Schools: anyone else utterly sick of being manipulated by the press?

[Incogweeto]

Just that really. I’m so sick and tired of logging onto the BBC and finding articles every day promoting whatever viewpoint the government currently wants us to believe. At the moment it’s the onslaught of schools are safe/teachers are safe/tests are a game changer. When they were about to close the schools, the narrative was completely different with kids more likely to be index case/variants will kill is all/out of control vectors.

I’m not saying I agree or disagree with any particular viewpoint in any particular article just that I’m SO SICK of being manipulated. It enrages me that they think we are such pathetic sheep that we can’t see what they are doing.

It’s not just schools, it’s every course of action they want us to take or not take. I hate the PR and the manipulation.

Nothing has changed except my priority has been downgraded. It's still just me, 35 11 year olds who are the same height as me as a 5ft year 6 teacher. With my window. That magic fucking window

It is appalling. One minute people should be shielding and protecting themselves, the next they are supposed to spend whole days in small rooms with 30+ kids and no protection whatsoever... except for an open window 😤

The best overall summary of the truth is here:

www.who.int/docs/default-source/coronaviruse/risk-comms-updates/update39-covid-and-schools.pdf?sfvrsn=320db233_2

Key findings
"Adolescents (10-18) transmit virus as often as adults and more readily than
young children"

"The risk of outbreaks rises when community transmission is high" (It's high in the UK)

The major outbreaks in schools occurred where prevention measures were weak.

There's more detail in this one from the CDC - same overall story:
www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/more/science-and-research/transmission_k_12_schools.html

Basically, scientists agree that primary schools are fairly safe, and IF multiple mitigation strategies are implemented, then middle/high schools seem to be reasonably safe, i.e. there haven't been many outbreaks reported. By mitigation I mean things like social distancing, mask-wearing, ventilation as well as efficient testing/contact tracing. Things largely absent from UK schools in 2020.

Final word from the BMJ
www.bmj.com/content/372/bmj.n524
"The most important thing we can do to keep schools safe is to reduce transmission in the community,20 particularly in areas of social deprivation. Reopening of schools should be phased, at a time when community transmission of the virus is controlled, and with primary school aged children prioritised for returning to the classroom to minimise both transmission within schools and the disruption caused by school closures. Although the roll-out of effective vaccines has begun, controlling transmission is even more important to keeping children in the classroom as viral variants with increased transmissibility gain hold in many countries around the world."

I have really started to hate the media during all this. They force people to say things and then twist those words to what they like. For example... someone could ask if Britain would be prepared if someone attacked the country right now.... if they answered yes they would be prepared, the story on the front page the next day would be "BRITAIN prepared for world war 3"

I am very frustrated by the bullshit we are being told by the right wing press. Most people seem unaware that they are being fed lies on a daily basis.

I stopped reading BBC News in early January and used to check it 4/5 times a day. I have reduced my news intake massively and I feel so much better.

Be interested to see if their stats have dropped last couple of months.

@Lemons1571

I didn’t realise there was so much manipulation before covid happened. Or how much the media and politics are interlinked. I think a lot of people are sheep, you see it on here all the time - the narrative changes like the wind to suit whatever agenda is on the horizon.

Totally agree.

It's specifically round schools and covid it has become obvious.

Are there really no journalists with enough common sense to ask some of the obvious questions round this?
Obviously they must be being sat on or are somewhat lacking in the critical thinking.

Oh thank goodness for this post. I am surrounded by people excited about the end and so pleased schools are safe again ! Working in one I know only too well how nothing has changed and staff have just been thrown under the blunderbus yet again!

@Lemons1571

I didn’t realise there was so much manipulation before covid happened. Or how much the media and politics are interlinked. I think a lot of people are sheep, you see it on here all the time - the narrative changes like the wind to suit whatever agenda is on the horizon.

Omg me too!! I feel really silly for not seeing this before but it’s hard to see the news in any other light now. Eye opening!

Biden vaccinating all teachers in US by the end of the month. Because they are valuable workers who need to be protected. Bet that doesn't make headline news on BBC.

• MuddyWalks I love the ONS survey where they looked at a 9 month period from March to December (6 months of which schools were closed) to declare that schools infections amongst teachers weren't high!

Lies, damn lies and statistics...
But we are constantly told they weren't closed?*

Sorry, I assumed most people would be aware that they were closed to the majority of children. Vulnerable and key worker children were in school in the first lockdown but numbers were much smaller than during this lockdown.

YANBU OP.

If a labour government.had handled the pandemic like the Tories, there would have been uproar

Its all just like an emotionally abusive relationship. The media and government are the perpetrators and the public are the victims

Slight change of subject, although the first word in your title is Schools OP.

Why do we think there is a block on teachers being vaccinated and/or schools being made safe with part time/ blended learning?

Neither of these things are ever even discussed or acknowledged by the government or the media ...

I'm in Belgium where the numbers are starting to rise again. Half of new cases in Brussels last week were linked to teenagers and their parents. Schools have not been closed here, just 50/50 for last 4 years of secondary.

