Thread by @karamballes

1/🧵
@ReicherStephen has explained how we have to be careful LFTs don't give a false sense of assurance leading to changes in behaviour.
DfE advert seems to be encouraging the wrong behaviour for political purposes.

#edutwitter

https://twitter.com/educationgovuk/status/1366663354329227266

2/DfE is also running radio adverts claiming that staff will be protected with ventilation.

The Government hasn't invested in ventilation, open a window, if you can, thats what the advice says.

Its a propoganda campaign.

3/ Government is worried parents won't send their children back, would show a lack of public support, and so to keep the desired narrative they are will to distort the truth, fudge figures and they're also willing to go for outright coercion.

4/ This is why attendence is mandatory right from the start.
"We need high attendence or confidence in government policy may fall"
No flexibility for CV staff, CV students, staff and students with at risk individuals in their household.

https://twitter.com/karamballes/status/1363987354017529856?s=19

5/ For all their talk about protecting those at risk, their actions tell a different story.

DfE says if CV parents are worried we should just tell them its safe...
And then remind them there will be sanctions and fines if they don't comply

6/ All those CRG MPs like to say people should be free to manage their personal risk, unless your family has someone going to school. Then you aren't allowed freedom or choice, do as you are told is the message to them.

7/And if fines aren't enough, the instruction is going out to switch off remote learning, live lessons are difficult because staff will be busy teaching but work could have been set.
Its about forcing attendence, many other countries are offering remote options

8/ Besides made up measures like ventilation the DfE is pinning its messaging on masks and testing,of course they're focusing on secondary cos primary don't have the same protection.

So how well do these LFT tests work? Not very well for this purpose.

https://twitter.com/deeksj/status/1366517953848573952?s=19

9/ Those who follow me will know I regularly raise issues with the reliability of LFT use.

So I'm still confused why Jenny Harris told the Education Select Committee 2 LFTs were the same as a PCR

Ive never heard that before, or since.

https://twitter.com/karamballes/status/1351667381106565123?s=19

10/So the DfEs messaging around LFTs making schools "safe" is the wrong message, it will encourage riskier behaviour due to a false sense of reassurance, likely to make managing student behaviour around safety more difficult

https://twitter.com/deeksj/status/1366704252517814272?s=19

11/ Here is a DfE advert, notice they make sure the 2m Social Distancing will be maintained at all times sign.

Physically impossible in the vast majority of schools, its a dishonest representation.
@DrRanj might not realise, but he's propagating a lie

https://twitter.com/educationgovuk/status/1367009344575840257?s=19

12/ Here we go, would be helpful if he acknowledged we arent going back as safely as possible.

Quoting Munro and Pollock who have downplayed transmission i schools throughout the pandemic.

They did a seminar organised by those involved in UsForThem

13/ For those that don't know, a small influential group responsible for downplaying risks in schools have engaged in unpleasant tactics to seek to silence those calling for safety measures in schools.
The tweet below refers to one of the BMJ writers above

https://twitter.com/lisa_iannattone/status/1365738232084840451?s=19

14/ You will be getting this message from lots of blue ticks, some are being paid by the government to push their message, they've done this previously and announced spending for the PR campaign a few weeks ago

Wish they spent the money on safety instead

https://twitter.com/karamballes/status/1365991261539295234?s=19

15/ Moment masks in secondaries were announced the skeptics and client journalists sought to undermine the initiative.

Although they claim its not coordinated, skeptic groups were sharing the same template anti mask letter, claiming damaging brain development etc

16/ Supporting papers gave skeptics columns and doubled up with supporting articles, a head linked to them said he was going to ban masks, all to create the impression of mass public revolt against masks in secondary school

Charted here⬇️

https://twitter.com/karamballes/status/1364877481958912005?s=19

17/ Government bends to skeptic lobbyists pushing the voluntary nature of wearing masks
Guidence says "should be worn in classrooms" sounded fairly firm to me but Gov playing both sides running ads about how important masks are while encouraging media pushing non compliance.

18/ Some primary schools and an LA decide that our children are as capable as those in many other countries who wear masks.
Cue the outrage and exaggeration, with wall to wall pundits claiming its completely impossible.

Gov backs this without evidence

https://twitter.com/dgurdasani1/status/1366904514314444804?s=19

19/ I heard @camillahmturner from Telegraph make this claim on @LBC, she was asked about other countries "i don't know what's happening in other places"
Is this willful ignorance?

https://twitter.com/karamballes/status/1367079360554033152?s=19

20/ As usual, right on cue, after a week spent promoting UsForThem, @halfon4harlowMP pops up to declare the mask policy is is chaos and needs rethinking.

There was no confusion until lobbyists and media created it and government assisted.

https://twitter.com/MoreMorrow/status/1366878544677199884?s=19

21/ Skeptic lobbying, client journalism, RW papers printing fake news about unions to divert and smear.

Happened start of Jan to push for 8th March or earlier for full return, @halfon4harlowMP calling a select committee meeting in response to media noise

https://twitter.com/karamballes/status/1353485230393479170?s=19

22/ Despite Hancock saying students were driving infections spreading into at risk groups, despite Johnsons "vectors of transmission"
Ed Select Committee seemed set up to minimise perception of risk, it was a farce, but widely reported as proving low risk

https://twitter.com/karamballes/status/1352645572574982144?s=19

23/ One of the greatest difficulties campaigners for safer schools have faced is how dominant media voices control debate, warping balance.
What isn't reported is as important as what is reported.

