The COVID-19 Immunity Task Force (CITF) is one of the

Government of Canada The government of Canada (french: gouvernement du Canada) is the body responsible for the federal administration of Canada. A constitutional monarchy, the Crown is the corporation sole, assuming distinct roles: the executive, as the ''Crown ...

's early efforts to track the 2020

coronavirus pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identifie ...

. An external, dedicated secretariat will help maximize the efficiency of the CITF's work.

Task Force membership

The CITF Board is composed of doctors, infectious disease experts, and policy makers.

Leadership Group

Executive Committee

David Naylor Christopher David Naylor, (born October 26, 1954) 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 ...

, Co-chair * Catherine Hankins, Co-chair * Timothy Evans, Executive Director * Heather Hannah *

Mona Nemer Mona Nemer, (born 1957) is a Lebanese-Canadian scientist specializing in molecular genetics and cardiac regeneration. She was formerly a professor of pharmacology at the University of Montreal and the Director of the Cardiac Development Researc ...

* Howard Njoo * Gina Ogilvie * Jutta Preiksaitis * Gail Tomblin Murphy * Paul Van Caeseele

Government of Canada representatives

Theresa Tam Theresa Tam (; born 1965) is a Canadian physician and public servant who currently serves as the chief public health officer of Canada, who is the second-in-command of the Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC). Tam initially took the role as ...

, 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.Letterhead of CCITF
List of Members - CCITF Leadership Group
(Tweet photo from C. David Naylor) Its additional members as of March 2022 are:

Provincial & Territorial representatives

* Shelly Bolotin,

Ontario Ontario ( ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada.Ontario is located in the geographic eastern half of Canada, but it has historically and politically been considered to be part of Central Canada. Located in Central C ...

* Marguerite Cameron,

Prince Edward Island Prince Edward Island (PEI; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada. It is the smallest province in terms of land area and population, but the most densely populated. The island has several nicknames: "Garden of the Gulf", ...

* Catherine Elliott,

Yukon Yukon (; ; formerly called Yukon Territory and also referred to as the Yukon) is the smallest and westernmost of Canada's three territories. It also is the second-least populated province or territory in Canada, with a population of 43,964 as ...

* Richard Garceau,

New Brunswick New Brunswick (french: Nouveau-Brunswick, , locally ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada. It is one of the three Maritime provinces and one of the four Atlantic provinces. It is the only province with both English and ...

* Heather Hannah, Northwest Territories * Mel Krajden,

British Columbia British Columbia (commonly abbreviated as BC) is the westernmost province of Canada, situated between the Pacific Ocean and the Rocky Mountains. It has a diverse geography, with rugged landscapes that include rocky coastlines, sandy beaches, ...

* Christie Lutsiak,

Alberta Alberta ( ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada. It is part of Western Canada and is one of the three prairie provinces. Alberta is bordered by British Columbia to the west, Saskatchewan to the east, the Northwest Ter ...

* Richard Massé,

Quebec Quebec ( ; )According to the Canadian government, ''Québec'' (with the acute accent) is the official name in Canadian French and ''Quebec'' (without the accent) is the province's official name in Canadian English is one of the thirtee ...

* Jessica Minion,

Saskatchewan Saskatchewan ( ; ) is a province in western Canada, bordered on the west by Alberta, on the north by the Northwest Territories, on the east by Manitoba, to the northeast by Nunavut, and on the south by the U.S. states of Montana and North Dak ...

* Michael Patterson, Nunavut * Gail Tomblin Murphy,

Nova Scotia Nova Scotia ( ; ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada. It is one of the three Maritime provinces and one of the four Atlantic provinces. Nova Scotia is Latin for "New Scotland". Most of the population are native Eng ...

* Paul Van Caeseele,

Manitoba , image_map = Manitoba in Canada 2.svg , map_alt = Map showing Manitoba's location in the centre of Southern Canada , Label_map = yes , coordinates = , capital = Winn ...

Purpose and goals

The CITF was to use a

serology Serology is the scientific study of serum and other body fluids. In practice, the term usually refers to the diagnostic identification of antibodies in the serum. Such antibodies are typically formed in response to an infection (against a given mic ...

"to survey representative samples of the population for the presence of antibodies to the virus". 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: '

References

External links

Types Of Corona Testing
COVID-19 pandemic in Canada National responses to the COVID-19 pandemic Health Canada Clinical pathology Serology Blood tests Epidemiology Immunologic tests Funding bodies of Canada Scientific organizations based in Canada Scientific organizations established in 2020 2020 establishments in Canada Organizations established for the COVID-19 pandemic {{Canada-org-stub