Is the government gagging the BBC?

[lonelyplanet]

During August there were daily stories on the BBC news about the safe reopening of schools. Inaccurate photos of socially distanced desks and classes with only 15 children in them were being widely used.

The schools have now returned and there is silence. There is no information on what is happening and no updates. Why is this?

Last night I watched the BBC Panorama Test and Trace Exposed. Panorama is known for uncovering scandals. The programme interspersed snippets of Boris' speeches with his promises that have fallen flat. However there was no mention of the promise that Test and Trace would be in place for the safe opening of schools. Or for that matter anything about how the Test and Trace has failed schools or been problematic because of schools.

Universities have started to go back this week and there is quite rightly loads of coverage about the problems and issues.

What I would like to know is why is the mainstream media not covering the return to schools? Why can't I find out what is going on nationally? How are schools really affected? Are there lots of children and staff off sick? Are there no reporters out there willing to ask the questions that need asking?

In just my local area, 30 schools have reported cases and have partially closed, either a year group or a form, and I am looking for a national number but can't find it. I think you are right - but I also think that the BBC has an agenda at the moment and not digging deep enough, and/or not covering from the right angle. Laura K has made her political position very clear over the last few years, especially with her totally partial twitter posts, so no surprise there.

Since summer I’ve been wondering if a suppression order like a “D notice“ has been placed on the media over schools. If so they could get round it by publishing facts like schools that have closed etc but wouldn’t be able to say much more.

I’m still not 100% sure but the coverage is weird to me.

"Since summer I’ve been wondering if a suppression order like a “D notice“ has been placed on the media over schools."

I think you may be right. But it is not about National security it is about weighing up judgements and a balance between health, economy and education. I believe we are being treated like idiots if the full picture is being hidden from us.

I've been wondering exactly the same thing.

There was a link on another mumsnet thread to a Sky journalist's twitter - Rowland Manthorpe. He said

"The Covid situation in universities is getting a lot of attention, for understandable reasons. All the same its worth bearing in mind the latest data, which shows clusters coming overwhelmingly in schools"

Following his tweets I thought Sky news might run something but nothing

I also saw somewhere yesterday a pie chart that showed something like 3% of cases coming from hospitality and approximately 42% coming from schools and colleges.

It is effectively a 'state' broadcaster with a hostile government in power and a new DG in Tim Davie who says the BBC has to change to represent all of Britain. Brexit and Johnson have changed society (for the worse IMHO) so I think their media output is more supportive of government policy than before. ITV and Sky are far more robust now in holding them accountable these days. Piers Morgan and Kay Burley to name but two. I wouldn't have thought a D Notice was necessary more a tacit decision by management to be seen supportive of government policy which is of course guided by the science ....

The latest science is showing that transmission in the under 15s is very low. This actually means you will over time get more children in this age group islolated from school, because it means you are isolating whole groups/bubbles with little or no cross transmission - putting them back (with no one in bubble having been infected) - only to have 1 child get infected - repeat and rinse.

Over 15 and adults (so teachers) more problematic - most outbreaks (where there is more than one infection) seem to be between staff groups and in Years 11 and above...

The story isn't in the return to schools and that is why it wasn't covered.

No bubbles burst in the schools by me and I am nextdoor to the original lockdown capital of England. Be quite boring for a reporter to hang around.

I am in a very low risk area but in the last 2 days a number of local primary and secondary schools have years isolating. There was nothing until end of last week.

On the contrary, the government use the BBC to peddle their propaganda ahead of the next announcement. They aren’t bothering to report on the return to school because it hasn’t caused the disaster they perhaps expected (wished for) and that doesn’t feed into Justification for their continued program of restrictions.

MrsFrisby "The story isn't in the return to schools and that is why it wasn't covered."

I don't think you are correct here. This week's PHE surveillance graph shows that. I would like the story behind this.

And this one too.

@Malteserdiet

They are reporting on university students having to self isolate and the disruption to the beginning of their term but not reporting that thousands of school/college students across the country are self isolating and having their education disrupted.

Our school have kept things very quiet.

Not only do we live in a high rate area, but our testing capacity has been reduced by 44%. Our local centre used to process 800 swabs a day, they are now down to 100, and two of our 'mobile walk-in' testing centres have been closed altogether. We have a local R rate between 1.1 and 1.4. And 30 schools have some bubbles/year groups closed down. We don't wish for this.

"Our school have kept things very quiet."
Everyone is keeping quiet. It is wrong. Pubs are being blamed. Look at the graphs, schools are a driving force for infection. It is not just the BBC it is not being reported on.

My daughter’s at primary. There’s nothing to report there- no cases, no shutting of classes. I’m in a town of schools, and all just seems to be chugging along.

42% of outbreaks last week were educational settings according to PHE. Most were schools and nearly as many primaries were affected as secondaries.

The story is there it’s just being ignored.

@lonelyplanet

And this one too.

Week 27, that's JUNE.

@MrsFrisbyMouse

The latest science is showing that transmission in the under 15s is very low. This actually means you will over time get more children in this age group islolated from school, because it means you are isolating whole groups/bubbles with little or no cross transmission - putting them back (with no one in bubble having been infected) - only to have 1 child get infected - repeat and rinse.

Over 15 and adults (so teachers) more problematic - most outbreaks (where there is more than one infection) seem to be between staff groups and in Years 11 and above...

The story isn't in the return to schools and that is why it wasn't covered.

Do you have clear evidence that transmission in under 15s is very low? As I thought the difference was between secondary and primary? So the putative divide came a bit younger?

Is this thought to be more social behaviour or physiological?

And also kids vary a lot re puberty, so are we actually talking pre and post pubertal here?

@katkit Do you know that for a fact (that no schools in your town have got cases), or is that you're not aware of any cases because you've not heard on the news, social media etc? I only know of school closures in my area through SM, there has be no news coverage.

Maybe they're not collating this information on a national level, so they can claim there's not a problem? Like the Russian interference that they apparently knew nothing about, when it turned out they didn't know because they'd not looked.

@Katkit
Of course there are areas where schools haven't been affected but the point is there are thousands of children and staff self isolating across the country which either year groups or school closures and this isn't being reported.

Not every university has an outbreak but the university situation has had massive coverage over the last few days.

@ChaChaCha2012 I know through being nosey- asking locals- or checking the school’s social media page. As unscientific as it comes.

with either year groups or school closures