Andrew Morris

Dr. Andrew Morris is a Canadian Specialist in Infectious Diseases, and a Professor of Medicine at the University of Toronto. He is the Director of the Antimicrobial Stewardship Program at the Sinai Health System and University Health Network.

He is Past Chair of the Antimicrobial Stewardship and Resistance Committee for the Association of Medical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases Canada and of the Antimicrobial Stewardship Committee for the Society for Hospital Epidemiology of America.

His academic interests overlap the fields of epidemiology, behaviour change techniques, implementation science, and quality improvement as they relate to antimicrobial use and resistance.

Dr. Morris has worked closely with regional, provincial, and federal governments and interprovincial organizations to help develop and coordinate antimicrobial stewardship efforts. He is widely sought as a speaker and consultant on antimicrobial stewardship, behaviour change, implementation, and quality improvement. He is an author of over 100 peer-reviewed publications.

Morris is notable in the COVID-19 pandemic due to his role on the Ontario COVID-19 Science Advisory Table. He reported no conflicts of interest, or competing interests, of any kind on any of his three declaration forms to the Table.^{1) 2) 3)}

Morris received his Bachelor of Sciences in 1990 and his MD in 1994, both from the University of Toronto.⁴⁾

He trained in Internal Medicine at U of T, where he subsequently completed sub-specialty training in Infectious Diseases in 1999. He went on to complete a Master of Science degree in Epidemiology from the Harvard School of Public Health in 2000.

Morris was involved in the establishment of organizational practices for antimicrobial stewardship that were developed by Accreditation Canada (AC), where he chairs the Antimicrobial Stewardship Working Group.^{5) 6)}

Morris is the past chair of the Antimicrobial Stewardship and Resistance Committee for the Association of Medical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases (AMMI) Canada.⁷⁾

Morris is a member of the Canadian Advisory Group on Antimicrobial Resistance. Fellow members include Scott Weese, Allison McGeer and John Conly.⁸⁾

Morris has been a member of the Health Standards Organization (HSO)’s Medication Management Technical Committee.⁹⁾

Morris is member of the Ontario COVID-19 Science Advisory Table, and Co-Chair of the Drugs & Biologics Clinical Practice Guidelines Working Group.¹⁰⁾

In this role, Morris played a role in advocating against the use of hydroxychloroquine to treat COVID-19. In an interview with U of T News, he dismissed the notion outright. The article described the drug as “experimental”, with Morris claiming “even the most evidence-based physicians have been swayed by the lure of hydroxychloroquine as a readily available treatment.”

“It has turned out to be a total scam,” he says. “It was clear there was no peer review, and no hard data on the benefit.” The antimicrobial committee recommended overwhelmingly in mid-April against prescribing hydroxychloroquine, even for the sickest patients. They have tried to be cautious in their recommendations because, as Morris says, “None of the drugs available so far are designed specifically to treat COVID-19. The likelihood of a game-changing treatment at this point in time is incredibly small.”¹¹⁾

Morris and colleague Peter Wu co-authored a paper on remdesivir for treatment of COVID-19, stating that its use may reduce recovery time but has no effect in mortality, or benefit in critically ill patients.¹²⁾

Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, Morris had been doing work on behalf of the Public Health Agency of Canada, along with Gerry Wright, to develop a pan-Canadian network to tackle antimicrobial-resistant infections.¹³⁾

In February, 2021, Morris testified to the Standing Committee on Health in the House to Commons that COVID-19 is a drug-resistant infection.

Morris is also the Chair of the Specialty Committee of Infectious Diseases with the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada.¹⁴⁾

Dr. Morris joined the Division of Infectious Diseases in the Department of Medicine at Mount Sinai Hospital, University Health Network and University of Toronto in 2007 as an Associate Professor.¹⁵⁾

Morris is the founding Director of the Antimicrobial Stewardship Program at Sinai Health System and University Health Network, formed in 2009.¹⁶⁾

He is currently Chair of the Antimicrobial Stewardship Committee for the Society for Healthcare Epidemiology of America (SHEA).¹⁷⁾

SHEA received $50,000.00 in funding from Pfizer for a project titled “SHEA Antimicrobial Stewardship Education Program: Transforming Practice, Improving Care”.^{18) 19)}

Morris is a Professor of Medicine in infectious diseases at the University of Toronto.²⁰⁾