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Karam Bales Profile picture
@karamballes
May 24 • 205 tweets • >60 min read • Read on X
🧵The Covid in Schools Scandal

While much of the media claims the inquiry is accomplishing nothing, its slowly revealed the gov knew transmission occurs in schools and causes harm to a not insignificant number of children
2/ The much delayed testimony of Simon Case reveals that covid in schools policy ignored the science and was designed without expert advice

Macnamara
"Genuine suggestion that we secretly do different things in schools in places to see what the impact is.. last straw for me" Image
3/ Sunaks appearance revealed that the senior scientific advisors had warned that schools were the most significant risk to transmission

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4/ Evidence was there at the time, but gov denied it, but now we have multiple confirmations that they knew they were being dishonest to the public
5/ Lots more to add to this, but day job calls
6/ The frustrating thing is that even in April/May 2020 there were gov experts happy to tell the media if things go wrong then at least they would have more data, households with high risk family members were constantly ignored Image
7/ And even once SAGE documents were made publicly available showing that schools were contributing to transmission we had paeds and gov experts making ridiculous claims in the media that were then treated as fact

Extraordinary gaslighting

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8/ No matter how much data there was, they relied on a few of their own questionable studies which years later still get quoted

Households where the only possible source of infection was their children were going to school were told they must be mistaken Image
9/ I did a review of the evidence base relied on by UK gov in 2020 to justify its schools policies

Each contains serious flaws in methodology, scientific sleight of hand when interpreting the data, or simple misrepresentation in reporting

Eg, lack of evidence = no evidence
10/ We had guidance produced that gave the impression of taking transmission seriously while in reality being as effective as a chocolate teapot

Eg Education workers couldn't be infected if they remained 2m away from an infected person, or Masks in corridors not classrooms
11/ Take a look, all the receipts, and worst of all the UK Gatekeepers also had influential roles at the WHO and other international paediatric organisations influencing policy beyond the UK
12/ The media have been woeful, worth remembering that in herd immunity March 2020 the vast majority of news reporting provided no challenge to the idea of intentionally allowing mass infection

This is from academic research analysing all news reporting⬇️
bylinetimes.com/2023/03/14/the…
13/ There has been a massive effort to rewrite history to claim the pro-infection lobby was censored and silenced

But the reality is that our dominant RW media almost exclusively promoted a pro-infection narrative
14/ The grifters, astroturfers and fringe academics claim they battled the establishment and thought against a project fear, and there was some tough messaging, but there was also a lot of reassuring minimalising messaging
15/ So the pro-infection lobby weren't fighting against the establishment, they were creating confusion and making the space in public debate to facilitate the government doing what it really wanted to
16/ We had government funded media campaigns saying schools were safe
Papers showed pictures of students, generally primary school age in masks when this was banned by DfE, gov experts claimed we had social distancing and even improved ventilation!
bylinetimes.com/2021/06/08/3-7…
17/ In autumn 2020 as cases ripped through schools and PHE surveillance found over 40% of all outbreaks were in education we even had BBCs Newsnight publish a graph of outbreaks where education had been deleted

Take a look ⬇️over 40% of outbreaks missing Image
19/ It's why I'm pleased @peterjukes gave me a chance to freelance for @BylineTimes one of the only outlets that maintains integrity and standards, and provides proper scrutiny of gov and the rest of the media which is pretty broken
@peterjukes @BylineTimes 20/ As an example of media letting gov off the hook

Does anyone remember that it was only an hour after Johnson announced the first lockdown that the lockdown rules were changed meaning many more ppl still had to go to work?

Screnshots 1 hour apart
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@peterjukes @BylineTimes 21/ How does the government fundamentally change lockdown laws an hour after a historic press conference without a scrap of scrutiny or questioning

How many ppl even remember this change happened?
This is why I chronicalled it all at the time
22/ Warning to readers this is going to be a mega compilation thread providing a comprehensive evidence base that the political expediancy of politicians and flawed thinking of experts inside the tent knew the harm they were causing and now seek to cover up the damage caused
23/ The idea school gates somehow magically kept out covid or that the harm to school populations would be negligible was always an act of deceit

Politicians wanted parents back to work, they wanted to appease donors, RW media and internal political factions
24/ Experts thought they were being pragmatic, the lesser of two evils, they also went all in betting that repeated mass infection would make covid go away

Schools were seen as a mechanism for reaching herd immunity and bringing the pandemic to an earlier ending
25/ JCVI mid 2021, multiple meetings discussed the benefits of not vaccinating children, allowing them to "build up immunity" and provide booster infections to adults

