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?

Interesting to read this. Freedom of information requests to two different London councils have come back with identical wording about an agreement with Public Health England that prevents them from sharing data about Covid-19 outbreaks in schools.

skwawkbox.org/2020/10/03/exclusive-proof-tories-forcing-councils-to-keep-school-virus-outbreak-data-secret/

I'm also very surprised by the lack of coverage in the main news outlets of the shocking figure today over 12,000 positive tests including some that have been missed over the past week and how this has happened.

It seems like a pretty major cock up, at a time when the data is so important in assessing risk.

@noblegiraffe

There isn't really a news story at the moment about schools

Everyone I’ve told that there are 13,000 kids and 700 teachers currently self-isolating and out of school in Birmingham with a quarter of schools affected has been shocked and appalled. And surprised they hadn’t heard about it.

Clearly people are interested.

I'd be very interested in reading about that.

Or there's 300 schools in Greater Manchester currently partly or fully closed due to cases and again, thousands of kids out of school. www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/greater-manchester-news/more-300-schools-across-greater-19017335

There are big stories here that are not being reported on the national news. We all know about the university cases. Why not the school ones?

There is no reporting on schools and it's highly dubious.

Students have a choice whether or not to go to uni or defer. ECV teachers and parents are given no choice - threatened with fines (parents). No choice.

And now the covering up of the fact that schools are the biggest place seeing outbreaks.

I've complained to the BBC but not hopeful.

@IloveJKRowling

There is no reporting on schools and it's highly dubious.

Students have a choice whether or not to go to uni or defer. ECV teachers and parents are given no choice - threatened with fines (parents). No choice.

And now the covering up of the fact that schools are the biggest place seeing outbreaks.

I've complained to the BBC but not hopeful.

So have I days ago. Not heard anything as yet.

It feels a bit like going mad, doesn't it. Thousands of kids off school, thousands of schools affected, and people insisting that it's not a story of general interest.

This is terrifying, if true.

skwawkbox.org/2020/10/03/exclusive-proof-tories-forcing-councils-to-keep-school-virus-outbreak-data-secret/

[quote Orangeblossom7777]This might be of interest

www.thetimes.co.uk/edition/comment/bbc-isnt-telling-us-the-full-story-on-covid-h2xm35pmh[/quote]
It is interesting, but not in the way you suggest.

With Covid, however, the balance needs a sharp tweak. The case against controlling a pandemic by economy-wrecking lockdowns is not a bee in the bonnet of a few freaks; it meets wide if not majority sympathy, including from those scientists who argue that locking down only postpones a surge, and those scientists who believe that collective resistance to infection starts kicking in at a much lower level than the
60 per cent figure used for “the science” that our government followed.

Hardly a majority view, mine remains a mainstream view. No broadcast round-table discussion of the wisdom of pandemic policy should be aired without the participation of at least one representative of the lockdown-sceptic viewpoint.

Be clear, I’m far from claiming the BBC is entirely ignoring that viewpoint. On radio we’ve recently heard Steve Baker, MP, on individual liberty; and we do sometimes hear an epidemiologist who takes the sceptical line. On Thursday on BBC Radio 2 Jeremy Vine gave a fair hearing to Chris Smith, a Cambridge virologist, who suggested the spread of the virus is inhibited in London because about one in five there is already immune, and concluded that we might just have to live with it. But these occasional interventions are like water in the desert: welcome, but mainly because there is a desert.

Should have used quotes - the last three paragraphs of my previous post are a copy/paste of the article in the link.

Refectory yes I agree, I have noticed a bit of a change in some of the BBC reporting recently but only a little. There seems to have been little consideration of costs of lockdown policies (both health and economic) from the start...

Sorry, I was for some reason under the impression that you had not read the article in question.

Of course it's planned. Otherwise the data would be available to us! As it is, they've gone from telling whole classes to isolate to just telling the children who've sat directly beside the child who tested positive to isolate. Other parents/students have no right even to be informed! This is PHE guidance!

And we are not allowed to take our children out or we will be fined or threatened with legal action or deregistration!

It is a huge stitch up. This is happening on purpose. They don't want us to know the scale of it until it's over.

It's also massively irresponsible. This virus has only been around since the beginning of the year. We have no idea of the long-term consequences of Covid-19 infection for children who catch it. The risk to the child of losing a parent/carer or having them incapacitated and unable to care for them is also not taken into account whatsoever.

I really feel it is wrong.

I agree that lockdown was awful and bad overall

It was only necessary because they let the virus get out of control and that became the only way to control it

Which is why the way they've opened schools is utterly stupid and far more likely to cause another lockdown than if they'd invested in extra teachers and space (as in Italy) to allow for social distancing and safer schools.

They've opened a load of environments which are perfect for covid-19 spread - crowded, indoors for many hours, no social distancing or masks - inhabited by children, of whom between 50-60% will be asymptomatic but capable of infecting others.

It's the stupidest possible thing to do if you want to avoid further lockdowns or avoidable deaths.

Agree 100% Mother - in the risk assessments for opening schools they deliberately did not include the risks to children of dead or disabled parents. I have written to my MP many times, but he doesn't reply.

@IloveJKRowling

Agree 100% Mother - in the risk assessments for opening schools they deliberately did not include the risks to children of dead or disabled parents. I have written to my MP many times, but he doesn't reply.

I haven't had a reply from my MP either -- a Labour MP.

I feel there is a united front on this and that nobody is willing to be transparent about the risks.

10,000 cases a day for the last four days now, though, and the India study showing that children do transmit Covid-19. Schools prevented from informing wider groups of parents about positive cases, and the government and opposition totally silent about the growing number of outbreaks in schools.