For reference, the science, & sources, please check out 'Protect Our Province BC': https://protectbc.ca/

This petition is not just for SFU students--but for everyone that uses and works on SFU campuses. Remember the faculty and sessional instructors, teaching and research assistants, administration, cleaning staff, food services/cafeteria workers, library clerks, I.T. and Facilities staff, etc., all who have their own family members (or unvaccinated children under 5). 

While UBC has issued a statement they will continue to require face coverings on their campuses while inside public spaces for the rest of their Winter semester, SFU has only stated they will 'encourage' it. At the bare minimum, the least SFU can do is uphold this requirement until this current semester ends on April 26, 2022. 

Kudos to UBC for being a leader in this, but it is embarrasing for SFU to not follow suit. Our province today was given less than a day's notice of the dropping of the indoor mask requirement. Students did not sign up for in-person courses this semester anticipating that they would be thrown into environments where they'd be stuck shoulder-to-shoulder for hours-long lectures or tutorials next to someone unmasked. Why would SFU want to make their students face the difficult choice of coming to class yet risk bringing BA.1/BA.2 (Omicron) home to an immunocompromised family member? SFU students also may be immunocompromised themselves and vulnerable. 'Individualism' as public health policy is rooted in privilege and ableism. 

Mask-wearing is still proven to be an effective layer of protection and since we have already been engaging in this policy all semester, why not continue to do so until the end of final exams in April? 

(A CDC MMWR study found that use of masks reduced infections by >60% and there was a substantial increase with higher quality masks to >80% with KN95/N95 respirators.)

Removing masking entirely sends a signal that the pandemic is 'over'. 
"Learning to live with this virus should not mean pretending it's over; it should mean that we keep simple, universal basic protections in places where they keep us safe and provide a predictable plan that we can work towards and anticipate." 

The shift in polices by B.C. public health are not founded upon rational science and the public and other medical professionals have lost confidence in its decisions.(The past two months have been the 3rd and 5th deadliest months of the COVID-19 pandemic in BC.) If SFU, as a research institution and respected University, wishes to uphold science and foster an equitable/just society, they would make a stance in this matter to signal they care about the SFU community.

While individuals are free to make their own choices regarding masking--they can exercise this outside of indoor campus settings. 

I am creating this as someone who wears several hats--as a graduate student, a teaching assistant, and someone suffering from Long Covid who wishes to not see anyone else experience such symptoms. I know it has been a very difficult and very long 2 years but asking for masking until at least the end of the semester is honestly not asking for much. I want to return to a 'normal' just like all of you reading this---but only once there is confidence beyond a reasonable doubt that it will be safe for all. There are significant benefits to mutual masking and protecting vulnerable members of the SFU community and their family members.