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Karam Bales Profile picture
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26 May, 16 tweets, 7 min read
Cummings said the Telegraph kept swaying Johnsons mind.
This is definitely the case with school policy,
Been charting how the disinformation leads policy every month
Skeptics➡️contrarian blue ticks➡️ Telegraph&CRG➡️Johnson changes policy
#edutwitter
You can see how disinformation becomes fact in RW media and then is adopted by others like BBC.

The push to remove masks, all evidence said keep them, but in the UK media masks are controversial
Media have been most negligent about schools policy complicit in dismissing safety concerns, unfortunately schools were barely mentioned in the meeting. Id like to know what Gupta and Henegan advised on schools.

Day masks are removed PHE, ventilation?
There were many constantly talking about children's lost learning, mental health etc right up until schools were fully open when they stopped caring.

No mention that already stretched budgets won't be plugged, I know schools planning redundancies
While night nightclub trials grabbed the headlines, ongoing experiments have recieved almost no media scrutiny, haven't heard a politician questioned at any point.

Why aren't the "freedoms" fighers outraged about these trials lack of consent
No we get the media attacking the scientists who keep getting things right while platforming those who keep making questionable claims.

Telegraph loves Dingwall
Of course its not all one way, relationship between media and government is symbiotic as @OborneTweets has explained well.

Look how the government tried to blane certain groups after B1.617.2 was seeded
Listening to them quoted by LBC callers on why they won't get jabbed, the same people who have encouraged vaccine hesitancy by constantly downplaying covid risks were quick to jump at the governments nod to blame certain communities
Cummings talked of transparency, well the lack of it. Government has been particularly evasive when it comes to data on infections and risk in schools and the evidence behind their policies.

FOIs go unanswered, but media aren't asking questions.
In Dec DfE threatened to take Greenwich to court and Jenny Harries said the reason why was closing schools could increase transmission because testing would stop.

Mass testing started in Jan!

How doesn't this warrant media attention and further investigation?
No we don't see these contradictions in the official narrative interrogated even by BBC, we get fed a diet that infections in schools aren't an issue, so much so that they debate if we should even bother vaccinating children, a debate with one side.
All these threads are just from this month, the propoganda is pumped out daily

Now this week it looks like Downing Street is blocking data on B1.617.2 cases in schools

Considering masks have just been removed,a decent media would be probing this decision
Nope, next day most the media is highlighting positives of the PHE report and ignoring the negatives.
Anyone urging caution gets attacked by those who've been repeatedly wrong, trolls come out in force, questioning experts get called anti vax bullies

Then to reassure the public and gaslight safety campaigners we have Viner on #r4today saying we'd be kept safe with measures we don't have and that he has continuously argued against, and the interviewer didnt even question the falsehoods

Was unbelievable
Increasing outbreaks are disrupting education again, attendance rates are falling.

Yet those who worried so much about kids not being in school now don't seem worried about kids not being in school
🤔
Didn't need Cummings to tell us Johnson hasn't been following the science on schools. Whose advice is he taking?

GBDs Gupta has said schools should act normally as all the children would end up "immune" (cough) infected (cough)

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Karam Bales Profile picture
25 May
Whats bothered me for a year

March 2020 we called for schools to close
Herd immunity was the strategy and Gov spokesman said closing schools would be counter productive as it would reduce infection, transmission didn't just occur in schools it was vital
1/
 #edutwitter #r4today
2/ When 1st lockdown was announced there was a mas scramble to define keyworkers, set down guidence for remote learning etc.
No preparatory work had been done because they had intended on keeping schools open throughout but impact on transmission was too risky
3/ From April 2020 the message suddenly changed from schools as essential vectors of transmission to gain natural immunity in low risk groups, to "children don't transmit" "transmission in schools is low" "school gates..."

Bit odd isn't it?
Read 9 tweets
Karam Bales Profile picture
24 May
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?
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

Read 14 tweets
Karam Bales Profile picture
24 May
#r4today have Viner talking about schools

"Transmission very low because of measures like social distancing, improved ventilation, mask wearing"
Presenter: "how long do we need to keep these measures in place?"
V: "social distancing will need to remain in place for now"

LIES!
FFS Have I slipped into a parallel universe where Johnson and co actually care about safety of the school population rather than almost willfully wanted to get us infected.

Viner has been DfEs go to expert to support its policies.
Johnson has spent more on takeaways than the government has spent on ventilation in schools.
The cost of his private plane and paint job would have covered the costs of having real meaningful air filtration in schools.

Not a penny has been spent on ventilation, Viner knows this
Read 22 tweets
Karam Bales Profile picture
23 May
1/🧵Government, PHE and the Media
Where is the science on schools policy? (AGAIN!)

Politics is about controlling the narrative,and this weekend shows many examples of how government does this facilitated by pliant media sources

It begins with suppressing and manipulating data.
2/ We know PHE have data on B1.617.2 cases in education settings, been asking for this for weeks, before masks were removed from classrooms. It was suspicious they wouldn't provide the data before that decision.

Still waiting, release has been blocked
3/ That was the data that wasn't released, the whole weekend was a media circus with the way the days data was released.

B1.617.2 spread and infectiousness
Vaccine efficiency

Pre briefings early in the day arent as rosy as the data released at 10:30m
Read 11 tweets
Karam Bales Profile picture
23 May
1/🧵Watching this years annual teaching apprenticeship debate, its got me thinking about a major issue with our education system that gets spoken about a lot but is never properly addressed.

Apprenticeships

Going to be some half formed thoughts and impressions, be gentle
2/ Main argument against seems to be about standards and subject knowledge.

My first instrinct is this is an argument about content and structure of a course rather than the basic concept.
3/ "Cant develop the depth of subject knowledge required over a 3/4 year apprenticeship"

I'm wondering how many teachers teach a subject they don't have a degree in? As a whole ppl are fine for someone with QTS to teach other subjects if they take a knowledge enhancement course
Read 16 tweets
Karam Bales Profile picture
22 May
1/🧵Had a call from @carolecadwalla about this story this morning, pleased to see the guardian hunting for the truth, horrified that yet again Johnson appears to be again suppressing information

If schools are acting as reservoirs amplifying transmission we deserve to know!
So my thoughts why this data is needed and how the government actually needs a more comprehensive plan for B1.617.2, particularly if its circulating in schools.

Scientists and Unions have had a constant battle with gov on schools data.
Deeply skeptical of why it appears government is blocking this data.
I notice after Hancock and Johnson describing schools as "vectors of transmission" the messaging seems to be back to children rarely infect and low risk of transmission.
Read 17 tweets

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