We at Masks4Canada are a group of doctors, engineers, lawyers, volunteers and professionals dedicated to minimizing lives lost in the pandemic.

We continue to  believe strongly that schools can remain open via implementation of  measures to ensure the safety of children, their families, and education staff. Schools are essential and should take precedence over non-essential high-risk activities and venues. Investing in improved safety measures will reduce risks for infections and outbreaks, and the mental health impacts of consequent closures. These safety measures incorporate necessary airborne precautions and include: 

1) Improved quality masks freely available to students and staff
2) Improved ventilation for better air quality, including adequate in-class HEPA filtration
3) Reduced class sizes and cohorts
4) Regular rapid testing
5) Increasing vaccination rates among students and staff
6) Detailed contact tracing for outbreaks and exposures

These are positions we have been advocating since August of 2020, and sadly few leaders have yet to implement any of these measures on a broad scale.

Given that the Omicron outbreak is expected to peak with the start of school in the first weeks of January, and with less than 40% of children aged 5-11 years vaccinated (and 0% of those under 5 years), we feel it prudent for schools to implement realistic safety measures to minimize risk to children at this time.  This could include delaying the start of school two weeks to 'wait-out' the anticipated peak of this wave, while we prepare these protective measures.  We cannot send our children back to school without proper protection when the WHO clearly warns of a ‘tsunami of cases’ from Omicron and Delta variants in this time frame.

We are still learning what Omicron holds and still navigating our way through this pandemic, and we need to keep our children safe - by working toward keeping them safely in school - while we do so.

Please sign and share this petition with your friends, family and your political leaders if you agree.

You can view our guide on N95 respirator masks here, and our guide on air filtration here.