1/ Thread: Masks and schools, what does SAGE say?

Classrooms have a high risk of transmission, social distancing should be maintained, where it cant be maintained masks and other motivations are strongly recommended

2/ Schools are considered high contact settings, large numbers in close proximity indoors for hours at a time.
SAGE says mitigation measures like masks are particularly important if there high risk individuals in these types of settings.

3/ Shielding letters end in August, hearing of lots of concerns from these families that they are expected back whilst being told there are no masks to be worn in schools, and social distancing cant be maintained. Also some classrooms have no ventilation at all.

4/ DfE says it's fine for the extremely clinically vulnerable to return as long as social distancing is maintained. However the rest of the guidence wherever social distancing is mentioned uses terms like 'try', 'where possible' etc

5/ It also points out the importance of contact tracing. You may notice all modeling shows that the more students you have in schools the higher the impact on R0 will be.

6/ SAGE also states the greatest factor on the impact of schools on RO is adherence to social distancing by staff and students outside of school eg public transport or hanging out in big groups in the local park hugging each other like I see in my neighborhood

7/ From a general advice document on relaxing lockdown in workplaces or specifically highlights teaching as a higher risk role due to the number of contacts, states again the importance of masks and points out that adults in schools risk increasing transmission in the community

8/ I have referenced 5 or 6 different SAGE documents from different meetings, most are from June as government was drawing up guidence for schools with no union consultation, however they appear to have relied on a few of the DfEs favoured faces so to claim they asked the

9/ professions' opinions and worked with them. The real question is why have they ignored so much of the advice, particularly on masks, considering that many staff, students and parents would feel a lot less concerned about returning if this measure was mandated.

10/ As you can see the science has supported masks in schools for well over a month now, so why ignore it?
1) Dont want to admit being wrong on masks earlier on in the pandemic?
2) Pandering to the 'masks are government oppression' mob?

11/
3) I dont really want to entertain this idea but government thinking isnt making sense so...
Let's talk about Herd Immunity, government keeps saying children are low risk, so perhaps if they are worrying about a second wave in winter it might make sense to them to remove..

12) transmission vectors before winter. If you can have a bulge of students infected in late summer early autumn then they could gain immunity and there would be less available vectors to spread infection come winter which they must be worrying about.

13/ I remember in March one government advisor saying school closures could be counter productive as it would slow the rate of infection. Newsnights reporting of herd immunity had 4 bumps so roughly 12 weeks from rise to fall.

14/ So if I was following this strategy I would have made a big push for schools to open around 1st of June, have 6 weeks of school followed by 6 weeks of summer holidays, then 6/7 weeks to make it to half term.
But would anyone suggest using schools as a science experiment....

15/ Not certain which is the government's thinking but we must explore all possibilities, simple ineptitude, saving face and ignoring the science in a cavalier attitude for short term economic gain for long term pain is probably the most likely, however the idea of schools being

16/ taps of infection that could be turned on and off was floated about in March, its risky even if managed at a local level, either way we need effective TTI and transparency of testing data, and we have about 6 weeks for this to greatly improve.

17/17 Masks on public transport, soon to be masks in shops, why no
masks in schools. PHE says it
would damage learninq but every
other country with masks in schools
seems to be managing fine. Also
the disregard for those at High Risk
seems incredibly reckless.

NB impact of increased student numbers and reduction in social distancing in the past 6 weeks.

What I'm personally calling for
1) An Education Workers Council where all unions representing workers come together to find common purpose and coordinate messaging and campaigning Strength in collective professional unity, see @Unify1Edu
2) Masks for all students
3) See below