Immunization@gmail.com
Department of Cell & Systems Biology, University of Toronto
13. Scott Halperin, Professor, Department of Microbiology and Immunology, Dalhousie
University; Director, Canadian Centre for Vaccinology
14. Mark Joffe, Professor of Medicine, University of Alberta
15. Jonathan B. Kronick, Chief of Education, The Learning Institute, The Hospital for Sick
Children, Professor of Pediatrics, Division of Clinical and Metabolic Genetics,
University of Toronto
16. Jeff Kwong, MD MSc CCFP FRCPC, Associate Professor, Dept. of Family &
Community Medicine, Dalla Lana School of Public Health, University of Toronto
17. Brian D. Lichty, PhD, Associate Professor, McMaster Immunology Research Centre,
Department of Pathology and Molecular Medicine, McMaster University
18. Noni MacDonald MD, Professor of Paediatrics, Dalhousie University
19. Christopher Mackie MD, Medical Officer of Health and CEO of the Middlesex-London
Health Unit
20. Lionel Mandell MD, FRCPC, FRCP (LOND), Professor Emeritus, Division of Infectious
Diseases, Department of Medicine; Director, International Health and Tropical
Diseases Clinic at Hamilton Health Sciences; Chairman, Community Acquired
Pneumonia Guideline Committee of IDSA and Canadian Infectious Disease Society
21. Athena McConnell, Athena McConnell MD MEd FRCPC, Associate Professor,
Pediatrics, Infectious Diseases Division, University of Saskatchewan
22. Janine McCready MD, FRCPC, Associate Director, Antimicrobial Stewardship Program
Toronto East General Hospital.
23. Matthew S. Miller, PhD, Assistant Professor, Department of Biochemistry and
Biomedical Sciences Institute for Infectious Diseases Research, McMaster
Immunology Research Centre, Faculty of Health Sciences, McMaster University
24. Ian Mitchell MBChB, MA, DCH, MRCP (UK), FRCPC, FCCP, Professor, Paediatrics,
University of Calgary Paediatric Respirologist, Alberta Children's Hospital
25. Sheona Mitchell MD MPH FRCSC, Assistant Professor, Northern Medical Program,
University of British Columbia
Canadian Alliance to Support Immunization • Alliance Canadienne pour l’Immunisation
Can.Immunization@gmail.com
26. Tara Moriarty, PhD, Faculty of Dentistry (Matrix Dynamics Group) & Faculty of
Medicine (Laboratory Medicine & Cell Biology), University of Toronto
27. Shaun Morris, MD, MPH, FRCPC, FAAP, Clinician-Scientist Division of Infectious
Diseases, Hospital for Sick Children, Assistant Professor, Department of Pediatrics,
University of Toronto
28. Karen Mossman, Professor, Chair, Biochemistry and Biomedical Sciences McMaster
University
29. William Wiley Navarre, Ph.D., Associate Professor, Associate Chair and
Undergraduate Coordinator, University of Toronto Faculty of Medicine - Department
of Molecular Genetics
30. Stacey Page, PhD, Chair, Conjoint Health Research Ethics Board, Assistant Professor,
Dept. of Community Health Sciences, Cumming School of Medicine, University of
Calgary
31. Jeffrey Pernica MD FRCPC FAAP DTMH, Head, Division of Infectious Diseases,
Department of Pediatrics, Associate Professor, McMaster University
32. Caroline Quach MD MSc FRCPC, Associate Professor, Departments of Pediatrics and
Epidemiology, Biostatistics & Occupational Health, McGill University
33. Vardit Ravitsky, PhD, Associate Professor, Bioethics Programs, School of Public
Health, University of Montreal
34. Zeev Rosberger, PhD, Associate Professor, Oncology; Psychiatry; Psychology, McGill
University; Senior Investigator, Lady Davis Institute for Medical Research & Director,
Louise Granofsky-Psychosocial Oncology Program, Jewish General Hospital, Montreal
35. Paul Roumeliotis MD, CM, MPH, FRCP(c) Pediatrician and Medical Officer of Health,
Eastern Ontario Health Unit, Associate Faculty Member, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg
School of Public Health
36. Carolyn Sanford, DVM, PhD, Provincial Epidemiologist, Chief Public Health Office,
Dept of Health and Wellness - PEI
37. David Scheifele OC MD, Professor of Pediatrics, UBC and Director, Vaccine
Evaluation Center, BC Children’s Hospital, Vancouver
Canadian Alliance to Support Immunization • Alliance Canadienne pour l’Immunisation
Can.Immunization@gmail.com
38. Anthony B. Schryvers, Ph.D., M.D., Professor, Department of Microbiology,
Immunology and Infectious Diseases, Faculty of Medicine
39. James R. Smiley, Professor, Dept. of Medical Microbiology & immunology, University
of Alberta, Canada Research Chair in Molecular Virology
40. Marc Steben, M.D Medical advisor, Sexually Transmitted Disease Unit, Québec
national public health institute
41. Dr. Robert Strang, Chief Medical Officer of Health, Department of Health and Wellness,
Halifax, Nova Scotia
42. Jordan Tustin, HBSc Biology, BASc Public Health, CPHI (C)- Certified Public
HealthInspector (Canada), MHSc Epidemiology, PhD candidate Epidemiology
43. Mary Vearncombe, MD, FRCPC, Medical Director, Infection Prevention and Control,
Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre, University of Toronto
44. Brian J Ward MSc, DTM&H, MDCM, Professor of Medicine & Microbiolog, McGill
University
45. Tania H. Watts, Ph.D. Professor and Sanofi Pasteur in Human Immunology, University
of Toronto
Cc. Trevor Young, MD, PhD, FRCPC, FCAHS Dean, Faculty of Medicine and Vice
Provost, Relations with Health Care Institutions University of Toronto;
ltrevor.young@utoronto.ca
Howard Hu M.D., M.P.H., Sc.D., Dean and Professor of Environmental Health,
Epidemiology, and Global Health, Dalla Lana School of Public Health,
<dean.dlsph@utoronto.ca>
Canadian Alliance to Support Immunization • Alliance Canadienne pour l’Immunisation
Can.Immunization@gmail.com

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