Interview

Colin Furness

We may need to close schools for short periods of time when the spread of COVID-19 gets out of control, since doing so decreases community mobility and, by extension, transmission. We should also be wary of the narrative that schools are not significant sites of transmission, which might be more politically advantageous than scientifically accurate.

Andrew Morris

We should not rule out school closures, since even though the short-term consequences of COVID-19 on children generally appear to be mild, they are not always benign – and no-one even knows what the long-term effects are. Furthermore, transmission does occur within schools, which can endanger not only schoolchildren but the broader community.

Ari Bitnun

We should never have closed schools because there is no compelling reason to do so. Not only are children at very low risk of developing severe COVID-19, but schools are also not significant sites of transmission of SARS-CoV-2.

Martha Fulford

Schools should not be closed due to COVID-19 because children are at low risk of serious harm from the disease and do not spread it to others to a significant degree. In fact, closing schools causes far more harm to children than it prevents.

Jennifer Grant

Closing schools violates two rights safeguarded in the Convention on the International Rights of the Child. By infringing these rights, we have caused serious harm to our kids, despite the fact that schools never posed a serious danger to kids or the community at large.

‘We’re deviating from what makes us Canadian’: An interview with Stefan Baral

Physician-epidemiologist Stefan Baral opposes vaccine certificates on the grounds that they further sideline marginalized groups and strain the relationship between public health and the public it serves.

‘We shouldn’t emotionalize the discussion. It’s purely pragmatic’: An interview with Peter Jüni

Peter Jüni, the scientific director of the Ontario COVID-19 Science Advisory Table, argues that vaccine certificates are key to managing the COVID-19 pandemic while keeping society open.

Are antiviral pills to treat COVID safe and effective?

Healthy Debate Editor-in-Chief Seema Marwaha answers your questions on the effectiveness, safety and limitations of new antiviral pills to treat COVID-19.

Palliative care doctor bridges health-care worlds

Michael Anderson, a doctor of Mohawk and English-Canadian ancestry, is drawing on Indigenous knowledge to not only improve palliative care – but also discover his culture and himself.

Building trust key to overcoming vaccine hesitancy among parents

Healthy Debate Editor-in-Chief Seema Marwaha speaks about how to navigate the hesitancy that some parents might feel about vaccinating children aged 5-11 against COVID-19.

‘Liberty is at stake, but not just the liberty of the unvaccinated’: An interview with Arthur Schafer

Ethicist Arthur Schafer argues that vaccine certificates are a clearly ethical means of protecting the vulnerable, the unvaccinated, and our health-care system, thereby allowing us to return to something resembling our pre-pandemic way of life.

‘Is it a violation of people’s rights? I would say it is’: An interview with Kerry Bowman

Ethicist Kerry Bowman says that vaccine certificates give him pause because they restrict people's movement, are divisive, and likely further disadvantage the marginalized – all while providing a benefit whose overall impact is hard to gauge.