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?

Snippets from that doc, Oaktree

“Decision on whether to close school or merely class or year depends on adequate outbreak investigation including testing for asymptomatic infection of a) contacts of cases and b) if evidence of infection among contacts of other students in school. Currently PHE are not conducting outbreak investigation in all cases.”

“[rotas] Low confidence, as remains unclear how infectious children may be.
Many classroom environments are poorly ventilated and space makes it hard to maintain social distancing. Action would reduce occupancy density enabling better social distancing and partially mitigating ventilation issues.”

They might have a better idea of how infectious children might be if PHE investigated school outbreaks?

Also, ventilation issues

Its education at ALL costs clearly.

High. Disruption of education, wellbeing of children and parents.
School closures associated with possible increases in school drop-out, child injury, domestic violence, child abuse but reductions in referrals. Reductions in social interaction erode social development and harm general wellbeing, and mental health of children and parents.
Equity issues: Likely to have a higher adverse impact (education, physical and mental well-being) on vulnerable children and low income and BAME communities (e.g. less access to on-line learning / less space at home to study).

A stark read

@MarshaBradyo

High. Disruption of education, wellbeing of children and parents. School closures associated with possible increases in school drop-out, child injury, domestic violence, child abuse but reductions in referrals. Reductions in social interaction erode social development and harm general wellbeing, and mental health of children and parents. Equity issues: Likely to have a higher adverse impact (education, physical and mental well-being) on vulnerable children and low income and BAME communities (e.g. less access to on-line learning / less space at home to study).

A stark read

Totally stark but compare it to a parent catching covid and dying. A teacher dying.. Its all about choices.

Not nice ones, granted.

Death is worse.

Its just a shit situation all round.

But 27 children would spread it straight to their parents. Are you saying that the parents wouldn't notice either?

How many households have 27 children in them?

It seems very strange that infections in primary-aged children would decrease when it's increasing in other age groups. Either they are truly anomalous or proportionately fewer are being tested.

My theories:

At the beginning of term there was a big cold virus that went straight round. Very snotty, we all had it. Some children got a temperature with it, so they were off and tested. It was a ball ache to get testing for kids, and unpleasant for tests themselves. So, maybe children got tested once, then by the time they got the next virus, the gov had pushed the '3 main symptoms' thing so hard, that parents ignored anything else, even if the children had a fever. We now know that symptoms for children are different, but they aren't on the list so parents don't test. They might all be mildly sympomatic with not the 3 main symptoms for all we know.

Perhaps they don't have it bigly enough to transmit well. Let's hope their teachers aren't vulnerable or immune depressed.

@Oaktree55 that document you sited is interesting, because I don't know if anyone remembers, just prior to schools reopening, Gavin Williamson was recorded saying there was 'little evidence' transmission occurred in schools. I was going mad about this at the time. I can find a link if anyone wants it. Now, most of us who are aware of the basics of this virus, know this is bs. Why wouldn't they be? They've even listed in that document that it's a 'moderate' risk!

Countries such as Sweden made efforts to reduce class sizes and other countries mandated masks in lessons. Uk have done none of this.

*But 27 children would spread it straight to their parents. Are you saying that the parents wouldn't notice either?

How many households have 27 children in them?*

What?

A pp said that in a class most would be asymptomatic, 1 would test positive, 1 or 2 would disguise their temp with calpol, and that's 27 to spread it without anyone noticing.

I'm saying how would all 27 children's parents not notice as they'd be the ones the children spread it to.

@Notselfish

And 27 children to spread it without people even realising, and for the government to call it an isolated case.

But 27 children would spread it straight to their parents. Are you saying that the parents wouldn't notice either?

Primary, maybe.

I don't know the parents of my dc's secondary schools class at all. I could contact one (ds' best friend) mum if I needed to, but would not have any idea if all or none were down with covid-19.

Even at juniors (separate infant/juniors here) I had very little or no contact between 90% of the parents in my dc's classes. We were discouraged from going into school, children generally walked home or at least part way on their own. I perhaps had 2-3 on my Facebook on average from their forms in the juniors.

And if the children aren't showing symptoms the parents may assume that they caught it from work/shops/somewhere else rather than their child.
Add into that at juniors, the parents who did have a lot of contact with each other would often be socialising (and yes, still are because I see them at the pub when I go past) so they would assume that they had passed it between them.

Who are you going to think you caught it from? Your friend you went round for coffee and has a positive test, or your child who has seemed to be in perfect health throughout?

www.bbc.com/news/uk-53718066

That was Gavin Williamson saying 'little transmission occurs in schools'. Ffs

[quote AlphaJura]www.bbc.com/news/uk-53718066[/quote]
Yes, it was BS.

Look at the picture too!!! Each child to a table. SD.
Ha ha ha ha ha.....
Try 30 plus children all facing the teacher and breathing on them. No SD

If the parents of a whole class came down with Covid, they'd all be at home isolating, including the children. Who would have to isolate with their parent.

It would very quickly become obvious if asymptomatic children were spreading it straight to their parents in high numbers.

People aren't idiots, if I caught Covid my first thought would be maybe I caught it from my child.

The point is we have no idea how many parents and families are isolating. There must be loads if there is no mixing between households.

Its the very first thing that happened here to stop community transmission. Not mixing with households ensures transmission is limited to that family group. End.

This before pubs /restaurants shut.

Basically the school isnt informing us!! esp secondary. Only if it concerns that year.

Its all very hush hush.

LIke headlice.

Under the protection for anonymity.

The ONLY reason i have found out about my children's school is because both of the cases involved have been chidren my children know and the gossip spreads through.
The only letter you get is that test and trace are in the school