Two years of adapting, paying attention, changing our practices, adding to our already busy daily life a series of tasks related to health instructions. Distance learning, return to class, education of children in barrier gestures… Two years of stress, accommodation, worries, creativity too where we reinvent many things… only to be told that when we return from the week break, children will remove their masks in class.
The risk of contagion would be lower when the children are seated at their desk? While no improvement in the ventilation of the classes has been made, while it is still quite cold in March in the schools with open windows, while we will be returning from a week off where contacts will have been multiplied, while that hospitalizations amount to more than 1,400, while no scientific evidence demonstrates the negative impacts of wearing a mask on children (“Masks are effective, say experts, why remove them now?” Radio-Canada, 27 February 2022).
Where does this decision come from? Why not wait a few weeks? For us, teachers (and all school stakeholders), this relief will be accompanied by very cumbersome management. The child will be able to remove his mask in certain contexts, but in other contexts, not. This means that we will again have to train young people in new instructions. Students are now used to wearing masks. They know how to wear the mask properly after several months of training and supervision. This required a tremendous display of energy on the part of all those involved in the school system. Changing the game is not so simple on the ground. Especially if it is to impose the wearing of the mask again at all times in a few weeks.
Remove masks from children, yes of course, as soon as possible. But this decision must be made on scientific evidence. When such a decision has so many consequences on the work of educators in addition to increasing the risk of contagion and reinfection, the precautionary principle should prevail. It seems to me that prevention should be a basis for public health decisions. Mr. Boileau, can you tell us which scientific studies encourage you to be so lacking in caution?
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