Medical regulator investigates co-founder of Covid Care
Toronto physician Dr. Ira Bernstein, co-founder of the Canadian Covid Care Alliance, is under investigation by the province’s medical regulator.
Shae Greenfield, a spokesperson for the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario, confirmed the investigation Friday, but said he could not disclose further details.
Bernstein, who has a family practice on Lawrence Ave. W., co-founded the alliance, a group known for spreading anti-vaccine misinformation and promoting unproven COVID-19 treatments, such as ivermectin and hydroxychloroquine.
Bernstein is family practice division head, mental health, at Humber River Hospital, and a member of the family practice executive committee. He is also an adjunct clinical lecturer at the University of Toronto’s medical school.
Bernstein is linked to Canadian Covid Telehealth, a covert prescription network that prescribed the Star ivermectin, despite scientific evidence that it doesn’t work.
In a video of a speech from November 2021, Bernstein announced the creation of the service. “We are going against the regulators, and the agencies are all battling us,” Bernstein said. “Health Canada does not approve. They’ve issued a statement against ivermectin, it’s not based on any credible science.”
Bernstein could not immediately be reached for comment Thursday.
Canadian Covid Telehealth’s listed address matches Bernstein’s Toronto practice.
In a joint email to the Star last week, Bernstein and other Canadian Covid Telehealth leadership said their “health care professionals are providing evidence-based services that have been proven in many clinical trials to reduce risk of hospitalization and death. What is disturbing is that most Canadian patients have not been able to find access to early outpatient COVID care elsewhere.”
Two other physicians have been reprimanded this week, the college revealed.
On Thursday, the college suspended Dr. Christopher Hassell, a Richmond Hill physician who was banned from giving out vaccine exemptions after he reportedly drew crowds by charging $50 for them last fall. Hassell will not be able to practise medicine until the suspension is lifted, the college said. Hassell runs Angel’s Heart Medical with Dr. Patrick Phillips, another Ontario physician who is restricted from prescribing ivermectin and giving out vaccine exemptions. Angel’s Heart, which describes itself as “caring physicians and a network of allied healers,” was started in 2020 after Phillips was first faced sanctions by the medical regulator, according to its website.
The college said it has also restricted Toronto physician Dr. Akbar Khan from prescribing ivermectin and providing vaccine exemptions. Khan is cofounder of Medicor Cancer Centres, an organization that gives “naturopathic and off-label therapies” to cancer patients.
He faces additional restrictions on his licence from 2017, limiting his ability to provide chemotherapy.
The college is investigating more than 40 physicians for COVID-19 misconduct, including the promotion of unproven treatments like ivermectin and the issuance of inappropriate exemptions, and has restricted or suspended the licences of eight.