Allison McGeer

Allison J. McGeer 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. She has a research interest in adult immunization and emerging issues.

Since February 2020, she has been working on research related to the prevention and management of COVID-19. McGeer has been a member of Canada’s National Advisory Committee on Immunization (NACI).¹⁾

McGeer presented at the 2021 Annual Conference for the Association of Medical Microbiology and Infectious Disease (AMMI) Canada and the Canadian Association for Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases (CACMID). She received the John G. FitzGerald – CACMID Outstanding Microbiologist Award.²⁾

McGeer is a member of the Canadian Advisory Group on Antimicrobial Resistance. Fellow members include Scott Weese, Andrew Morris and John Conly.³⁾

McGeer is a member of the COVID-19 Expert Panel. It is described as a “multidisciplinary science expert panel” created to advise the Chief Scientific Advisor, Dr. Mona Nemer, “on the latest scientific developments relevant to COVID-19. This information will assist the CSA in providing current and cross-disciplinary advice to the Prime Minister [ Justin Trudeau ] and government.”⁴⁾

She is also a former member of the National Advisory Committee on Immunization (NACI), the group responsible for approving COVID-19 vaccine products for use in Canada.

McGeer explained that NACI deliberations to approve COVID-19 vaccines can’t be available to the public because “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.”⁵⁾

As of at least 2015, McGeer is listed as a Partner at the National Collaborating Centre for Infectious Diseases.⁶⁾ The centre is hosted at the University of Manitoba, and receives funding from the Public Health Agency of Canada.

McGeer is a member of the Ontario COVID-19 Science Advisory Table, which is hosted and funded by the Dalla Lana School of Public Health at the University of Toronto and Public Health Ontario.⁷⁾

McGeer is a member of the Ontario Immunization Advisory Committee (OIAC) under Public Health Ontario.⁸⁾

McGeer is an Infectious Disease Specialist and Senior Clinician Scientist at the Lunenfeld-Tanenbaum Research Institute of the Sinai Health System in Toronto, Ontario.^{9) 10)} 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.”

In her role at SHS, McGeer acted as a Local Principal Investigator for the “CONvalescent Plasma for Hospitalized Adults With COVID-19 Respiratory Illness” (CONCOR-1) study, funded by Canadian Blood Services, Héma-Québec, University of Toronto (Toronto COVID-19 Action Initiative 2020), Université de Montréal, Canadian Institutes of Health Research COVID-19 May 2020 Rapid Research Funding Opportunity, Ontario COVID-19 Rapid Research Fund, Fondation du CHU Ste-Justine, Ministère de l’Économie et de l’Innovation du Québec, Fonds de Recherche du Québec, University Health Network Emergent Access Innovation Fund, Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre (University Health Academic Health Science Centre Alternative Funding Plan; Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre Foundation), Saskatchewan Ministry of Health, University of Alberta Hospital Foundation, Alberta Health Services COVID-19 Foundation Competition, Fondation du CHUM, Ottawa Hospital Academic Medical Organization, Ottawa Hospital Foundation COVID-19 Research Fund, Sinai Health System Foundation, and McMaster University.¹¹⁾

McGeer is a Professor in Laboratory Medicine and Pathobiology at the Dalla Lana School of Public Health at the University of Toronto.¹²⁾ Her research interests are “clinical effectiveness, health services delivery, health care system, surveillance for infectious diseases, population and public health”.

Relevant studies include:

• December 23, 2020: Influenza Vaccine Effectiveness Against All-Cause Mortality Following Laboratory-Confirmed Influenza in Older Adults, 2010-2011 to 2015-2016 Seasons in Ontario, Canada¹³⁾
  • Funded by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) and Public Health Ontario.
  • McGeer reported Conflicts of Interest due to receiving “grants and personal fees” from Sanofi Pasteur and Merck; personal fees from GlaxoSmithKline; and grants from Seqirus.

• August 27, 2021: Neutralizing antibody responses to SARS-CoV-2 variants in vaccinated Ontario long-term care home residents and workers^{14) 15)}
  • McGeer discloses that she had received “investigator-initiated research grants from Pfizer, Inc, and funds for participation in advisory boards from Pfizer and Moderna.”

• September 2, 2021: Evaluation of the SARS-CoV-2 Antibody Response to the BNT162b2 Vaccine in Patients Undergoing Hemodialysis¹⁶⁾
  • McGeer disclosed that she received funding from Pfizer, Merck, Medicago, Moderna, Janssen, GlaxoSmithKline, and AstraZeneca.