Eileen de Villa is an American-Canadian physician and public health official based in Toronto, Ontario. She is notable in the declared COVID-19 pandemic due to her role as Medical Officer of Health for the City of Toronto.
de Villa is married to Richard Choi, a St. Joseph's Health Centre-employed physician who has direct financial ties to AstraZeneca, Bayer, Boehringer Ingelheim, Eli Lilly, HLS Therapeutics, Novartis, Pfizer, Sanofi, and Servier.[1] This was raised as a potential conflict of interest in March 2021 due to de Villa's role in imposing restrictive public health measures in anticipation of new pharmaceutical products to combat COVID-19, including COVID-19 vaccines.[2][3]
Career
de Villa is the former Medical Officer of Health for Toronto, employed by Toronto Public Health.[4] She announced her resignation on May 14, 2024, effective at the end of the year.[5]
Good afternoon, Toronto. Today I am announcing my resignation as Toronto's Medical Officer of Health, effective December 31, 2024.https://t.co/snuzAOPW6N
— Dr. Eileen de Villa (@epdevilla) May 14, 2024
Publications
- April 28, 2015: "The evidence base of primary research in public health emergency preparedness: a scoping review and stakeholder consultation"
- Published in BMC Public Health
- Co-authored by Yasmin Khan, Ghazal Fazli, Bonnie Henry, Charoula Tsamis, Moira Grant and Brian Schwartz
- Funded by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR)
External links
Verma, S., Bucci, C., Choi, R., & Gupta, A. (2020, June 12). Navigating Vascular Protective Strategies in HighRisk Patients During the Current Era: Practical Applications. CardioVascUpdate. https://web.archive.org/web/20210304170904/https://cardiovascupdate.ca/files/2020/CV Update Symposium-Presentation.pdf ↩︎
Staley, G. (2021, March 4). Toronto’s Medical Officer, Dr. Eileen De Villa’s husband has financial relationships with major vaccine manufacturers - is this a conflict of interest? Diverge Media. http://archive.today/2021.03.05-001016/https://divergemedia.ca/2021/03/04/torontos-medical-officer-dr-eileen-de-villas-husband-has-financial-relationships-with-major-vaccine-manufacturers-is-this-a-conflict-of-interest/ ↩︎
McGovern, C. (2021, March 8). Toronto lockdown czar’s husband has “financial ties” to Pfizer, AstraZeneca. LifeSiteNews. http://archive.today/2021.11.03-043256/https://www.lifesitenews.com/news/toronto-lockdown-czars-husband-has-financial-ties-to-pfizer-astrazeneca/ ↩︎
Toronto Public Health. (2019, July 26). About Dr. Eileen de Villa. City of Toronto. Retrieved November 23, 2021, from https://www.toronto.ca/city-government/accountability-operations-customer-service/city-administration/staff-directory-divisions-and-customer-service/toronto-public-health/about-dr-eileen-de-villa ↩︎
Dr. Eileen de Villa [@epdevilla]. (2024, May 14). “Good afternoon, Toronto. Today I am announcing my resignation as Toronto’s Medical Officer of Health, effective December 31, 2024.” [Post]. X (Formerly Twitter). http://archive.today/2024.06.07-171634/https://x.com/epdevilla/status/1790461695116165252 ↩︎
