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Profiles

Allison McGeer

Allison Joan McGeer[1] is a Professor in Laboratory Medicine and Pathobiology at the Dalla Lana School of Public Health at the University of Toronto in Ontario, Canada. She is also an Infectious Disease Specialist and Senior Clinician Scientist at the Lunenfeld-Tanenbaum Research Institute of the Sinai Health System in Toronto. The bottom of the McGeer's staff directory page carries a message bar reading, “This website has been made possible through an unrestricted educational grant from Pfizer Canada Inc.”[2]

McGeer has a research interest in adult immunization and emerging issues. She is a member of the Clinical Trials Network, Provincial Collaborative Network and Serious Outcomes Surveillance Network of the Canadian Immunization Research Network (CIRN).[3]

Since February 2020, she has been working on research related to the prevention and management of COVID-19, including as a member of the leadership group for the COVID-19 Immunity Task Force (CITF)[4] and the steering committee for Ontario's COVID-19 Genomics Rapid Response Coalition (ONCoV).[5] McGeer has been a member of Canada’s National Advisory Committee on Immunization (NACI).[6] She is also a member of the Canadian Advisory Group on Antimicrobial Resistance[7] and the Ontario Immunization Advisory Committee (OIAC).[6:1] During the declared COVID-19 pandemic, she served on the COVID-19 Expert Panel[8] and the Ontario COVID-19 Science Advisory Table.[9]

History

As of at least 2015, McGeer is listed as a partner at the National Collaborating Centre for Infectious Diseases.[10]

COVID-19

On February 24, 2020, McGeer appeared at an event at the Dalla Lana School of Public Health with signage reading “Combat Against Covid-19 in the World” alongside several representatives of the Bethune Medical Development Association of Canada, including Isaac Bogoch, Xiaolin Wei and Mingyao Liu.[11]

McGeer received a grant in 2020 from Fast Grants for a project “to test whether exististing antivirals can be used to control outbreaks of COVID-19 in nursing homes.”[12] She also acted as co-principal investigator on a $132,644 grant from the Canadian Institutes for Health Research (CIHR) for a project titled “Assessing the Association Between Frailty and Outcome of COVID-19 Infection” alongside Melissa Andrew and Andrew Simor.[1:1]

McGeer acted as a Local Principal Investigator for the “CONvalescent Plasma for Hospitalized Adults With COVID-19 Respiratory Illness” (CONCOR-1) study.[13]

McGeer presented at the 2021 Annual Conference for the Association of Medical Microbiology and Infectious Disease Canada (AMMI) and the Canadian Association for Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases (CACMID). She received the John G. FitzGerald – CACMID Outstanding Microbiologist Award.[14]

In May 2021, McGeer explained that deliberations of the National Advisory Committee on Immunization (NACI) over the use of COVID-19 vaccines can’t be available to the public because NACI “has nothing like the budget or staff that would be needed” to do so, and despite the fact that the need for the agency to “gather and evaluate the available data relevant to vaccines,” she claims “they are not adequately resourced for rapid and comprehensive scientific assessment.”[15]

Beginning in August 2023, McGeer acted as an advisory panel member of the Review of the Federal Approach to Pandemic Science Advice and Research Coordination, tasked with conducting “a review of the federal approach to pandemic science advice and research coordination” for the Government of Canada.[16] The panel's report was published October 10, 2024.[17]

Activities

McGeer has received research, personal and advisory funding from AstraZeneca,[18] GlaxoSmithKline,[19] Janssen,[18:1] Medicago,[18:2] Merck,[19:1] Moderna,[20] Pfizer,[2:1] Sanofi Pasteur[19:2] and Seqirus.[19:3]

Publications

  1. Canadian Institutes of Health Research. Assessing the Association Between Frailty and Outcome of COVID-19 Infection. Canadian Research Information System. Retrieved March 26, 2022, from http://archive.today/2022.03.26-220033/https://webapps.cihr-irsc.gc.ca/funding/detail_e?pResearchId=9547899&p_version=CRIS&p_language=E&p_session_id= ↩︎ ↩︎

  2. Staff Directory: Allison McGeer. Department of Microbiology, Mount Sinai Hospital. Retrieved November 11, 2021, from http://archive.today/2021.11.11-075743/https://eportal.mountsinai.ca/Microbiology//staff/amcgeer.shtml ↩︎ ↩︎

  3. Researchers. CIRN | Canadian Immunization Research Network. Retrieved April 22, 2022, from http://archive.today/2022.04.22-083152/https://cirnetwork.ca/about-us/researchers/ ↩︎

  4. Previous CITF Governance Structures & Members. COVID-19 Immunity Task Force. Retrieved December 27, 2024, from https://web.archive.org/web/20241227204215/https://www.covid19immunitytaskforce.ca/previous-citf-governance-structures-members/ ↩︎

  5. Home. ONCoV. Retrieved September 10, 2022, from https://web.archive.org/web/20220910203044/https://www.oncov.ca/ ↩︎

  6. Ontario Immunization Advisory Committee (OIAC). (2022, May 5). Public Health Ontario. https://web.archive.org/web/20220810113330/https://www.publichealthontario.ca/en/about/our-organization/external-advisory-committees/oiac ↩︎ ↩︎

  7. Expert Advisory Group on Antimicrobial Resistance (EAGAR) - Membership. (2021, June 11). Government of Canada. http://archive.today/2022.01.27-052351/https://www.canada.ca/en/public-health/corporate/mandate/about-agency/external-advisory-bodies/list/expert-advisory-group-on-antimicrobial-resistance/membership-list.html ↩︎

  8. Communications and Marketing Branch. (2021, January 14). COVID-19 Expert Panel. Government of Canada. Retrieved November 29, 2021, from http://archive.today/2021.11.29-173324/https://www.ic.gc.ca/eic/site/063.nsf/eng/h_98013.html ↩︎

