I get lots of kind words from both friends and strangers from my former hometown of Toronto about my sister, Dr. Eileen de Villa, Toronto’s Medical Officer of Health. She leads Toronto Public Health, Canada’s largest public health agency and which provides public health programs for Canada’s largest city and economic capital. As you might expect, she’s been working very long days for the past weeks, as COVID-19 has grown from mystery illness to epidemic to full-blown pandemic, while maintaining a level of chill required to manage a crisis of this magnitude.
Here’s she is at a news conference in March 12th, courtesy of CP24, Toronto’s 24-hour local news channel…
…and here she is on March 13th:
Her birthday was last week, and I was able to FaceTime with her for only a few minutes. She didn’t have any time to celebrate, as it’s been super-long days seven days a week for her, as she and her team manage Toronto’s response to this crisis. It’s a difficult, high-stakes challenge, but I’m glad that she’s on the case.
Once this is over, be sure to send her your thanks.
Worth checking out
Here’s Eileen speaking about the opioid crisis:
And here’s some reading material from the Toronto media:
- Toronto Star: How Toronto’s chief medical officer became the people’s doctor
- Toronto Life: Q&A: Toronto’s chief medical officer on supervised injection sites, and why drug leniency may be good policy
- Toronto Life: Q&A: Eileen de Villa, Toronto’s medical officer of health, on dealing with Doug Ford’s cuts
11 replies on “Toss some thanks to my sister (or: Dr. Eileen de Villa: Helping Toronto fight COVID-19)”
Oh yeah, I figured that was your sister. She’s doing great – it’s a defining moment for her.
I always feel like we are in good hands.
Thank you, Dr. Eileen!!
[…] doing my part to fight COVID-19 by practicing social distancing, as recommended by the public health specialist I trust the most. That means working from home, which isn’t so bad, especially with the current weather in Tampa […]
hi joey d.
i thought the fabulous dr. eileen was your sister. you look like siblings.
she is calm and smart… very reassuring.
sending her love through bro joey
xo michelle
For more Dr. Eileen de Villa appreciation see here, https://twitter.com/de_scarf
[…] On Sunday, I wrote about my sister, Dr. Eileen deVilla, who is the Medical Officer for Health for th… Simply put, she’s the head of public health for Canada’s largest city and economic capital. This is a big responsibility, and with the COVID-19 pandemic, the work she does in coordinating the effort to combat the spread of COVID-19 is literally a matter of life and death. […]
I love hearing Dr. de Villa speak, she’s so intelligent, articulate and professional. Best of luck to you and yours!
From the first moment i watch Dr. de Villa speak i said to my wife there is one smart women . I listened to every thing she had to say and agreed with her 100% . She is very very Professional and Accurate , one thing i find at a terrible time like this how calm and posed she is when asked questions from the media very proud of her . Thank you Dr. de Villa
[…] five weeks since I’ve been doing the social distancing thing (following the recommendations of the best damn public health official I personally know). For the foreseeable future, I’m listing only online events. I’m looking forward to the day […]
Very nice words re Dr. Eileen de Villa. Sadly, what she said re Covid-19
on CBC television is simply not true. Covid-19 is a hoax that is
intended to be a rationale for mass vaccinations of the population.
Rick Tufts
Toronto
[…] Life’s June 2020 issue features a story on my sister titled Eileen de Villa Is Not Freaking Out. Regular readers of this blog will know that my sister Eileen is Toronto’s Medical Officer for Heal… which means she oversees the public health agency for Canada’s largest city and economic […]