Decision to rescind requirement ‘made based on a number of factors,' says health authority
A doctor in Alberta is looking to legal action in order to challenge Alberta Health Services’ (AHS) move to drop its masking requirements – and he has gotten more support than he hoped for.
Dr. David Keegan, a Calgary-based family doctor and professor of family medicine, launched a GoFundMe crowdsourcing campaign last week.
“COVID-19 is real, it's still here, and it's airborne. It spreads like smoke,” he said in the campaign. “If everyone masks, it keeps our shared air cleaner. Once the mask mandate is dropped, it will mean lots of people won't be wearing masks. This will lead to more COVID-19 virus (SARS-CoV-2) in the air, which will cause more people to catch it.”
Keegan set up a crowdfunding campaign to raise $20,000 to file a court injunction against AHS lifting its facility mask mandate on June 19. That GoFundMe hit its goal in less than 24 hours. As of writing, the Keep the AHS Mask Mandate in Place campaign has received 267 donations totaling $26,769.
On Thursday afternoon, Keegan said he’s retained senior legal counsel and the court case will “move ahead” in a tweet at 4:01 p.m. More recently, however, Keegan said that the law firm could not represent him in the case due to a conflict of interest.
Numerous employers have previously announced they are doing away with requiring workers to mask up along with other government bodies.
AHS drops masking policy
As of June 19, 2023, AHS will no longer require continuous masking at all AHS facilities, including continuing care and contracted sites, Alberta’s health system said.
This applies to all patients, families, and visitors at AHS facilities, as well as Alberta Precision Laboratories, Covenant Health, CapitalCare, and Carewest sites. It also applies to all AHS and contracted staff, including physicians, midwives, students, volunteers, and contractors.
“The decision to rescind the current requirement for continuous masking was made based on a number of factors, including declining COVID-19 cases, testing positivity rate, wastewater data and hospital admission rates for respiratory illnesses in Alberta, as well as consultation with stakeholders including patients, families, advisory councils, clinicians and frontline managers.”
However, staff are “required to continue to use the infection prevention and control risk assessment to make personal protective equipment (PPE) decisions and AHS routine practices to prevent the spread of infections.”
