Theresa Tam


Theresa Tam is a Canadian physician and public servant who currently serves as the 3rd chief public health officer of Canada —initially acting in the role following the retirement of her predecessor, Gregory Taylor, on December 16, 2016—she was formally appointed on June 26, 2017.

Early life and education

Tam was born in British Hong Kong and grew up in the United Kingdom. She attended medical school at the University of Nottingham, earning a BMBS. She completed her pediatric residency at the University of Alberta, and a pediatric infectious diseases fellowship at University of British Columbia.

Career

Tam, a pediatric infectious disease specialist, was assistant deputy minister of the infectious disease prevention and control branch at PHAC.
Tam was a co-chair of a 2006 federal report on pandemic preparedness in the wake of the SARS outbreak in Canada, which envisioned a respiratory infection pandemic that was described in The Globe and Mail as foreshadowing the 2019-20 COVID-19 pandemic "with eerie accuracy."
Tam said the opioid crisis, which cost over 2,500 lives in Canada in 2016, could be higher than 3,000 in 2017 if the current trend continues. "This far surpasses the number of motor-vehicle fatalities." She said overprescription of opioids contributed to this trend.
Tam has played a leadership role in Canada's response to public health emergencies including severe acute respiratory syndrome, pandemic influenza H1N1, Ebola, and COVID-19.
Tam is on the Independent Oversight and Advisory Committee of the Health Emergencies Programme of the World Health Organization, a role she took up between April and June 2018.
Tam is an official advisor to the WHO's International Health Regulations Emergency Committee on 2019-nCoV.

2020 coronavirus pandemic

On 7 January 2020, when it appeared that there was a health crisis emerging in Wuhan, Tam advised Canadians: “There has been no evidence to date that this illness, whatever it’s caused by, is spread easily from person to person; no health care workers caring for the patients have become ill; a positive sign.”
At the end of January 2020, Tam said "no reason to be overly concerned" about COVID-19. On 23 January, Tam was a member of the WHO committee that broadcast that it was too early to declare a public health emergency of international concern. On 26 January, Tam stated "There is no clear evidence that this virus is spread easily from person to person. The risk to Canadians remains low." On January 27, Canada confirmed its first case. On 29 January, she told Canadians that "It's going to be rare, but we are expecting cases."
In February, cases in Canada grew from 4 to 20. During this time, Tam authorized the release of Canadians who had been quarantined for 14 days after their repatriation from Wuhan and several cruise ships.
March saw an explosion of cases in Korea, Europe, and then the US and Canada. The WHO declared COVID-19 to be a global pandemic. On 23 March 2020, Tam began appearing in public service announcements urging for personal hygiene and social distancing, and against unnecessary travel. The announcements will last until at least the end of April 2020.
On 6 April, Tam changed her recommendation to "wearing a non-medical mask, even if you have no symptoms, is an additional measure that you can take to protect others around you in situations where physical distancing is difficult to maintain" because of new data about pre-symptomatic and asymptomatic transmission. Tam had previously recommend against wearing masks because "it can sometimes make it worse, if the person puts their finger in their eye or touches their face under their mask", and that it can give a false sense of security.
On 23 April, Tam was appointed by Justin Trudeau to a new advisory body, the COVID-19 Immunity Task Force, whose mandate he declared to be the coordination of serological surveys across the country.
On 20 May, Tam strengthened her earlier mask recommendation stating "where COVID-19 activity is occurring, use of non-medical masks or face coverings is recommended as an added layer of protection when physical distancing is difficult to maintain".