Women in Medicine: Dr. Theresa Tam

Canada’s Chief Public Health Officer, Dr. Theresa Tam (BMBS (UK), FRCPC) attended medical school in the United Kingdom before immigrating to Canada where she trained in pediatrics and specialized in infectious disease. She has maintained a ‘pourquoi pas’ attitude throughout her career that has helped her realize her vocation in public health, gain experience in the healthcare field—both around the globe and on Canadian soil—and advance into prominent leadership positions. Today, as Canada’s Chief Public Health Officer, known colloquially as Canada’s Top Doctor, Dr. Tam has been thrust into the spotlight as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. This article outlines her exciting career trajectory and explores the challenges she faces while informing Canadians of guidelines for staying healthy during the pandemic.

Does Collective Interest or Self-Interest Motivate Mask Usage as a Preventive Measure Against COVID-19?

The revised guidance on masks from public health officials has been one of the most significant COVID-19 policy reversals to date. Statements made at the outset of the pandemic, including those from the World Health Organization (WHO), the United States Surgeon General, and the Chief Public Health Officer of Canada, all actively discouraged asymptomatic members of the general public from wearing masks. However, on April 3, 2020, the United States Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) issued new recommendations that called for nonmedical masks, such as cloth face coverings, to be worn in public settings where other social distancing measures are difficult to maintain (Adams, 2020). Canadian public health officials quickly followed with their own guidance for wearing nonmedical masks or face coverings when out in public; however, they have stressed that doing so is optional for asymptomatic persons and should be seen as a complement to existing precautionary measures such as physical distancing and hand hygiene, particularly in cases where physical distancing may not be feasible (Public Health Agency of Canada, 2020). Emphasis was placed on nonmedical masks serving not to protect the wearer, but rather others who come within close proximity of the wearer. Echoing her public statements on the matter, Canada's chief public health officer Tweeted that “[w]earing a NON-MEDICAL mask in public settings has not been proven to add any protection TO the person wearing it, but it can be an additional way to prevent spread FROM an infected person to others” (Tam, 2020).

The Fever of War: Epidemic Typhus and Public Health in Revolutionary Mexico City, 1915–1917

This article examines Mexico City's typhus epidemic of 1915–16 and makes three central claims. First, the federal response to the outbreak, while laudable in light of the grim circumstances, was disjointed and excessively bureaucratic. Second, the epidemic drew out long-standing stereotypes of poor indigenous populations, leading people to make misguided linkages between the high incidence of typhus within those populations and their supposed moral or intellectual shortcomings. Third, the typhus epidemic prompted fundamental reforms to the nation's public health system. As a delegate to the constitutional convention of 1917, the nation's chief public health officer, general and doctor José María Rodríguez, successfully promoted his vision of a “sanitary dictatorship” that would operate according to strict authoritarian principles for the sake of efficiency. The epidemic thus shaped not only the human experience in that moment but also the course of revolutionary political reform in the years to come.