As Canada’s new chief public health officer, Dr. Gregory Taylor is the face of the country’s response to disease outbreaks such as the Ebola virus. (Public Health Agency of Canada)
Dr. Gregory Taylor has been appointed Canada’s new chief public health officer.
Taylor takes over from Dr. David Butler-Jones, who became a familiar public health spokesman during Canada’s SARS outbreak in 2003.
The role of the chief public health officer includes delivering public health information to Canadians, such as advice about the Ebola epidemic in Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia.
Butler-Jones, a top HIV researcher, stepped down in March. He suffered a stroke in 2012.
Taylor become the country’s deputy chief public health officer in 2012.
He obtained his medical degree from Dalhousie University in Halifax and completed a residency in family medicine, according to the Public Health Agency of Canada.
Canada announced an offer of 800 to 1,000 doses of an Ebola vaccine developed at the National Microbiology Laboratory in Winnipeg six weeks ago. But there are still questions about how and where to send it, Taylor said in an interview with CBC News.
“The 800 to 1,000 doses that we offered to WHO is still in Winnipeg,” Taylor said. “We’re getting very close to shipping some that.”
Canada has a small amount of doses compared with the number of people infected, Taylor said.
This type of vaccine also needs to be kept cold at all times to remain active, he explained. There also needs to be a receiving facility that’s able to accept it and patients need to give informed consent to use the experimental vaccine.
Taylor’s been involved in a range of federal chronic disease activities, the agency said.
