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
Yes it does, the government don’t appear to give breakdowns of type of setting anymore. The last PHE weekly report published had universities for a small percentage of the total. Those outbreaks were larger due to mass testing and a high proportion of asymptomatic cases, unfortunately they don’t do the same for schools.

@MarshaBradyo
Those figures are for clusters rather than individual cases I believe. The figures have remained fairly consistent, if adequate testing was occurring these would be higher and much higher I would imagine if mass testing were to take place.

2X what’s a cluster? Is it same as outbreak

That was two or more (not individual)

We’ve had so many testing for cough etc but all negative

It does vary by area a lot I know

330 including universities must mean figures for schools are low?

Unless the OP is right of course 😃

The op is talking about media this is OHE report isn’t it?

PHE

@MarshaBradyo

The op is talking about media this is OHE report isn’t it?

Reassuring, surely?

It is for me but I think we’re a minority ;

Yes reassuring

@Janevaljane

330 including universities must mean figures for schools are low?

Unless the OP is right of course 😃

It seems not.

I am concerned now that as schools report cases to DFE and public health are not interested in school cases, does that mean that we are not going to have data of the actual numbers of school rates? Does that mean they are just included in the community cases?

I posted the above figures in relation to the pubs vs schools debate. I, and many people, would be reassured if adequate testing was taking place. They are no longer contract tracing school cases and heard a rumour they will stop testing children.

Looking at the figures for unis, there was one with 800 odd positives but only 78 showing symptoms. That was because they were privately testing. There is a study from Bristol university over transmission in schools but I read the other day that the data won’t be available for four months.

@mrshoho
That was the data I was referring to a short time ago that is no longer published. The thread topic refers to school outbreaks being suppressed, is not providing this information just one example of suppressing the situation?

I posted the screenshot just to reply to the poster who assumed wrongly the school outbreaks were lower than the universities.

I didn't actually realise that these graphs were no longer being published. I took it from the covid weekly surveillance report week 40 I think.

Yes, that was the last PHE surveillance report to be published. It’s now a weekly Covid and flu report which conveniently leaves that information out. So we as the public would hopefully assume that it’s mainly universities, on the whole peoples experience isn’t matching up with what they want us to believe though.

For example, the past few days; a ‘stomach bug’ had torn through our bubble at ferocious speed. All that hand washing, sanitising. Yet so many children have come down with severe gastric pain and nausea in school. Widely recognised as the presenting symptoms in younger children. Those children will not get tested. We know COVID is in the local community because of burst bubbles at the secondary.

Children are spreading it and then taking it home to the adults, who are then spreading it in the community. That’s the reason we are now in real trouble as this has been ignored, since schools returned.

Other countries tried that and they are now closing schools again. It didn’t have to be this way.

Children are spreading it and then taking it home to the adults, who are then spreading it in the community. That’s the reason we are now in real trouble as this has been ignored, since schools returned

You absolutely may be right but there isn't any evidence that thisnis happening!

@Janevaljane

Children are spreading it and then taking it home to the adults, who are then spreading it in the community. That’s the reason we are now in real trouble as this has been ignored, since schools returned

You absolutely may be right but there isn't any evidence that thisnis happening!

The exponential rise since schools returned would say it is bloody obvious, to be fair. Surely people aren’t that blinkered? Then again...

@2X4B523P

Yes, that was the last PHE surveillance report to be published. It’s now a weekly Covid and flu report which conveniently leaves that information out. So we as the public would hopefully assume that it’s mainly universities, on the whole peoples experience isn’t matching up with what they want us to believe though.

Really-that’s appalling!

Has the whole weekly surveillance publication been stopped or just the section showing which industries outbreaks have occurred in?

So why isn't it happening around all schools?

Tbh there is probably a cluster at every uni. As due to numbers they would have been very luck y to have 0 covid students start the year.
Im unclear if 1 uni/school etc can have more than 1 cluster
If the gov were being honest we would have the info down to la and numbers in each primary school etc.
There are obviously more primary but it has been surprising how many cases in primary when they were supposed to be less likely to get it and spread it.

The exponential rise since schools returned would say it is bloody obvious, to be fair. I was going to basically say the same, if you did proper testing in schools it would be clear, but what the eye doesn't see and all that!

Well some will always look for the bad even with data. There’s not much you can say to convince them.

Clusters are steady wouldn’t you get a rise for teachers week on week?

@Janevaljane

So why isn't it happening around all schools?

Why isn't what happening?

@MarshaBradyo

Well some will always look for the bad even with data. There’s not much you can say to convince them.

Clusters are steady wouldn’t you get a rise for teachers week on week?

Do you mean the data that people aren’t looking for? Good to see the same old posters in school threads all day.

@MarshaBradyo equally some will always look for good even with data. There's not much you can say to convince them.