Calgary Herald: 'First, this approach recognizes the disproportionate impact that COVID restrictions have had upon our children, who are, in our opinion, the most vulnerable segment of society. Accordingly, leadership decisions that prioritize children in our post-pandemic planning will have the highest societal yield, both by eliminating the largest negative impact, as well as by promoting the greatest positive impact. The yield to society of timely intervention on behalf of our children is greater, in our opinion, than the equivalent yield in prioritizing any alternative. Our children are the most vulnerable in society, but they carry the greatest potential. They must be prioritized.
'Second, this approach recognizes that interventions that may seem to make sense intuitively, may not ultimately be supported by the scientific evidence. This is the entire premise of evidence-based medicine, which recognizes that what we think may happen does not always happen. Additionally, interventions that may be supported by evidence at one point in time, may no longer be supported by evidence at a later point in time, owing to the dynamic nature of science. And lastly, an intervention that may be supported by evidence in one group of the population, may not be supported by evidence in another.
'When it comes to mask-wearing, in the early stages of the pandemic it seemed to make intuitive sense that masks would reduce transmission of COVID. Having limited understanding of COVID transmission at that time, it seemed reasonable to follow this intuition, and so we did.'
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