That's why measures in schools were to be avoided or fudged
26/ At the time I did the thread on JCVI I had "experts" from UKHSA claiming I had misread the minutes, govs tame paeds called me a conspiracy theorist but by Sept 2023 Hopkins was explained access to vax was being limited because booster infections were adequate
27/ Reminded of how they claimed children were much less likely to gey infected right up to the point they switched to claiming children didn't need vax because they had all been infected 🤔
28/ Hopkins interview in this thread, also contains multiple threads detailing claims made by those working with UKHSA
29/ Also September 2023
Adam Finn, SAGE and JCVI also explaining the strategy was booster infections for most the population Image
30/ They couldn't say vaccines were important for children's health because that would show they had been misleading the public
They also decided to limit vax further because they need the narrative that covid has gone away and only the vulnerable are at any risk
31/ Vax now available privately, required some tortured calculations and thinking to justify limiting free offer.
From a purely economic view boosters for all are cost effective

For narrative they chose to destroy doses rather than extending the offer
32/ Going to go back to this evidence from Simon Case

"Secretly do different things with schools"
"But that we should experiment with people's lives" Image
33/ 🛑Testing in schools scandal

UK Schools were used for unethical trials of faulty rapid flow tests even after the FDA had put out a product recall for

The leadership of the companied involved are now embroiled in a royal rumble of fraud suit's and counter suits
34/ I fought this at the time but the story has reemerged after @GoodLawProject pulled US court documents about Innova

Innova was a VIP lane winner, clocking up billions in gov contracts for rapid tests

Must read⬇️
@GoodLawProject 35/ In summary FDA said they were so bad they were a risk to public health and suggested Innovas data had been falsified

That was June 2021
36/ The UK adopted rapid tests ahead of ahead of most countries, think back to Cummings Operation Moonshot plan late 2020, and schools led the way
For quite some time all the tests were produced by Innova, there were a couple of different packaging and names but all Innova
37/ First small scale trials were conducted in November 2020,close contacts took rapid tests rather than isolating,only parents of close contacts were asked for consent for their kids not to isolate

Started during month long lockdown schools weren't included in

Signed Hopkins⬇️ Image
38/ Trial results came back for Universities

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39/ There were also the Liverpool nightclub trials, but they failed to follow up on many participants so the results were worthless

However the mass roll out for general population was halted in December
theguardian.com/world/2020/dec…
40/ But roughly in the same week in December 2020 as Operation Moonshot was scrapped, the gov announced mass testing in schools would be the solution to staying open in January (despite knowing the deadly Alpha wave was already ramping up)
41/ Worth noting Jenny Harries claimed one of the reasons Greenwich council were threatened with court action to reopen for last few days before Christmas was so it wouldn't interfer with testing

This was asymptomatic testing so did she mean the trials?
42/ Results of the original test rather than isolate trials in schools Nov 2020 were not published because it was "not in the public interest"
🤷‍♂️
43/ March/April trials for test rather than isolate for close contacts started again

When questioned by a parents group Hopkins doesn't point out that again only parents of those testing rather than isolating were asked for consent

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44/ Parents who raised concerns were told that if they didn't feel comfortable with the trials they could choose to keep their child in isolation rather than testing

This misses the point they were concerned about their child being in a room with kids that should be isolating
45/
46/ PCR tests were taken alongside LFTs, but the LFT was the diagnostic test, parents and schools weren't informed about the PCR test results

Children with positive PCRs but negative LFTs could go to school with no one but those running the trial knowing the PCR result
47/ But experts working with UKHSA particularly the paeds got really pissy with me for calling these trials unethical

48/ Lots more details and FOI answers here⬇️
49/ Munros (UK paed) response to concerns about the trials

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50/ The thinking of UK advisors at the time, Ramsay and Ladhani (UK Clinical lead on covid in children)
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51/ Trial results came out, could anyone explain the mechanics that test and release which will miss cases could reduce transmission better than just isolation?

Also note the bottom Telegraph story, rush for summer holidays, but they claim children were locked up for 2 years🤔 Image
52/ Look at the trials paper

Had trialed the Orient tests
53/ But despite Innova being pulled by FDA in June, they were still being used for asymptomatic testing in August 2021
That summer term my school would get some deliveries of both but new tests were added to the mix
They decided to use up all the old Innova rather than discard
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54/ By then gov knew Innova were too unreliable but rather than withdrawing them and using the others they bought they told schools to use up the old stock

They chose to increase risk of transmission...and they claim to care about school absence
55/ We got two deliveries of tests just before the summer holidays, so near end of July.

