Mask mandates for young kids are not backed by science and should be ditched

Forcing young kids to wear masks at school is a hysterical anti-science stance opposed by renowned experts — and it must be ditched.

Hallelujah! After an abysmally slow start, Australia has passed the 70 per cent double jabbed target, making us among the most-vaccinated countries in the world.

Sadly, we remain one of the most isolated and restricted countries, and one where recalcitrant state authorities refuse to evaluate evidence from overseas in determining policy.

Instead, we have Victorian health bureaucrats deferring to the well-funded catastrophists at the Burnet Institute whose modelling has been consistently and wildly wrong, not to mention their error-riddled study into the effectiveness of masks.

It’s absurd to force healthy children as young as eight into masks at school when from tonight, adults, no matter how perilous their health or vaccination status, can gather indoors in private homes where the virus is most likely to spread.

VCE students have worn masks before but the latest edict includes primary school kids.

Forcing kids from grade three and above to be masked, indoors and outdoors, for seven hours a day, and strongly recommending masking five-year-old preppies is not evidence based, it’s a hysterical anti-science stance opposed by a plethora of renowned experts both here and overseas.

Infectious disease specialist, and Australia’s former deputy chief medical officer, Nick Coatsworth summed it up best when he wrote that “vaccinated adults are the best protection for kids”.

“No masks on kids in classrooms. Period,” Dr Coatsworth wrote. “Evidence doesn’t support it … Zero. Covid academics should leave our kids alone.”

Australia’s former deputy chief medical officer Dr Nick Coatsworth does not support masks in schools.

Kids have paid a heavy price through this pandemic for a virus that poses minimal risk to them; indeed multiple studies have shown that influenza is more dangerous for young children than Covid-19.

Research released this week by the Murdoch Children’s Research Institute reveals that though the Delta variant is significantly more contagious for children, there was no surge in infections from children attending schools and childcare centres during Sydney’s outbreak.

“For children without a serious medical condition, the danger of severe Covid is so low as to be difficult to quantify. For children with such a condition, the danger is higher but still lower than many people believe.” Decision to vaccinate healthy <12y not straightforward 1/ https://t.co/bEUHm3nzg3pic.twitter.com/gKr6qjffHk

— Fiona Russell (@Fiona_M_Russell) October 13, 2021

“The Burnet Institute study relied on images from the photo library of The Age newspaper showing Melbourne community settings to conclude that mask usage rose from 43 per cent to 97 per cent after the July 22 mandate came into effect.”

Time to drop outdoor mask mandate https://t.co/TptnePBtj2

— Dr Ranjit Rao (@ranjitrao1) October 21, 2021

Though there have been infections in schools and early learning centres, and more are expected as children return full-time, the data released showed transmission was most common among adults and least common from child to child.

The findings should provide some comfort to parents in Victoria as schools prepare to return full time on November 5.

Last month, a report from the National Centre for Immunisation Research and Surveillance showed that 98 per cent of children infected with Covid-19 in Australia have no symptoms or only mild symptoms and that the majority of children hospitalised with Covid-19 were not there for medical reasons but for social reasons such as their parents being unable to care for them.

It’s time to allow our children to breathe easy; let them discard their masks and get back to the business of being kids.