Looking to give feedback on a national standard for N95s in healthcare? Find that campaign here.
Demand mask protections in BC healthcare now.
How to use: This form lets you email dozens of BC decision-makers at once. Enter your address to help find your local representative, then scroll past the list of recipients, review, and send.
If you have capacity, we encourage you to personalize the email for greater effectiveness. Even just changing the subject line or adding a sentence at the beginning can help!
Note: the “Action Network” tool requires a return address so their system can find your MLA. If you prefer not to enter your address, you can use our template wording to email policy-makers yourself.
On March 28, 2025, BC abruptly dropped existing mask requirements in healthcare settings, disregarding guidance from doctors, researchers, and BC’s Human Rights Commissioner. The move also shut out the voices of many vulnerable British Columbians, who in the last couple weeks have sent over 7,000 messages calling to maintain and strengthen healthcare mask protections.
BC claims the downgrade was due to the end of “respiratory illness season” – yet NACI and the CDC both state COVID is not seasonal and can surge throughout the year. The move comes while BC continues to experience ongoing COVID circulation and multiple outbreaks of influenza and norovirus in healthcare settings, alongside warnings about surging measles, tuberculosis, and the pandemic potential of H5N1 avian influenza.
Let us be clear: vulnerability isn’t seasonal, and there is no acceptable level of avoidable infection in healthcare. Downgrading or discarding existing safety measures can only lead to more illness, disability, deaths, staff shortages, care delays, and healthcare costs. It is contrary to the scientific evidence, and to the rights of all people (particularly those most vulnerable) to safely access healthcare.
We call on BC policy-makers to take immediate action to:
- Restore healthcare mask requirements and maintain them year-round. Prevention should be proactive, not reactive, especially as illnesses like COVID-19 and measles can spread before symptoms and are not seasonal. (In fact, COVID has risen over the summer for three years straight).
- Provide clear direction to all health authorities on concrete steps to enact mask requirements by requiring hospital admin to direct managers on implementation; posting signage; making masks available; and designating staff members responsible for informing and monitoring staff, visitors, and patients.
- Increase usage of N95-equivalent masks or better (a.k.a. respirators), which provide superior protection as the only masks rated to properly protect against airborne illnesses. Clearly communicate the federal and international scientific consensus that COVID-19 is airborne, and follow the European model in making N95-equivalent masks a default choice for high-risk settings. Ensure all who wish to wear a respirator (or request it of their healthcare providers) can do so.
- Close gaps in prior rules by requiring patients to mask (with reasonable exceptions) and providing N95-equivalent masks for potential airborne illnesses; ensuring mask coverage in shared locations like foyers and hallways (where patients often need to wait); and directing privately-run healthcare settings to meet the same minimum mask requirements as government-run facilities.
Other ways to take action:
1. Flood the phone lines
One of the most effective ways to reach policy makers! Use our phone script to make it easier – and if phone conversations are challenging, you can leave messages instead!
2. Send letters to the editor
Reply to any media stories about the supposed end of so-called “respiratory illness season” – even a few sentences helps, and you can pull wording from this page.
3. Hold health authorities accountable
Join Vancouver Coastal Health’s telephone town hall on April 2, or email questions to the PHSA board by April 15.
4. Meet your MLA
Request a meeting with your MLA (can be via phone or Zoom). Use our fact sheet or share stories from British Columbians.
5. Send faxes online
Use our downloadable template letter to send faxes online – no machine required. It’s like an email they can’t delete!
6. Send postcards
Send our printable #Postcards4PublicHealth, or use any old card you have on hand. Mail to MLAs and Ministers is free!
More on why this matters
“If there is one space that all vulnerable people should be able to rely on to prioritize their safety, it is in healthcare settings…removal of universal masking directives in healthcare settings does not uphold a human rights centred approach to public health.”
BC Human Rights Commissioner
Past versions
Looking for our spring 2025 campaign to keep and improve healthcare mask requirements? Find it here.
Looking for our fall/winter 2024 campaign to restore healthcare mask requirements? Find it here.
Looking for the second wave of our Vulnerability Isn’t Seasonal campaign? Find it here.
Looking for the first version of first ‘Vulnerability Isn’t Seasonal’ campaign? Find it here.
About Us
We’re a non-partisan action group of British Columbians advocating for evidence-based safety measures in high-risk settings.