Four doctors in the Greater Toronto Area died within the same week after COVID vaccine booster eligibility was expanded.

First, 50-year-old Dr. Paul Hannam, the now-former Chief of Emergency Medicine at North York General Hospital, died while jogging on July 16.

“Olympic sailor, marathon runner, family man, ED director at NYGH, a sweet, thoughtful, compassionate and gentle man died suddenly today on a run. The quintessential mensch. Hug someone you love,” tweeted a colleague. 

The other three doctors worked at Trillium Health Partners. Dr. Lorne Segall, aged 49, died on July 17. Dr. Stephen McKenzie passed away on July 18, and Dr. Jakub Sawicki on July 21. 

When the news first broke, speculation was high that there could be a relation to the COVID vaccine booster expansion being the week prior. 

As reported by the Toronto Sun’s Joe Warmington, hospitals are denying that any of the doctors’ deaths were related to COVID vaccines, though they will not discuss the supposed alternative cause.

Coincidentally, in March, a group of doctors at Trillium Health Partners called on the provincial government to step in and help fix what they referred to as a “toxic culture rooted in harassment, intimidation and threats of loss of privileges, by targeting physicians who dare to question the hospital’s decision making… this has created an environment wherein physicians are afraid to practice medicine.”