But the results of the trials on test and release in schools for close contacts ended up being superseded by the decision to end the concept of close contacts for anyone under 18 Image
56/ And current advice is now come to school even if you have covid Image
57/ And this was while vax still wasn't being offered to students

More to come tomorrow
58/ The next linked thread will be a timeline compilation of gaslighting and suppression through 2021 to April 2022

At the time while in my own school supporting most vulnerable students I was on NEU exec plugged into networks of Branch Secretaries and reps across the country
59/ Even if you ignore serious and long term health impacts transmission was a major issue in schools simply for the disruption to education it caused, staffing issues led to year groups and whole schools being closed, constantly many schools were struggling to keep going
60/ What we saw in the press and heard from the experts was so detached from what we were experiencing

Kept hearing about all these safety measures we had like improved ventilation and social distancing when we just had "open a window, where possible"
61/Examples from the next comp 🧵

Data suppressed at start of the UK Delta wave when gov removed masks from classrooms
Claims in interviews of measures in schools we didn't have
Children may have “inherent cellular immunity”
Gov paeds argue infection is better than vax
62/ Dingwall Handwashing more dangerous than Covid
Ladhani Children have T-Cell Cross immunity
Ladhani Don't vax at risk children
Bhopal supporting UsForThem while attacking Independent SAGE
Attacking Independent SAGE for interviewing a child with long covid
63/ Ladhani Delta was milder in children
Munro allow infections to spread in children
Only 6 “healthy” children have died
Ladhani Long Covid associated with “belief” of infection
Ladhani only 1% of primary school, 2.7% of secondary school children with long covid symptoms
64/How RCPCH called for clean air in schools Jan 2020 and then after covid claimed the benefits were unproven and not cost effective
Air filters unproven technology

Look at Sweden and internal emails showing data showing rise in child mortality was obscured
65/ Comp Thread🧵
66/ We see plenty who now claim that schools could just have stayed open at the height of the two worst waves and pretended covid didn't exist

Williamson as education secretary at the time told the inquiry that there had originally been no intention of closing schools
67/But he admitted that he realised in March that schools were going to close regardless of what the gov said because they simply wouldn't have enough staff to stay open
Worth noting Williamson doesn't appear to have had any consideration for harms of health to school population
67/ It's remarkable how little time Williamson spent considering risks to health

What Williamson did say is that while UK gov hadn't intended on school closures, closures were part of the draft influenza plan they were working from at the start
68/ This is important because its regularly claimed by lockdown critics that closures have never been part of pandemic planning before covid

Look at Williamsons inquiry evidence ⬇️
69/ Keeping schools fully open is not the same as prioritising education, there were times when using rotas and other measures to reduce transmission would have resulted in better more consistent education for children than constant chaotic partial closures
70/ Everyone working in education understands the important of constancy, keeping parents in work was prioritised over quality of education. All this resulted in was more disruption to education and parents missing work anyway
71/ it's interesting to see what some of the main anti-lockdown voices said on schools considering the RW media say these are the ppl gov should have followed

For instance Simon Case in the Sept 2020 meeting, Anders Tegnell said Sweden was very different to the UK, Image
72/ There's a lot of mythology around Sweden, but compliance to guidance was high without legislation

Would compliance have been high in UK or elsewhere where sections of media were busy platforming ppl claiming measures didn't work?
73/ Of course Sweden has its own #CovidSchoolsScandal with an intentional cover up of a rise in child mortality revealed in internal documents
74/ Detailed look at Sweden and schools here⬇️
75/ You'll notice that there are a lot of similarities between Sweden’s approach to schools and the UKs

Similar messaging, same lack of transparency
76/ Sunetra Gupta of GBD didn't think transmission would be lower in children/schools, she expected and wanted high transmission rates to build up herd immunity, and she said in GBD launch video teachers should be prepared fo sacrifice themselves
77/ Guptas witness statement to inquiry is here, worth noting her idea that herd immunity is retained through repeated mass infection is now essentially the strategy the UK had adopted with "booster infections" and limited vax
78/ Sept 2020 meeting with gov Carl Heneghan acknowledged schools drive up transmission,suggested keeping schools closed at start of Jan 2021, and this was before Alpha hit, Predicted over 5,000 deaths a week at winter peak and thought this was acceptable
79/ Despite claims of being censored and silenced, Heneghan had more access to gov in 2020 than others outside gov tent

