BC EDUCATION
Saved by @CodyyyGardner

The problem that the ‘lets-shut-schools-for-a-couple-of-weeks-crowd’ ignore is that its much easier to shut schools than to open them. Therefore, the probability is that once schools are shut, they will be shut for months on end, just like last time.

 In other words, they are engaging in wishful thinking. The probability is that schools will be shut for months on end whilst online teaching provision will likely be patchy/minimal/inadequate/non-existent like it was last time & educational inequalities will continue to widen.
We’ve learned nothing from the schools shutting for 6 months last yr. Once those schools are shut, they will be shut for months. Online learning will continue to be inadequate, meanwhile big-mouthed Twitter users with no skin in the game will continue to opine on the subject.
The average Twitter user is more likely to be parent to a cat than to a human child. No skin in the game & it shows, quite frankly. The online learning that is available for parents is inadequate & it will be left to parents to utilise their own resources, again.
Educational inequalities will widen into a chasm. It will be a disaster for children, especially primary school-aged children, & for what? Where is the evidence that school closures minimised the spread of C-19? But the average Twitter user need not worry, their cat will be fine
& the longer we try to keep schools closed & try to lock-down the whole of society in an attempt to try to suppress the spread of the virus the more we increase other risks. There is a trade-off. Lower some risks. Increase others.

https://t.co/A4RlbYAOul
Extended lockdowns carry their own risks

https://t.co/s7Lfj7NeMK
Are we going to talk about them or not?

https://t.co/o8VrFgaxn3
Probably not Im guessing

https://t.co/pcMo4Tir4C
I think we should have an honest discussion

https://t.co/alrDwmR12z
There is no perfect solution to our problems only a series of trade-offs

https://t.co/imUfStnXuE
& we should be honest about that

https://t.co/wuScFDt8vS
Rather than pretending these problems dont exist

https://t.co/ePsJUTT5Ay
But Im not overly optimistic on that front I have to be honest

https://t.co/SKHSvOuQEm
But if the British Medical Journal are open to these kinds of discussions regarding trade-offs then so should everybody else be imo

https://t.co/pmIAXCFRcE
One things for sure, the longer lockdowns continue the more that ppl are gonna drink, which carries its own risks. For this reason, South Africa & Greenland have temporarily banned the sale of alcohol, but that wont fly here, so what are we going to do?

https://t.co/5X3ywjaAqv
Nothing?

https://t.co/J0cAFHITVo
Im guessing we will probably do nothing

https://t.co/gYBA3xFva8
I hope Im wrong obviously

https://t.co/RSkwRtyZSr
We shall see I guess

https://t.co/qxGYTsXJp8
But at the very minimum we shouldn't try to sweep these problems under the carpet

https://t.co/0a96SM45I0
An honest discussion about trade-offs is required the longer this goes on

https://t.co/SvEFJF7vfl

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James Munday
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@JDMunday
Our preprint on the impact of reopening schools on reproduction number in England is now available online: https://t.co/CpfUGzAJ2S. With @Jarvis_Stats @amyg225 @kerrylmwong @KevinvZandvoort @sbfnk + John Edmunds. NOT YET PEER REVIEWED. 1/


We used contact survey data collected by CoMix (https://t.co/ezbCIOgRa1) to quantify differences in contact patterns during November (Schools open) and January (Schools closed) 'Lockdown periods'. NOT YET PEER REVIEWED 2/

We combined this analysis with estimates of susceptibility and infectiousness of children relative to adults from literature. We also inferred relative susceptibility by fitting R estimates from CoMix to EpiForecasts estimates(https://t.co/6lUM2wK0bn). NOT YET PEER REVIEWED 3/


We estimated that reopening all schools would increase R by between 20% to 90% whereas reopening primary or secondary schools alone would increase R by 10% to 40%, depending on the infectiousness/susceptibility profile we used. NOT YET PEER REVIEWED 4/


Assuming a current R of 0.8 (in line with Govt. estimates: https://t.co/ZZhCe79zC4). Reopening all schools would increase R to between 1.0 and 1.5 and reopening either primary or secondary schools would increase R to between 0.9 and 1.2. NOT YET PEER REVIEWED 5/
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Melanie
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APPLYING TO GRAD SCHOOL, POST #18: INTERVIEWS (PART 4)

You've finished your interview(s) and you're tired, but it's not over quite yet! What should you do after interviews?

