Lifting the Mask Mandate
With the recent announcement on February 16, 2022 by Dr. Fitzgerald, there is no question that people are feeling their own ways about health officials in Newfoundland and Labrador dropping masks, vaccine passports, and gathering restrictions on March 14th. The masks have been a time of “sadness and anger” for a few, while many others can’t wait to get out and take the masks off. March 14th will also mark the two year mark in which the first COVID-19 case was found in Newfoundland and Labrador.
This goes over to another major concern: our schools. What will happen once these mandates are lifted? Will COVID-19 rates for schools across Newfoundland and Labrador go up? This is only the tip of the iceberg to the concerns that teachers and students have about the mandates being lifted. I go to Holy Heart of Mary High School, and me and the newspaper club decided to conduct a survey about the concerns that teachers and students had about the COVID-19 mandates in Newfoundland and Labrador.
Many felt overwhelmed about all the different rules and regulations that came about within the last two years. The deaths, concern about mental health and well-being, public health not being able to tell anyone what to do anymore, close contact cases, and much more were brought up when we conducted our survey. One teacher said, “I had never really considered my mental health before this. But I found the last two years to be a time of sadness and anger.” They were concerned about how they weren’t able to enjoy even the small things in life anymore, and how we are all trying to avoid something so big even if the risk is so small, especially for people who are not immunocompromised and have at least one or two vaccinations. We didn’t stop there though; we let the students speak as well. Two people, students, said, “I really want to know what the rules are going to be if you come in contact with someone who has COVID especially if you aren’t wearing a mask. I guess I’m just a little confused and a bit frustrated on how they are dealing with this.” It seems as if there was a lot of concern about “close contact” than anything when we gave people the opportunity to write any additional comments, as COVID-19 cases seem to be on the rise at Holy Heart. However, there have been many rules put in place for Newfoundland and Labrador for COVID-19 that it seems that people just don’t know how to keep up with them anymore, especially our students and teachers. The other student said, “I want to know how they will handle isolations once they drop the mask mandate. Right now a contact through school isn’t a close contact because of masks, but if anyone exposed through schools after the 14th has to be isolated there will be no one in school. There is a COVID case in each of my classes so if no one wears masks entire classes will get it at a time.” Dr. Fitzgerald had released something on February 25th regarding close contacts, stating more rules on VaxPass where it is not required at formal gatherings at 50% capacity, and in-home gatherings can be up to 25 people. Our students however, are still concerned about close contacts happening in such a large school, even with these new regulations in place.
There is also a big debate on whether or not this was because of the protesting in Ottawa. A big talk lately has been the protesting in Downtown Ottawa; truckers have been honking their horns and trashing downtown because they all want masks, vaccines and COVID-19 mandates to be lifted. Dr. Fitzgerald, when she made her announcement on February 16th, said “the decision was based on science and the province’s favorable epidemiology, and not on the decisions of other provinces or as a reaction to protests against restrictions happening across the country.” While many might believe this to be true, there is still some outrage about how the protest was even acknowledged when the announcement was made, and the decisions of other provinces or even decisions of other countries around the world.
Our data from the survey showed that 60 people took it, and 26.7% of people wanted COVID-19 mandates to be lifted, while 70% said they didn’t want them to be. The other 3.3% were not sure. If you look at the results for people wanting to keep a mask on, the same people who wanted to keep the mandates said yes, while there was a lower percentage (13.3%) who selected “No’’ and a higher percentage (16.7%) who selected ”I don’t know.” For watching the live briefings the percentages were 45% for yes and 55% for no. This says a lot about what people are going to be doing in schools because with the confusion with close contacts and other rules put in place by public health and schools, there are going to be people still following the guidelines as usual and people who are unsure if they want to make their own choice in fear of being made fun of and/or of being sent home. In conclusion, everyone is entitled to their own opinions on the mandate, and it is totally up to public health at the end of the day if they want to lift the mandate; just like it would be for us in terms of wearing masks, getting vaccinated and going out with our friends and family.
In conclusion, so many people feel different ways about certain things, and that is perfectly fine. We all have a right to express and speak out about our feelings. “I know many people are worried about the restrictions being lifted and their concerns are valid.” another teacher said. I know that I am still going to be following rules as they come and go, however I am still going to be respectful of everyone’s concerns and questions about COVID-19 and pray like everyone else that it ends soon. I hope that this really is “the beginning of the end”, and that by next year or the end of this year, COVID-19 will be gone.
