Thread by @karamballes

🛑#CleanAirAutumn🛑
A Call For Action!

While US offers vaccines and billions for clean air, Johnson has abandoned our schools, staff and students to taking the Delta variant on the chin

Help isnt coming

Theres just us, and what we choose to do about it

🧵Action plan🧵

1. DfE guidence says no one can face consequences for choosing to wear or not to wear a mask

Wear your mask, and hold your ground if ppl try and stop you

Improve your mask

https://twitter.com/trishgreenhalgh/status/1414300686435631107?s=19

While you can't force ppl to wear masks, school leaders should encourage their use, consider positive messaging

"This is a clean air school" my head wears his at the gates in the morning (good old bit of modelling there #edutwitter)

Masks are particularly important for ppl from CEV/CV households, get the best you can, its worth it as they do more to protect you even if others aren't masked.

Ppl in at risk groups need update individual risk assessments, get upgraded masks included, claim your tax back

However we know the real issue is ventilation and air filtration combined with our lack of funding and time is running out fast

2. C02 monitors: these aren't a solution in their own and I know budgets are stretched, but some heads have turned down community donations, don't

Not all classrooms are poorly ventilated, C02 monitors can identify which rooms are riskier than others. If you only have a few monitors then prioritise rooms of CEV/CV and pregnant staff (who should be treated as CEV for protecting)

If the air quality in their room is poor then change their room, try and a healthy volunteer to swap to protect those more at risk. I appreciate this is easier in secondary

CEV/CV support staff get a personal monitor, and leave the room if air is poor

CO2 monitors also have another purpose, they allow us to prove we need ventilation and air filtration.

Gov advisors and certain group of paediatricians keep gaslighting us with the phrase "improved ventilation" they claim we have adequate infection control and its working well

In NYC you can check air quality of every classroom, in UK we have ppl still pretending some classrooms don't even have windows! Same ppl gaslighting on ventilation are those gaslighting children on Long Covid

C02 = evidence
Let's see who is right

https://twitter.com/karamballes/status/1422895647359967235?s=19

3. #CleanAirAutumn
This is where we need to take things into our own hands, where communities need to come together to protect the health and education of their children

Because there's no one else but us to do this. Anything to reduce transmission makes a difference

Area of Canada gave up on their local gov and began building their own cheap air filtration units, eventually the local gov were embarrassed by the public effort into acting

Johnson is a populist, he turned on
FSMs he can be turned on #CleanAirAutumn

We can make a difference

Dealing with exponential growth every infection prevented makes a difference, reduced viral doses may keep vaccinated ppl safer, we do what we can now.

DIY air filtration isn't perfect but its a lot better than nothing,

Box fan+air filter+stand=safer

Ford designed a simple one and then tested it and produced a study to show the impact, design free to download

We need a war time effort to get these into schools as a safety stop gap, get together and start building these for your schools and nurseries

https://twitter.com/FreshAirSchools/status/1398643100067708929?s=19

There are also cubes, should offer more protection but the price goes up. These have also been studied, they make a difference,dont need that many for a primary, secondary feels like lot more effort but some rooms won't need them.

https://twitter.com/ughberta/status/1418236555345293313?s=19

If all you can do is build a few for CEV/CV staff who can't get a suitable room change then at least we're doing what the gov should do, protecting the vulnerable

There are groups there to help communities
@SafeEdForAll_UK
@hivetosurvive
@FreshAirSchools
parentsunited.net/freshair-educa…

We need education leaders buying in, set up crowdfunders, appeal to parents and community groups to donate.

This is all we have left to protect health and education. Organise, turn it into an arts and crafts day for the kids, we know winter is likely to be difficult, act now.

Last Spring there were huge efforts to make PPE for the NHS, we need the same efforts now for #CleanAirAutumn

If local leaders start calling for support our communities will respond, this is a simple but big step
@NGAMedia @neucllrs @LGAcomms @RealGeoffBarton @PaulWhiteman6

3 weeks is such a short time to make our schools safer but if we start now we could reduce the problems we'll be facing by half term
@HeadsRoundtable @chrisdysonHT
@smithsmm @simonkidwell
@MrBenParnell @Samfr @Thinkingschool2 @CensoredHead
@adamboxer1

https://twitter.com/dgurdasani1/status/1424680726205763591?s=19

This is what our children deserve

https://twitter.com/HuffmanLabDU/status/1408535654758117379?s=19

Another link to DIY air filtration, if you read the whole thread you will see that there's a general consensus on what needs to be done, its just up to us to do it.

https://twitter.com/kprather88/status/1424796482608123905?s=19

I also do requests