If the government of P.E.I. is choosing to send our children to school, then can we please ask our government to not do the usual cost-benefit analysis or use “epidemiology” to justify any action less than the best? If the number of cases of COVID-19 hit this, then we will do that. That will not work in this case and parents of P.E.I. expect more.
I expect masks to be made mandatory in schools by all persons, except those who cannot. Those children who can learn from home, should do so when convenient, on a part-time basis or full-time, until we have a vaccine. This virus kills and will appear before we know it is here. Testing only shows us where the virus has been, not where it is going. We have been told that there will be a second wave.
When COVID-19 first hit P.E.I., guidelines were put into place to protect all. Now the protocols only protect most. Putting kids in groups only protects most kids. This will not protect all children.
One Island child with COVID-19 is one too many. Recommending masks only puts those kids who want to wear them into a very tough spot because they want to conform with their buddies. If wearing a mask is not cool, kids will not wear them. If masks will protect all kids, let us do all we can now, so we do not have any regrets later. This is only for a short while. We cannot go back.
Recommending masks does not work. I see it every day.
Tara Ileso,
Long Creek
