Shelley Deeks

Dr. Shelley Deeks, MD, MHSc, FRCPC, FFAFPM, is a Canadian epidemiologist and public health specialist based in Toronto, Ontario.

She is notable in the COVID-19 pandemic due to her role as Chair of the National Advisory Committee on Immunization, responsible for approving COVID-19 vaccines in Canada.

Deeks completed her Doctor of Medicine from the University of Toronto in 1988. Her postgraduate training and fellowships include:

• FAFPHM (Fellow of the Australasian Faculty of Public Health Medicine), Sydney Australia, June 2009
• Canadian Field Epidemiologist, Ottawa, Ontario, 1996-1998
• FRCPC (Fellow of The Royal College of Physicians of Canada), Public Health and Preventive Medicine, University of Toronto, August 1996
• MHSc (Community Health and Epidemiology), University of Toronto, December 1994
• CCFP, Family Medicine, McMaster University, June 1990

Deeks is a principal investigator in the Canadian Immunization Research Network's “COVID-19 Vaccine Readiness” program, funded by a $3,516,000 grant from the Public Health Agency of Canada.¹⁾ This is not disclosed on her NACI profile, despite this constituting a potential conflict of interest.

On December 30, 2020, Deeks delivered a presentation on the safety and efficacy data of the COVID-19 vaccine product developed by Moderna.^{2) 3)} She appeared in videos promoting COVID-19 vaccines in 2021.^{4) 5) 6) 7)}

She is a member of the COVID-19 Immunity Task Force.⁸⁾

Deeks, Dr. Theresa Tam, and Dr. Howard Njoo were invited to a public debate during the Freedom Convoy 2022 protest with Dr. Roger Hodkinson, Dr. Paul Alexander and Dr. Byram Bridle.⁹⁾ They did not attend.

Deeks is an Associate Professor at the Dalla Lana School of Public Health at the University of Toronto.¹⁰⁾

Deeks is a member of the Management Committee for the Canadian Immunization Research Network (CIRN).¹¹⁾

In 2009, Deeks joined Public Health Ontario. She served as Chief of Communicable Diseases, Emergency Preparedness and Response and was at some point appointed Chief Health Protection Officer. Deeks was the “overall executive lead” on Ontario's COVID-19 pandemic response.¹²⁾ She announced her departure in December 2020, citing the Ontario government's failure to follow public health guidance.^{13) 14)}

Deeks has acted as a World Health Organization SAGE Polio Working Group Member since October 2017.¹⁵⁾ She has received compensation for travel expenses in the range of $1,000-$5,000.

From October 2018 to October 2020, Deeks served as a member of the Vaccine Innovation Prioritisation Strategy (VIPS) Steering Committee for GAVI, the vaccine alliance. She has received compensation for travel expenses in the range of $1,000-$5,000.

In February 2021, Deeks was appointed the inaugural public health surveillance medical officer of Nova Scotia.¹⁶⁾ The press release said she would “lead Public Health surveillance, support epidemiologists and support Nova Scotia's publicly funded immunization program”.¹⁷⁾

In October 2021, Deeks and Nova Scotia’s Chief Medical Officer of Health Dr. Robert Strang criticized media allegations that healthcare providers were failing to identify and report adverse reactions to the COVID-19 vaccines, asserting that the risk of a serious adverse event was “about seven for every 100,000”.¹⁸⁾

Deeks is a member of the Canadian Federal/Provincial/Territorial Special Advisory Committee (SAC) under the Public Health Agency of Canada.¹⁹⁾

Deeks is the Chair of the National Advisory Committee on Immunization (NACI).²⁰⁾ She previously served as Chair of the National Advisory Committee on Immunization (NACI) Herpes Zoster Working Group, and Vice-chair of NACI before her ultimate promotion to Chair.

She is a member of the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, serving as a liaison representative on behalf of NACI.^{21) 22)}

Deeks' areas of research interest include communicable disease outbreaks, vaccine safety, vaccine program evaluation, human papillomavirus vaccine, herpes zoster vaccine, and polio eradication.²³⁾

She has received funding from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR), Canadian Immunization Research Network (CIRN), Institute for Clinical Evaluative Sciences (ICES), Ottawa Hospital Foundation, Public Health Agency of Canada, SickKids, University of Toronto, and the University of Ottawa.

In a paper published June 15, 2015, Deeks advocated for the use of mobile devices (cell phones) to improve centralized vaccine databases. She proposes there are other possibilities such devices present “that could be exploited to improve immunization information systems include mobile reporting of adverse events following immunization, the capacity to scan 2D barcodes, and enabling bidirectional communication between individuals and public health officials.” The authors acknowledge the issues of “privacy of data, access, and equity concerns, obtaining consent and ensuring adoption of technology at sufficiently high rates.” Lastly, the paper references the use of such a system as a passport for cross-border travel.²⁴⁾

The paper was co-authored with the founders of Sigvaria Mobile Technologies, the inventors of ImmunizeCA, a smartphone application with various vaccine-related capabilities resembling an early version of a digital vaccine passport.²⁵⁾

In 2015, Deeks co-authored a paper exploring the correlation between influenza vaccination and Guillain-Barré syndrome (GBS).²⁶⁾ One of the other authors is Allison McGeer, former member of NACI and current member of the Ontario COVID-19 Science Advisory Table. The study was funded by the Institute for Clinical Evaluative Sciences (ICES), Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR), University of Toronto, University of Ottawa, and the Ottawa Hospital Foundation.²⁷⁾

She was also an author on a 2018 paper supporting vaccine safety for children, funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and Institute for Clinical Evaluative Sciences (ICES).²⁸⁾ She co-wrote a safety study of rotavirus vaccines funded by the Canadian Immunization Research Network in 2017.²⁹⁾

Deeks co-authored a study reviewing the overall impact of Ontario's rotavirus vaccine program from 2005-2013, with “private RV vaccine sales data” provided from GlaxoSmithKline and Merck.³⁰⁾

She also contributed to a presentation on increasing uptake of adult immunizations presented by Immunize Canada in 2015.³¹⁾

Deeks delivered a number of presentations at the Canadian Immunization Conference in 2018. The event was organized by the Canadian Association for Immunization Research, Evaluation and Education (CAIRE), the Canadian Public Health Association (CPHA), the Canadian Paediatric Society, and the Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC), and sponsored by Vaccines411, GlaxoSmithKline, Innovative Medicines Canada, Medicago, Merck, Pfizer, Public Health Ontario, Sanofi, Seqirus and Valneva.³²⁾

Deeks presented at the 2018 Ontario Public Health Convention on the topics of the epidemiology of varicella, waning measles immunity in infants, and mumps activity in Ontario.