Education vs. safety a dangerous choice

In July 2020, Premier Jason Kenney enthusiastically shared a column from Danielle Smith calling for unencumbered opening of schools with the stated intent of increasing “natural community immunity” by intentionally enabling the infection of children.

Given the bizarre decision last week to stop systematic testing, tracing and isolation of positive cases, I can only believe that the premier must have dusted off this reprehensible playbook.

It is one thing to think that adults who choose not to vaccinate should be made susceptible to infection to increase herd immunity, but it is very different when it comes to children and others who can't be vaccinated. The government will say that the outcomes are generally mild for children, but that doesn't give them the right to remove basic protections to help prevent my children from becoming infected.

Dr. Deena Hinshaw has argued that we need to move to the endemic phase and that parents should manage the risk of COVID much like we would manage the risk of the flu. I can vaccinate my children against a swath of flu strains annually and I can use data to help inform the decisions I make about risks to my children. This recent move has obliterated the reliability of any data related to the prevalence of COVID in our communities.

We won't know if our children are sitting in a classroom with active cases of COVID and the extent to which it is currently active in our community. An uninformed choice is hardly a choice at all. How is it appropriate that parents are left to choose between their child's education and their child's safety?

Jonathan Teghtmeyer,

Sherwood Park