Heneghans witness statement to the inquiry ⬇️
80/ Should be a warning sign that UKs clinical lead on covid in children and gov paeds wouldn't acknowledge transmission in schools when even the likes of Gupta and Heneghan did!
81/ Simon Case at the inquiry explained a large second wave and future lockdowns became almost inevitable due to the May 2020 roadmap and the mentality that developed around it Image
82/ The idea of an "R Budget" basically the gov thought whatever R was below 1 they had a budget to increase transmission up to 1 as long as they didn't tip over into exponential growth

Reminiscent of buckets of water video used to explain herd immunity strategy March 2020 Image
83/ Netherlands March 2020 internal docs had a principle of "maximum control"

Same idea, managing the flow of covid through the Population

They didn't know how long vaccines would take so thought they were being pragmatic and realistic
x.com/karamballes/st…
84/ A leaked Home Office calln at the start of April 2020 shows the government hadnt abandoned a mass infection strategy, they had been forced to modify it

The aim was not to crash the NHS Image
85/ More on the leaked call here
bylinetimes.com/2020/04/09/lea…
86/ This is probably why Sunak thought of Eat Out to Help Out, he felt he had an R Budget to spend

But as Case explains the UK allowing higher transmission than comparable countries meant we were ill prepared for the second wave they were told to expect Image
Missed the link on Netherlands
87/ Worth noting that Case's testimony contradicts Sunak’s testimony

Sunak claimed he had little influence, Case says Sunak had considerable influence on the fateful May 2020 roadmap and told Johnson to stop always agreeing with Sunak


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88/ 🛑 The Cover Up of Harms Scandal

Case is uncertain when Long Covid was first raised, doc on 25 June called for up to date information but took till April 2021 for covid task force to prepare advice for cabinet on long covid Image
89/ This is the section about Vallance being clear that infections in children weren't as straightforward and could have lasting impacts

Case accepts LC wasn't taken properly into account in 2020 but says there was more focus on LC in 2021
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90/ Minutes of June 2021 long covid oversight board, incredible how little information they had at the meeting, little attention paid to independent and international research and an over reliance on their own CLoCK study
91/ Worth noting from the above thread that there was concern the messaging wasn't positive enough

Need to develop coms seen as important Image
92/ Search the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health for long covid and what comes up?

Two pieces directly on LC, February 2023 response to Scottish covid inquiry module and August 2021 response to LC paediatric study
rcpch.ac.uk/search?keyword…
93/ This is what they recommended to the inquiry

Remember RCPCH president Viner was inside the gov tent, presented to JCVI and was one of the most quoted paeds in UK and abroad
rcpch.ac.uk/resources/covi…

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94/ The August 2021 piece on LC in children

"Reassuring"
rcpch.ac.uk/news-events/ne…

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95/ There is the RCPCH response to the covid inquiry consultation, in the end another module focused on children was added after others called for it too
rcpch.ac.uk/resources/covi…

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96/ No mention of LC in the response

Some previous thoughts on long covid from gov experts Semple and Ladhani


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97/ Boris Johnson's attitude to long covid late 2020 is clear, he thought it was bollocks Image
98/ Section from inquiry in Oct 2023 on long covid
99/ In 2022 10 #longcovidkids supported by the charity @LongCovidKids wrote to the government about the lack of support and research into meaningful treatment

One such letter
@LongCovidKids 100/ Government response, focused on mental health🤷‍♂️

101/ In 2021 the term immunity debt quickly spread across the media to explain rises in illness in children

There were calls to examine if covid impacted the immune system, other viruses like measles is known to do this

Immunity debt was the counter argument, blaming lockdowns
102/ Immunity debt hadn't appeared in scientific literature before the pandemic and went into mainstream media after only a couple of papers had been put out

Interestingly most papers were linked to familiar group of "reassuring" paeds
103/ When immunity debt was called out by other academics those who had initially advanced immunity debt didn't have much to back themselves up
104/ Is it a coincidence the idea of immunity debt came from the same people arguing not to give parents the choice to have their children vaccinated?

