Biology:COVID-19 Immunity Task Force

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Short description: Canadian government task force


The COVID-19 Immunity Task Force (CITF) was 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] The group terminated its mandate on March 31, 2024.

The group terminated its mandate on March 31, 2024. During the four-year period, the CITF provided several purposes and uses for the general Canadian population.

Purpose

The CITF was to use a serology "to survey representative samples of the population for the presence of antibodies to the virus".[3] 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]

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau seen smiling in front of his country's flag

Canada's government funded more than $1 billion for research into how to combat COVID-19 through the CITF. [4]

  • $40 million for the COVID-19 Genomics Network[5]
  • $23 million for the Vaccine and Infectious Disease Organization-International Vaccine Centre[6]
  • $29 million for the National Research Council of Canada[7]
  • $600 million through the Strategic Innovation Fund [8]
  • $10.3 million over 10 years, $5 million bonus to support the Canadian Immunization Research Network[9]
  • $114.9 million through the Canadian Institutes of Health Research[10]
SARS-CoV-2 strand

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.[11]

A pie chart showing the allocation of funds Trudeau put into each sector of the CITF.

The task force was to also estimate how many Canadians were immune to the SARS-CoV-2 virus.[12]

Findings

Catherine Hankins reported that less than 1% of 10,000 samples tested positive for antibodies to SARS-CoV-2[13].

The CITF also found that one in 100 Canadians were infected with COVID-19 during the first wave of the pandemic.[13]

Canadian Blood Services analyzed over 30,000 blood samples in total.[13]

Task Force membership

The CITF Board was composed of doctors, infectious disease experts, and policy makers.[1][14]

Leadership Group

Executive Committee
  • David Naylor, Co-chair
    • Wrote "Learning from SARS" in 2003, a 200-page report on Canada's response to the SARS outbreak from 2002-2004. [15]
  • Catherine Hankins, Co-chair
    • Deputy Medical Officer of Health at Calgary Health Services[16]
    • Helped identify E. Coli in uncooked hamburger, sent 49 samples to an Edmonton lab during the AIDS pandemic[16]
  • Timothy Evans, Executive Director
    • Senior Director of Health, Nutrition and Population Global Practice at the World Bank Group[17]
  • Heather Hannah
  • Mona Nemer
  • Howard Njoo
  • Gina Ogilvie
  • Jutta Preiksaitis
  • Gail Tomblin Murphy
  • Paul Van Caeseele
Government of Canada representatives
  • Theresa Tam, Chief Public Health Officer of Canada
  • Mona Nemer, Chief Science Advisor of Canada
  • Stephen Lucas, Deputy Minister of Health of Canada
Members

The CCITF leadership group expanded on 2 May 2020.[18] Its additional members as of March 2022 are:

  • Carrie Bourassa
  • Vivek Goel
  • Philippe Gros
  • Scott Halperin
  • Charu Kaushic
  • James D. Kellner
  • Susan Kirkland
  • Gary Kobinger
  • Mel Krajden
  • Christie Lutsiak
  • Richard Massé
  • Allison McGeer
  • Deborah Money
  • Kevin Orrell
  • Jutta Preiksaitis
  • Caroline Quach-Thanh (former)
  • James Talbot (former)
Provincial & Territorial representatives
  • Shelly Bolotin, Ontario
  • Marguerite Cameron, Prince Edward Island
  • Catherine Elliott, Yukon
  • Richard Garceau, New Brunswick
  • Heather Hannah, Northwest Territories
  • Mel Krajden, British Columbia
  • Christie Lutsiak, Alberta
  • Richard Massé, Quebec
  • Jessica Minion, Saskatchewan
  • Michael Patterson, Nunavut
  • Gail Tomblin Murphy, Nova Scotia
  • Paul Van Caeseele, Manitoba

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 Zimonjic, Peter; Kapelos, Vassy (23 April 2020). "WHO set pandemic response back by 2-3 weeks, says doctor on new federal task force". CBC News. https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/naylor-china-who-data-trust-1.5543281. 
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 "Prime Minister announces new support for COVID-19 medical research and vaccine development". 23 April 2020. https://pm.gc.ca/en/news/news-releases/2020/04/23/prime-minister-announces-new-support-covid-19-medical-research-and. 
  3. ↑ "Canada launches serological testing initiative to help manage COVID-19". McGill University. 23 April 2020. https://www.mcgill.ca/newsroom/channels/news/canada-launches-serological-testing-initiative-help-manage-covid-19-321802. 
  4. ↑ "Prime Minister announces new support for COVID-19 medical research and vaccine development". https://www.pm.gc.ca/en/news/news-releases/2020/04/23/prime-minister-announces-new-support-covid-19-medical-research-and. 
  5. ↑ "CanCOGeN" (in en-US). https://genomecanada.ca/challenge-areas/cancogen/. 
  6. ↑ "Home - Vaccine and Infectious Disease Organization" (in en). https://www.vido.org/index.php. 
  7. ↑ "Canada, National Research Council of Canada (NRC)" (in en-US). https://council.science/member/canada-national-research-council-of-canada/. 
  8. ↑ "Programs, Incentives and Tax Credits". 2023-02-03. https://www.investcanada.ca/programs-incentives-tax-credits. 
  9. ↑ "Strengthening Canada's Immunization Research Capabilities". https://landing.cirnetwork.ca/. 
  10. ↑ Canada, Government of. "Organization Profile - Canadian Institutes of Health Research" (in en). https://federal-organizations.canada.ca/profil.php?OrgID=CIHR&lang=en. 
  11. ↑ "Vaccine Surveillance Reference Group (VSRG)" (in en-CA). https://www.covid19immunitytaskforce.ca/vaccine-surveillance-reference-group-vsrg/. 
  12. ↑ "COVID-19 Immunity Task Force". https://www.maelstrom-research.org/network/citf. 
  13. ↑ 13.0 13.1 13.2 "More questions than answers as Canada’s immunity task force releases initial results". https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC7829023/. 
  14. ↑ "Leadership Group" (in en-CA). https://www.covid19immunitytaskforce.ca/leadership-group/. 
  15. ↑ Webster, Paul (March 2020). "Canada and COVID-19: learning from SARS" (in en). The Lancet 395 (10228): 936–937. doi:10.1016/S0140-6736(20)30670-X. PMID 32199479. PMC 7156122. https://linkinghub.elsevier.com/retrieve/pii/S014067362030670X. 
  16. ↑ 16.0 16.1 "Catherine Hankins". Calgary Herald: pp. 5. 1983-10-08. https://www.newspapers.com/article/calgary-herald-catherine-hankins/65997753/. 
  17. ↑ "Tim Evans - Covid Immunity Task Force (CITF), McGill Faculty of Medicine" (in en-US). https://italchamber.qc.ca/speakers/dr-tim-evans/. 
  18. ↑ Naylor, David (May 2, 2020). "@CDavidNaylor on X: '🇨🇦 COVID-19 Immunity Task Force leadership group. Privileged to work with these talented & dedicated 🇨🇦 experts. See list below.'". https://x.com/cdavidnaylor/status/1256592120665853959. 

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