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?

Genuinely think the lack of transparency around the data involving school-aged children is deliberate.

Yes this

What a time to have the stupidest government in the history of this country.

@Overwhelmed222

What a time to have the stupidest government in the history of this country.

Rishi is pretty good but otherwise I have to agree.

@Overwhelmed222

What a time to have the stupidest government in the history of this country.

Yes we're fighting two viruses; covid and stupidity

@Notselfish

Beebityboo I'm really concerned about random people on mumsnet advising you to keep your dc off school.

If I remember correctly you've been advised that your disability doesn't put you at any more risk of coronavirus.

There are a lot of posters on here same names all the time that are bordering hysterical, and will only feed your anxieties.

If you're concerned speak to your GP, the school, a medical professional.

People on mumsnet are not qualified to offer anyone advice on their health or their children's education.

I don't see anyone being hysterical, and what an unpleasant thing to say about feeding on anxieties.

I see a lot of supportive posts (although the tone of yours is disparaging about other parents).

There is a lot of support for parents from BRTUS (Boycott Return To Unsafe Schools). I am not very involved with them at this stage (my children are in school at the moment), but I admire the action they are taking, especially supporting parents where local rates are particularly high.

It is a very worrying time for parents and it is really negative to dismiss those well founded concerns, in the current situation, as anxiety.

Do discuss any actual medical issues further with your GP of course as appropriate.

The NEU guy who posted the thread in the OP has just posted another going through the SAGE advice for FE settings, which should also (but doesn’t) apply to sixth formers in exactly the same age group.

twitter.com/karamballes/status/1316084210088718337?s=21

The things that SAGE advised have been ignored. The issues that were warned about were ignored.

No wonder the govt is trying to hide sixth form data by lumping it with uni data.

@noblegiraffe

When contacted, the DfE have started telling headteachers not to bother contacting them after the first case

...which would mean an under-reporting of outbreaks as they need 2+ cases.

Genuinely think the lack of transparency around the data involving school-aged children is deliberate.

Absolutely no doubt about it. The DfE have told headteachers that they are treating any cases in a school as individual cases and not as connected outbreaks.

careful there @herecomesthsun my posts got deleted for calling out the hysterical references. Well I think that's why they were deleted!

I don't think we should be labelling each other hysterical. As a feminist, it is a term I avoid using anyway.

Just a thought.

Shouldn't the government be hailing the return to school as a huge success? I mean, if as they say the infection rate amongst under 16s is so low. And they've prioritised schools opening above everything.

And yet, schools re-opening, for better or for worse, is not being mentioned by the main stream media anywhere (apart from NI with them closing).

Funny, that.

#dontmentiontheschools

I work in one and have dc in another and covid has had and is having a huge impact in terms of the (relative) number of positive cases and the huge number of both staff and students who have had to isolate and/or learn from home as a result.

It’s horrible watching the virus take hold again even in countries where they had it properly under control.

Good point @NebularNerd.

It’s very suspicious.

Absolutely. Regional TV news: "one person in a random carpet factory somewhere in our area has tested positive for Coronavirus..." (meanwhile, 100 more schools have cases in ONE DAY... )

In our area rates are highest in 11 to 9 range.
Got to be schools

19

@noblegiraffe

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.

Sweden kept schools open but closed the post-16 year groups and moved to online learning for them, I'm guessing this is because they transmit it like adults?

I wish we had a working test and trace system, with more sensible and measured government advice over the summer (not trying to get everyone back into the office/public transport/bars/restaurants then telling them off for "too many breaches" of the rules). Then we wouldn't be where we are now, and it's only October.

10 to 19 oops

@starrynight19

Genuinely think the lack of transparency around the data involving school-aged children is deliberate.

Yes this

I now believe this is the case too.

Anyone who believes that parents should have the right to keep their children off school if they judge it too risky should sign this petition: petition.parliament.uk/petitions/551740

(It asks the government to allow parental choice on school attendance during Covid-19 and remove the threat of fines and deregistration).

I hate gaslighting of people with really very, very valid concerns as 'anxiety'.

It's not anxiety if you see a massive truck about to hit you, it's entirely rational and well-founded fear. We're definitely in that territory.

Anxiety is when you're afraid of spiders that can't hurt you, or are afraid of flying. This is not the same at all. Other countries are looking on in disbelief that we're sending our kids into schools with literally no protections at all.

Of the 5 measures Dr Fauci recommends as essential, schools have 1 - handwashing (just like in March - look how well that worked out).

The old alert level (remember that) has us now - throughout most of England - at the levels of cases per 100k which were stated would lead to lockdown and yet - no money for schools, send 'em in. Whatever your vulnerability - teacher, child or parent. While vulnerable MPs are told to work from home rather than go into airy HoC with loads of space for social distancing.

Give me a break.

More accurately - half of one measure, really. Handwashing is really not happening in secondary schools unless - hopefully - after a loo visit. We have sanitiser. That's it.

Beebity lying to the school is the least of my worries.
I'm also wondering when to pull her out and play for time.

And what to say it is... My dd is extremely competent, works well on her own, not for months on end like she was left in march,but basically she'd definitely cope and they have put work on line for isolation pupils.

I wouldn't worry about lying if your so worried and so vulnerable. Think and box clever about which illness when. If you say she has a cough, they may force a test...

I'm just very slightly thankful that our 2 local hospitals have improved since 2006 when they were the last places you wanted to go when sick!

But I've seen over run hospitals first hand, you really don't want to be in that chaos!

Dangling, we are trying to get through to covid bored teens.
Initially they were great on hand washing, and hand gel in and out the class room. But then the message switched to masks. So they are being reminded about masks! The hand gel message gets lost but to b honest I would rather masks were pushed more.

No masks at our school

Op that twitter feed is extremely interesting.

The ventilation message has definitely been lost but it was also interesting to read about staff, unwittingly connecting segments.

Not a single window is ever open in our staff room.
Not a single one and yet each staff member connects hundreds of bubbles. I have don't understand this and why at least one window isn't made compulsory to take it out of the realms of personal preference

Dangling, ours are for communal areas. About 1/2 wear one, many don't.

It's just noise from us now, Moaning and nagging. I feel we need some sort of video to show them, short and sweet but impactful and delivered by slt, fresh-faces and voices...