2/ Viner:
Late September he explained away disruption in schools as due to too many children being tested, said this was because they were getting tests for other symptoms.
This wasn't the case still tests for 3 main symptoms and there are concerns around this being too narrow
3/ "Misplaced and unscientific concerns about transmission in schools"
4/ Viner questions and dismisses studies on transmission in schools while his own work has been used by skeptics to back up their arguments, but there are issues with how he has reached his conclusions
6/ Alongside Munro, Viner is one of the key voices worldwide being used by skeptic to dismiss safety and transmission in education.
7/ Next up, Jenny Harris:
"Children are more likely to get hit by a bus"
"Low transmission in schools"
"Workers at no greater risk"
"Masks don't work"
"Mass testing isn't appropriate for UK"
"Mass gatherings aren't an issue"
8/ Osama Rahman:
Was the DfE advisor who said the science hadnt been consulted on policy for reopening schools in a select committee, and then flipped his story 180.
Willing to speak truth to power? Will speak out against DfE?
9/ Dougal Hargreaves, not as much on him, he's worked with Viner on multiple occasions but they are both pediatrics.
His timeline is full of Munro tweets so it's fairly safe to assume he'll provide the message the DfE wants to hear
10/ So a discussion on science of school closures which includes none of the epidemiologists or virologists who advised the government that this was needed
Add in the DfEs one sided call for evidence on impact of the move to remote,where's the balance?
2/ SAGE NERVTAG said no
The manufacturer said no
The regulator said no
NHS said no to this as a replacement to isolation
Experts working in testing said no
So why did the DfE say yes?
3/ Original thread here.
This was more PR exercise rather than PH initiative.
DfE prioritised reducing isolation in exchange for increasing the risk of isolation.
Some really twisted logic going on here, whats the thought process going on behind this?
2/ Due to transmission in schools spreading into communities it was essential for schools to be included in the lockdown in order to protect NHS and save lives.
3/ A National Education Task Group involving all stake holders should be set up to look at the following points
2/ This is why they are scrapping the vaccine second dose, to get up to that 15m as fast as possible, of course there's also panic about rising rates but if they were that concerned about cutting transmission they wouldn't be planning 30 kids in classrooms without mask next week
3/ While a logical argument can be made about giving as many people the first dose as possible, it seems the move has alarmed many in the medical and scientific community.
It is a sudden change of strategy, first to suggest it was Tony Blair and that was met with derision.
So the November national lockdown didn't work, cases and deaths have risen dramatically, why do they think these Tiers and secondary going back a week or two late in January is going to do a better job of getting cases down and keeping them down?
So what will be the difference between mid January and mid December besides replacing isolation in schools with unreliable LFTs?
Why did @GavinWilliamson claim primaries will continue to get regular testing?
Why did @BorisJohnson and @GavinWilliamson claim transmission isnt happening in schools with their comments about household mixing and community infections and then claim testing would cut transmission chains.
They just made out there wasn't transmission chains in schools