The position was defended vigorously
105/ One of the concerning impacts of the proliferation of immunity debt into mainstream conversation is how it expanded the pro infection mentality to other pathogens

What's questionable is how closed minded UK gov paeds were to even consider covid harms
106/As the UKs clinical lead who also sits on WHO paed TAGs thought children couldn't possibly be at risk of severe LC he also has no time for the idea covid could impact the immune system


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107/ There is now a considerable amount of research into covid and the immune system, enough to show it should be taken seriously and requires investment into further research

This will be dismissed or ignored by those in positions of influence
108/ LC in children is like asbestos in schools, in that it appears in the news a couple of times a year, gets spoken about for a day and then subsides into the background with no moment gained for action

Safety in English schools⬇️
109/ A couple of examples

March 2021 channel 4
110/ ITV series March 2023
110/ June 2022

So as you can see it pops up in media reporting, but examples like this are swamped by reassuring messaging across most the media

Those children with LC continue to be dismissed
111/ May 2023 the latest CLoCK study came out, remember this is the govs own team and the main study their experts rely had relied on up till then Image
112/ Where previous rounds of CLoCK had received reassuring media coverage, the media were quiet on this rounds findings

The authors werent sharing breakdowns of the paper, infect the UKs clinical lead had left twitter a couple of months before
113/ *infact
114/
115/As if in response to his own CLoCK study, Ladhani then coathored a paper with members of DeSantis' "ethics committee" which includes GBD authors saying LC needed a total rethink

Basically start from scratch, claiming much LC is misdiagnosis
116/ Having previously claimed children don't need to be vaccinated because they've all been infected, the authors suggested we should only trust RCTs with control groups

How do we create a control group of children who've never been infected?
117/ Considering the authors had called for and celebrated the end of testing, they created conditions where there can't be a control group and now say only RCTs with control groups are acceptable

Looks like an effort to stall understanding of LC in kids
118/ Keeping track of the UKs covid in schools policy, and the pandemic as a whole, a lot of the narrative has been framed by the selection of which studies are amplified and which are dismissed and ignored
119/ For instance, of all the research into masks Ladhani decided it was a paper by Hoeg and Chandra that he decided was high enough quality to close the debate

The paper was a redo of a CDC paper that had reached the opposite conclusion
120/ An example of questionable interpretation

DfE published a survey on masks in November 2022, this was only secondary students and was reported as though it was conclusive many teens found masks traumatic

What did the report actually say?⬇️
121/ Then there was Ofsted’s report into early years

Apocalyptic and widely quoted statistics have come from that report, its helped shape the narrative on lockdown harms

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122/ It's not a peer reviewed paper, or ONS statistics, inspectors went into 70 providers, mix of childminders and nurseries asked some questions and then held some focus groups

There are no hard statistics, little more than some anecdotes
123/ Minimise the harms of covid, exaggerate the harms of lockdown, that's been the strategy for the past few years, reinforcing the need to return to normal

This has led to a rewriting of history suggesting children were locked in their homes for two years straight, but... Image
124/ Almost half of students were invited back to schools in June 2020, exam groups and several primary school year groups, plus keyworkers and vulnerable students were always allowed to go to school.

Staffing numbers was still an issue
125/ The same narrative has propagated in other countries too

126/ "Pubs were prioritised over schools" has become another stock phrase treated as fact in this rewriting of history

Compare TLs between pubs vs schools and you might come to a conclusion pubs were prioritised in regards to being made safer than schools
127/ Despite the UK government claiming covid was over, schools still face high absence rates for staff and students. A report came out claiming 100,000 kids had dropped out of education coining the phrase "ghost children" claiming the "social contract had broken"
128/ This is a narrative I've seen growing in other countries to explain continuing high absence rates whilst refusing to acknowledge covid could be a contributing factor

This has led to "attendance pushes" and increasingly confrontational attitudes to parents, fines, court etc
129/ "Ghost Children" came from the CSJ think tank run by Conservative MP Ian Duncan-Smith and was the product of private conversations with disinformation group UsForThem on creating "harder hitting" harms of lockdown

#HARTleaks revealed this ⬇️
130/ Sickness is the main cause of absence in schools, and despite the ghost children report having been debunked/put into context repeatedly two years later its become a fact as far as most the media are concerned
131/ One of the key people in establishing "ghost children" within public debate is Anne Longfield, who was Children's Commisioner through 2020 to mid 2021

Her role was to hold gov to account for how its decisions would impact children
132/ Longfield and her successor Dame De Souza have consistently failed to engage with organisations and charities representing #longcovidkids and CEV families

133/ Longfields evidence and witness statement to the covid inquiry did not mention any harms of covid to children, when LC was brought up by a KC at the end she wouldn't use the term

Longfield was privy to gov planning
135/ Longfields public interventions gain a lot of media traction, she could have done a lot to raise awareness and support for #LongCovidKids, but despite lots of efforts support groups have faced a lack of interest from her
136/ While LC and CEV groups got short shrift, Longfield has been very friendly with UsForThem, thanks on their book, joint applications for core participant status to the inquiry and getting their name besides genuine children's organisations
137/ What about air filters in classrooms?
UK experts, particularly the paeds told me there wasn't enough evidence for this "unproven and expensive technology"

However a special mention to @CathNoakes for consistently pushing for clean air
@CathNoakes 138/ At start of 2022 as gov started its "Living with covid" strategy, DfE did a ventilation survey..

