Several grassroots groups of parents, health-care workers and teachers have sprung up across Canada to lobby for safer schools, including improved air quality.
Comments closedTag: schools
Topic: outdoor teachingView all posts for the topic: outdoor teaching
The government is absent from keeping students safe from COVID-19
COVID-19 is still here, and classrooms still represent a place where infection can spread, but there are other ways to learn and engage with students.
Comments closedTopic: New YorkView all posts for the topic: New York
New York State sending masks, COVID-19 tests to schools for start of classes
New York State is sending masks and COVID-19 rapid tests to school districts that request them for the start of the 2023-24 school year.
Comments closedAs the school year begins, it is past time to talk about the threat that SARS-CoV-2, the highly transmissible airborne virus that causes COVID-19, poses to the health of students.
Not only can the disease cause acute illness in youth, it can also lead to debilitating lingering symptoms, known as long COVID.
Comments closedTopic: universal maskingView all posts for the topic: universal masking
School mask mandates again? Why some experts believe it’s a good idea
“Children are not going to wear masks unless there’s a mask mandate, because we saw how quickly kids stopped wearing masks when they didn’t have to. The peer pressure that affects children in school, it’s really extraordinary. We’re still going to need to make it a rule for children and young adults to wear masks in school.”
Comments closedTopic: universal maskingView all posts for the topic: universal masking
Everyone Has The Right to Mask
Dozens of studies have shown that not only do N95 masks work on an individual level, but they lower transmission when people actually follow guidelines. Even the strongest critics of mask policies are forced to admit that masks themselves are effective.
Comments closedTopic: British ColumbiaView all posts for the topic: British Columbia
Parents’ group wants more COVID protections in B.C. classrooms ahead of new school year
Protect Our Province is asking for HEPA filters, mask mandates, and fast-tracked COVID vaccinations.
Comments closedTopic: British ColumbiaView all posts for the topic: British Columbia
Group warns of ‘tripledemic’ repeat without B.C. government action to combat COVID-19 in schools
Comments closedCurrently in B.C., we have no mask protections in schools, no proof of indoor air quality in schools including monitoring of carbon dioxide levels during full class occupancy, no [high-efficiency particulate air] filtration units available in most classrooms, almost non-existent [nucleic acid] testing, and only the occasional provincial public health report (and those reports we do see are of limited value).
Topic: British ColumbiaView all posts for the topic: British Columbia
Should This Be Back-to-School Wear?
Health-care workers are warning a lack of masking could lead to a new COVID wave come fall.
Comments closedTopic: long COVIDView all posts for the topic: long COVID
The Pandemic Has Faded From View. But Many Educators Still Have Long COVID
More than three years after the COVID-19 pandemic shut down schools, one in 20 K-12 educators believe they have long COVID. Another 14 percent think or know they previously had it but eventually recovered.
Comments closedTopic: indoor air qualityView all posts for the topic: indoor air quality
Parents ask Ottawa’s largest school board to monitor air quality
As children are on the list of those most affected by wildfire smoke, some parents are concerned about sending their kids to school due to poor air quality.
During Tuesday night’s Ottawa-Carleton District School Board (OCDSB) budget meeting, Ecology Ottawa Board Chair Katie Gibbs requested that funds go to ensure better ventilation in schools.
Comments closedTopic: childrenView all posts for the topic: children
More than 70% of US household COVID spread started with a child, study suggests
According to a recent study, over 70% of nearly 850,000 US household COVID-19 transmissions originated with a child. The researchers concluded that children had an important role in the spread of SARS-CoV-2, and that in-person school also resulted in substantial spread.
Comments closedTopic: childrenView all posts for the topic: children
Opinion: Treating kids as invulnerable is treating them as disposable
Comments closedAre we OK with children being hospitalized for infectious diseases at far higher rates, as they have recently been? Are we fine with COVID being the No. 1 cause of infectious disease-driven death in children? Also, what if there is a number of reinfections at which average outcomes really start to worsen?
Topic: universal maskingView all posts for the topic: universal masking
The evidence shows masks work
They aren’t perfect, but they certainly help curb airborne transmission of viruses.
Comments closedTopic: British ColumbiaView all posts for the topic: British Columbia
B.C. needs to get serious about COVID-19 in schools: coalition
Keeping B.C. schools open without better COVID-19 protections is a recipe for disaster, a coalition of advocates says.
Comments closedTopic: indoor air qualityView all posts for the topic: indoor air quality
559 HEPA purifiers delivered to Yukon schools
Every Yukon school was equipped with High Efficiency Particulate Air (HEPA) purifiers for each classroom-sized space by the first day of school, according to the Education department.
The territorial government has dealt out hundreds of HEPA air purifiers to Yukon schools since the start of the pandemic in 2020.
Comments closedTopic: schoolsView all posts for the topic: schools
Opinion: Better protecting schools from COVID is within reach
Welcome to the “Live with COVID” era, where living with the virus means not talking about it at all. We’ve been told to pretend it’s over, though those “weird summer colds” and “lingering symptoms” indicate otherwise. Rising case rates, hospitalizations, and deaths. Best Summer Ever 2.0 is ending, which means kids are about to return for their third pandemic September.
Comments closedThe verdict is in on the nation’s light touch approach. More died. Herd immunity proved a mirage.
Comments closed