Johnson: The new strain is particularly prevelant in London and areas of the South East
Hancock: Infections in students are driving transmission in London

Any bet failure to tackle transmission in schools turned them into petri fishes for the new strain
#edutwitter
Government admitted students were as infectious as adults, they knew students were the most infected groups with figures continuing to rise, they knew half term cut RO, they were advised Nov lockdown wouldn't be as effective without tackling transmission in schools
They were warned about tackling transmission in schools time and time again.
By their own SAGE group, by @IndependentSage, the warnings came thick and fast,but who sets the agenda in this country? Westminster or RW rags and lobbyists posing as think tanks? https://twitter.com/karamballes/status/1333099574945325060?s=19
We have increasingly become an outlier on schools.
Even Sweden shut it schools while our Government was threatening to take people people to court for switching to remote learning for a few days https://twitter.com/karamballes/status/1338095514726916096?s=19
Yet while the government were refusing to listen to their own advisors they had secret meetings with those behind the Great Barrington Declaration.

Government still refuses to allow masks to be worn in classrooms, seriously whats the logic behind this?
So big shout out to the gaslighters that made this possible

This week we had this work of art explaining how we really don't have to worry about transmission in schools, its all fine https://twitter.com/HaroonChowdry/status/1338900941442048000?s=19
4 days ago the Children's Commissioner was telling us school opening had been a great success, and that transmission had been limited and wasn't something we needed to worry about https://twitter.com/ChildrensComm/status/1338845134201434114?s=19
Jenny Harris, wrong on testing, wrong on masks, wrong on schools, knowing this government there's probably honours or gongs on the horizon for her https://twitter.com/Independent/status/1297828494424961024?s=19
Then we have a slew of Celebrity Dr's who came out on TV, Radio and Press regurgitating the government narrative, not just disputing evidence but claiming there was none entirely https://twitter.com/DrRanj/status/1314114912956952577?s=19
Then again TV stars and celebs were willing to take the government's shilling to tell the public there would be no issues with the return to school in September https://schoolsweek.co.uk/tv-star-and-celeb-gp-hired-for-back-to-school-promo/
TV star & celeb GP hired for 'back-to-school' campaign

Kirsty Gallacher used her social media to 'reassure parents on the changes and safety measures' at schools

https://schoolsweek.co.uk/tv-star-and-celeb-gp-hired-for-back-to-school-promo/
When DfE set up a Fake News unit in the Summer some thought this was to tackle fake news, yet the DfE has consistently cranked out constant diet of propoganda https://schoolsweek.co.uk/dfe-to-tackle-fake-news-with-its-own-rapid-rebuttal-unit/
DfE to tackle ‘fake news’ with its own rapid rebuttal unit

It is said to be one of the first department-specific teams in government to challenge "misinformation at the source"

