¶ College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario
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The College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario (CPSO) is the governing body for the profession of medicine in the Province of Ontario, Canada.[1]
¶ History
On March 24, 2020, the CPSO Executive Council met to discuss the potential impact of the declared COVID-19 pandemic on Council business. The Council declared an emergency under CPSO’s Declared Emergency ByLaw and directed to extend the Council Elections for Districts 5 and 10, which were originally scheduled to be held on June 9, 2020.[2] By May 2020, the CPSO noted they were anticipating a high volume of complaints against senior public health officials, and many related to public health measures and delays in cancer surgeries, mammograms and the like.
¶ Censorship and Discipline of Doctors
On April 30, 2021, the CPSO released a statement on “Public Health Misinformation” accusing Ontario doctors of “using social media to spread blatant misinformation and undermine public health measures”.[3][4]
In response, a “broad and diverse group of Canadian physicians from across Canada” released a declaration named the “Declaration of Canadian Physicians for Science and Truth”. They described the CPSO's statement as “unethical, anti-science and deeply disturbing.”[5] As of January 12, 2022, there were 718 signatory physicians and 20,171 on behalf of concerned citizens.
¶ Misleading the Public
The CPSO published a “COVID-19 FAQs for Patients” webpage wherein they urge patients to “access information from centralized authorities such as Public Health Ontario, the Ministry of Health, and Health Canada.” The document employs language such as “protect each other while we work together to prevent the spread of the virus,” which the suggested masks and vaccine products do not do.
The group “strongly encourages all eligible Ontarians [aged 12 and over] to receive a COVID-19 vaccine,” followed by a deceptively unrelated declaration that “immunization is widely recognized as one of the most effective interventions for reducing the impact of infectious diseases.”[6]
In October 2022, the CPSO's website was updated to recommend doctors address “vaccine hesitant” patients with psychiatric medication and therapy.[7]
¶ Organization
CPSO is a member of the Federation of Medical Regulatory Authorities of Canada (FMRAC) and the International Association of Medical Regulatory Authorities (IAMRA). It is affiliated with the Ontario Physicians and Surgeons Discipline Tribunal.
¶ External links
Ministry of Economic Development. (2011, January 26). College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario. Ontario’s Regulatory Registry. http://archive.today/2022.02.22-015215/https://www.ontariocanada.com/registry/view.do?postingId=5502 ↩︎
Whitmore, N. (2020, May 14). Meeting of Council. India Document; College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario. https://web.archive.org/web/20220317014700/https://vdocument.in/meeting-of-council-notice-of-meeting-of-council-a-virtual-meeting-of-the-college.html ↩︎
CPSO - Statement on Public Health Misinformation. (2021, April 30). College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario. https://web.archive.org/web/20210430192106/https://www.cpso.on.ca/News/Key-Updates/Key-Updates/COVID-misinformation ↩︎
College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario [@cpso_ca]. (2021, April 30). CPSO Statement on Public Health Misinformation. [Tweet]. Twitter. http://archive.today/2022.07.25-161732/https://twitter.com/cpso_ca/status/1388211577770348544 ↩︎
Declaration of Canadian Physicians for Science and Truth. Retrieved January 12, 2022, from http://archive.today/2022.01.11-232431/https://canadianphysicians.org/ ↩︎
College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario (CPSO). (2021, November 15). COVID-19 FAQs for Patients. Retrieved November 30, 2021, from https://web.archive.org/web/20211116215608/https://www.cpso.on.ca/en/Public/Services/Patient-Help-Centre/COVID-19-FAQs-for-Patients ↩︎
Dzsurdzsa, C. (2022, October 11). Treat vaccine hesitancy with drugs and psychotherapy: Ontario College of Physicians. True North. http://archive.today/2022.10.13-205218/https://tnc.news/2022/10/11/treat-vaccine-hesitancy/ ↩︎