Jordan Tustin

I am a field epidemiologist with a focus on communicable diseases with extensive experience working in public health at the local, provincial, national and international level.

I hold a BSc in Honours Biology from the University of Ottawa, a BASc in Occupational and Public Health Safety from Toronto Metropolitan University, and an MHSc and PhD in Epidemiology from the Dalla Lana School of Public Health at the University of Toronto.

I am a CIHR public health policy fellow, a certified public health inspector and a field epidemiologist graduate with the Canadian Field Epidemiology Program (FETP). In 2012, I was awarded with a Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal for my service to public health in Canada and abroad.

As an epidemiologist for the Public Health Agency of Canada, the World Health Organization and Médecins Sans Frontières/Doctors without Borders, I have had the opportunity to investigate several outbreaks both locally and abroad. Examples include several cancer clusters and foodborne/waterborne illness outbreaks, investigations and research into adverse events following immunization, a Stop Transmission of Polio mission in Cameroon (2008), and emergency responses for the H1N1 pandemic in Mexico and Nunavut (2009), the Ebola epidemic in Guinea (2014-15), post-Ebola recovery efforts in Sierra Leone (2016), and the Ebola epidemic in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (2019). 

My main research interests lie broadly in the fields of communicable disease epidemiology, field epidemiology, vaccinology, global health, food safety and environmental health, and health communication/promotion.

Undergraduate:

• PUB 508: Food Safety
• POH 705: Health Promotion and Education
• ENH 122: Introduction to Epidemiology

Graduate:

• OH8210: Epidemiology for Population Health

Research interests:

• Communicable diseases
• Epidemiology
• Field epidemiology
• Vaccine hesitancy
• Health communication/ promotion
• Global health
• Environmental health
• Food safety

Journal articles:

• Young, I., Sanchez, J., Desta, B., Heasley, C., & Tustin, J. (2023). Recreational water exposures and illness outcomes at a freshwater beach in Toronto, Canada: a prospective pilot cohort study (external link) . PLOS ONE, 18(6), Article e0286584. 

• Driedger, M., Capurro, G., Tustin, J., & Jardine, C. (2023). “I won’t be a guinea pig”: Rethinking public health communication and vaccine hesitancy in the context of COVID-19 (external link) . Vaccine, 41(1), 1-4. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.vaccine.2022.11.056

• Sebring, J.C.H., Capurro, G., Kelly, C., Jardine, C., Tustin J., & Driedger, M. (2022). None of it was especially easy: improving COVID-19 vaccine equity for people with disabilities (external link, opens in new window) . Canadian Journal of Public Health, 113, 887–897. https://doi.org/10.17269/s41997-022-00621-z

• Capurro, G., Maier, R., Jardine, C., Tustin, J., & Driedger, M. (2022). “Stay home and stay safe … but maybe you can have somebody over”: Public perceptions of COVID-19 harm reduction messages during the 2020 holiday season (external link, opens in new window) . Journal of Communication in Healthcare. https://doi.org/10.1080/17538068.2022.2138243

• Young, I., Sanchez, J., & Tustin, J. (2022). Recreational water illness in Canada: a changing risk landscape in the context of climate change. (external link)  Canadian Journal of Public Health, 113(69), 940-943. https://doi.org/10.17269/s41997-022-00688-8

• Capurro, G., Tustin, J., Jardine, C., & Driedger, M. (2022). When good messages go wrong: Public perspectives on changing COVID-19 vaccine communication (external link, opens in new window) . Human Vaccines & Immunotherapeutics, 18(7). https://doi.org/10.1080/21645515.2022.2145822

• Capurro, G., Maier, R., Tustin, J., Jardine, C., & Driedger, M. (2022). “They're trying to bribe you and taking away your freedoms”: COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy in communities with traditionally low vaccination rates (external link) . Vaccine. 40(50), 7280-7287. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.vaccine.2022.10.058

• Capurro, G., Maier, R., Tustin, J., Jardine, C., & Driedger, M. (2022). The spokesperson matters: Evaluating the crisis communication styles of primary spokespersons when presenting COVID-19 modeling data across three jurisdictions in Canada (external link) . Journal of Risk Research, 25(11-12), 1395-1412. https://doi.org/10.1080/13669877.2022.2128391

• Heasley, C., Sanchez, J., Young, I., & Tustin, J. (2022). Beach water monitoring practices and challenges in Ontario Public Health Units (external link) . Environmental Health Review, 65(1), 12-24. https://doi.org/10.5864/d2022-003

• Capurro, G., Jardine, C., Tustin, J., & Driedger, M. (2021). Communicating scientific uncertainty in a rapidly evolving situation: A framing analysis of Canadian coverage in early days of COVID-19 (external link) . BMC Public Health, 21(2181). https://doi.org/10.1186/s12889-021-12246-x