@OpenAcademics @PhDVoice #AcademicChatter #AcademicTwitter #phdchat #gradschool #firstgen #nontraditional

Firstly, congratulate yourself for making it through the interview! Take some time to relax and reflect on your experience, especially if you have forthcoming interviews for other programs. Take note of questions and positive and negative moments that stuck out to you.

*Huge note: PLEASE try not to beat yourself up too much if you didn't know the answer to every question in the interview. Depending on the type of interview (and interviewer) you had, there might have been many difficult questions presented to you, specifically for the purpose...

of not only seeing how much you know, but also seeing how you think and process problems when you *don't* know the answers. If you can, reason your way through the question and explain yourself as well as you can, so that they can see your way of thinking, but if you truly...

have no idea, it's perfectly fine to just say that you don't know, as opposed to rambling nonsensically and hopelessly.

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Robin Monotti Graziadei
Robin Monotti Graziade...
@robinmonotti
LIST OF QUESTIONS FOR MPS
From @ClareCraigPath and Dr Jonathan Engler:
.
1.Why are SARS-CoV-2 antibody levels flat or dropping across all age groups since May if the pandemic is still going?

2.What percentage of the population is assumed to have had prior immunity to SARS-CoV-2 in the SAGE forecasting models?

3.Why do 50% of household members not catch SARS-CoV-2 from infected persons with whom they live?

4.Why have Japan and South Korea not had any serious outbreak if the human species has no prior immunity to SARS-CoV-2?

5.What percentage of the population of the UK is assumed to be immune to COVID-19 (including prior immunity) as of this date?
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Louigi Addario-Berry
Louigi Addario-Berry
@Methemedantics
When the university starts sending out teaching evaluation reminders, I tell all my classes about bias in teaching evals, with links to the evidence. Here's a version of the email I send, in case anyone else wants to poach from it.

1/16


When I say "anyone": needless to say, the people who are benefitting from the bias (like me) are the ones who should helping to correct it. Men in math, this is your job! Of course, it should also be dealt with at the institutional level, not just ad hoc.
OK, on to my email:
2/16

"You may have received automated reminders about course evals this fall. I encourage you to fill the evals out. I'd be particularly grateful for written feedback about what worked for you in the class, what was difficult, & how you ultimately spent your time for this class.

3/16

However, I don't feel comfortable just sending you an email saying: "please take the time to evaluate me". I do think student evaluations of teachers can be valuable: I have made changes to my teaching style as a direct result of comments from student teaching evaluations.
4/16

But teaching evaluations have a weakness: they are not an unbiased estimator of teaching quality. There is strong evidence that teaching evals tend to favour men over women, and that teaching evals tend to favour white instructors over non-white instructors.
5/16
EDUCATION
Deepti Gurdasani
Deepti Gurdasani
@dgurdasani1
We've been falsely told 'schools are safe', 'don't drive community transmission', & teachers don't have a higher risk of infection repeatedly by govt & their advisors- to justify some of the most negligent policies in history. 🧵


data shows *both* primary & secondary school teachers are at double the risk of confirmed infection relative to comparable positivity in the general population. ONS household infection data also clearly show that children are important sources of transmission.

Yet, in the parliamentary select meeting today, witnesses like Jenny Harries repeated the same claims- that have been debunked by the ONS data, and the data released by the @educationgovuk today. How many lives have been lost to these lies? How many more people have long COVID?

has repeatedly pointed out errors & gaps in the ONS reporting of evidence around risk of infection among teachers- and it's taken *months* to get clarity on this. The released data are a result of months of campaigning by her, the @NEU and others.

Rather than being transparent about the risk of transmission in school settings & mitigating this, the govt (& many of its advisors) has engaged in dismissing & denying evidence that's been clear for a while. Evidence from the govt's own surveys. And global evidence.

Why?
EDUCATION

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