Skip to main content

Profiles

Ryan Imgrund

Ryan Matthew Leslie Imgrund[1] is a Canadian biostatistician and former teacher based in Newmarket, Ontario. He was previously employed as a biostatistician at Southlake Regional Health Centre and as head of the science department at Sacred Heart Catholic High School, part of the York Catholic District School Board.[2][3] He claimed to be a corporate consultant working with "several Fortune 500 companies, Ontario public health units, and a private Ontario lab" to discover, analyze and interpret "scientific, mathematical, economic and retail trends."[4] He is a member of Dicentra's scientific advisory board,[5] and has contributed to research for the Public Health Agency of Canada,[6] SickKids[7] and the Ontario COVID-19 Science Advisory Table.[8]

Imgrund is a signatory to the John Snow Memorandum.[9] He changed his persona on Twitter to "Generative AI" at some point in 2023.[10][11]

History

Imgrund graduated in 2002 with a Bachelors Degree in biomedical science from the University of Guelph,[12] "where he took classes in epidemiology" and claimed to have worked on "a third-year research project with the Public Health Agency of Canada, mathematically modelling the bacterial diseases of campylobacter and e coli."[2:1][13] However, PHAC wasn't formed until 2004.[14]

He was reportedly subsequently retained by Health Canada to continue providing data analysis of infectious diseases.[2:2]

In 2003, Imgrund graduated from the University of Western Ontario Faculty of Education with a Bachelor of Education. He was certified by the Ontario College of Teachers on June 19, 2003.[12:1]

Between 2005 and 2019, Imgrund is alleged to have sexually and psychologically abused multiple students under his care.[15]

COVID-19

In mid-March 2020, Imgrund began posting COVID-19 modelling data on Twitter using data provided by Public Health Ontario in an effort "to estimate how bad things would get in Ontario."[2:3] Shortly afterwards, Southlake Regional Health Centre asked Imgrund to model local COVID-19 numbers as their biostatistician.[2:4][13:1][7:1]

Imgrund's work and methodology was adopted by several public health units in Ontario, including Ottawa Public Health, Peel Public Health and Six Nations Health Services.[13:2] He became a go-to source for COVID-19 data for media publications including the Toronto Star, which began citing him in June 2020.[16]

Imgrund claimed to not have left his home without a face mask between at least April-June 2020.[2:5] He contributed to guidelines published in July 2020 by SickKids on reopening schools in the fall.[7:2]

He signed the John Snow Memorandum some time after its October 2020 publication.[9:1] In late October 2020, Imgrund predicted future lockdown measures would be imposed in Ontario later in the fall.[1:1] He left his position at Southlake sometime in the fall of 2020.[13:3]

On March 1, 2021, Rebekah Jones of the Data Access, Transparency and Advocacy Group announced Imgrund as a recipient of the "COVID-19 Data Hero" award.[13:4] On April 17, 2021, Imgrund advertised Canada Strong Masks on Twitter.[17] Imgrund contributed to a July 2021 science brief of the Ontario COVID-19 Science Advisory Table (OST) titled School Operation for the 2021-2022 Academic Year in the Context of the COVID-19 Pandemic.[8:1]

In October 2021, Imgrund initiated a protest demanding that teachers wear N95 respirators instead of medical masks. The Ontario English Catholic Teachers' Association warned its members not to participate as wearing N95 masks would violate their terms of employment and could result in dismissal.[18]

On November 1, 2021, Imgrund stated that transmission of SARS-CoV-2 in schools was a significant source of COVID-19 cases between households.[19] On November 24, 2021, clinical research organization and consulting firm Dicentra announced that Imgrund had joined its scientific advisory board "to help expedite recruitment for trials related to COVID-19."[5:1][20]

Sometime in 2021, media outlets including the Toronto Star stopped using Imgrund as a source due to his aggressive statements towards others on Twitter, especially those who questioned his work.[16:1]

In March 2022, Imgrund advocated for PCR testing to be available to everyone in Ontario prior to the lifting of mandatory face mask requirements.[21]

Imgrund called on his followers to join the Ontario Education Workers Rank-and-File Committee (OEWRFC) "to wage a struggle, independent of the trade unions, for the global elimination of the coronavirus, for major improvements in wages and working conditions in the current bargaining round, and for the defence of public education."[18:1]

