Please read story below & call on your university management to LAUNCH THE SURVEY described below if they refuse to always notify instructor & students that someone with whom they've shared a classroom for a prolonged period while potentially infectious has tested positive. 1/

. @UniversitiesUK management tries to make in person teaching work during time of pandemic. Everyone 2m distanced & wears a facemask. But they discover that transmission still occurs in spite of such mitigation measures that exceed govt guidance. E.g. 2/ https://twitter.com/MatthewLBishop/status/1313949882454077441

Transmission occurs even when, in addition, the room was well-ventilated. 3/ https://twitter.com/MikeOtsuka/status/1311012813951979523

Such transmission is unsurprising, given our current understanding of the nature of Covid-19 aerosol transmission. See this thread for how this understanding has slowly emerged. 4/ https://twitter.com/MikeOtsuka/status/1266700889739399177

Union requests that classroom instructor & students be notified when someone who tests positive was in a shared classroom for a prolonged period while potentially infectious, even if everyone was 2m distanced & wearing a facemask & room was well-ventilated. 5/

Union stresses they're not insisting that all go into 14-day quarantine. Perhaps risk is not so high to justify this. Nevertheless, the risk of transmission is significant, as they demonstrate by noting that their managers would decline this offer . 6/ https://twitter.com/MatthewLBishop/status/1313949882454077441

Union explains that notification of all is justified so that university can provide Tier 2 priority testing of all who shared the classroom, 5 days after class, w/ results back on day 6. 7/
https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/community/colleges-universities/ihe-testing.html

If all test negative, students & instructor can be provided a fairly high level of assurance that infection did not spread during the classroom session & it's okay to continue with in person teaching in that classroom 7 days later. 8/

If some test positive, or if testing of all can't be provided in a timely manner, then it will be possible for all to take the precaution of moving the class online for the next week, pending further investigation. 9/

Of course, anyone who tests positive would self-isolate. 10/

Management resists this proposal out of concern for the privacy of the individual who has tested positive. Union replies that identity of this person wouldn't be disclosed. 11/

Management rejoins that it will nevertheless be possible to infer who has tested positive, given that person's absence at the next class. Union responds that the same is true of those classroom close contacts that trigger NHS contact-tracing & self-isolation. 12/

Union also hypothesises that an overwhelming majority of instructors & students would give advanced consent to such notification of all that someone in a shared classroom has tested positive, even with the knowledge that they might be the one who tests positive. 13/

To confirm this hypothesis, union requests that management LAUNCH AN ONLINE SURVEY of all instructors & students asking the following: 14/

Do you wish to be notified, for the above reasons, that someone with whom you have shared a classroom session for a prolonged period has tested positive? 15/

Or would you prefer, for reasons [insert here] management has offered, that you be kept in the dark that someone with whom you have shared a classroom session for a prolonged period has tested positive? 16/

Unless @LSE_UCU is persuaded by @simonjhix @DevonDilly & others in SMC that this proposal lacks merit, I hope they'll call on our SMC to launch this survey. ( @UCU @UCEA1 @UniversitiesUK @USSbriefs @SusanLiautaud @MartinHGAnthony @MOSSIALOS @jim_dickinson) 17/17