Overseas data shows there is no good reason for masks in schools

The overwhelming evidence from overseas is that there is no good reason why Victorian children should not be free of their masks this week.

People, particularly children, should be allowed to breathe freely.

Unmask our children, Premier.

Start looking at the overwhelming evidence from Sweden, Denmark and from US states that didn’t enforce mask mandates versus those that did.

The data is clear and frankly has been for some time.

Do not wait for Dominic Perrottet to lead the way, as you have throughout our state’s reopening.

NSW will lift its indoor mask mandate at the end of the month.

There is no good reason why Victorian children should not be free of their masks this week. Even in the US, where Covid-induced lunacy has seen toddlers masked in preschool, there is a massive U-turn occurring; Democratic-run states are lifting their mandates.

This week the Washington Post’s headline read: Mask mandates didn’t make much of a difference anyway.

Paediatric infectious disease expert Dr Shamez Ladhani, a consultant paediatrician at the UK Health Security Agency said: “I cannot find a single study that justifies mask wearing in schools.”

Five to seven years old, playing together on a playground during school recess.

In the UK the government admitted last month that there was no sound evidence for mask use in schools. The BBC reported that “the (UK) government’s own study in the autumn did not provide proof of a statistically significant impact”.

It is appalling that we continue to mask children, the group at lowest risk from Covid-19, for hours a day. We have known for some time that influenza is more dangerous for healthy children than Covid and yet we continue to disregard the evidence to appease the hypochondriacs.

There is no good reason why Victorian children should not be free of their masks this week. Picture: Andrew Henshaw

Infectious disease expert and Australia’s former deputy chief medical officer Dr Nick Coatsworth wrote that the “tide has turned on masks”.

“People recognise they had a place at a time of uncertainty, but are appropriately reassessing their value especially in schools,” he wrote. “It is a good time to re-evaluate primary and secondary school mask policy in all Australian jurisdictions.”

But for face mask fanatics the flimsy cloth has become akin to a sacred religious symbol.

And they are free to mask for the rest of their lives but the rest of us, particularly children, should be allowed to breathe freely.

Rita Panahi is a Herald Sun columnist