On April 27, 2022, the Ontario College of Teachers suspended Imgrund's teacher certification on an interim basis. He resigned his certification on June 8, 2022, and it was fully revoked on June 12, 2022.[12:2] On August 18, 2022, the OCT's Investigation Committee referred Imgrund to the Discipline Committee on the basis of multiple counts of alleged sexual and psychological abuse towards students under his care.[22] On September 14, 2022, the Cross-Canada Educators Rank-and-File Safety Committee published a statement urging teachers and all workers to "reject the right-wing smear campaign on social media and in the corporate press" against Imgrund.[18:2]

Imgrund pleaded no contest in a June 12, 2023 hearing, during which the OCT found him guilty of sexual misconduct.[15:1] He was no longer allowed to teach at public schools.[23]

Publications

Further reading

  1. Pare, M. (2020, October 26). Further pandemic shut downs in Ontario “inevitable”: biostatistician. CityNews Kitchener. https://web.archive.org/web/20240606192739/https://kitchener.citynews.ca/2020/10/26/further-pandemic-shut-downs-in-ontario-inevitable-biostatistician-2823242/ ↩︎ ↩︎

  2. Kelly, D. (2020, June 26). How Southlake’s biostatistician is using Rt to track the impact of reopening. BradfordToday. https://web.archive.org/web/20201210154726/https://www.bradfordtoday.ca/coronavirus-covid-19-local-news/how-southlakes-biostatistician-is-using-rt-to-track-the-impact-of-reopening-2517908 ↩︎ ↩︎ ↩︎ ↩︎ ↩︎ ↩︎

  3. Coelho, S. G., Segovia, A., Anthony, S. J., Lin, J., Pol, S., Crosbie, J., Science, M., Matava, C. T., Parekh, R. S., Caldeira-Kulbakas, M., Carroll, S., Greenwood, J. L., Panzera, G., Imgrund, R., Osokin, K., & Korczak, D. J. (2022). Return to school and mask-wearing in class during the COVID-19 pandemic: Student perspectives from a school simulation study. Paediatrics & Child Health, 27(Supplement_1), S15–S21. https://doi.org/10.1093/pch/pxab102 ↩︎ ↩︎

  4. Ryan Imgrund. LinkedIn. Retrieved June 17, 2021, from http://archive.today/2021.06.17-052514/https://www.linkedin.com/in/ryan-imgrund-aa944b85/ ↩︎

  5. Punkkinen, K. (2021, November 24). Ryan Imgrund Joins dicentra’s Scientific Advisory Board to Expedite Recruitment for Trials Related to COVID-19. Medindia; PRNewswire. http://archive.today/2024.06.06-214743/https://www.medindia.net/health-press-release/ryan-imgrund-joins-dicentras-scientific-advisory-board-to-expedite-recruitment-for-trials-related-to-covid-19-558537-1.htm ↩︎ ↩︎

  6. Valdivieso-García, A., Imgrund, R., Deckert, A., Varughese, B. M., Harris, K., Bunimov, N., Reid-Smith, R., & McEwen, S. (2009). Cost analysis and antimicrobial susceptibility testing comparing the E test and the agar dilution method in Campylobacter jejuni and Campylobacter coli. Diagnostic Microbiology and Infectious Disease, 65(2), 168–174. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.diagmicrobio.2009.07.008 ↩︎

  7. Mills, S. (2020, August 1). Transmission trouble: Statistician concerned over back-to-school plan. CBC News. https://web.archive.org/web/20240606210508/https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/ottawa/statistician-worried-back-to-school-plan-risky-1.5671012 ↩︎ ↩︎ ↩︎

  8. Science, M., Thampi, N., Bitnun, A., Allen, U., Birken, C., Blackman, N., Cohen, E., Dubey, V., Dye, L., Gallagher-Mackay, K., Greer, A., Katz, G., Khan, S., Kim, J., Korczak, D., Leifso, K., Macdonald, L., Maltsev, A., Mccready, J., & Morris, A. (2021). School Operation for the 2021-2022 Academic Year in the Context of the COVID-19 Pandemic. Science Briefs of the Ontario COVID-19 Science Advisory Table., 2(38), 28. https://doi.org/10.47326/ocsat.2021.02.38.1.0 ↩︎ ↩︎

  9. Signatories of The John Snow Memo (201 - 400). John Snow Memorandum. Retrieved April 1, 2022, from http://archive.today/2022.04.01-052432/https://www.johnsnowmemo.com/signatories201400.html ↩︎ ↩︎

