Health-care workers group in B.C. demand better mask policy at COVID-19 vaccination centres

A group of physicians, nurses and health scientists in B.C. are urging the Ministry of Health to provide all health-care workers who work at vaccination centres with N95 masks or other well-fitted higher-grade masks.

Lyne Filiatrault, a retired ER doctor and member of Protect Our Province B.C., says the group hasbeen receiving emails from concerned health-care workerswho have been urgently requestedto help administer COVID-19 immunizations at mass clinics.

She saidimmunizers havebeen toldthey will not be provided with KN95 masks, which aresimilar to N95 respirator masks.

"Anybody that goes in an indoor space right now, not just health-care workers at mass vaccination centres but everybody, should be wearing high-grade well-fitted masks," Filiatrault told CBC News.

"And if they don't have access to one, they should be provided with one."

She said scientists have proven that COVID-19 is spreadthrough aerosol, and proper personal protective equipment (PPE) like a well-fitted mask isimportantespecially amidstrising cases of thehighly-transmissible Omicron variant.

"It's a little bit like if people are smoking. The closer you are to them, the more smoke in your face, but if you stay for a prolonged period of time in the same room, even if you are two metres apart, you're going to be breathing that smoke," Filiatrault said.

She said medical masks, also known as surgical masks,arenot enough to protect peoplefrom transmission, especiallyin an indoor space full of people who maynot know if they are infected with COVID-19.

Declined administering vaccines

Alex Rosenczweig, a dentist in the Lower Mainland, said he received an email about a week agofromVancouver Coastal Health urgently asking for certified health-care workersto help administer COVID-19 immunizations at mass vaccination clinics.

He said despiterising COVID-19 cases, he decided not to participate when he found out he would not be provided with proper masks to protect him against the Omicron variant.

"I said I have one request that I'm allowed to wearPPE that includes nothing short of N95 or better, and I even asked if I could wear my own," Rosenczweigtold CBC News.

He said he received a reply sayingPPEs will be provided and all immunizers are required to wear the same one issued, and thatInfection Prevention and Control Canada "have deemed medical masks adequate for clinics."

"You're in an environment with an airborne pathogen, yet the province is sticking to this droplet theory," Rosenczweig said. "And now with this Omicron variant, we should be able to protect ourselves better, especially [by] wearing an N95."

The Ministry of Health said in an email statement thatinfection control measures at vaccination sites are decided and overseen by public health and infection control experts, and the ministry has full provincial infection prevention and control policies in place to prevent COVID-19 transmissionin all health-care settings.

"PPE is only one measure health authorities use to prevent transmission," it stated. "Vaccination clinics are low-risk settings as all staff are vaccinated, masked and there are spacing measures in place."