Closing before most schools had received the required C02 monitors, DfE said anything up to 1500ppm was well ventilated, this is a lot higher than expert consensus
@CathNoakes 139/ A look at the DfE Ventilation survey, a fraction of schools were able to participate
This is the basis for the claim that 97% of classrooms were well ventilated and excused the DfE from having to make any major investment
140/ (I'm going to be linking to sections of another large thread to break it up into relevant sections)

DfE pretended to take clean air seriously, doing some small trials, but then took ages to publish results, after Zahawi's ventilation survey 2000 filters were sent out
141/ A look at DfE filters trial being kicked into the long grass⬇️

142/The gov never had any intention to invest in clean air, they kicked action into the long grass until the narrative had been maneuvered to the pro-infection point that preventing infections in schools was counter productive⬇️
143/ Once the number of children dying from covid started clocking up Ladhani produced papers which audited deaths, concluding that a number of death certificates were incorrect and managed to get down to claiming "only 20 healthy" children had died


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144/ BMJ has let itself down on a number of occasions in recent years but they did do a really good covid inquiry series on clean air, schools, misinformation

The findings from the schools paper called out UKHSA evidence base and DfE policy
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145/ UK paeds and RW media attacked the BMJ and the schools paper's authors

Those responsible for the govs evidence base complained they hadn't been asked to mark their own homework, they got fellow pro-infection friends to rush out a shody response
146/ And when I mean shoddy, I mean really really shody, it fell apart under minimal scrutiny but was shared widely by many people who have enough qualifications they must have known it was junk

Lots of details linked in here⬇️
147/ There are countless examples of the small group of UK paeds attempting to shut down debate

Its the same people gatekeeping inside UKHSA, JCVI, RCPCH, ESPID and even they even had influence with the WHO


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148/ 🛑Other harms
➡️Diabetes
We know diabetes is a risk factor for covid, but by late 2020 there were papers starting to come out suggesting covid might cause diabetes
How did the UKs clinical lead respond as this gained traction?


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149/ Where's the increase in diabetes he asked?

When increases were seen this was written off, you'd think as the UKs clinical lead and WHO TAG member he would at least show some curiosity, like, it might be nothing but worth investigating just in case?
Nope, no chance


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150/ Then Sweden saw a surge
151/ There are now a lot of papers making the connection
152/ Once again I ask, why the total lack of curiosity or interest in this topic from the UKs clinical lead?
newscientist.com/article/239135…
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153/➡️Strep A
When there was a wave of Strep A deaths UK experts, media and disinformation groups sought to blame this on immunity debt



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154/ We saw articles about mystery Strep A in Japan when the Japanese expert interviewed said they thought it was covid impacting immune systems
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155/ Paul Hunter another expert on gov committees went one better, suggesting flu not covid was weakening immune systems

Thread provides some of Hunters other public statements
156/ But the messaging has been very effective with the public, worth noting this particular case might have nothing to do with covid, but it's the attitude to building up immunity I want to highlight, po-infection narrative has expanded to other diseases


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157/ Increased use of antibiotics for increased Strep also has knock on effects

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158/ ➡️Fulminant hepatitis in children's livers

In April 2022 there was a spike in children, media blamed this on lockdowns and immunity debt, UKHSA suggested adenovirus

This kicked off another battle to dismiss possibility of covid
159/ While covid couldn't be fully dismissed in a series of UKHSA technical reports, the focus remained on adenovirus
160/ Those who questioned adenovirus as the cause faced quite the backlash, but it did seem like there were important questions to ask

161/ End of May 2022 UKHSA released protocols on fulminant hepatitis
162/ June 2022 UKHSA update - adenovirus
163/ One of the reasons the cause of the Hepatitis is important isn't just about how to prevent more cases, it's also about how to treat those children who develop it
Adenovirus gets antivirals
Post covid gets steroids
164/ With UKHSA going with adenovirus, and also recommending other countries do the same, if they were wrong then there's a chance children faced worse outcomes

Around the world there has been deaths and transplants required
165/ Evidence in other countries like India and Israel was pointing to covid
166/ Getting this right was important, you'd think that exploring possible causes would be sensible as there was mixed evidence

