Thread by @karamballes

1/🧵If education was a priority as government says, then they would be doing all they can to prevent the disruption caused by outbreaks and isolation.
So why haven't they invested in ventilation? Why scrap masks in secondaries?

https://twitter.com/Zubhaque/status/1396848350046171136

2/ In fact the government seems comfortable with infections in younger age groups, the argument (ignoring long covid) is that children are low risk and the government’s aim is to keep down hospitalisation and deaths ie the NHS won't collapse from outbreaks in schools

But this wasn't their own priority it was "keeping schools" open, they and their client journalists keep saying how concerned they are by lost learning.

They are investing heavily in a national tutoring programme to show how much they are concerned

https://twitter.com/karamballes/status/1373008413882515459?s=19

4/ They clearly recognise that cases and subsequent isolations impact on education as they are trialling replacing isolation with LFDs without even seeking proper consent to try and solve this issue.

https://twitter.com/karamballes/status/1393237625029398528?s=19

5/ So where are the attempts to control transmission in schools?
They argue transmission generally isn't occurring in schools but at the school gates and community, they argue parents are the index cases although ONS data says otherwise.

6/ So to protect schools they need to keep community transmission down, they need to be transparent and open about B1.617.2 so appropriate action can be taken, otherwise the last term of school could be a disrupted disaster from outbreaks.

7/ I get the feeling we will have a summer term of people on holiday and in pubs being celebrated by papers while they ignore regular outbreaks, isolations and disruption to education.

And which communities and students are most likely to get hit hardest?

8/ That's right, vulnerable and disadvantaged students.
I bet many of the "children need to be in school at all costs, what about the learning gap" types in the media
won't care about disruptive outbreaks in schools once they've got their pint and flights booked.

9/ If they did care they would be demanding to know why the government is suppressing data on B1.617.2 outbreaks in education.

https://twitter.com/karamballes/status/1396196828648034305?s=19

10/ If they don't care about infections and don't care about disruption from outbreaks, what do they care about?
I was thinking a return to normality in schools encourages parents to return to normal spending patterns, but ventilation wouldn't be noticeable.

11/ Can't get rid of the thought that in the 14 months since we were told "herd immunity was the strategy" masks were only recommended in classrooms for 8 weeks, and that was only in secondary schools.

What other countries have done that?

12/ While some things the Government is doing like sequencing, testing water samples, speeding up 2nd doses, are really good. What they do with this great data collection is just confusing

Tying to fight a virus whilst also pleasing lobbyists doesn't work

https://twitter.com/dgurdasani1/status/1396916130099470338?s=19

13/ Oh look, masks being reinstated because of outbreaks

Can't wait for the UfT crowd to get another half a dozen Telegraph articles where they refer to heads, unions and teachers as child abusers

https://twitter.com/MsFrauG/status/1397276527528710144?s=19

14/ Attendence drops as over 100k students have to stay off due to outbreaks.

It's just going to get worse, and how many of those who said getting children in school was a priority will be silent on this.
itv.com/news/2021-05-2…