A group of doctors, health care workers, teachers and parents is calling for masks to be mandatory again when school starts.
The “Protect our Province BC” group has published an open letter to Premier David Eby, Health Minister Adrian Dix and Education Minister Rachna Singh. They want masks to be mandatory in schools, and for the government to provide free N95 or better-quality masks.
They are also calling for school ventilation systems to be held to new, higher standards, and for the federal government to distribute free rapid COVID tests to schools and families.
They say “studies show that schools are still the major source for COVID-19 transmission with 70% of COVID-19 infections transmitted to households from children.” However, their claims are based on data from one school in Belgium, and on temperature data collected with smart thermometers which was not confirmed to correlate with confirmed COVID infections.
The group says the pandemic is not over, and its ultimate goal is to end it using a vaccine-plus strategy that includes addressing how the virus spreads through the air.
