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?

@Belle0705

Why does every case need to end up in the local paper? Surely the effected families are notified. Why does the whole town need to know? Its not like its a surprise there's cases in the community. Are we going to continue losing our mind over every case?

If there was confidence that figures were being collated and monitored accurately then there wouldn't be a need but when the only central message is "schools are safe" but the figures of specific school cases aren't reported officially separately from universities, then the press is needed to make sure people know the truth. The mistake that this government seems to make over and over again is to think that if they say something popular eg "schools are safe" then it will be so. The virus just doesn't do spin!

Well yes it’s up to you what to do based on your conversation

But without being able to access highly relevant information from the school. Not satisfactory and could be different

I don’t doubt track and trace is a disaster but honestly I knew this thread would be started by OP because the narrative is always the same. I am a ‘zealot’ who passionately believes schools should be open at almost any cost yes because the opportunity cost of them being closed is huge. I can’t see an issue with herd immunity strategy for kids whilst shielding the teachers and kids for whom this is not appropriate. The vaccine will not be given to kids or even the under 50s and that’s assuming you manage to get one, first time we will have ever had a successful vaccine for a corona virus.

@iVampire

Well yes it’s up to you what to do based on your conversation

But without being able to access highly relevant information from the school. Not satisfactory and could be different

Your individual school won’t give you case numbers? Or is it something else? Is it a data protection issue

The countries about which I have read (Italy, Germany, Denmark) have however smaller classes and more mitigation strategies than us.

Improving and supporting state education would however be costly and the opposite of what Conservatives normally do. And the Conservative politicians are likely to have their own kids at private schools - they are coming from a rather different place.

[quote DonLewis]@noblegiraffe I really admire your tenacity with all this.

I don't always agree with you, but I tell you what, I've often thought I'm going a bit mad with all the schools stuff and then you come along and I think, ah, I'm not loopy. It is how I think it is.

The only thing I'd say is that the PHE simply don't have the resources to deal with this. Schools in our area are having students test positive and couldn't get through to the PHE for days.

As for GCSES I'm so cross and anxious about it all. My lovely son is finding the pressure unbearable. Will there be exams? Does this assessment going badly mean I'll never get the grade I've been told my entire secondary career is my goal? Does this assement count towards CAGs? Will the exams be later?

He's 15. He's off school today with an almighty eye infection and I swear it's stress.[/quote]
But we should have the resources. If we had a decent Track and trace and proper financial support for people self-isolating then it could be done!

@MarshaBradyo

What number is affected I thought it was incredibly low for primary?

From another thread
Primary bubble closures are below 1% and even secondary are 6%, which is below general community infection rates in many areas.

Primary isn’t much of a story

But that is because they are only sending a few close contacts home rather than the bubble.

@farfallarocks

I don’t doubt track and trace is a disaster but honestly I knew this thread would be started by OP because the narrative is always the same. I am a ‘zealot’ who passionately believes schools should be open at almost any cost yes because the opportunity cost of them being closed is huge. I can’t see an issue with herd immunity strategy for kids whilst shielding the teachers and kids for whom this is not appropriate. The vaccine will not be given to kids or even the under 50s and that’s assuming you manage to get one, first time we will have ever had a successful vaccine for a corona virus.

Well herd immunity is a bit of a non starter, as there's no evidence of long lasting immunity.

And as no one is being protected, quite the opposite, however vulnerable, these are arguments against the current situation prevailing.

We get an email from school when there is a case. 3 so far. It comes with a load of official advice so i assume that’s normal?

@Newgirls

We get an email from school when there is a case. 3 so far. It comes with a load of official advice so i assume that’s normal?

We have been emailed to say no cases yet so I don’t feel there is nothing from the school

So agree with you communication is there

What is totally baffling is that the same people who are screeching ‘education is so important, schools must stay open at all costs, our precious children can’t be denied a single second of access to their teachers’ are the same ones who when it’s pointed out that 13,000 kids in Birmingham are not in school say ‘well that’s not very interesting or newsworthy is it?’

Is being in school important for kids or is it not? Make up your minds, eh?

Well herd immunity is a bit of a non starter, as there's no evidence of long lasting immunity

There's no evidence that people DON'T get immunity either.

Purely anecdotal, but dd and I had an illness identical to Covid in March. She's now at uni. Her boyfriend and housemates all have Covid, she's negative.

screeching

@noblegiraffe

What is totally baffling is that the same people who are screeching ‘education is so important, schools must stay open at all costs, our precious children can’t be denied a single second of access to their teachers’ are the same ones who when it’s pointed out that 13,000 kids in Birmingham are not in school say ‘well that’s not very interesting or newsworthy is it?’

Is being in school important for kids or is it not? Make up your minds, eh?

It’s interesting to those children and local area.

It's mildly interesting to me but not relevant.

@Janevaljane

screeching

Oh yes. Always screeching. Ridiculous.

DonLewis Dd got gcse results based on CAGs this summer and the results she got were fair i thought. One lower result didn't seem to bring down her overall level. Don't know if that's any reassurance. Must be worrying. I know i stressed before the results that she wouldn't get fair grades with all that was happening in the news!

@Janevaljane

Schools need to stay open. Give teachers full ppe if they want ajd open windows.

Our children's education is more important than some people getting a cough.

"some people getting a cough". I think you are being deliberately goady. Even the government isn't describing Covid cases this way.

The university where I work do not release figures, and I think this is a mistake. We know there are cases, the uni have confirmed there are cases, but no numbers are forthcoming. To get public and student/staff trust they should be being totally transparent.

@Janevaljane

screeching

Yes, screeching.

Klaxons going off on Facebook and troops duly arriving.

Completely agree. Why don’t we have any useful data on schools.
We are in a high risk area and schools here constantly have cases and bubbles isolating. It’s running rife yet all the media cares about reporting on are university’s.
I am guessing we will be tier 3 by the end of the day but schools will carry on as normal and they will ignore their own rules.
Dd is year 11 already on her second lot of isolation Gavin Williams is a joke.
If schools don’t close via the government soon then lack of staff will force the situation.

Klaxons going off on Facebook and troops duly arriving

I literally don't know what that means