Keep (and improve) masks in healthcare

Dark blue, yellow and black graphic with an illustration of a person in an N95, fist raised, holding a sign that reads: Restore (and improve) masks in healthcare.

Demand mask protections in BC healthcare now.

How to use: This form lets you email your MLA plus dozens of BC healthcare officials 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 and 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.

GET THE CONTACT LIST

British Columbia is falling behind in protecting patients and healthcare workers. As we enter fall and winter, Newfoundland, Labrador, PEI, and major Quebec and Ontario hospitals have already restored masks to healthcare settings – yet so far BC has failed to take action, despite increasing ER closures, expert warnings of “the worst kind of flu season”, a global surge of COVID, a rise in avian influenza outbreaks, and increased BC measles exposures coupled with the loss of Canada’s measles elimination status.

BC has been criticized in past years for restoring healthcare mask requirements far too late – and for removing them at all, given that illnesses like COVID-19 and measles are not seasonal. Doctors, patients, major unions, BC’s Human Rights Commissioner, and multiple national and international health organizations have all voiced support for improved mask requirements in healthcare settings.

In alignment with these calls, we demand BC take urgent action to protect patients, healthcare workers, and our healthcare system:

Restore healthcare mask requirements in BC and maintain them year-round. Prevention should be proactive, not reactive, especially as illnesses like COVID-19, measles, RSV, and flu can all spread without obvious symptoms.
Make respirators (like N95 masks) the default choice in healthcare, as the only masks rated to properly protect against airborne illnesses. This move has been widely supported by over 1,700 experts, advocates, and major unions like the Canadian Labour Congress and Canadian Federation of Nurses Unions. It’s also very cost-effective, due to the wide availability of surplus stock from earlier in the pandemic.
Close gaps in prior rules by requiring patients to mask (with reasonable exceptions); ensuring mask coverage in shared locations like hallways and waiting rooms, rather than leaving this open to interpretation; clearly communicating the federal and international scientific consensus that COVID-19 is an airborne illness; and directing privately-run healthcare settings to meet the same minimum mask requirements as government-run facilities.
Provide clear direction to all health authorities on concrete steps to enact mask requirements to ensure more consistent implementation. This includes 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.

Learn more about why this matters.

Other ways to take action:

An olive-skinned person in a yellow sweater and an N95 is speaking on the phone

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!

GET PHONE SCRIPT

2. Send letters to the editor

Reply to any media stories about “respiratory illness season”, healthcare shortages, or outbreaks in BC. Even a few sentences helps, and you can pull wording from this page.

TALKING POINTS

BC's Parliament Building on a sunny day with a clear blue sky

3. Meet your MLA

Request a meeting with your MLA (can be via phone or Zoom). Use our quick facts, or share stories from British Columbians.

FIND YOUR MLA

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4. Send faxes online

Use our downloadable template letter to send faxes online – no machine required. It’s like an email they can’t delete!

SEND FAXES

closeup of colourful DoNoHarm BC postcards featuring slogans like Clean the Air and Be Kind: Protect the Vulnerable

5. Send postcards

Send our printable #Postcards4PublicHealth, or use any old card you have on hand. Mail to MLAs and Ministers is free!

POSTCARD ART

Closeup of a screen with a red alert reading, Emergency: Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak

6. Hold authorities accountable

Fill out feedback surveys, attend health authority board meetings (dates on their websites), and report unsafe workplaces.