@Incogweeto

Yes they even said they were going to run a PR campaign. How are more people not angry at being manipulated like this? I absolutely hate being bullshitted.

I'm sick of it and angry.

I'm also fed up for the poor teachers who get bashed when the government decide to run these ads campaigns as if they have decided not to be in fully opened schools and have been sat home doing nothing.

Schools are open for remote teaching or KW/V places.

As for who is more or not more at risk I don't trust anything the media says on behalf of the government.

@Randomschoolworker19

It's nothing new. The press is owned by the right wing who are pro Tory. They're doing the same with Brexit too. Adverts written by the government put in mainstream media masquerading as articles written by journalists.

There was one written by the government in the Metro the other day. It's only when you look at the author that you realise it's not actually an article, but of course most people just read the massive headline.

This is one of the reasons why the Conservatives are doing so well in the polls considering how badly they have performed on Brexit and Covid. It's also why the right at doing so well across the world. Basically, whoever owns the media shapes public onion, and it's in wealthy people's interests to make sure right wing parties succeed.

OMG that's disgusting! And really quite chilling.

The right wing press have their own agenda too.

Look at the Sun reporting that teacher unions are secretly planning to strike next week. Made up nonsense. The Mail are always making shit up about the unions too. But then so are the government. Boris likes to have someone to ‘battle’ against in the headlines.

@namechange63524

Agree OP. I'm sick of it too. It's been especially bad during covid. All those pics of socially distanced classrooms

Yes, the pictures make me angry too. I've almost never seen a picture that accurately reflects a classroom.

Back in September a local school here posted a picture saying 'Great to welcome all the Year 7s today' and a classroom of elbow-to-elbow smiling kids, and the local community went nuts. All 'How is this covid safe?!' and 'What the hell are they playing at?!' type comments, and I was so confused at first as to how on earth they thought it would be any different, and that this was just a normal classroom. But then I remembered what the media had been pushing out, and the ridiculous comparisons to Swedish schools and the pictures with about 4 kids in, all 2 metres apart. (By the way, the school deleted the photo as they got so much flack, which is insane considering it was an actual photo of the actual children from the community... )

It is all spin and the shocking thing is that lots of people believe whatever the media tells them that week.

How is this covid safe?
Another shocking thing is that Covid secure doesn't mean anything like what it sounds like.

@notrub

The best overall summary of the truth is here:

www.who.int/docs/default-source/coronaviruse/risk-comms-updates/update39-covid-and-schools.pdf?sfvrsn=320db233_2

Key findings
"Adolescents (10-18) transmit virus as often as adults and more readily than
young children"

"The risk of outbreaks rises when community transmission is high" (It's high in the UK)

The major outbreaks in schools occurred where prevention measures were weak.

There's more detail in this one from the CDC - same overall story:
www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/more/science-and-research/transmission_k_12_schools.html

Basically, scientists agree that primary schools are fairly safe, and IF multiple mitigation strategies are implemented, then middle/high schools seem to be reasonably safe, i.e. there haven't been many outbreaks reported. By mitigation I mean things like social distancing, mask-wearing, ventilation as well as efficient testing/contact tracing. Things largely absent from UK schools in 2020.

Final word from the BMJ
www.bmj.com/content/372/bmj.n524
"The most important thing we can do to keep schools safe is to reduce transmission in the community,20 particularly in areas of social deprivation. Reopening of schools should be phased, at a time when community transmission of the virus is controlled, and with primary school aged children prioritised for returning to the classroom to minimise both transmission within schools and the disruption caused by school closures. Although the roll-out of effective vaccines has begun, controlling transmission is even more important to keeping children in the classroom as viral variants with increased transmissibility gain hold in many countries around the world."

Thank you @notrub for this. It's completely refreshing to read proper news and evidence, not government ordained pig swill.

@StarCat2020

How is this covid safe? Another shocking thing is that Covid secure doesn't mean anything like what it sounds like.

Yes this stupid phrase. It annoys me when the government rolls out phrases like this and they catch on.

Yes this stupid phrase. It annoys me when the government rolls out phrases like this and they catch on
It isn't just me then!

@icantthinkofanamehelp

🙄 we can't keep schools shut forever Covid is just another risk now. The vaccine will prevent a lot of deaths

Literally not the point of the thread. But also kind of amusing how you spat out some meaningless soundbites and straw man arguments.

1. Nobody wants to keep schools shut forever. There's a whole world between 'never' and 'now'.
2. Covid was always 'just another risk' but we assess risk and we mitigate it as best we can. Some risks are riskier than others, and some mitigations need to be stronger than others.
3. Yes, let's hope so. At the moment only a small percentage are fully vaccinated (with both jabs) so that's not really relevant yet.

Totally agree, I'm sick of the blatant manipulation too.

What depresses me even more is that it's working. Plenty of people in my extended family are still following it nightly and hanging on every word that proceeds from the BBC.