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?

It's a scandal the care homes are still a major source of contagion after all the deaths and attention earlier in the year.

someone posted this website on a thread the other day. It shows reported school closures up to
28/9 although I think it's just one or two people doing it so the might be others that haven't yet been added.

I think it depends on what area you're in. Secondaries in mine are closing year group bubbles but primaries seem to be doing ok.

Apologies by closures I meant cases not full closures If you click on them it tells you what impact it's having (year group/full school etc).

There is a case in both the schools my dc attend, and other schools locally (nearish London). Contacts of the positive children have been sent home but not entire classes.

Everyone seems calm about it here.

Lots of kids off school last week and this week with an illness but parents couldn’t get tests so kids are back in school. I think there are more cases in our school than the two reported but they are not picked up due to lack of testing/mild illness so parents don’t test.

But a year group isolating doesn’t necessarily mean there is high transmission in the school, just that there may have been one or two cases. The real problem comes if there are multiple cases within a bubble. I’ve not seen anything on that (doesn’t mean it’s not there, but I don’t think you can conclude heavy levels of transmission just by the number of separate clusters of cases in different schools).

One case in a year group does not mean education is the source of the infection. It means it was brought in from outside.

MJMG2015 "lonelyplanet And this one too.

Week 27, that's JUNE"

It is June through to last week.

It is so patchy and localised. Ie here schools are ok and the story wouldn’t really mean much.

Plus it doesn’t take much to keep a bubble home

@Fetaliving

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.

Same, I've been wondering this. It does seem odd.

Some schools do say more in the local press don’t they? There doesn’t seem to be a notice or suppression just very local interest.

"One case in a year group does not mean education is the source of the infection. It means it was brought in from outside."

Maybe or maybe taken back home from schools. We don't know as no one is delving into it. If infections are moving from schools into homes then the current curbs on socialising won't work. Why is no one investigating this?

We have had 1 school close so far. Our local BBC has reported it.

Students are being locked up to stop them spreading it. How are 6th formers or teenagers, or looking at the graphs, primary children any different?

DioneTheDiabolist

"We have had 1 school close so far. Our local BBC has reported it."

I'd be really interested in this. Please could you post a link?

Schools in England have not been back long enough to conclude on anything. Any cases in the first week or two are likely to have been brought in from outside. Then it takes a couple of weeks to ascertain the extent to which that case may have spread through a bubble by it the wider school.

I really don’t understand all this surprise at bubbles isolating. That is exactly what was supposed to happen if there was a confirmed case (or close contacts, or however each school is doing it). Isolation is one of the key ways to limit the spread.

@herecomesthsun

“ 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?”

PHE and PHS are releasing cases by age. Here for last week, put together by www.travellingtabby.com/scotland-coronavirus-tracker/

The one not labelled as England is Scotland.

No probs OP.
www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-54323059

It’s week 27 to 38. Week 38 is last week.

It's not a surprise that bubbles are being isolated, it's a statement. They are, because cases are in school.

There is, and will be no data about how many people within a family will be affected by one child/teenager bringing Covid home. Our Track and Trace system isn't sophisticated enough to cover that.

We've had one case in our school, the class is now in isolation, no teacher isolating, so it's a question of time before we know if other kids develop it within the period of 14 days. However, families are under no obligation to inform the school if another child within the same bubble develops it at home, or of other members of the family develop it. So we will never know of the true ripple effect of the contagion.

1,373 doesn't look all that low to me. It is higher than many other age groups, especially bearing in mind how difficult it is to get children tested.

Also, it belies a lot of the previous comments about how children weren't going to catch this in significant numbers.

@MJMG2015

I saw you corrected on this yesterday. Why are you repeating this inaccuracy.

Our school is practically shut. Whole of Year 11 and 9 off and half of Year 8.

No one's reporting that. Anywhere.

@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.

Can you link to this science please, Mrs Frisby? It is very strange that schools are now the setting with the highest cases of covid if children do not typically transmit the virus.

@Dustballs

Our school is practically shut. Whole of Year 11 and 9 off and half of Year 8.

No one's reporting that. Anywhere.

You could let the people collating the data know, if they don't already (Tory Fibs on twitter and Boycott Return to Unsafe Schools on Facebook)

@Foobydoo I would imagine it’s the ‘university’ part of ‘schools/universities’ then. Did you see the figures by age I added above?

@lonelyplanet it doesn't give the granular data - which we don't have yet. But they need to define 'outbreak' and look at how many other people get infected from each individual within the setting.

For example, my son's school (very small SEN specialist school) closed because a TA was positive. That's 30 children now at home. 2 other members of staff have since tested positive - and none of the children.

See here for current study on paediatric transmission.

jamanetwork.com/journals/jamapediatrics/fullarticle/2771181

What this means in reality is that we will be closing schools/bubbles all the time because it only takes 1 infected person/child to close any bubble, (which may well be a societal side effect we are prepared to tolerate) but means that the relative overall transmission rate within those settings is actually very low. But means the risk of each bubble closing repeatedly over time is high.

So in the first graph, we don't know how many of those cases are teachers, and in the second- yes as we reopen schools you would expect there to be a rise in cases. But we need more data on whether those cases cause other cases, and crucially how many.