  9. About Us. Ontario COVID-19 Science Advisory Table. Retrieved January 19, 2024, from https://web.archive.org/web/20240119071924/https://covid19-sciencetable.ca/about/ ↩︎

  10. Partners. National Collaborating Centre for Infectious Diseases. Retrieved January 16, 2022, from http://archive.today/2022.01.16-200822/https://nccid.ca/partners/page/11/ ↩︎

  11. Dalla Lana School of Public Health. (2020, February 25). “Last night, the Bethune Medical Development Association of Canada hosted a media event at DLSPH. It featured five U of T experts who discussed efforts to combat COVID-19 in China and internationally…” [Post]. 登录 Facebook. https://web.archive.org/web/20221108062444/https://zh-cn.facebook.com/DallaLanaSchoolOfPublicHealth/posts/last-night-the-bethune-medical-development-association-of-canada-hosted-a-media-/2777310078984442/ ↩︎

  12. Home. Fast Grants. Retrieved December 23, 2021, from http://archive.today/2021.12.23-005332/https://fastgrants.org/ ↩︎

  13. Bégin, P., Callum, J., Jamula, E., Cook, R., Heddle, N. M., Tinmouth, A., Zeller, M. P., Beaudoin-Bussières, G., Amorim, L., Bazin, R., Loftsgard, K. C., Carl, R., Chassé, M., Cushing, M. M., Daneman, N., Devine, D. V., Dumaresq, J., Fergusson, D. A., Gabe, C., Glesby, M. J., … Arnold, D. M. (2021). Convalescent plasma for hospitalized patients with COVID-19: an open-label, randomized controlled trial. Nature medicine, 27(11), 2012–2024. https://www.nature.com/articles/s41591-021-01488-2 ↩︎

  14. Final Program - 2021 Annual Conference. AMMI. Retrieved February 2, 2023, from https://web.archive.org/web/20230202064048/https://www.ammi.ca/Content/2021 Final Program_FINAL.pdf ↩︎

  15. Semeniuk, I. (2021, May 11). Once a little-known health body, NACI finds itself in the pandemic spotlight over COVID-19 vaccine debate. The Globe and Mail. Retrieved November 9, 2021, from http://archive.today/2021.05.08-183436/https://www.theglobeandmail.com/canada/article-once-a-little-known-health-body-naci-finds-itself-in-the-pandemic/ ↩︎

  16. Review of the Federal Approach to Pandemic Science Advice and Research Coordination. (2024, January 29). Health Canada. http://archive.today/2024.02.07-224126/https://www.canada.ca/en/health-canada/corporate/about-health-canada/public-engagement/external-advisory-bodies/review-federal-approach-pandemic-science-advice-research-coordination.html ↩︎

  17. Walport, M., Cohen, É. A., Holmes, B., Marrie, T., McDonald, S., McGeer, A., & Razak, F. (2024, October 10). Report of the Expert Panel for the Review of the Federal Approach to Pandemic Science Advice and Research Coordination: The Time to Act is Now. Health Canada. https://www.canada.ca/content/dam/hc-sc/documents/corporate/about-health-canada/public-engagement/external-advisory-bodies/review-federal-approach-pandemic-science-advice-research-coordination/time-to-act/time-to-act.pdf ↩︎

  18. Yau, K., Abe, K. T., Naimark, D., Oliver, M. J., Perl, J., Leis, J. A., Bolotin, S., Tran, V., Mullin, S. I., Shadowitz, E., Gonzalez, A., Sukovic, T., Garnham-Takaoka, J., de Launay, K. Q., Takaoka, A., Straus, S. E., McGeer, A. J., Chan, C. T., Colwill, K., & Gingras, A.-C. (2021). Evaluation of the SARS-CoV-2 Antibody Response to the BNT162b2 Vaccine in Patients Undergoing Hemodialysis. JAMA Network Open, 4(9), e2123622. https://doi.org/10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2021.23622 ↩︎ ↩︎ ↩︎

  19. Chung, H., Buchan, S. A., Campigotto, A., Campitelli, M. A., Crowcroft, N. S., Dubey, V., Gubbay, J. B., Karnauchow, T., Katz, K., McGeer, A. J., McNally, J. D., Mubareka, S., Murti, M., Richardson, D. C., Rosella, L. C., Schwartz, K. L., Smieja, M., Zahariadis, G., & Kwong, J. C. (2020). Influenza Vaccine Effectiveness Against All-Cause Mortality Following Laboratory-Confirmed Influenza in Older Adults, 2010–2011 to 2015–2016 Seasons in Ontario, Canada. Clinical Infectious Diseases, 73(5), e1191–e1199. https://doi.org/10.1093/cid/ciaa1862 ↩︎ ↩︎ ↩︎ ↩︎

  20. Abe, K. T., Hu, Q., Mozafarihashjin, M., Samson, R., Manguiat, K., Robinson, A., Rathod, B., Hardy, W. R., Wang, J. H., Iskilova, M., Pasculescu, A., Fazel-Zarandi, M., Li, A., Paterson, A., Chao, G., Green, K., Gilbert, L., Barati, S., Haq, N., & Takaoka, A. (2021). Neutralizing antibody responses to SARS-CoV-2 variants in vaccinated Ontario long-term care home residents and workers. medRxiv. https://doi.org/10.1101/2021.08.06.21261721 ↩︎

  21. Moore, P. (2015, January 19). Flu shots decrease overall risk of acquiring Guillain-Barré Syndrome. Ottawa Hospital Research Institute. http://archive.today/2022.03.20-055953/http://www.ohri.ca/newsroom/story/view/512?l=en ↩︎