Thread by @nb_covid_info

Today marks 3 months since I have been meeting my kids outdoors for lunch every school day.
It takes 2 hours of my day, every time.
It has affected my work schedule and other aspects of my life.
I wouldn't have expected to have to do this for 3 months. I'm glad I do.
/1

Back when NB announced that school masks would be dropped, at first I waited for someone else to step in and say it was a bad idea. Surely, it wouldn't actually happened.
Days passed. We realized nobody else was going to speak up.
/2

Our group was the first organization of people in Atlantic Canada to speak up for the protection of universal masks in schools. We did it before the IWK pediatricians, before NB's pediatricians, before NBMS. We had great citations though.
/3

In the end, NB dropped the protection of universal masks in schools alone. Quebec still had them in common areas. PEI, NS, and NL all kept universal masks in schools for far longer than NB, while BA.2 swept through our region.
/4

When the excess mortality numbers come out for March, April, May 2022 - remember that it didn't have to be this way. School kids in other provinces weren't exposed to disease at the levels that NB students were. NB also dropped required isolation. Nobody else did that.
/5

The actions taken by those in power here exposed NBers - starting with families of school kids, but eventually reaching many more people - to an egregious level of infectious disease. It did not have to happen the way it did. It shouldn't have. It was objectively wrong.
/6

My decision to meet my kids for lunch was an emergency reaction on my part. I'm a rational person - I thought this would be a temporary situation. The errors would be corrected. Universal masks would return.
/7

The Child and Youth Advocate's report happened April 22. The report recommended the immediate return of universal masks while Public Health revisited their decision. The government ignored the findings of the report. Masks in school did not return.
/8

Here's the link to the English version of the report: static1.squarespace.com/static/60340d1…
/9

Today I had a lovely lunch with my kids. I made bagel pizzas at home and brought them to school. We enjoyed the sunshine. We laughed. We hugged. I helped keep them safe from an airborne virus the province refuses to effectively fight with clean air and good masks.
/10

My boss wants to give me more responsibility next year. My boss isn't going to want me to spend 2 hours a day meeting my kids outside for lunch. The lack of safety in NB schools is unsustainable. What's the plan for next year?
/11

In March 2022, I didn't expect to be meeting my kids for lunch for the rest of the school year. Removing universal masks in school was objectively the wrong decision. The evidence used to do so was extremely weak and incorrectly attributed in written submissions. /12

The strength of the evidence from PH was overstated. The conclusions written in the report by the CMOH were not borne out by the data available, on top of that. It was decision-based evidence-making.
/13

On top of all that they took away reporting of school cases. So it wasn't even possible to assess the risks anymore. Hence daily lunch outside continuing for the rest of the year. There was just no way to know.
/14

This isn't sustainable - not for my family, not for education staff, not for families of anyone who enters a school, not for students, not for our province.

What's the plan for next year?

#nbed
#nbpoli
15/15