Teachers at far higher risk of covid than general population - New data

[noblegiraffe]

"Covid rates among schools staff in some areas are as much as four times the corresponding local authority average, Tes can reveal.

Figures for three councils obtained by the NASUWT teachers' union show that the staff coronavirus infections are far outstripping local rates, casting doubt on the government's repeated assertion that teachers are at no greater risk than other workers."

www.tes.com/news/exclusive-teacher-covid-rates-333-above-average

The government won't release the proper data, I wonder why. They've been given an extension to midday today to show the evidence that schools are safe, as part of a legal challenge by the headteacher unions. Good luck with that.

Have to say, @mrsm43s , I am very glad of your posts on this thread and disappointed at the reaction you got.

Moon anyone who thinks a nurse on a covid ward is at less risk than a teacher is an idiot. I guess every profession has idiots.

The ‘teachers versus...’ thing is difficult because it’s generally being stirred up by people who are not teachers, and often by people just looking to goad and get a response.

It’s not just teachers versus nurses, it’s ‘well what about supermarket workers?’ ‘What about bus drivers?’ ‘What about care home workers?’ ‘What about people who work in courts?’. It has been relentlessly thrown at teachers that other people are working in less than ideal situations with the conclusion that teachers should shut the hell up.

So the standard response is ‘yes but those people have PPE/mitigation measures in place, why do teachers not?’.

I think teachers are singularly at risk of being at the epicentre of a widespread community outbreak, due to schools.

Of course a nurse is more at risk than a teacher.

But a school is a big germ exchange, and links between households are made via school.

@noblegiraffe

I can’t find the link to the original letter but here is a BBC article- www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-55537624 .

Well that is FASCINATING. Look what is in their letter.

"In their letter, the consultants, doctors and nurses say healthcare workers are three to four times more likely to become infected than the general population."

And this is part of why they are asking for better PPE, because that risk level is unacceptable and deserves better protection.

Is mrsm43s going to come along and castigate them for misrepresenting their risk and say 'well they're at the same risk level as teachers so should just suck it up'? Somehow I think those sorts of complaints only apply when it's teachers.

Also, I wonder where they got their data from. Was it part of the same council FOI?

Although I'm basing it purely on one sentence in an article, yes, if they compared "health care workers" to "the general population", then that also doesn't prove that "health care workers" are any more at risk than anyone in any other occupation. Based on that sentence alone. As no other data was provided, other than that one sentence I can't analyse further, as I do not have the data available to do so.

As I keep saying, I don't have any agenda regarding schools or teachers. I have an issue with people deliberately misrepresenting data to mislead people to further their own agenda. At the moment, it is teachers who seem to be deliberately doing that. A group of people who I would say, on the whole, are intelligent enough (hopefully) to actually understand the data, therefore they presumably doing it deliberately to mislead, rather than as a result of incompetence. I don't like that. I get that teachers are scared. But we should be pushing for the right data (which I appreciate Noble and others have been doing), robustly analysed and reported rather than spreading around biased, misrepresented information such as the TES article linked to.

I'm actually bowing out of this thread now, because I seem to being assumed to have a political stance that actually I don't have, and the schools battle is not mine to fight. I hope, however, that I have helped a few people to dig a little deeper and not take statistics quoted by journalists /requoted by posters at face value without applying some critical thinking and looking for the bias and misrepresentation. It always pays to dig deeper! I appreciate those of have thanked me.

I do think you need to explain your word 'biased' more fully before you go! It's LA data.

Gabon Williamson is addressing the commons now!

Ah yes nurses who deal directly with covid patients are at less risk than teachers 😂😂

I’ve heard it all now

[quote LadyPenelope68]@Yoshinori
Doctors, nurses, retail workers, construction workers, dentists, opticians, security guards are all exposed.
Yes they’re all still exposed, nobody is saying they’re not, but they ALL wear masks, some full PPE and can all distance wherever possible. Teachers, particularly in Primary, can’t do any of that.[/quote]
Clinical NHS staff cannot physically distance..believe me it is impossible when your patient can't hear/see/needs help to do it from two metres away. Coming from a pregnant nurse. We all like to think we are the worst off in this, nobody wins a medal for being the worst off. And we aren't all going about in hasmat suits for protection like some people think we are..

It always pays to dig deeper

Says the poster who actually wrote that they didn’t look deeply at the data

You couldn’t make it up!

Not sure how it’s misrepresenting the data to say exactly what the data shows.

I feel rather more important people than noble (soz noble!), the TES and the NASUWT could be rather better accused of misrepresentation and, indeed, misleading the public:

schoolsweek.co.uk/dfe-removes-highly-misleading-covid-testing-guidance/

Glad to see that’s been removed, it was shocking.

Hopefully the true figures will be brought into focus and the public will find out what a bunch of negligent liars are running education at the moment.

@noblegiraffe

Glad to see that’s been removed, it was shocking.

Hopefully the true figures will be brought into focus and the public will find out what a bunch of negligent liars are running education at the moment.

Thank you so much. noble It would be good if they actually closed the schools, more in schools and nurseries than ever. You couldn't make it up. I suppose it's a way of the gov placating those that wanted them closed.