24/ @halfon4harlowMP's cherry picked committee about locking down schools without questioning the NERVTAG members who advised it got a lot of press

Week later @AppgCoronavirus came to different conclusions, wasnt endlessly quoted, wasn't reported at all

https://twitter.com/HoppySaul/status/1356629218331930627?s=19

25/ If you relied on limited news sources you'd think there was a general scientific consensus that transmission isn't an issue in schools, even some working in school dont realise how much evidence there is to prove the DfE wrong.

https://twitter.com/karamballes/status/1357100616611491840?s=19

26/ I don't want to blame the public, but the pundits have no excuses, some are woefully uninformed due to group think, others are intentionally selective to think their ideology or narrative.

https://twitter.com/karamballes/status/1363387958016040960?s=19

27/ Skeptics really do have a tried and tested technique of manufacturing outrage while gaslighting in the process, lobbyists and cronyism is at the root of our dreadful response, corruption kills, and the constructive clamour to reduce safety continues

https://twitter.com/joanna_brady/status/1367087409477869570?s=19

28/ Government is constantly stacking the deck to support its narrative.
Lack of evidence in one direction becomes proof in the other direction.

Here's a good example of how they can twist evidence

https://twitter.com/SarahDRasmussen/status/1338627119270735873?s=19

29/ Reporting of ONS reports is probably the best evidence for media complicity and government dishonesty on transmission in schools

This weeks report got a lot of press saying this proves low risk as if its fact.

In reality ⬇️

https://twitter.com/dgurdasani1/status/1366741488403701760?s=19

30/ Previous ONS report wasnt mentioned in the media, it was the Sept to Jan data,what we had been waiting for to get a better picture of transmission with full opening unlike other reports based on lockdown/partial opening

Media pretend this doesnt exist

https://twitter.com/dgurdasani1/status/1364321109647249417?s=19

31/ PHE report suggests significant transmission in primary and nursery, most media don't acknowledge this, so it means when government claim younger children have the lowest infection rate in a press conference none of the reporters call it out!

https://twitter.com/dgurdasani1/status/1360184559489454080?s=19

32/ Most the world looks at the UK data, England in particular and decide this is clear evidence of risky transmission in schools, a half term effect and growth during November lockdown was even observed.

We're in a bubble of denial, hostage to skeptics

https://twitter.com/DrZoeHyde/status/1362398154390265857?s=19

33/ ONS reports that show increased risk or significant transmission don't get reported or quoted.

Those ONS reports that are used to claim no greater risk or low risk dont show what the gov are claiming it is

Criticism is buried by client media.

https://twitter.com/SarahDRasmussen/status/1359670489191489537?s=19

34/ They say they are following the science, that transmission is community not schools, but for more than 6 months SAGE have been telling them the opposite.

Their following the lobbyists science.

https://twitter.com/dgurdasani1/status/1359433657388306434?s=19

35/ Also all the data the government is relying on to downplay transmission isn't based on b117 and other variants.

Watching b117 rip through schools in other countries as it becomes the dominant strain isn't on the media's radar.

36/ But of course the skeptics will point to all that data from Sweden which has done a lot of heavy lifting on policies around the world...

https://twitter.com/DrZoeHyde/status/1367101599269588996?s=19

37/ See whats happening in Canada and consider that the person behind that Swedish report was who helped them with their school guidence

https://twitter.com/DFisman/status/1367112320674111489?s=19

38/38 As I've been saying for nearly a year, schools have unfortunately been turned into a proxy battleground for skeptics, deniers and those pushing for herd immunity, GBD, "living with it"
🧵Ends

https://twitter.com/karamballes/status/1247678149778866178?s=19

Appendix:
1. My thoughts on 2020 a week into March.
2. Letting the virus spread will cause most harm to the disadvantaged families the government claims to carr about with its school policies

https://twitter.com/ReicherStephen/status/1365974889765736448?s=19

Update: New ONS data says educators are at 43% higher risk, average higher risk for keyworkersis 19%

Government advisors line, they cant be catching it off students, thet must infecting each other in the staffroom🤦‍♂️

Virtually no one is using staffrooms

https://twitter.com/tes/status/1367263771627032577?s=19

U2/ So how did those template letters go?
10% of schools recieved 1+ letters, not exactly the will of the people is it.
But those Heads are going to be hounded every 48 hours?
They've got better things to do.

U3/ Doesn't stop the Telegraph giving UsForThem more time today as if this is a major concern.

Just a little bit exaggerated and emotive in tone.

https://twitter.com/UptonAndrea/status/1367462547260116993?s=19

U4/ Could @CMO_England explain what the "whole variety of other things" we have to cut transmission because this is the first I've heard of it.
Is my copy of the guidence missing some pages?
#edutwitter

U5/ So BBC took the LFT testing results, says nothing about false negative results which is a real concern, but instead focus on the small amount of false positives. Almost like preparing to sow doubt in any outbreaks.

https://twitter.com/philildo/status/1367564747089080320?s=19

U6/ Now its said they're considering scrapping isolation for LFTs again.
This is government choosing to increase risk to improve public perception.

Everyone should refuse to participate, all the evidence is clear that this is an irresponsible idea.

https://twitter.com/karamballes/status/1367620996124057601?s=19