The rate of infections in schools is being suppressed from public knowledge

[noblegiraffe]

...claims Karam Bales of the NEU.

I’m pretty sure I agree. When the newspapers are going mad about university cases and 13,000 kids and 700 teachers being off school in Birmingham doesn’t make national headlines, then something dodgy is going on.

This twitter thread collates all the evidence and is pretty damning twitter.com/karamballes/status/1315067136394625032?s=21

My own thoughts:
Why are the government ignoring the WHO recommendations on masks?
Why have they stopped PHE deciding who is sent home when there are cases in schools setting up their own helpline instead which sends home far fewer kids?
Why are the figures not being presented in a way that makes it clear which cases are in schools and not universities?
Why did Chris Whitty use a graph of test positivity rates instead of actual infection numbers in his briefing when it came to claiming that schools aren’t an issue?
Why are they insisting that children only get a test if they exhibit one of the three main adult symptoms, ignoring that the majority of children who test positive don’t have any of them?
Why are they insisting on vulnerable children being sent in with the threat of fines for non-attendance?
Why did they spend the summer pretending that unions were blocking the re-opening of schools and then paying social media influencers to say schools are safe, without taking any steps to ensure that they are?
Why did they announce a Plan B of rotas for schools in tiers of lockdown and then never actually use it?
Why did they say that an effective test and trace system was vital to opening schools and then also say they were surprised when demand increased when schools opened?
Why do they keep saying schools are a priority and that be the only thing they say about keeping them open?

And where the fuck is Gavin Williamson?

@Janevaljane

I’ve had a few of these conversations so far and I’ve lied to every parent

That's nothing to be proud of. Do you teach part time? There are a lot of teachers on here that happen to be able to spend hours on Mumsnet, it really is extraordinary.

Get over yourself. I posted in my 30 minute lunch break, then immediately went back to marking books.

I sometimes have a look at MN in my lunchbreak. In the interests of minimising potential Covid spread, I am spending that time on my own in my classroom, so there's no one to talk to, really.
Hope that's OK with you, Jane.

Thousands of kids missing out on school on the other hand. How many thousand? We don't know. It doesn't appear that anyone is collating the data.

I'm wondering are there any teachers online forums where teachers could start collating this info informally (just numbers obviously). I know you've all got far much to do, but I think it's the only way.

The government is clearly hiding the schools data or burying it as much as they can. They're not testing any asymptomatic children and only suggesting children get tested with one of the 3 classic adult symptoms which is clearly an incomplete picture at best.

Now we hear alarming news and guidelines that seem to suggest that where there's one positive case they will no longer close bubbles (what the hell do they think's going to happen with THAT strategy? And why's it at odds with what everyone else is supposed to do if less than 2m for 15 mins of a positive?)

The cases in schools and colleges are definitely not being accurately reported.

I’m really concerned about this.
I think the likelihood of presenting without symptoms is much higher in young children - currently that means they won’t be tested and show up in the system.

Invisible, high infection rates in schools, being seeded out into the community would also explain the puzzle of why areas like Leics and Greater Mancs, in lockdown for over 2 months, have not seen infection rates fall.

Largest ever investigation into track and trace finds children to be superspreaders, esp between their own age group and a n the family home.

science.sciencemag.org/content/early/2020/09/29/science.abd7672.full

@ladymalfoy45

My school: roll just shy of 800. Windows and doors open. Hand sanitiser stations x 3 every corridor. Year groups in dedicated zones. Monitored one way systems. Staggered breaks and lunch times. Desks and doors sanitised during these times. Teachers sanitise equipment they use on entering classrooms. ( keyboards,mice etc) Detailed lists of pupils involved in group work and who they work with. Face shields and masks worn if necessary. Staggered home time. SLT on duty to ensure no huge groups congregating before/during and after school.

Then, the kids get on the school bus and don't socially distance or wear masks.

I’m a national news journalist (not health or education so no expertise) and we certainly have not been told or instructed to hide details of infections in schools or Unis, nor would we comply if that were the case

That makes sense, SleightOfMind, but it would be quite hard to report on such a story when the statistics have not been collected. And schools are being advised not to make a drama out of cases.
We were not very subtly threatened with out staff Code Of Conduct policy if we discussed our recent outbreak with anyone.

