Volume 7, Issue No. 23
OPINION/COMMENTARY
/ News That Fears None, Views That Favor Nobody /
. . . . . A community service of The Filipino Web Channel (TheFilipinoWebChannel@gmail. com) and the Philippine Village Voice (PhilVoiceNews@gmail.com) for the information and understanding of Filipinos and the diverse communities in North America . . . .
Our latest as of Monday, October 27, 2025
~ Nine months after the esteemed Filipino Canadian Dr. Eileen de Villa stepped down from her post as Toronto's top doctor to devote time to her family, a new Medical Officer of Health - Dr. Michelle Murti - takes over as head of Canada's largest local public health agency.
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SPOTLIGHT ON DR. MICHELLE MURTI
Toronto's Top Doctor Bares
Health Priorities for the City
By ROMEO P. MARQUEZ
Editor, The Filipino Web Channel
TORONTO - "The greatest honour of being the Medical Officer of Health is serving the people of Toronto," says Dr. Michelle Murti, a public health and preventive medicine physician who now heads Canada's largest local public health agency.
She assumed the position on September 3, 2025, replacing Dr. Eileen de Villa who stepped down in December 2024 after leading the unit for seven years starting in March 2017.
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"I see myself as a physician for the city, with Toronto residents as my patients," Dr. Murti stresses. "To me, serving the city of Toronto means maintaining our connection with people in creative and impactful ways."
She said "direct engagement and health promotion campaigns" are part of an initiative to "break through the noise, and provide meaningful information rooted in evidence that individuals and communities can action in their lives."
"It means recognizing that the work of public health involves working with our partners to help us better deliver our programs and services to residents," she adds.
Through a spokesman, Dr. Murti has bared her seven priorities in response to questions sent to her by email last week. These include:
Infectious disease and emergency preparedness, health equity, promoting healthy life spans, staff wellness and well-being, child and youth health, including student health, focus on building resilience post-COVID, improving population health, and being ready for future emergencies, and recognizing major local challenges: affordability, homelessness, opioid use.
According to Dr. Murti, she's "committed to advancing the City's key priorities and ensuring we make meaningful progress on the issues that matter most to our communities." (Background:
Toronto Public Health (TPH) is also focusing on "prebunking" which, she says, is "a way to teach people and prepare them to spot misinformation." It would hopefully end distrust among Toronto residents who questioned the efficacy of vaccines during the pandemic.
"Prebunking helps residents recognize manipulative tactics—such as emotional language, false experts, or misleading visuals before they take hold," she explains. "This proactive approach builds resistance to misinformation and strengthens public confidence in identifying credible sources."
One of the challenges faced by TPH during Dr. de Villa's term revolved around vaccines. Quite a number of residents had resisted being vaccinated. Even so, TPH had succeeded in tempering the spread of COVID-19.
Said Dr. de Villa in 2022: "I would be remiss if I did not reflect on the enormous toll that the past three years of the COVID-19 pandemic have had on Torontonians. Together, our actions protected Torontonians, particularly those at highest risk for severe COVID-19 disease, and helped preserve health system capacity."
Presently, TPH is in the process of a spirited drive. "Rebuilding trust also involves reminding people of what public health actually does," Dr. Murti says.
"Initiatives such as restaurant and pool inspections, home visits for new parents (with service in 43 languages), dental programs, disease surveillance, outbreak response and more. We need to engage directly through community town halls and education campaigns," she emphasizes.
TPH has released Toronto's Population Health Profile: Insight on the Health of Our City 
at a critical time in the City’s history. (Copyright 2025. All Rights Reserved).
at a critical time in the City’s history. (Copyright 2025. All Rights Reserved).
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