Richmond Hill doctor draws fire for reportedly handing out vaccine exemptions - Toronto Star

The Ontario Ministry of Health is demanding an investigation into reports a Richmond Hill doctor drew large crowds apparently willing to pay $50 for medical exemptions for the COVID-19 vaccine at a local walk-in clinic over the weekend.

Dr. Christopher Hassell has stepped away from his practice at York Medical Clinic on Yonge Street, according to Wayne Samuels, general manager of Medicentres Canada. Yorkregion.com has not been able to reach Hassell for comment.

Ministry of Health spokesperson David Jensen said Health Minister Christine Elliott is aware of the incident and ministry officials alerted the registrar of the province's college of physicians. Jensen said if the allegations are true, it is a "serious offence and we expect the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario (CPSO) to conduct a full review."

Medical exemptions must align with definitions and parameters outlined in the ministry's guidance, he said, adding it is an act of professional misconduct to sign or issue documents that are false or misleading. Potential sanctions range from fines to the revocation of a physician's certification of registration, he said.

Shae Greenfield, spokesperson for the CPSO, said the college is aware of the information posted over the weekend to social media and is looking into it. He said at this point, the CPSO is limited in what it can say.

Residents and local businesses reported seeing hundreds of people outside the clinic near Yonge and Elgin Mills, starting early Saturday morning.

"I saw a line of people wrapped around the building … lots of unmasked people really close together and there were four or so police cars. This was at 9:15 a.m.," said Richmond Hill resident Sharon Kirsh, who drove by the site.

Sylvia Itzkovitch Ichelson, who lives in the community, said she observed more than 200 people Saturday morning.

"I stopped a young couple and asked them if they were there for COVID shots and they said, 'Hell no, we are here for an exemption letter.' "

An online forum included postings from people who claimed they were among about 500 lining up as early as 4 a.m. hoping to get exemption letters signed by the doctor.

According to this online forum, the letter reportedly said "I, Christopher H. Hassell, a duly qualified medical doctor licensed to practise in the Province of Ontario, do make the following attestation: That I have knowledge of this patient from my past care of them and/or that I have recently examined him/her; that in my opinion he/she would be exposed to unacceptable medical risk should they receive any of the current immunizations for SARS-CoV-2; that they should not receive this form of medical treatment."

Yorkregion.com has not been able to confirm whether exemption letters were given to any clients and if so, what the contents were.

York Regional Police Const. Laura Nicolle confirmed police were called and attended, but said it was not a police matter.

A spokesperson for the City of Richmond Hill said bylaw officers were not notified.

Confronted with the crowd Saturday, Samuels, the Medicentres general manager, said staff at York Medical took steps to disperse the throngs and, in conjunction with Hassell, distributed flyers saying the clinic was not handing out exemptions on a walk-in basis.

"We also made clear we're not prescribing ivermectin or anything of that sort that's related to COVID-19."

He said more people visited the clinic the following day, but they were advised to consult their family physician.

"At York Medical Medicentres, we have been very firm in our promotion of vaccines," he said. "In fact, we gave out over 600 first doses in our York medical clinics including Richmond Hill."

Samuels said he does not know how the swarm began. "We searched social media, we looked for rumours online. We could not find anything."

Hassell told clinic staff he did not know either, Samuels said.

Hassell is not a full-time physician at York Medical, Samuels said, but covers the occasional weekend walk-in shift.

"Dr. Hassell reached out to us after his shift on Saturday and said he would like to step away from practice for a little bit," Samuels said. "He expressed it was unexpected, the number of people that showed up, and he let us know he felt it was best."

Hassell is registered with the CPSO as a licensed family physician. On the website greaterimmunity.com, he describes himself as board certified in family medicine in 1986, working as a holistically oriented family physician since 1979 and also includes that he is a "registered herbalist."

His website linked to another site called balancedimmunity.org. This website repeats myths and conspiracy theories about the virus and questions the validity of public health measures, saying "many experts are now questioning just how dangerous this virus actually is, rating it as less dangerous than the seasonal flu." It also recommends taking ivermectin, a livestock deworming drug pushed by anti-vaxxers and the alt-right, which the U.S. Centers for Disease Control warns is unproven and dangerous.

Hassell appears to have faced restrictions since 2014 on his ability to prescribe certain medications.

A report from the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario said he has relinquished his prescribing privileges with respect to narcotics, controlled drugs, benzodiazepines and other monitored drugs.

The address listed online for Hassell's office on Bathurst Street in Richmond Hill appears to be vacant and derelict with a pile of mail addressed to Dr. Hassell on the porch and al Notice of Vacant Possession dated to 2018 attached to the window.

Hassell does have "courtesy privileges" at Mackenzie Health — meaning no direct patient care in either hospital but access to the hospital's programs and services for their patients — according to an emailed statement from the hospital.

"The recent (reported) actions of Dr. Hassell are in no way representative or reflective of the position of Mackenzie Health. No one should be providing medical exemptions for masking or vaccination beyond those deemed necessary. Mackenzie Health feels strongly that it is our collective responsibility to help curb and eliminate unnecessary hospitalizations and deaths associated with COVID-19."

Sue Gowans is a Toronto parent who is concerned about a high number of medical exemptions being declared and questions why a simple form is not required for medical exemptions to prevent fraud.

"A huge loophole in the Ontario vaccine passport system is the rising number of unvetted medical exemptions," she said. "What is the chief medical officer of health doing to ensure exemptions are real and vetted?"

Ontario is working to develop a way for legitimate medical exemptions to be built into the QR code, Jensen said.

"The verification application will read so people do not have to display their exemption form and businesses do not have to verify those forms."

The College advises doctors that there are very few acceptable medical exemptions to the vaccine (e.g. an allergist/immunologist-confirmed severe allergy or anaphylactic reaction to a previous dose of COVID-19 vaccination that can't be mitigated, or myocarditis/pericarditis after an mRNA vaccine).

Liberal Leader Steven Del Duca said the situation shows the province is set up to fail.

It took the Ford government many weeks to "finally see the light" around the need for vaccine certificates and came forward with a "half-hearted" and confusing approach, he said.

"This lack of clarity and high level of misinformation makes it much easier for people to try to take advantage of the system," he said.

Nathalie Mehra, executive director of the Ontario Health Coalition, said Ontario doctors are noticing an uptick in the number of people asking them for medical exemptions — people who don't seem to understand the situation with Delta is extremely serious, she said.

Better communication and advertising from the government could ensure the public is not vulnerable to misinformation and doctors trying to game the system, she added.

"Public health messaging has been far too weak," she said. "People don't understand that the Delta variant is much more infectious, that you can have up to 1,000 times the viral load in your nose when you're infected and each person infects seven to nine people as opposed to the previous COVID that infected one to two people."

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