@SleightOfMind

I’m a national news journalist (not health or education so no expertise) and we certainly have not been told or instructed to hide details of infections in schools or Unis, nor would we comply if that were the case

I’m not surprised.

Also figures have been cited on here. The 13,000 one below so it’s there it’s just not picked up except locally.

Remember when the government had their ‘schools are safe’ campaign at the end of the summer?

Every newspaper dutifully reported that schools are safe.

I don’t believe that the government has no influence over reporting. We know that they regularly use the media to leak possible policies to see how the public react before confirming them (see the 3 week delay to exams leaked last week).

Why is no one interested in schools unless it’s in a story about pubs?

,Why is no one interested in schools unless it’s in a story about pubs?

I subscribe to the Times and there are stories about schools and exams with ref to Covid every single day.

@SleightOfMind

The data you shared for children relates to covid in Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh - quite different from schools in the UK. The home life/poverty rate/illiteracy rate/average age of death is also quite different from the UK. In fact nothing in the study you link to show children are spreaders as you said is remotely like the uk.

Interestingly, the ONS in the UK show that 92% of schools are open as normal here. Again very different to the area in the study where schools are closed yet rates of covid are still high.

Schools and exams. Do they detail how many thousand kids are currently out of school missing face-to-face teaching for those exams?

show that 92% of schools are open as normal here

That includes primaries, when you look at just secondaries it’s 82%

I'm absolutely not saying that chidren can't possibly be superspreaders in the UK, but - have you ever been to Tamil Nadu? It's very, very different to the UK.

@noblegiraffe

I can only answer in respect of our local secondary -

'Why are some schools sending whole year groups home and others sending barely any home? Why do we not know?'

A Yr 11 child arrived in school last Monday with a temperature/cough. The child was immediately sent home and parent advised to take for a test. Child was postive as was mum and dad. The children in contact/one teacher with said yr 11 pupil first thing in the morning all sent home and told to test - all negative. There was no need to send the whole year group home at all. Indeed the ones sent home are negative but as a precaution are off this week as well. Fortunately no spread to others. The rest of the secondary school has not had one single case in the 5 weeks now that they have been back - this was the first case and dealt with efficiently by the school - no need for any other action.

Now, if only the University could ensure their students isolate it would slow down the spread - they don't do what they are told however!

I subscribe to The Times, too. I'm not seeing that.

Funny how an Indian study is not allowed but other metanalyses of spread in children from a range of countries are.

@Janevaljane

That was my point the areas of high poverty in India are quite different to the UK - in how they live/educate/hygiene/average life span etc etc etc. No idea why the poster threw that out as evidence for why schools here should close

There have been plenty of anecdotes on here where kids have been in classrooms as normal with positive cases, less than 2m from the teacher etc and not sent home despite being ‘close contacts’.

@SleightOfMind

I’m a national news journalist (not health or education so no expertise) and we certainly have not been told or instructed to hide details of infections in schools or Unis, nor would we comply if that were the case

Genuine question, why do you think the mainstream media has not reported on infections in schools at all? That thousands of students are isolating & missing school? Is it just not news worthy?

Because it is a large, peer assessed study on transmission!

Nebular there’s so much going on at the moment, I think it’s genuinely under most people’s radar.
It also falls between two stools - health and education so not on anyone’s actual beat.
I know some people have been prompted to look into it by the India study’s findings regarding children.
As far as I know, they have not been dissuaded from doing so but a story like this would take a while to put together and experts may be reluctant to be the one to light the touch paper.
I think we’ll start hearing muttering a n the press fairly soon.

No idea why the poster threw that out as evidence for why schools here should close

They didn’t. They posted it as a part of a general concern about spread in schools. I went back and looked.

Why is it that posters always lie and claim people want schools closed when safety concerns are raised? Do they not understand that schools can be made safer?

in

experts may be reluctant to be the one to light the touch paper.

Why?