Departing Ontario COVID-19 adviser reflects on life away from the public eye
Jüni criticized the Ontario government’s pandemic response in his position as the head of the COVID-19 Science Advisory Table. During the third wave of the pandemic, he admitted that he considered stepping down in protest.His departure, though, is not a statement but a decision that will bring him closer to family in Switzerland.
“We had our highs and lows, but the end result, even though it was bumpy … is it went remarkably well,” he said of how Ontario handled the pandemic to date. Before the pandemic, Jüni was a well-respected scientist, relatively unknown to the general public. He works at St. Michael’s Hospital in Toronto and is also a professor of medicine and epidemiology at the University of Toronto.The doctor’s leading pandemic role catapulted him into the public eye.
He said he noticed that change when he visited Oxford to interview. “I found it quite liberating, just to be in a country where I’m not a household name, meaning people don’t recognize me in the street,” he said.Being recognized was not an unpleasant experience, Jüni said, but anonymity will be a relief.© 2022 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.