Our inability to introduce remote learning during a global pandemic is a social problem.

A decade of austerity has left families without the means to own adequate devices, and some can’t even afford broadband.

Scoff all you like, but it is reality I’m afraid. 1/10

It wasn’t long ago @GavinWilliamson was promising help for poorer families, so their children could access the necessary equipment to learn from home and no child is left behind.

How did that go? Do I even need to ask?

Another huge failure from the fireplace flogger. 2/10
“Whatever it takes”, they said.

I’ll stick my neck out here and call that bullshit. Utter hogwash.

“Whatever it takes to ensure our friends get HUUUUGE PPE contracts” - that would be accurate. 3/10
Remote learning is far from ideal.

I understand the difficulties, but as I say, this is a failure of government.

Life preservation has to come first.

My child isn’t a guinea pig. 4/10
They will not have an adequate test and trace system in schools, and let’s not pretend otherwise. Schools are not prepared for it. It’s a ludicrous and desperate proposition.

@michaelgove is confident schools will stay open.

He might not like experts, but SAGE disagree. 5/10
Gavin Williamson says he is worried about the “poor and most disadvantaged children” missing out on their education yet the national security risk didn’t give a crap about the same children missing out on a decent dinner when he voted to cut benefits, on FIFTY ONE occasions. 6/10
More than 41,000 new cases were reported on the last 24 hours. That’s a new record.

We are told a mutant strain of the virus is tearing through the country, and it really doesn’t like younger people.

Education is vital. Health is vital. A balance is needed 7/10
Our NHS is close to being overwhelmed, going by various reports.

The Labour Party are nowhere on this, AGAIN.

As I said in August, we send children back now at our peril. 8/10
We have vaccines arriving. This will take time.

Have we considered shorter Easter and Summer school holidays?

Teachers have died, hundreds have been very poorly. Do they deserve this? No 9/10
The government and the opposition need to get their acts together, and quickly.

Parents, teachers and children need certainty, not Gavin bloody Williamson and Kate someone-or-another.

Our lives matter. We expect action. 10/10

More from Society

I've seen many news articles cite that "the UK variant could be the dominant strain by March". This is emphasized by @CDCDirector.

While this will likely to be the case, this should not be an automatic cause for concern. Cases could still remain contained.

Here's how: 🧵

One of @CDCgov's own models has tracked the true decline in cases quite accurately thus far.

Their projection shows that the B.1.1.7 variant will become the dominant variant in March. But interestingly... there's no fourth wave. Cases simply level out:

https://t.co/tDce0MwO61


Just because a variant becomes the dominant strain does not automatically mean we will see a repeat of Fall 2020.

Let's look at UK and South Africa, where cases have been falling for the past month, in unison with the US (albeit with tougher restrictions):


Furthermore, the claim that the "variant is doubling every 10 days" is false. It's the *proportion of the variant* that is doubling every 10 days.

If overall prevalence drops during the studied time period, the true doubling time of the variant is actually much longer 10 days.

Simple example:

Day 0: 10 variant / 100 cases -> 10% variant
Day 10: 15 variant / 75 cases -> 20% variant
Day 20: 20 variant / 50 cases -> 40% variant

1) Proportion of variant doubles every 10 days
2) Doubling time of variant is actually 20 days
3) Total cases still drop by 50%

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