• Capurro, G., Jardine, C., Tustin, J., & Driedger, M. (2021). Moral panic about 'covidiots' in Canadian newspaper coverage of COVID-19 (external link) . PLOS ONE, 17(1), Article e0261942. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0261942

• Heasley, C., Sanchez, J., Tustin, J., & Young, I. (2021). Systematic review of predictive models of microbial water quality at freshwater recreational beaches (external link) . PLOS ONE, 16(8), 1-31. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0256785

• Sanchez, J., Young, I., Cole, H., Kelly, J., Habjan, A., Waterhouse, R., & Tustin, J. (2021). Environmental factors associated with freshwater recreational water quality in Niagara Region, Ontario, Canada (external link) . Epidemiology and Infection, 149, Article e217. https://doi.org/10.1017%2FS0950268821002120

• Sanchez, J., Tustin, J., Heasley, C., Patel, M., Kelly, J., Habjan, A., Waterhouse, R., & Young, I. (2021). Region specific associations between environmental factors and Escherichia coli in freshwater beaches in Toronto and Niagara Region, Canada (external link, opens in new window) . International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 18(23), Article e12841. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph182312841

• Qamar, M., Harris, A.M., & Tustin, J.L. (2020). The association between child marriage and domestic violence in Afghanistan (external link, opens in new window) . Journal of Interpersonal Violence, 37(5-6), 1-14. https://doi.org/10.1177/0886260520951310

• Kanaan, M., Meldrum, R., Young, I., & Tustin, J. (2020). Microbial quality of a Middle-Eastern raw ready-to-eat meat dish. Journal of Environmental Health, (83)4, 16-19.

• Tustin, J.L., Hau, J.P., & Hon, C. (2019). Occupational health and safety hazards encountered by Ontario Public Health Inspectors (external link) . Environmental Health Review, 62(1), 1-6. http://dx.doi.org/10.5864/d2019-004

• Tustin, J.L., Crowcroft, N.S., Gesink, D., Johnson, I., Keelan, J., & Lachapelle, B. (2018). User-Driven Comments on a Facebook Advertisement Recruiting Canadian Parents in a Study on Immunization: Content Analysis (external link, opens in new window) . JMIR Public Health and Surveillance, 4(3), Article e10090. https://doi.org/10.2196%2F10090
  

• Tustin, J.L., Crowcroft, N.S., Gesink, D., Johnson, I., & Keelan, J. (2018). Internet Exposure Associated With Canadian Parents’ Perception of Risk on Childhood Immunization: Cross-Sectional Study (external link, opens in new window) . JMIR Public Health and Surveillance, 4(1), Article e7. https://doi.org/10.2196%2Fpublichealth.8921

• Tustin, J.L., Crowcroft, N.S., Gesink, D., Johnson, I., Keelan, J., & Lachapelle, B. (2017). Facebook recruitment of vaccine-hesitant Canadian parents: A cross-sectional study (external link, opens in new window) . JMIR Public Health and Surveillance, 3(3), Article e47. https://doi.org/10.2196/publichealth.6870

• Rosella, L., Wilson, K., Crowcroft, N., Chu, A., Upshur, R., Willison, D., Deeks, S., Schwartz, S., Tustin, J., & Sider, D. (2013). Pandemic H1N1 in Canada and the use of evidence in developing public health policies – A policy analysis (external link, opens in new window) . Social Science & Medicine, 83, 1-9. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.socscimed.2013.02.009

• Tustin J., Laberge, K., Pascal, M., et al. Lessons learned from interventions implemented in Iceland in response to a national epidemic of campylobacteriosis (2011) (external link) . Journal of Zoonoses and Public Health, 58(6). https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1863-2378.2010.01387.x

• Colquhoun, A., Maiangowi, G., Jiang, Z., Ashbury, F., Chen, Y., Drobina, W., McLeod, L., Panaro, L., Sihota, S., Tustin J., & Yacoub, W. (2010). Cancer incidence in a First Nation community in Alberta, Canada, 1996-2006 (external link) . Chronic Diseases in Canada, 30(4). 

• Drobina M.W., Tustin J., Colquhoun A., Yacoub R.W., Panaro L., Sihota S., & McLeod (Winter 2009). Case Report: Environmental risk assessment to investigate a suspected colon cancer cluster in a First Nation community in Alberta. Environmental Health Review, 100-109.

• Cordova, J., Suárez Hernández, M., López-Gatell, H., Tustin, J., et al. (2009). Update: novel influenza A (H1N1) virus infection - Mexico, March-May 2009 (external link) . Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, 58(21), 585–589. 
  

• Outstanding Mentor, Inaugural Recipient, Dalla Lana School of Public Health, University of Toronto, 2015
• Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal for significant contribution to public health in Canada and abroad, 2012
• CIHR Strategic Training Program in Public Health Policy Fellowship Award, 2012