Vulnerability Isn’t Seasonal: Keep Masks in BC Healthcare
Keep masks in BC healthcare in 2024
UPDATE: As of April 8, 2024, British Columbia has announced they’re discarding existing mask requirements in hospitals and long-term care homes, apparently with immediate effect. This disregards both evidence-based practice and the calls of vulnerable people across BC, and we don’t intend to let it go unaddressed. Please stay tuned for a fuller statement and plan of action - and in the meantime, you can still use this email form to contact dozens of BC policy-makers at once - just rewrite the form letter!
BC currently requires masks in hospitals and long-term care for staff, contractors, visitors and volunteers (but not for patients). While healthcare masking in BC was removed in April 2023 - drawing criticism from patients, doctors, researchers, and BC’s Human Rights Commissioner - this partial mask requirement was restored in October 2023.
At the time, BC policy-makers indicated healthcare masking would be in place for at least a “few months”, over the fall and winter. However, vulnerability isn’t seasonal - and both patients and healthcare workers should be safe from infectious diseases year-round.
As we head into spring, we’re calling on BC policymakers to maintain healthcare mask requirements, and to take practical steps to strengthen these protections:
Maintain and enforce mask requirements in hospitals and long-term care settings year-round, for BC medical staff, contractors, visitors and volunteers.
Restore mask requirements for patients, with reasonable exceptions and accommodations. Given that patients are often the ones who are sick and contagious in healthcare settings, a lack of patient masking increases infection risks in crowded waiting rooms, wards, and ERs.
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 - particularly by and around vulnerable patients, and certainly upon request. Respirators provide superior protection, especially as surgical masks aren’t designed to protect against airborne pathogens.
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.
Take Action:
Email decision-makers today - then SHARE THIS CAMPAIGN and take further action:
👉 Leave phone messages saying we need to keep masks in healthcare. Get phone numbers and a phone script here.
👉 Send free faxes online, no fax machine needed. Get fax numbers and a faxable letter here.
👉 Send postcards - mail to Ministers and MLAs is free! Get free postcard art and mailing addresses here.
👉 Help amplify your impact by spreading the word on socials, or post a selfie with a sign to raise awareness!
Note: the Action Network platform requires a return address so the system can find your MLA. If you prefer not to enter your address, you also can use our template wording to email policy-makers yourself.
Why does this matter?
Year-round protection: COVID-19 is not confined to a particular season, and large waves have occurred in the summer. Moreover, masks provide protection against many different airborne or respiratory-transmitted illnesses. The BCCDC is recording elevated invasive strep cases among children, while the Public Health Agency of Canada is warning about increased measles risks in the spring.
Patient safety: The last time BC tried to remove healthcare mask requirements, it was followed by multiple Covid outbreaks. Covid has risen to be the third leading cause of death, and hospital-acquired COVID-19 is at least 70 times more deadly than COVID contracted in the community. Places like cancer centres, ERs, and children’s hospitals need to be safe year-round. Nobody should be forced to risk foreseeable, preventable harms to access necessary care.
Worker safety: Healthcare workers deserve a safe working environment, especially as the healthcare sector has experienced the highest rates of Worksafe claims for COVID-19. Our healthcare system can’t afford to lose more staff - either temporarily to acute illnesses, or long-term to Long COVID.
A necessary layer: Nearly 60% of COVID cases spread asymptomatically, meaning that symptom checks alone can’t prevent infection. While COVID vaccination is essential, it doesn’t fully prevent either infections or long-term health impacts - and only 26.5% of British Columbians were vaccinated this fall. Additionally, vaccines provide less protection to many immunocompromised people, and other serious infectious diseases don’t have vaccines at all.
Accessibility: Multiple polls have shown that 85-91% of respondents must delay healthcare due to lack of masks and COVID safety. Moreover, both COVID and Long COVID disproportionately impact Indigenous, racialized, disabled, 2SLBTQIA+ and lower-income communities, underscoring how COVID safety is a fundamental matter of health equity.
Protecting our healthcare system: BC policy-makers have identified strengthening healthcare as a priority. In a system currently grappling with labour shortages and capacity issues, infections in healthcare can lead to surgical delays, prolonged hospitalization and other interruptions of care. Rising rates of Long COVID also contribute to healthcare demand, with 1 in 9 Canadian adults having developed Long COVID so far.
Evidence-based support: Masks are a low-cost, high-impact tool to reduce the spread of many illnesses. The Government of Canada, the World Health Organization and many others continue to support their use. A 2004 healthcare study co-authored by BC’s current Provincial Health Officer found that for SARS-CoV-1, “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.”
“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…removal of universal masking directives in healthcare settings does not uphold a human rights centered approach to public health.”
- BC Human Rights Commissioner, April 3, 2023
Learn more about us at DoNoHarmBC.ca
