TORONTO – It is a constant growth that of Covid-19 cases in ontario schools where with the last 121 infections last Friday, the total, after about two weeks of attendance, is 619. The latest outbreak is the one that broke out at Elmlea Junior School in Etobicoke – Rexdale and Islington district – where at least two cases have been reported. 

A situation, this, which increasingly worries parents who give less and less weight to the words of the Minister of Education Stephen Lecce: “I am ready to do anything and everything that is required of us to ensure that schools can remain open and safe during the fourth wave of the pandemic”, the minister told CTV News Ottawa last Thursday. However, the parents of the children who attend in presence and who decided to take action did not feel at all reassured.

And so a group of moms and dads from kids attending Earl Beatty Junior and Senior Public School in Toronto, alarmed by the increased transmissibility of the Delta variant and the lack of free asymptomatic tests available for most children this fall, set up their own rapid antigen screening system.

Under the Earl Beatty Community Access Testing program, every asymptomatic child attending school will be able to take a rapid Covid-19 antigen test twice a week, similar to what is required of unvaccinated education workers in the province: so far more than 200 students at Earl Beatty Junior and Senior Public School participate in screening while at least 10 other schools have applied to join the program.

Parents report any suspected positive cases on a web portal, run by nearby Michael Garron Hospital, which will also offer confirmatory testing with a full PCR test. “These are surveillance tests, not diagnostic tests, infections are discovered early while they are still asymptomatic – said organizer Sam Kaufman – teaching volunteers and parents how to handle the kits has not been difficult, there is the impression that they are too difficult to use at home, when in fact they are not at all”.

To get the plan off the ground, Kaufman turned to the Stay Safe initiative initially created to provide rapid testing to companies with 150 employees or fewer, as a means of keeping them operational, especially in the run-up to widespread vaccination coverage.

Education Minister Lecce and Chief Medical Officer of Health Moore have almost ruled out such a surveillance program for public school pupils this year, saying it could only be adopted if things get worse. The province has so far not openly stated that the offer or cost is the reason it has not implemented free asymptomatic surveillance tests for all children, but its supplies would quickly run out if they were used for the 1.7-1.8 million students who are attending face-to-face classes.

Tests, infections and vaccines. These are currently the topics under discussion in the Ontario school system. In recent days there has been a controversy, which is more than heated and fiery, between the professor of the University of Guelph Dr. Byram Bridle and the school trustee Markus de Domenico.

A lively clash with tweets that does not seem destined to end, as they say, to ”tarallucci and wine”. The trigger for the controversy is the request made by the Toronto Catholic District School Board (TCDSB) to the Ontario government to make vaccinations against Covid-19 mandatory for children over 12 in schools in the province.

“In my professional opinion as an expert vaccinologist, the risk-benefit profile of sars-CoV-2 vaccines currently in use in Canada does not support the mandatory immunization of students,” Bridle writes in a letter sent to Chair Joseph Marino and all school trustees at the TCDSB. The data are constantly evolving with considerable concerns that have arisen in the last two weeks, including public admissions that the duration of immunity conferred by Covid-19 vaccines is incredibly short, thus making third doses (and perhaps more in the future) necessary that exacerbate the safety concerns that existed when the regimen provided for only two doses.

Bridle, an active supporter of the “non-safety” of vaccines against Covid-19, also mentions three independent studies that suggest that “adverse events associated with the vaccine are more serious in people who have naturally acquired immunity from a previous infection” and that “in males aged 12 to 15 years, the risk of heart complications due to vaccination is 6 times greater than the risk of hospitalization from Covid-19”.

But his missive, so far very calm, in the second part is vitriolic when he addresses directly to the trustee de Domenico for having posted “For a case of potentially fatal fleas the consultation, otherwise abstain from this type of post on Covid. Thank you.”

A post that sent the doctor into a rage who clarifies that he is not a veterinarian: “I don’t even have a degree in veterinary medicine. I am a professor who holds a PhD, completed extensive postdoctoral training, and have been a faculty member for a decade. I refused a faculty position at the Faculty of Medicine in Ottawa in order to accept what I currently hold at the University of Guelph – writes Bridle – this allows me to conduct all the same research I did when I was at McMaster University (which has a medical school) but also allows me to conduct a translational research unique in Canada, as it has been recognized through a prestigious research award from the Terry Foxx Research Institute and many other awards and recognitions. One of my vaccine technologies has advanced in four human clinical trials. I am an internationally recognized leader in the field of Covid-19 vaccinology.”

The professor of Guelph University, essentially silences de Domenico to whom he points out that he has “committed a defamation publicly” and has shown “an incredible lack of respect”. “Out of curiosity, what credentials do you have that would make you an expert in determining the advisability of imposing Covid-19 vaccines? It seems that you are attempting to censor members of your school board from posting legitimate information about Covid-19 vaccines; why? – concludes the researcher – in the meantime, I ask for your immediate apology for your statement against me or I will consider suing you for defamation. Apologies should be addressed to me in writing and in this social media post…”

A declaration of war, his own, to all intents and purposes.