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?

My youngest (in nursery / pre-school) is having to isolate due to 'close contact with a confirmed case'.
The contact happened last Tuesday / Wednesday, child tested positive over the weekend. Had to go & collect DC early from nursery due to receiving a text message to do so.

This is a nursery within a school site. The parents in with school DC have been told nothing & all the local pages are extremely quiet about it so far.

@Janevaljane

Why and how would they supress it? The media are absolutely gagging to report any tiny covid related story. They don't seem to have a problem reporting university students having it.

I'm sure if cases do grow in schools it will be front page news!

Nope. It wont happen. Its not in the interest of business to report that schools have rising cases. Most newspapers have business interests or are politically affiliated.

I have no idea whether schools should be closed or open that is for elected politicians to decide.
I do think that insisting school staff return to work and families with shielded individuals send their younger members to schools without allowing them to asses the risks and protect themselves is negligent.

I think the pushback will come from the benighted hospitality industry who will demand to know why they are being ruined against a backdrop of vanishingly few outbreaks connected to pubs and restaurants. They will start asking the big questions I suspect.

Professor Van Tam said quite clearly today that numbers aren't rising in under 16s, that children simply aren't drivers of community transmission in the same way they are flu, it's a different illness.

Why would he lie?

Its not in the interest of business to report that schools have rising cases

This is just not true! There aren't rising cases in schools according to Professor Van Tam. If there were, it would be in the news!

@noblegiraffe
Totally agree with you. These are questions that should be being asked by journalists.

Child was positive 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.
But they shouldn't have been sent to test unless they had symptoms. Testing too early will bring a negative result whether they develop it later or not.

@Notselfish

Professor Van Tam said quite clearly today that numbers aren't rising in under 16s, that children simply aren't drivers of community transmission in the same way they are flu, it's a different illness.

Why would he lie?

Well...

@Badbanana

And why shouldn't they?

Because only 8% of the workforce has school aged children?

And these new useless restrictions cause economic damage to the hospitality sector with no balancing benefit.

At the cobra meeting they have all already agreed that these new ‘tiers’ will not bring the r number down.

Todays children are tomorrows workforce though so it's imperative for their individual needs as well as our future society needs that schools stay open as long as possible to give them the best possible start for their adult life. Education is a right not a privilege and seen as they arent being offered any alternatives then of course closing schools should be the very last thing. And we can go on and on all day about how their should be an alternative, as every single school thread for the past 6 months have said the same thing by the same posters day after day, I agree alternatives should be in place but the facts as we stand is there isnt and no amount of banging on about in MN is going to change that.

@SleightOfMind

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.

Surely media will follow Van Tam’s statement today rather than a study from different conditions in India?

The LA where I work is publishing every case in school. There have been 11 cases. Only one chain of two people within the same school.
The LA where I live are also publishing every case, there have been 5, no onward chain.

Professor Van Tam said quite clearly today that numbers aren't rising in under 16s

Indeed. And yet secondary schools also contain 16 year olds and often 17 and 18 year olds.

In fact most of my lessons today were with this age group so JVT’s words are not that comforting.

Zero cases in any schools in my small-ish town so far. We are near a hotspot too.

@Could

Zero cases in any schools in my small-ish town so far. We are near a hotspot too.

But how would you know? Even with established cases, they might not close a whole bubble, so only a few students sent home and no publication of the news. Or there are students with it whose parents are keeping it quiet. Or they're asymptomatic.

Zero cases in any schools in my small-ish town so far.

I’d really like to know how people can make this sort of statement so confidently.

My school has cases but they are not reported anywhere. I’m very surprised the local paper hasn’t picked it up.

The average age of Covid death is 81. I’m sure the 16-18 year olds will be ok

I’m sure the 16-18 year olds will be ok

What about the 50-65 year olds? There are plenty of them in schools too.

"I’m sure the 16-18 year olds will be ok"

And what about those more vulnerable people they might have passed it on to?

A fifth of my sixth form class are currently quarantining. Multiple children and staff have had it, anecdotally I know my friends schools are similar. I don’t believe the data the government is spouting about schools in the slightest.

@Could
How do you state that so confidently?

Someone stated similar to me yesterday in our smallish town which is low and nowhere near any hotspots.
They were rather surprised when I told them at dc's secondary school 2 classes have been sent home from one year, 25% of the 6th form, 2 primaries have shut years, another junior school is closed for a deep clean, and as they've had 5 cases...
They asked if I was sure, because they hadn't seen anything in the media. I pointed out all of those I've had either directly from the schools or a parent from the schools. And that's only the schools I know about.

I just googled a school near me that I know had a case last week and it isn’t in the local press.

Maybe you should write to your LA and request the information. Like I said LA where I work and LA where I live are both publishing every case, not that there are many.

@noblegiraffe

I just googled a school near me that I know had a case last week and it isn’t in the local press.

Does every public setting or workplace get an announcement in the local press when it has "a case" ? I think not, some may do of course as do some schools but not every single one, why would schools be any different ?

Does every public setting or workplace get an announcement in the local press when it has "a case" ? I think not, some may do of course as do some schools but not every single one, why would schools be any different ?

Well yes, quite. Someone I work with is in ICU, that's not in the press.

@noblegiraffe

I just googled a school near me that I know had a case last week and it isn’t in the local press.

I don’t think one case warrants local press.