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Karam Bales Profile picture
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13 Dec, 19 tweets, 5 min read
1/ I don't think there are any other countries now taking the same approach to schools as the UK.

Most have masks in schools, most have reduced class sizes for social distancing, most have shut already for Christmas, most have access to regular testing
2/ Germany has decided to close schools before Christmas amp.theguardian.com/world/live/202…
3/ "But Sweden"..."learn to live with it".. "GBD"

Sweden schools are shutting early for Christmas to try and prevent whats happened in US over Thanksgiving
thelocal.se/20201211/stock…
4/ Remember when all the media pundits in summer were using Denmark as an example we should be following? Despite the fact Denmark had implemented the measures the unions were being attacked for calling for as being unconstructive?

Danish schools closed
jyllands-posten.dk/politik/ECE126…
5/ South Korea avoids national lockdowns relies on a great testing regime, and have regularly switched schools in regions to remote learning when cases hit 3 digits

Considerably less economic damage than UK
abcnews.go.com/amp/Health/wir…
6/ Mixed bag in US, New York has closed schools early for Christmas, some states still remote learning, and those trying to continue as normal are posting huge case numbers

blacknewszone.com/2020/12/12/new…
7/ Israel did what UK did, proved a disaster, they shut all their schools, admitted the mistake, and then worked to reopen but with a lot more measures the UK is refusing to allow or fund
timesofisrael.com/amid-spike-in-…
8/ Of course there's always New Zealand, Australia, Taiwan, Veitnam that realised that by closing schools they could reach zero covid.
Now their economies are almost fully running, they've taken less economic impact than us and are having parties and festivals
9/ France has schools closing on Tuesday, not to open until 20th January, masks have been mandated since September and this term there have been many many closures after cases rather than struggling on with uncontrolled transmission like UK
bbc.co.uk/news/amp/world…
10/ Austria was in lockdown including schools, schools one of the first to reopen but not before mass testing of the nations school population
bbc.co.uk/news/amp/world…
11/ In Italy schools were closed last month in a lockdown, due to the risk of them amplifying community transmission they will stay closed until after Christmas.
12/ Sorry I tell a lie, there is one country that appears to have a similar approach to UK on schools, Netherlands, who look to be following a herd immunity strategy where schools are used to maintain a certain level of transmission.
13/ Why this approach in the UK?
Refusing to admit mistakes?
Herd immunity?
I honestly dont think they are pursuing herd immunity,but I think in private they are embracing much of the narrative over the false thinking that they're protecting the economy

14/ Personality I think its party politics, the new intake of Tory MPs are pretty Trumpian, quite a few were previously Brexit party and they were vocally anti lockdown and anti masks, preventing an internal rebellion is more of a priority than the public good.
15/ Add in the hostility he's faced at times that Johnson depends in as cheerleaders to push the government narrative and you can see the self interest in the current schools policy, can you imagine the headlines from client media if he agreed with the NEU?
16/ Johnsons realised test and trace will never work effectively, so he plans on riding out a daily death toll in the hundreds until vaccination gets us out the situation, doesn't matter if this takes until the end of next year. As long as vaccines arguments about lockdown
17/ Can fill the media headlines it supresses attention to the corruption around test and trace and ppe that was beginning to get traction, he's hoping Brexit dominates media agenda next year as its something his support base can rally around against their perceived enemies
18/ But we really have to question secret meetings with those who want to let the virus rip, their motives are suspicious, and it appears they've had undue influence which may well have cost more lives, more economic damage and more disruption to learning
19/ Update: Netherlands moves to remote learning.

We're on our own, January peak here we come
nltimes.nl/2020/12/14/net…

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More from @karamballes

Karam Bales Profile picture
12 Dec
@DavidLammy on @lbc asks "Should schools be given a day off to save their Christmas"
I like the guy but he doesn't get it,inset day isn't a day off most schools won't do it and it won't save our Christmas, switch to remote learning next week like Eton have might.
@DavidLammy should be highlighting the letters DfE have sent out telling schools to NOT provide work for students who are taken out of school by parents worried about at risk family members over Christmas

Government care more about attendence figures than education
@lbc
@davidlammy should be apologising that @LabourParty got it wrong on schools, he should be calling out Jenny Harris and all the others who claimed transmission wouldn't occur in schools, proven wrong by Hancock announcement this week.
Read 7 tweets
Karam Bales Profile picture
1 Dec
1/ Short Thread: So I knew government had banned schools from closing early, and removed blended learning as an option, putting all decision making into hands of DfE.

They also banned schools from having inset days at the end of term, which is quite bizarre.
2/ To take away option of inset days seems pretty petty a bit of "we're putting the foot down" posturing.

The determination and effort to keep pushing through that final week despite their own scientist warning it will cause additional deaths is ridiculous.
3/ So was sent this, didn't realise a message had gone out to NOT provide remote learning for students who have the cheek put protecting vulnerable family members above a couple of days in school at the end of term.
Read 10 tweets
Karam Bales Profile picture
22 Nov
1/Thread: Corporate Manslaughter?

Complaints have been made to the UK Statistics Authority regarding misrepresentating data to downplay the risk in education settings.

There does appear to be a propoganda campaign around schools
2/ The government likes to set its own measures of success, initially below 20k deaths was said to be considered a good result. When it quickly became clear this would fail they switched to preventing NHS bed capacity being overwhelmed as their success target.
3/ Looking at how they cleared out hospital beds in Spring, including putting infected patients into care homes, you could argue that meeting their target was more important than preserving life.
Read 23 tweets
Karam Bales Profile picture
17 Nov
1/ Month ago I explained how the government guidence and support for schools would lead us to chaotic rotas due to isolations
Todays stats unfortunately prove me right
It's time to restore order
2/ SAGE are telling government students are as infectious as adults, that they may be playing a significantly higher role in household transmission than first predicted
3/ In seperate papers government were warned that undetected asymptomatic cases in schools could cause superspreading events, their answer...no additional testing for asymptomatic cases in schools
Read 10 tweets
Karam Bales Profile picture
15 Nov
1/ Thread: 15th November

Children and transmission, SAGE document to government.

Seen some interesting takes on this in the media.
gov.uk/government/pub…
SAGE have warned government in the past that schools will likely impact RO by up to 0.5

Infections have increased since schools opened, particularly in those of school age.

Says the link is difficult to prove or disprove, later explains this is due to what data they have to use
3/ Points out children have low risk of severe symptoms, says education workers are at similar risk to other keyworkers

The ONS study mentioned compared the risk as equivalent to keyworkers like frontline healthcare workers
Read 13 tweets
Karam Bales Profile picture
27 Oct
1/ Thread: We're going to end up with blended learning, its just a matter of how?
Over 6k schools with confirmed outbreaks
Government figures say 50% of secondaries with partial closures due to isolations.
Remember government didn't intend on closing schools in March.
2/ The main reason schools closed in March was because DfE realised that with CEV shielding and isolations and sickness escalating education settings were at the brink of closing anyway due to unsafe staffing numbers.
3/ This is where we are heading, a disorganised introduction to blended learning, the rotas randomised by who is impacted by outbreaks, most likely creating unmanageable workloads.
Worst of all at the cost of amplifying transmission in the community and the health of staff
Read 25 tweets

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