Caleb Bond: Silly school mask mandate is the last bit of Covid control for bureaucrats

Continuing to enforce masks in schools is a cruel rule that has no basis in logic or good public health — but Covid bureaucrats like Brett Sutton just can’t let go.

There have been so many uniquely Victorian dangers during this pandemic.

Going to the playground, for instance. Drinking alcohol beyond the perimeters of your property. Sitting alone on a park bench. Driving more than 5km from home.

But the one that has persisted is those dastardly primary school children.

It’s almost as though forcing young children to wear masks is the last vestige of power held by the health bureaucrats – and they’re damned if they’re going to let it be taken from their cold, sanitised hands.

I get it. It must be sad for chief health officer Brett Sutton and his crew to have risen from obscurity to be the cocks of the walk and now have to go back to whatever mundane tasks they normally perform.

And I also get that young children are noisy and snotty and that making them wear masks is about as close as we can get to having them be seen and not heard.

But it is an illogical and cruel rule that has no basis in logic or good public health.

It must be sad for chief health officer Brett Sutton and his crew to now have to go back to whatever mundane tasks they normally perform. Daniel Pockett

Only Victoria and the hermit kingdom of Western Australia now require masks in schools.

The argument all along has been young children are less likely to be vaccinated, thus they need the extra protection of masks.

But it is well documented that children have the mildest symptoms of Covid and are the most likely to recover.

Only six people under the age of 10 have died with Covid in Australia.

And for that we are making children wear masks?

Those who haven’t been vaccinated may well have already had the virus and thus have a level of natural immunity.

It is a rule that applies only to students in years 3 to 6 – presumably because they’re in just the right age group to comply with rules and not display the rebellious natures of toddlers or teenagers.

They are no more or less likely to transmit the virus than anyone else. And given they are not required to wear masks in any other setting, it makes little difference.

There is little doubt this stupid rule is making it harder for students to learn.

Wearing masks makes it harder for schoolchildren to connect with fellow students and teachers.

It deprives children of the important ability to read people’s faces at a time when they should be learning about emotions and the unspoken language of their peers.

For that same reason, it makes it harder to connect with people – both fellow students and teachers.

That is the last thing these kids need, having been kept at home, away from other children with whom they might have made friends, for the better part of two years.

It makes it harder to hear and understand people. The list goes on.

What it does serve as, though, is a way to maintain just a little bit of fear about Covid.

And through that fear, people like Sutton are allowed to keep some of their power.

Children – ripped away from school and the chance of socialisation in their formative years – paid the highest price during the pandemic.

Making them comply with a relic rule against all known sense is just sick.

Originally published as Caleb Bond: Silly school mask mandate is the last bit of Covid control for bureaucrats