David Fisman

David N. Fisman is a Canadian professor of epidemiology, internist and public health official in Toronto, Ontario. He is employed at the University of Toronto, and is a practicing physician within the University Health Network and Toronto East Health Network.

He was a member of the Ontario COVID-19 Science Advisory Table until his resignation in August 2021. He came under fire related to an undisclosed conflict of interest regarding school closures. He has received funds from AstraZeneca and Pfizer related to COVID-19.

Fisman attended the University of Western Ontario, then the Harvard University School of Public Health for his Master of Public Health.¹⁾

Fisman has been a paid speaker at events for Canadian Association of Alternative Securities and Assets.²⁾

Fisman was appointed in 2001 as Associate Medical Officer of Health for the City of Hamilton, Ontario in the Department of Public Health.³⁾

Fisman has acted as a pro bono advisor to environmental law charity Ecojustice.⁴⁾

The Toronto Sun reported that Fisman was retained by the Elementary Teachers’ Federation of Ontario to provide an opposing opinion on school reopenings in a document dated September 2020. Fisman served on the science table at the same time. It’s a situation that one leading expert says is a potential conflict of interest and Ontario Premier Doug Ford’s office calls “deeply concerning.”

“Where a person receives payment for speaking on behalf of a special interest group, it would almost certainly be appropriate to declare this as a potential conflict of interest when working in roles that are even slightly related,” explained Dr. Euzebiusz Jamrozik, from the bioethics research centre at Oxford University, in an email to the Sun.⁵⁾

This conflicted affiliation is further concerning because the Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan (with which the ETFO is surely associated) is a member organization of the World Economic Forum,⁶⁾ and holds financial stakes in several companies that benefit financially from the maintaining of online learning and mandatory masking and vaccination policies.⁷⁾ Those companies include Mastercard, BlackRock, Blackstone, 3M (who manufactures masks), Abbott, Johnson & Johnson, and many others.⁸⁾

Fisman is a partner at the National Collaborating Centre for Infectious Diseases (NCCID).⁹⁾

Fisman was a member of the Ontario COVID-19 Science Advisory Table, until he resigned in August 2021.¹⁰⁾ The reason for his resignation was allegedly that the group was sitting on data that predicted “a grim Fall” for 2021, and that politics were influencing decision making as well as the way in which information was shared with the public.¹¹⁾

Fisman is a member of the Ontario Medical Association Speakers Bureau, where he can be hired (and paid) to speak about infectious diseases, public health and epidemiology.¹²⁾

Titles of his various presentations include “Infectious Diseases and Climate Change: What's the Connection?”, “Epidemiology, Modeling and Forecasting of COVID-19: The Nuts and Bolts”, and “Mathematical Modeling of Infectious Diseases–An Introduction for Mathophiles and Mathophobes Alike”.

Fisman is a paid advisor to the Ontario Nurses Association related to COVID-19.¹³⁾

Fisman worked as a scientist at SickKids from September 2006 - August 2009.¹⁴⁾ While in this position he published research on the seasonality of infectious diseases funded by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID).¹⁵⁾

Fisman has hospital privileges as a practicing internist at Michael Garron Hospital within the Toronto East Health Network.¹⁶⁾

MGH is funded through the Michael Garron Hospital Foundation by BMO Financial Group, RBC (Royal Bank of Canada), Scotiabank, TD Bank Group, CIBC, Shoppers Drug Mart, Manulife, HLS Therapeutics, Deloitte, KPMG, Citi, PayPal, Salesforce, the Globe and Mail, Air Canada, Cadillac Fairview, Bell Canada, PricewaterhouseCoopers, Boehringer Ingelheim, Honda Motor, Honeywell, TELUS, and United Way.^{17) 18)}

Fisman is a practicing physician at University Health Network.¹⁹⁾

Fisman has been a professor of epidemiology at the Dalla Lana School of Public Health at the University of Toronto since September 2009.^{20) 21)} He was recently announced as a professor at the new Institute for Pandemics at U of T.^{22) 23)}

He was a teacher for Isha Berry during her PhD.²⁴⁾

Fisman is a paid member of COVID-19 related advisory boards for Pfizer and AstraZeneca.²⁵⁾

Fisman has been featured as a presenter and scientific author associated with the Institute on Science for Global Policy.^{26) 27)}

• May 8, 2023: Study of Hospitalizations in Canada Quantifies Benefit of COVID-19 Vaccine to Reduce Death, ICU Admissions