Last updated: December 10, 2024

Demands

1. Restore and enforce mask requirements in hospitals and long-term care settings year-round – including for medical staff, contractors, visitors, volunteers, and patients (with reasonable exceptions and accommodations).
   
2. Improve airborne precautions including wider use of N95-equivalent masks (respirators). Following the lead of some European countries, consider making N95-equivalent masks the default, as they offer superior protection and are the only masks designed to protect against airborne pathogens (like COVID-19, measles, or H5N1 avian influenza).
   
3. Issue a clear directive to private and community healthcare settings requiring the same minimum mask coverage as government facilities. Vulnerable people also need ongoing access to primary care providers, dentists, paramedical practitioners, medical labs and imaging – and airborne illnesses are the same everywhere.

Quick Facts

WHY DOES THIS MATTER?

• Patient safety: Gaps in infection control put patients at greater risk, particularly in high-risk settings like ERs, cancer centres and long-term care. Hospital-acquired COVID-19 is at least 70 times more deadly than COVID contracted in the community. Since healthcare masking was dropped there have been multiple COVID outbreaks in healthcare, while Canada’s first H5N1 avian flu hospitalization and surging measles cases worldwide underscore the rising risks posed by other communicable diseases.
  
• Worker safety: The healthcare sector has the highest rates of WorkSafeBC claims for COVID. Dozens of healthcare workers were exposed to H5N1 from a single case. We can’t afford to lose more staff – temporarily to acute illness, or long-term to Long COVID. 
  
• Accessibility: Multiple polls show 85–91% of respondents must delay healthcare due to lack of COVID safety. This year, British Columbians have sent over 33,000 messages so far calling for masks back in healthcare – a particularly pressing need for Indigenous, racialized, disabled, 2SLBTQIA+ and lower-income communities, who are disproportionately harmed by COVID and Long COVID.
  
• A necessary layer: While vaccination is essential, it doesn’t fully prevent infections or long-term health impacts – plus, it’s less effective for many immunocompromised people. Nearly 60% of COVID cases spread asymptomatically, so symptom checks alone can’t catch all infectious people. PHSA’s own infection control policies state that N95s should be used for confirmed or suspected airborne illnesses.
  
• Protecting our healthcare system: BC faces a healthcare crisis, and healthcare-acquired infections can cause surgical delays, prolonged hospitalization and other interruptions of care. Skyrocketing rates of Long COVID also contribute to healthcare demand.
  
• Evidence-based support: Masks are a low-cost, high-impact safety tool. A recent cohort study found resumption of staff masking was associated with a 33% decrease in hospital-onset respiratory viral infections. A study on SARS-CoV-1 co-authored by BC’s current Provincial Health Officer found that “Consistently wearing a mask… was protective for the nurses” while noting that “[r]isk was lower with consistent use of a N95 mask than with consistent use of a surgical mask.” 

CURRENT RISKS IN BC

• BC continues to experience high rates of COVID-19 alongside high excess mortality. COVID-19 can cause not only acute illness or death, but delayed and long-term health impacts, with risks that multiply with each reinfection.
  
• BC has just had Canada’s first human case of H5N1 avian influenza, in which a young person was hospitalized in critical condition and dozens of healthcare workers were exposed. Public health officials warn that there is potential for H5N1 to become another pandemic.
  
• BC has experienced measles cases and warnings, and cases are surging worldwide. Measles is one of the most contagious airborne diseases in the world, and is known for causing “immune amnesia” and existing immunity to other illnesses.
  
• Less than half of British Columbians are up-to-date on COVID vaccination, and BC’s failure to order the Novavax protein-based vaccine means some vulnerable people cannot get vaccinated at all.
  
• There is currently no mandatory self-isolation period while sick with COVID-19, and people can return to work, school and social interactions while still COVID-positive and infectious.
  
• Hospitals and long-term care facilities may keep COVID-positive patients in the same room as other people, and declaring an outbreak is discretionary.
  
• Sick BC health workers may return to work while symptomatic, and some health authorities specifically discourage healthcare workers from testing themselves for COVID-19.
  
• Access to COVID-19 treatments such as Paxlovid is restricted, leaving many high-risk people ineligible.
  
• BC has closed its four Long COVID clinics, to the consternation of doctors and patients.
  
• BC’s healthcare system is in crisis, with labour shortages that have led to well over a hundred ER closures this year in Interior Health alone.

Others Weigh In on Healthcare Masking

Read personal stories from vulnerable British Columbians here.

• Kasari Govender (BC Human Rights Commissioner): “If there is one space that all vulnerable people should be able to rely on to prioritize their safety, it is in healthcare settings, including long term care facilities…[the] removal of masking directives in healthcare settings does not uphold a human rights centered approach to public health.” Read the full statement.
  
• Dr. Bonnie Henry et al. in a 2004 study of SARS-CoV-1: “Consistently wearing a mask (either surgical or particulate respirator type N95)…was protective for the nurses, and consistent use of the N95 mask was more protective than not wearing a mask. Risk was reduced by consistent use of a surgical mask, but not significantly. Risk was lower with consistent use of a N95 mask than with consistent use of a surgical mask.” Read the study.
  
• Protect our Province BC: “Not only does removing masking in healthcare settings make hospital-acquired (nosocomial) illness far more likely, it will result in the illness of far more healthcare workers which will further strain a medical system already near the breaking point.” Read the full statement.
  
• Dr. Tara Moriarty (Associate Professor University of Toronto, Infectious Disease Research Laboratory, co-founder of COVID-19 Resources Canada): “Promoting the safety of people at higher risk from COVID in essential healthcare settings is not only desirable. It is required if institutions truly support equitable, accessible care that promotes health.” Read the full statement.
  
• David Osborn, BSc, CMIOSH, SpDipEM, Chartered Safety and Health Practitioner: “The World Health Organization continues to recommend universal masking policies in health and social care…[abandoning] universal masking…is viewed by some patients as playing ‘Russian roulette’ with their health.” Read the full statement.
  
• Over 29,000 petitioners: “Canadian hospitals need to maintain MASK mandates.” Find the petition here.
  
• 2,034 poll respondents (via a social media poll by a Vancouver science communicator and public health advocate): 85% of respondents state they are “avoiding or putting off non-emergency medical visits due to the removal of mask mandates in healthcare settings”. Find the poll here. 
  
• 450 clinically vulnerable people (via a poll by Clinically Vulnerable Families): 91% of respondents state they “have or would delay / cancel medical appointments due to high Covid risks”; many of the remaining 9% state they had no choice but to attend. Find the poll here.