A study by The Burnet Institute and the Kirby Institute which was relied on by the Victorian government to justify its strict mask mandate that saw thousands of Victorians fined has been criticised by some doctors and epidemiologists as extremely “low grade” evidence.
The study used newspaper photographs and surveys to assess mask compliance and its effect on Covid rates and analysed images of people in public places from the digital archive of The Age newspaper. Dr Kyle Sheldrick, a medical researcher at the University of New South Wales, said it is "staggering" the Andrews government used the report as a basis for policy making.
Infectious diseases physician, Peter Collignon, agreed with Sheldrick that there was a mismatch between the methods described and the results reported.
Both researchers have since detailed their concerns publicly.