MONTREAL -- The Association of Quebec Pediatricians has written a letter to the province's premier questioning the new health measures announced for high schools.
On Monday, Education Minister Jean-Francois Roberge announced that high school students would have to wear a mask everywhere on school property, including in class.
The pediatricians said wearing masks all the time and temporarily banning sports will do nothing to reduce COVID-19 transmission within that age group.
The group also added that having distance learning could also lead to students gathering.
"One of our worries is by creating these measures with the spirit of flattening the curve which we all agree to, I just worry that it's the wrong metric," said pediatrician Sasha Dubrovsky. "So keeping kids in schools and in sports is important. Adding screen time to children every other day only feeds into the addiction to screens that our society is facing and contributes to increased anxiety, increased mental health."
The group said the province might regret these measures for decades to come.