Medical and Scientific Professionals Weigh In
Local public health units are also speaking out.
For example, the
Medical Officer of Health in Windsor-Essex who
has experience with the
consequences of large COVID outbreaks in
agri-food operations in the
area has said that he continues to recommend
physical distancing of at
least two metres in schools. This sets up a
situation in which
the government's plan which does not require or
provide the means for
physical distancing will violate the
recommendations of local health
units, leading to a clash of authorities when
workers or parents identify the lack of physical
distancing as a health hazard.
In a letter addressed to Ontario's Chief
Medical Officer of Health
the Registered Nurses' Association of Ontario is
also publicly
appealing to the government to mandate physical
distancing and smaller
class sizes, proper ventilation and masking for
all school children,
saying the opening of schools should be
postponed, if necessary, until
all the
conditions are in place for a safe reopening.
Meanwhile a study led by researchers from the
University of Waterloo
used a mathematical model to explore ways class
sizes and
student-to-teacher ratios can influence the
number of infections and
in-class time lost in schools and daycare
centres. The study, which has
yet to be peer reviewed, predicts based on its
models that the current
class
sizes in elementary (which are generally between
20 and 30 students)
will result in many more students becoming
infected and many more days
of closed classes than would class sizes of 15
or less because of the
need to quarantine contacts of infected
individuals for 14 days. This
study suggests that by keeping elementary class
sizes high
the government is in fact setting things up for
minimizing rather than
maximizing in-school time for students based on
exposing higher numbers
of students and staff to the risk of infection
-- not to mention their
families who will also have to quarantine. This
would presumably have
repercussions in the economy as well.
Instead of addressing these legitimate concerns
and demands from so
many quarters, the Ontario government has
decided to deflect from its
abdication of its social responsibility to
protect all members of the
society by trying to blame "the teachers'
unions" for the chaos and
turmoil its own unsafe reopening plan is giving
rise to. This
makes clear that it is the teachers and
education workers and
their unions, parents, students, administrators,
medical and scientific
experts and other collectives of the people who
are refusing to
conciliate with the government's failure to do
its duty that are
playing the decisive role by speaking out and
taking action to put
forward their own proposals for what a safe
reopening of schools
requires.
This article was published in
Number 56 - August 27, 2020
Article Link:
Medical and Scientific Professionals Weigh In
Website: www.cpcml.ca
Email: editor@cpcml.ca
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