Mandatory face masks must go in Victoria

The time has well and truly come to stop treating Victorians like schoolchildren and ditch the masks, writes Sophie Elsworth.

The time has well and truly arrived to ditch the face masks.

Many Victorians have been beating their chests up until Friday when the state had achieved more than 40 days straight of zero COVID cases, yet many people are still wandering around all covered up.

Way back in July, Premier Daniel Andrews said wearing a mask was “effectively our stage four”.

Fast forward five months and here Victorians are still being treated like schoolchildren and told to carry a face mask at all times once they walk out their front door.

While some say wearing a face mask is no big deal, it begs the question, why aren’t they mandatory in the rest of the country?

Are non-Victorian citizens stupid if they wander around without covering up their faces?

On a trip to NSW last week I saw hardly anyone wearing a face mask – in pubs, restaurants and even on public transport.

It felt so liberating.

But here in Victoria the difference is the Premier is obsessed with telling Victorians what they can and cannot do, without providing the “data and science” to back it up.

In Victoria you don’t have to mask up if you’re busting a groove on a nightclub dancefloor,

yet if you go to the supermarket, COVID-19 could pounce at any moment.

COVID-19 must like the grocery aisles because the Premier has said masks must be worn inside supermarkets.

Mask rules have continuously changed in Victoria throughout the pandemic. Picture: NCA NewsWire/ David Crosling.

Victorians must also wear them at hardware stores, large retailers and on public transport.

What about florists, newsagents and the drycleaners?

And how can it be possible that customers in a Wodonga supermarket must mask up, yet across the river in Albury these strict rules don’t apply?

If there are Victorians who still wish to wear masks when out and about, by all means go for it.

But it’s time to let those who are fed up with them ditch them.

Masks have seemed for a long time more about messaging than science.

The rules throughout the pandemic have chopped and changed that much around masking up that it’s easy to lose track.

Many people are losing track of the rules and relying on others to find out what rules apply when and where.

At my local mini supermarket, it says “No mask, no entry” yet plenty of customers wander in, stock up on their goods and leave without any issues.

I bumped into a Melbourne mate at Bondi Beach last week and we both laughed at how free we felt without masks.

“I feel naked not carrying it,” he scoffed.

And yup, so did I.

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@sophieelsworth