TALKING POINTS

More on why this matters

Patient safety: Gaps in infection control put patients in greater, even life-threatening danger. Over the past two years, 25-50% of hospitalized COVID patients in Canada were infected in the hospital – and hospital-acquired COVID-19 is at least 70 times more deadly than COVID contracted in the community. Meanwhile, the rise of measles in Canada, the incoming flu season, and a surge in avian influenza outbreaks and measles exposures all highlight the ongoing risks from other airborne illnesses.
Worker protection: Healthcare workers face the highest rates of workplace COVID claims, while just a single case of H5N1 in BC potentially exposed 60 healthcare workers. BC’s commitment to recruiting healthcare workers needs to include protecting the workers we already have, as well. This includes upgrading from surgical masks to respirators (like N95s), since CDC / NIOSH states that “[surgical masks] do not provide a reliable level of protection from aerosolized particles because of the loose fit…Surgical masks are not respiratory protective devices”.
Healthcare efficiency and cost reduction: Preventing healthcare-acquired infections can help reduce surgery delays and longer, far costlier hospitalizations. It also avoids unnecessary staff shortages caused by acute or long-term illness – an incredibly important objective given that BC paramedics are already warning of increased ER closures due to winter pressures. Canada’s Office of the Chief Science Advisor emphasizes that preventing COVID infection is also key to preventing Long COVID: a disabling long-term condition that is not only life-altering for many COVID survivors and their loved ones, but which causes massive costs for health systems and economies.
Accessibility and health equity: Multiple polls show 85–91% of respondents delay healthcare due to lack of safety measures. British Columbians have sent tens of thousands of messages so far calling for masks in healthcare – a particularly pressing need for Indigenous, racialized, disabled, 2SLBTQIA+ and lower-income community members, all of whom continue to face disproportionate harm from illnesses like COVID-19.
A necessary layer: Hand hygiene does not address transmission through the air. Since many illnesses can spread before symptoms, symptom-based risk assessments alone are insufficient. While vaccination is vital, it doesn’t fully prevent COVID infections or long-term health impacts; offers less protection for many immunocompromised people; and is no longer required for BC healthcare workers. Newborns can’t get vaccinated at all, while BC’s failure to order the Novavax protein vaccine means some vulnerable people cannot get a COVID vaccine either. Masks are a low-cost, high–impact safety tool that should be used alongside these other measures to help close the gaps.
An evidence-based solution: Studies show resumption of staff masking is associated with a 33% decrease in hospital-onset respiratory viral infections, while N95 masks reduce exhaled viral load by 98%. Upgrading to N95 masks in COVID wards can reduce healthcare worker infections by up to 100%. A study on SARS-CoV-1 co-authored by BC’s current Provincial Health Officer similarly found that “Consistently wearing a mask…was protective for the nurses”, and that “[r]isk was lower with consistent use of a N95 mask than with consistent use of a surgical mask.”
Year-round risks: In contrast to BC’s messaging about “respiratory illness season”, NACI states that “seasonality of SARS-CoV-2 has not been established” – while other illnesses like measles and tuberculosis can also cause issues throughout the year. This is why mask protections are necessary in healthcare year round – after all, if there’s a setting where you can always expect to find sick people, it’s in healthcare!

“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

READ FIRSTHAND STORIES
about the reality of
BC healthcare safety

Past versions

Looking for our late spring 2025 campaign to keep and improve healthcare mask requirements? Find it here.

Orange, yellow and black graphic with an illustration of a person in an N95, fist raised, holding a sign that reads: Keep (and improve) masks in healthcare. Next to the DoNoHarm BC logo and a QR code, smaller text reads, New tools and actions: www.DoNoHarmBC.ca

Looking for our spring 2025 campaign to keep and improve healthcare mask requirements? Find it here.

Blue, yellow and black graphic with an illustration of a person in an N95, fist raised, holding a sign that reads: Keep (and improve) masks in healthcare. Next to the DoNoHarm BC logo and a QR code, smaller text reads, Add your voice by April 1: www.DoNoHarmBC.ca

Looking for our fall/winter 2024 campaign to restore healthcare mask requirements? Find it here.

Bold yellow and charcoal graphic with an illustration of a person in an N95, fist raised, holding a sign that reads: There is no acceptable level of avoidable healthcare infections. WE NEED MASKS IN HEALTHCARE. Next to the DoNoHarm BC logo and a QR code, smaller text reads, Add your voice today: www.DoNoHarmBC.ca

Looking for the second wave of our Vulnerability Isn’t Seasonal campaign? Find it here.

An orange graphic with the DoNoHarm BC logo and a title reading, Vulnerability isn’t Seasonal 2.0 Below is the hashtag #KeepMasksInHealthcare. To the right is a photo of a white N95 mask with yellow straps. A black footer has the tagline, Let’s get loud, followed by the URL www.DoNoHarmBC.ca and a QR code.

Looking for the first version of first ‘Vulnerability Isn’t Seasonal’ campaign? Find it here.

Two adults in N95 masks against a light blue background, one with long dark hair, assisting an elder with white hair using a walker. Black text reads, Vulnerability Isn't Seasonal. #KeepMasksInHealthcare. Share your thoughts by April 1. www.DoNoHarmBC.ca — Two adults in N95 masks against a light blue background, one with long dark hair, assisting an elder with white hair using a walker. Black text reads, Vulnerability Isn’t Seasonal. #KeepMasksInHealthcare. Share your thoughts by April 1. www.DoNoHarmBC.ca

About Us

We’re a non-partisan action group of British Columbians advocating for evidence-based safety measures in high-risk settings.

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