“Our kids are paying for one human right with another” — COVID-19 and High-Risk Individuals

Jessica Kim

The ending of the BC Ministry of Education’s school mask mandate on March 11 and the vaccine passport on April 8 has caused significant concern among many, especially immunocompromised individuals and those at high risk of serious COVID-19 infections and the effects of long COVID. COVID safety advocates nationally argue although it may seem like the pandemic is over for some, it is far from over for others. The urge for many to head back to ‘normal’ is inflicting difficulties for those most at risk.

Parents, teachers, and students that have relations with those that are immunocompromised, or immunocompromised themselves are collectively outraged at the removal of masks as it is the main form of protection from the vascular disease.

The BA.2.2 sub-variant of Omicron picking up where the vaccine passport left off, an untimely coincidence that has led many to feel uncomfortable. A grade 10 student at Vancouver Technical Secondary, told The Griffins’ Nest “I have [family members] and friends who are high-risk, so it makes me feel safer around those people to keep wearing a mask,’’ in a late March report, and many continue to feel the same.

There have been many calls to reinstate the mask mandate. On March 16, Kasari Govender, BC’s Human Rights Commissioner, sent an open letter to Bonnie Henry, the Provincial Health Officer for British Columbia, adding to those calls.

“[T]he benefits of the mask mandate for thousands of marginalized people and the minimal impact on those being asked to wear one, the balance at this time favours continuing the mask mandate,” the letter read.

“As an effective and minimally invasive intervention, the mask mandate is justified long after other more intrusive public health measures have been lifted. That people dislike wearing masks is not a compelling argument when weighed against the rights of others to life, security of the person, and equal participation in social and economic life.”

The Coalition Safe Schools BC, an alliance of parents and teachers that strive for improved COVID-19 protocols, urged in a March 20 media release, “all education stakeholders and leaders to apply the precautionary principle to BC’s K-12 public schools and continue the mask mandate for this school year, so that all children can be safer from the BA.2 variant as well as future variants.”

“Education leaders must recognize that public schools are unique in this pandemic. Public schools are NOT a place where families and children can “manage their own risk.” It is not the same as choosing to dine indoors at a restaurant or go to a movie theatre with unmasked people. Children must attend school.”

Students are stuck in what some say is an unfair situation between gaining the access to an in-person education with social interaction, and their safety, and health or the health and well-being of family members.

“Our kids are paying for one human right with another: they are paying for their health with their education,” said Vancouver parent Jaclyn Ferreira who, as well as her children, has a rare disease-causing premature deterioration of the lungs.

“We keep hearing that education is the most important thing, but with no acknowledgement that education doesn’t have to be a one size fits all scenario, and caring for and protecting those most at-risk has the knock-on effect of protecting everyone in the system, instead of downloading all responsibility for safety onto the shoulders of the youngest, most vulnerable members of society,” Ferreira explained.

“I think the mask mandate was such a small gesture in terms of its im- pact on the wearer and it had so much potential to protect other people that are now left completely exposed to the virus,” said June Francis, a Simon Fraser University Professor, in an interview with the Georgia Straight.

Experts say the use of masks had created a safer and more comfortable environment for immunocompromised persons and enhanced filtration and ventilation of schools would add assurance.

When asked about ways to make schools safer, Safe Schools BC’s spokesperson and parent Kyenta Martins, who has chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) said, “If Dr. Henry and the Ministry of Health would launch a campaign to educate the public in the need for protections for [the] airborne virus [then] the Ministry of Education, along with other government entities would act accordingly. Then I think we could actually not continue making the same mistakes and seeing the cases rise in wave after wave.”