This is how the UKs clinical lead on covid in children treated those who wanted further research into covid as a cause Image
167/ Even if Ladhani was right and there wasn't a single study showing a possible link, it's a provocative way to go about thinhs
168/ *things

Worth considering that in 2022 Ladhani was one of the most cited researchers in the world, likely the most cited paed on the planet, he was an author of nearly every UK paed covid paper
sgul.ac.uk/news/st-george…
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169/ To clarify I mean UK gov papers

July 2023 a paper is published in nature
170/ Two years on from when fulminant hepatitis was in the news research into the impacts of covid on the liver has continued

Was it sensible to suggest investigating covid as a cause alongside adenovirus? Did the efforts to dismiss covid seem overzealous?
171/ There's still a lot to understand about covid and the liver, would it be fair to say some experts seem less curious than others to find out more?

Covid and the liver⬇️
172/ ➡️Separating harms: “From lockdown or with lockdown?”

We see media reporting quoting statistics or anecdotal trends and attributing this almost entirely to lockdown,but at population level it's very hard to separate harms of austerity,lockdown, cost of living and covid
173/ Thousands of children lost parents, many more lost grandparents and extended family, financial uncertainty and poverty in the UK is having a long term devastating impact, there's LC in children or their parents to consider
174/ Looking specifically at education outcomes little attention is given to how much education was disrupted outside of lockdowns due to allowing unmitigated transmission in education. Not seen much in the way of effective methodology to try to unravel all these variables
175/It's also incomprehensible some believe we can return to pre-pandemic attendance rates while allowing a high infectious virus to circulate freely

This is the form of living with covid (just ignore it) many in gov and media wanted, why are they suprised by the results?
176/ A thread looking at wider harms
177/ 🛑Living with Covid

UK led the way for many other countries by revealing a Living with Covid strategy in Feb 2022
This set out the way back to normal, the old normal not a new normal which would have addressed clean air, hospital acquired infections etc
178/ A key plank of the strategy is SAGE'S final doc on future evolution of covid

The docs worth a read, recognises there's no reason it will continually become "milder" and that very nasty immune evasive variants could emerge⬇️
179/ A look at the Living with Covid strategy and how the UK government is failing to meet the requirements set out in it

It's pretty much a vax only strategy, but gov has phased out vax for booster infections and dismantled the surveillance
180/ Failing to meet its own strategy's requirements the UK has been dismantling the infrastructure and capabilities to respond rapidly to a new nasty variant

They even sold off a new vax manufacturing centre before they'd finished developing the site
181/ Despite the evidence regarding clean air the gov and its institutions have failed to address airborne transmission, even in hospitals and care homes

Notice the ppl who called to "protect the vulnerable" have nothing to say about the vulnerable now
182/ But while most of us are left to booster infections, the rich and powerful are making sure they fresh air and air filters

Events like Davos even require PCR tests to enter
183/ The Kings has air filters, though worth noting not a decent model

Good thread here on where air filters are considered worthwhile compared to schools where; if you consider what gov experts have said, is where they want transmission
184/ The same failures are seen in many other countries, but at least in many other countries they still have access to vax

IPC in Canada ⬇️
185/ It's worth noting that on 5 March 2020 minutes from a CDC meeting with representatives of public health Canada concluded that covid was airborne, but they chose to fudge the language

186/ Full thread here, not specifically on schools but on the wider pandemic, focused on UK and US based on various releases of internal documents
187/ Deaths and LC in education workers

A quick reminder of what we were told by those gatekeeping gov evidence base on schools, they made out schools were one of the safest places, still see claims teachers are mainly infected by teachers

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188/ Nov 2020 ad hoc study on risk to teachers proved very questionable and but the official complaints made about the abuse of statistics received wasn't covered in the media
189/ How many education workers have actually died from covid?

It's a question I've been trying to find an answer to for three years since the last ONS deaths by occupation survey

The answer is...

...no one knows
190/ The DfE and no one else in gov tried to collect this data, there is the annual school workforce survey which usually gives figures for deaths in service but...

