Keeping schools open without ensuring they're safe during a pandemic also takes a toll on kids' mental health - especially if the consequence is long-term impact on their health or the loss of a loved one.
We are not seeing enough done to ensure safe classrooms. #onpoli#onted
More than 10,000 Ontarians have died from #COVID19. More people that we know personally are currently sick with COVID than we've known throughout the pandemic to this point. It's everywhere and many can't access tests. We're facing a different challenge with #Omicron. #onpoli
#WhereIsDougFord with one week left until schools are expected to reopen? What measures are his government planning to implement to protect the health and learning of kids and educators across the province? Ontario is not prepared to face #Omicron in schools. #onpoli#onted
We *still* don't have sufficient vaccine mandates in high-risk environments and we're nowhere near the uptake we need to see in our student populations to protect kids, educators, families, or our communities. #WhereIsDougFord? Where is testing capacity? #onpoli#onted
Nearly two years into this and the two million kids who attend Ontario's publicly funded schools and the people who spend their lives working with them are *still* an afterthought for this government. We all deserve better than this. #onpoli#onted
Reposted thread. I couldn't leave the typo in that first tweet.
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An average of ~3500 Canadians die from the flu in a typical year.
That number sounds so small in the wake of #COVID19, but that's a lot of people lost to a preventable illness.
But this year all our illness prevention efforts wiped out the flu. Compare to previous years. 1/5
People over 65, kids under 5, pregnant women, and people with underlying health concerns are at greatest risk from the flu's most serious complications, but risk isn't absolute and perfectly healthy younger adults die from this preventable disease, too. 2/5
I don't know what the flu might look like in the next year or two, but my hope is that the lessons we've learned through the pandemic will carry forward and we'll do a better job protecting ourselves and each other. In all this devastation, we saved kids this year. 3/5
I appreciate the interest and enthusiasm I'm seeing to find creative solutions for the remaining weeks of school. We advocated tirelessly for many of these options throughout the pandemic, and found they require a significant amount of planning and new resources.#onted#onpoli 1/
I'd love for my daughter to finish her final year at her school in-person with friends and educators who have seen her through these seven years. With four weeks left my hopes are now pinned on better when our kids return in September. #onted#onpoli 2/4
This school year never had to be this way. Our government chose not to prioritize the necessary steps to keep schools consistently, safely open. The way Ontario has experienced #COVID19 was preventable, and our kids have paid a high price. #onted#onpoli 3/4
I'm tired of listening to our provincial government blame everyone but themselves. Teachers, unions, the opposition, Bob Rae(?). They've been in power for three years and the entire pandemic.
What do they feel they're responsible for? Is there a list they can provide? #onpoli
There are issues that are older than their govt. Absolutely.
That does not absolve them of responsibility to take action now.
We've seen them choose not to plan. Not to take proactive steps to reduce community transmission. To reopen too fast while building field hospitals.
They chose not to bring in the military to LTC during the second wave of the pandemic.
Why?
The situation continued to be desperate. Help was needed. How many people died? What did they not want exposed during the second wave?
They chose to try to control the appearance of the situation, rather than taking more care to make our classrooms safer. My kids returned to crowded classrooms next to empty ones, and the only ventilation strategy was open windows. #onpoli#onted
.@sflecce's spokesperson continues to insist educators and opposition wanted schools closed all year.
This is simply untrue. As a parent I advocated tirelessly for a safe return to school where my kids thrive. The government didn't take school safety seriously. #onpoli#onted
Kids, educators, and families across Ontario deserved better than this. We saw through the gaslighting all year. We saw the government's flimsy measures fail us. We received the letters about cases and outbreaks in our schools. We isolated and pivoted and did our best. #onted
On May 6th it will be five years since I hugged my little boy.
When you lose someone, the world keeps moving, and people will get on with their lives around you. But your person is still gone, and your life is still changed.
2/9
4.5 years ago we made the choice to speak publicly about Jude's death with hope that by sharing him, we could protect someone else's family. We wished desperately that the conversation about illness prevention had been louder a year earlier, to save Jude.
3/9
As our #COVIDVaccine efforts ramp up in Ontario, there are hard conversations happening. LTC needed to be our top priority, and as of yesterday there were still residents receiving their first dose. Frontline healthcare workers also needed to be prioritized. 1/10
Now that we can expect regular vaccine shipments, Ontarians are asking where they & their loved ones fall in line. All else being equal, age would be the greatest risk factor.
'In these worst-affected postal codes, the death rate for people 80 and older was 27x higher than an 80-plus person living in ON’s least-affected postal codes.
Even people in their early 40s had 2x death or hospitalization rate vs a senior >80 in areas w/lowest COVID rates.'3/10