- metadata: - source: https://www.theaustralian.com.au/nation/epidemiologists-slam-vic-plan-to-keep-masks-on-kids/news-story/7726b2ae8c744b81093ab09e94054e27 - people: [[RACHEL BAXENDALE]] --- # Epidemiologists slam Vic plan to keep masks on kids > ## Excerpt > Leading epidemiologists have described the Andrews government’s decision to maintain a mask mandate for some primary school children, despite dropping it for their older siblings, as “inconsistent” and lacking evidence. --- [](https://cdn.newsapi.com.au/image/v1/396ed78a625a1bd6c47403c9d67e1aa7) Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews. Picture: NCA NewsWire / David Crosling Leading epidemiologists have described the Andrews government’s decision to maintain a mask mandate for some primary school children, despite dropping it for their older siblings, as “inconsistent” and lacking evidence. The comments came after Daniel Andrews pointed to lower Covid vaccination rates among 5-11-year-olds in attempting to explain the decision. Students in secondary school and years 3 to 6 are required to wear masks indoors at school, with an exemption for students from Prep to Year 2 based on the impracticality of requiring such a young age group to wear them. ### Read Next From Saturday, the mandate will be lifted for secondary students but remain in place for older primary students. ANU microbiologist Peter Collignon said that despite “dire predictions”, schools were “not a big factor” in the spread of Covid. “They’re more a reflection of the community, and children are at less of a risk than 20-30-year-olds, so … we’ve got quite a lot of inconsistency if we make children, young children, wear masks when they’re less of a risk both to themselves and others than adults,” Professor Collignon said. Murdoch Children’s Research Institute paediatrician Fiona Russell said children were at the lowest risk of hospitalisation and severe disease from Omicron. “The World Health Organisation will soon release its updated guidelines recommending that school-age children should follow the same masking guidelines for adults, irrespective of vaccination status,” Professor Russell said. Deakin University Chair in Epidemiology Catherine Bennett said she was surprised by the decision, stressing that removing the mask mandate did not mean children had to stop wearing them if their parents wanted them to continue to do so. “We know the vaccination rates are lower at primary school, but we haven’t heard anything to suggest infection rates are any higher in primary school than secondary,” Professor Bennett said. Mr Andrews used similar rhetoric to that used to justify his government’s 2021 curfew and playground ban to explain keeping the mask mandate for young children. “We’re talking about human behaviour and we’re talking about complex issues and … there’s kind of a bit of deja vu here,” he said. “Very rarely have we been able to point to any one specific measure and attribute a number of cases or an amount of spread to that one public health rule.” Asked if mandating masks for primary school children was proportionate to the risk Covid poses to them, given the extremely rare instances of severe illness within the age group, Mr Andrews said: “Well, you mightn’t get sick from it, but you can give it to Grandma, you can give it to someone who’s had cancer, you can give it to someone who’s got asthma.” [](https://www.theaustralian.com.au/author/Rachel+Baxendale) Victorian Political Reporter Melbourne Rachel Baxendale writes on state and federal politics from The Australian's Melbourne and Victorian press gallery bureaux. During her time working for the paper in the Canberra press gallery she covered the 201... [Read more](https://www.theaustralian.com.au/author/Rachel+Baxendale)