This data has been missing for recent years
191/ I have spoken to ONS and DfE on numerous occasions trying to get an explanation for this missing data and still haven't received any meaningful answer

More details here⬇️
192/ We do know that education workers suffer higher rates of LC, though you wouldn't know this from reading most the media Image
193/ In the UK we are still seeing a total failure to address LC, what we see is very similar to how MECFS was treated as a mental health condition rather than a physical one

Too much focus on graded exercise and therapy

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194/ For those that aren't aware of the PACE trials Image
195/ See how those who initially criticised the PACE trials faced efforts to shut down their opposition

Now consider how UK paeds and others have sought to shut down those speaker for children with Long covid

Almost like there's a gaslighting blueprint
me-pedia.org/wiki/Intimidat…
196/ Feb 2024 the parents of a child with long covid begin legal action against Scottish Government for failure to provide meaningful care and treatment
197/ May 2024 ONS statistics shows LC is a serious issue for all ages, with just over half having had LC for more than two years, many people are not recovering and are stuck in a limbo of inadequate support
198/ When multiple groups representing those with LC wrote to gov highlighting the lack of new research
The response from a minister was to focus on the success of graded exercise 🤷‍♂️
199/ So I'm not suprised to see professional conferences promoting exercise therapy when an entire body of evidence can be constructed for UK gov with scientific slight of hand with relatively little push back
200/ And this is where it ends up, parents who just want help for their children being treated like they're the ones to blame

It's outrageous, but victim blaming is a common feature of scandals in the UK
201/ This thread hasn't been comprehensive, but it should be extensive and detailed enough to lay out how the #CovidSchoolsScandal has occurred

Of course this thread has only touched lightly on the role of coordinated disinformation networks
202/ For that I would recommend this thread
203/ And these disinformation reports
204/ Remember there is still a lot we don't know about the long term impacts of covid

End of thread 🧵

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More from @karamballes

Karam Bales Profile picture
Nov 7
There has been ongoing attacks on the CCDH since they published their disinformation dozen report years ago on the biggest antivax promoters online, this named RFK Jr and others who have been embraced by MAGA appearing at a conveyor belt of conferences
2/ The campaign against CCDH comes from the GBD crowd
3/ Despite their claims they aren't political this crowd and their ecosystem of overlapping groups is very close to the centres of power like Thiel who are driving the modern day Republican Party
Read 6 tweets
Karam Bales Profile picture
Nov 1
🧵 Amazing when RW media decide to care about SEND students

When it comes to VAT on private schools they are suddenly worried about SEND pupils, but they backed austerity, the dismantling of CAHMs real terms cuts to school budgets, and loss of 20,000 support staff mainly TAs
2/ I think it was autumn 2017 we had a protest regarding SEND students being let down over 80,000 educators and SEND parents gathered outside Westminster, it didn't get a single mention in the media from any outlet
3/ 2016 ATL conference motions booklet

Look at the issues we were trying to raise, issues largely ignored, and only raised when suits a narrative
Read 10 tweets
Karam Bales Profile picture
Oct 20
🧵 of stories on US Election

The role of the oligarchs Thiel and Musk in this election is absolutely crazy, as are the proposals from the Christian Nationalists

2/
3/
Read 18 tweets
Karam Bales Profile picture
Oct 7
🧵Collateral Global is the UKs successor organisation to the GBD, original board here, a more recent addition is Kevin Bardosh

But if CG are sponsoring the Stanford event, who is funding CG? Image
2/ Initial funding for CG
Von Opels who have been large Conservative Party donors and also gave Gupta £90,000 after her April 2020 paper claiming herd immunity was on the horizon
Luke Johnson, funded anti-lockdown MPs and appeared at a Pandata event
Opaque Baudouin Foundation and Image
3/ The Donors Trust, the dark money ATM of the US right wing, where do they get their money from?⬇️

en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Donors_Tr…Image
Read 15 tweets
Karam Bales Profile picture
Sep 23
🧵So Shamez Ladhani, the UKs clinical lead on covid in children, member of a WHO TAG for covid in children, lead for most UK gov studies on covid in children, most cited paed in world on covid in children, has written another paper with Hoeg and Noble from Urgency of Normal Image
2/ Hoeg produced the VAERS dumpster dive that made headlines in UK about myocarditis damaging confidence in covid vax for younger age groups, member of Urgency of Normal, Norfollk Group and DeSantis/Ladapo's Ethics committee that includes GBD author Bhattacharya

Image
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3/ Table of evidence collected
Look at choices of evidence, the same sizes, etc worth zooming in to take a look Image
Read 12 tweets
Karam Bales Profile picture
Sep 19
🧵A Russian disinfo influencer promoting the Wellness Company...

Well, well, well, that is interesting...
Image
2/ Wellness Company is fronted by McCullough, of Pandata, Truth for Health Foundation and others
Image
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3/ Long detailed write up of The Wellness Company and associates is here
whowhatwhy.org/science/health…
Read 10 tweets

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