  10. Ryan Imgrund [@imgrund]. Twitter. Retrieved June 14, 2023, from http://archive.today/2023.06.14-154302/https://twitter.com/imgrund ↩︎

  11. Generative AI [@GenArtInt]. X (Formerly Twitter). Retrieved June 6, 2024, from http://archive.today/2024.06.06-205134/https://x.com/GenArtInt ↩︎

  12. Ryan Matthew Leslie Imgrund. Ontario College of Teachers. Retrieved February 10, 2024, from https://web.archive.org/web/20240210230318/https://apps.oct.ca/FindATeacher/memberdetail?id=463065 ↩︎ ↩︎ ↩︎

  13. Jones, R. (2021, March 1). Ryan Imgrund. COVID-19 Data Hero Awards. https://web.archive.org/web/20210305194528/https://dataheroawards.org/2021/03/01/ryan-imgrund/ ↩︎ ↩︎ ↩︎ ↩︎ ↩︎

  14. Lempert, R. (2021, May 12). Meet Ryan Imgrund: HS Science Teacher Whose Predictions Drive Donations For Other Interests. Canuck Law. http://archive.today/2021.05.12-111818/https://canucklaw.ca/meet-ryan-imgrund-hs-science-teacher-whose-predictions-drive-donations-for-other-interests/ ↩︎

  15. Bradley, J. (2023, June 14). COVID-obsessed Ontario teacher loses licence for sexual misconduct. Western Standard. http://archive.today/2024.06.06-194544/https://www.westernstandard.news/news/covid-obsessed-ontario-teacher-loses-licence-for-sexual-misconduct/article_54dab94e-0add-11ee-a081-2fc942635325.html ↩︎ ↩︎

  16. Vincent, D. (2022, September 30). When choosing expert sources, conduct matters. Toronto Star. http://archive.today/2024.06.06-200046/https://www.thestar.com/opinion/public-editor/when-choosing-expert-sources-conduct-matters/article_6fe8fd9b-2b18-59f5-95dc-e574bad68f8e.html ↩︎ ↩︎

  17. Generative AI [@GenArtInt]. (2021, April 17). “With 4,000+ cases per day I want to re-recommend the Canada Strong FN-N95 Disposable Respirator Mask...” [Tweet]. X (Formerly Twitter). http://archive.today/2024.06.06-204700/https://x.com/GenArtInt/status/1383464739359977476 ↩︎

  18. Cross-Canada Educators Rank-and-File Safety Committee. (2022, September 14). Oppose the right-wing smear campaign aimed at silencing Canadian anti-COVID activist and former teacher Ryan Imgrund! World Socialist Web Site. http://archive.today/2022.12.01-223752/https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2022/09/15/rdaj-s15.html ↩︎ ↩︎ ↩︎

  19. Biostatistician says school transmission a big concern as COVID-19 cases climb in Sudbury. (2021, November 1). CBC News. https://web.archive.org/web/20240606195136/https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/sudbury/sudbury-ryan-imgrund-covid-cases-1.6230822 ↩︎

  20. Quigley, J. (2022, September 9). Former Newmarket teacher faces sexual misconduct allegations. NewmarketToday. https://web.archive.org/web/20230107165215/https://www.newmarkettoday.ca/local-news/former-newmarket-teacher-faces-sexual-misconduct-allegations-5801846 ↩︎

  21. Gemmill, A. (2022, March 10). “Totally inappropriate” to lift mask mandates at this time, retired Sudbury doctor says. CBC News. http://archive.today/2024.06.06-193049/https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/sudbury/mask-mandate-to-be-lifted-reaction-1.6378813 ↩︎

  22. Bélisle, C. (2022, August 18). Notice of Hearing - Ryan Matthew Leslie Imgrund. Ontario College of Teachers. https://web.archive.org/web/20240112114856/https://oct.ca/NOHStream.pdf?documentType=NOH&id=1077&lang=E ↩︎

  23. DeClerq, K. (2023, June 13). Former Ontario teacher guilty of misconduct in connection with allegations of student abuse. CTV News Toronto. http://archive.today/2024.06.06-184610/https://toronto.ctvnews.ca/former-ontario-teacher-guilty-of-misconduct-in-connection-with-allegations-of-student-abuse-1.6439169 ↩︎

  24. COVID-19 School Study. Anthony Lab. Retrieved June 6, 2024, from https://web.archive.org/web/20240606202402/https://lab.research.sickkids.ca/anthony/covid-19-school-study/ ↩︎