Are you an educator? Tell us about your experience of going back to school without protective measures in place.Please complete the form at the end of this article or email us cersc.csppb@gmail.com.

The start of the 2022/23 school year in Ontario has caused great anxiety among many educators who rightly fear COVID-19 transmission and are trying to do what they can to avoid it. This is his third grade in the pandemic, but the first without public health measures such as mandatory masks to protect students and staff from infection.

Ontario’s Chief Medical Officer, Kieran Moore, abandoned all public health measures in schools in preparation for what is ironically called “respiratory season” before the start of the new school year. It undemocratically declared that it would treat COVID-19 like a new coronavirus infection. influenza. If you test positive, you no longer need to quarantine for at least 5 days. Even though they are still infected with COVID-19, they are encouraged to stay home until they develop symptoms, and then wear masks around people once symptoms have subsided. These decisions are completely unscientific, as at least 40-45% of positive cases are asymptomatic.

Air quality in schools remains as bad as it was before the pandemic. With COVID-19 now stripped of protection and few people wearing high-quality her N95 masks, the opportunities for the virus to infect school students and staff are nearly endless.

Dr. Tara Moriarty, who directs infectious disease research at the Moriarty Institute at the University of Toronto, estimates that as of Sept. 16, 97,000 people had contracted COVID-19 for the first time. every day across Canada. This figure includes 48,000 in Ontario, 16,000 in Quebec, and his 11,000 in both Alberta and British Columbia. These are the most accurate statistics publicly available as all governments are consciously dismantling their pandemic reporting infrastructure.

of World Socialist website Comments have come from educators across the country who oppose these reckless policies, which are fully supported by trade unions.

Aviva, an Ontario teacher, writes: The “usual urgency” propaganda pervades every aspect of school life. From the lack of masks for staff and students to the lack of air filtration and proper ventilation in classrooms, most recently my board was instructed to keep Covid out. Reasons for student absences in our online reporting tool. As her one of the few staff members still wearing masks (and one of her only two wearing N95s), I continue to feel further separated and isolated from my colleagues. I’m here. The comeback was pretty bittersweet. ”