https://schoolsweek.co.uk/dfe-to-tackle-fake-news-with-its-own-rapid-rebuttal-unit/
This post is still up on Facebook...
In November I heard @NickFerrariLBC and @MaajidNawaz both claiming there was no evidence of a single education worker infected by a student. Maajid even said he wanted children infected so we build up herd immunity, no concern for staff or long covid https://twitter.com/Dr2NisreenAlwan/status/1339154230087720961?s=19
As we learn more about Long Covid impacting those who didn't get severely sick when infected, they have started looking at children
@long_recovery are worth checking out
I hope findings of this small study isn't replicated more widely
https://www.studyfinds.org/children-with-covid-blood-vessel-damage/?fbclid=IwAR1OrGMO0umPoj3MvS7i_tt6CnS6TO1ihitkiOIi3HPP2L4-AyFn9kL3OrM&amp&__twitter_impression=true
Start November SAGE publish a report on the infectiousness of children,this was spun by the press that "children less infectiousness than adults"
Actually it said primary may be a little bit less infectiousness and secondary students are as infectiousness https://twitter.com/karamballes/status/1328108997421961218?s=19
They knew this would happen, here is @DominicRaab on US TV explaining the sudden rise in infections in September was because of education returning and that this was fully expected https://twitter.com/CNNnewsroom/status/1306656593371639810?s=19
They claimed 'education staff were at no greater risk than other workers'
Turns out they were comparing us to frontline healthcare workers and we had the same risk, then it turned out the data was fudged and we are at more risk of infection https://twitter.com/karamballes/status/1330439848868651008?s=19
Also worth wondering why the government is still actively preventing masks being worn in classrooms, they are one of the only public spaces in UK where masks aren't allowed
SAGE have been recommending masks and social distancing in classrooms for 6 months! https://twitter.com/karamballes/status/1286692725706887170?s=19
Johnson did meet with pressure group UsForThem who believe in no safety measures in schools, they don't even agree with testing, how does a brand new lobby group get into number 10 when many established organisations have been completely ignored https://twitter.com/SafeEdForAll_UK/status/1338381557401260033?s=19
Recently,besides misrepresentation of ONS data, elements of the media were still trying to deny education staff were in any risk at all
Had to organise a flood of official complaints against Daily Mail to regulator to get a correction printed https://twitter.com/karamballes/status/1292157776416907264?s=19
Why are we facing a Covid Christmas?
Cases were always going to rise in Winter,but
Lockdown without education didn't work
Transmission in schools was hidden rather than tackled
Test&Trace doesn't work
T&T is interlinked to schools, remember the aborted full return in June? SAGE had been saying schools shouldn't fully open without T&T, gov tried to ignore this but unions got public backing causing a more cautious approach to increasing wider opening, T&T start date set 1st June
No coincidence a gov that had binned T&T in Spring suddenly flung money at Dido Harding, SERCO and Deloit in May. It was so they could say T&T was up and running for schools in June, inaction, rushed PR move, poor end results, a fitting summary of government in 2020
Wonder if we would even have T&T if it wasn't for pressure on gov over schools in May, worked alright in late spring and summer, hoped it would improve more, crashed in Sept with little effort to fix it, was it job done when schools went back full time?
Other point of hope was the Containment Framework, specifically Annex 3, set out 4 tiers for schools based on local infection rates, ignored primary but seemed sensible for secondary with Tier 2 a move to blended learning, however didn't state what the thresholds were
Containment Framework tiers 2+ were never implemented, some schools went to blended because of staff shortages but CF wasn't invoked.
It was nothing but PR to create the false pretence that gov would act if transmission got out of control, they never did https://twitter.com/karamballes/status/1300905979303821313?s=19
The moment schools and local authorities starting begging for blended the DfE scrapped the Framework, as with masks in classrooms,announcing blended learning would be admitting transmission,the lies would come crashing down
In the same position as March, running out of staff, when questioned about staffing issues @NickGibbUK said "in the event of absences schools have adequate staffing"
DfE also refusing to answer FOIs on staff infection, hospitalisation and deaths and ONS stopped data collection
Trip down memory lane, remember when gov claimed to be following the science while refusing to publish any SAGE papers or even the members list, when they yielded to union led pressure it turned out they regularly ignored SAGE and selectively quoted them. https://twitter.com/karamballes/status/1266844856149827589?s=19
For newer readers of my long rants, you might be interested in this thread, I go through the early SAGE papers where they modelled the impact of 9 scenarios for schools on RO

They knew transmission would be high without blended if T&T wasn't effective https://twitter.com/karamballes/status/1263833157377372160?s=19
In April I explained how I saw government strategy developing and how MSM and then government would be influenced by lobbyists as debate in Covid was tribalised like climate change and Brexit by similar methods

Unfortunately I've been fairly accurate https://twitter.com/karamballes/status/1247678149778866178?s=19
Right now gov is panicking,they tried whack a mole, they tried balancing health vs economy ignoring the many people pointing out this is a false argument
They pinned to much on saying schools were a priority they made it a main measure of success,now trapped in their own rhetoric
Its why they scrapped the Framework the moment it might be needed, its why they threatened struggling schools and LAs with court for wanting a few days of remote learning. They were also thinking about January, they already knew about the new strain.
Is a chance the new strain only seems super infectious because its multiplying in schools where there are considerably better conditions for transmission than just about anywhere else. If new strain is infectious then rethinking schools is still essential or lockdown for months
Their panicked solution, mass testing with LFTs with a 50% failure rate as a replacement to isolation for close contact.
Its insane, they are willing to spend a fortune on unreliable testing to reduce isolations and not a penny on cutting transmission. https://twitter.com/karamballes/status/1338951923089764355?s=19
Gov knows
Schools driving infection,infection spreads from students to over 65+,a new extra contagious strain is in these areas
Gov decides
Scrap isolation for unreliable tests
Back to school without any extra measures, not even masks in classrooms

Rolling lockdowns till summer?
Gov knows this is dangerous, they know LFTs shouldn't replace isolation,do they really want to flip a coin for every asymptomatic case with the new strain to avoid isolation to mix in crowded schools?

Thats what they're proposing, almost sounds like a herd immunity strategy
End
1 final thing I forgot, after announcing mass testing they then offered to test the whole school population in January, from refusing to admit transmission to a move like this shows they are worried, they said PCRs to press but Q&A for heads said it would be more LFTs
Unuins have been accused of moaning, but we wanted German style PCR pool testing or the mobile PCR testing unit DfE promised would be regular and turned out to be exceedingly rare.

Another broken promise.
You can follow @karamballes.
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