THREAD

1. Dear Primary, Secondary, Further ed and Higher ed colleagues,

Many of you may have experienced working with our youngest children- but as the "foundation stage" the work that happens in these early years will be of great importance to you....

2. Right now whichever phase we work in- whether it is a baby room or a university- it is fair to say that we are all working flat out to do the very best for those we work with. But in this thread I wanted to share with you some of the mess that our sector finds itself in...
3. Firstly- whilst most schools and educational establishments are closed to most students, and whilst we battle with Zoom, teams, google classroom and as lateral flow testing starts to be rolled out- the picture in the sector working with our youngest children is very different.
4. This is the first real piece of mainstream media attention we have seen.
*Cases are rising.
*Staff are not on immunisation plan
*No lateral flow testing on site.
...and if they close to protect staff/children- they may never reopen.

https://t.co/0SDQQx7LNC
5. Now imagaine within your own sector- imagine if you were told there would be a new statutory test coming into force from September 2021. A test that would take you away from your pupils before you've got to know them. A test that won't be for your benefit- or even theirs.
6. A test that tests narrow areas of learning including content you wouldn't even expect them to know at their age. A test that is costing £11 million- whilst children go hungry and don't have the tech they needed during lockdown. A test that has been proven to be flawed.
7. Now imagine that from Sept 21 your complete ed framework has been rewritten including assessment procedures and what you're expected to teach.

You've had no CPD. No time to really plan for these major changes- you've just been trying to get through teaching in a pandemic.
8. And also add in that much of the reform is inappropriate for your students and is steering you down a road you know is not what they need.
It wasn't right before the pandemic or during it.
It definitely won't be right after it.
9. Workload? Mental health? Well being?

Well this is the world of Early Years right now.

You might not work in Early Years.
You might not know much about it.
But right now- we need you to stand up with us
#protectearlyyears #standingtogetherforearlyyears
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More from Society

global health policy in 2020 has centered around NPI's (non-pharmaceutical interventions) like distancing, masks, school closures

these have been sold as a way to stop infection as though this were science.

this was never true and that fact was known and knowable.

let's look.


above is the plot of social restriction and NPI vs total death per million. there is 0 R2. this means that the variables play no role in explaining one another.

we can see this same relationship between NPI and all cause deaths.

this is devastating to the case for NPI.


clearly, correlation is not proof of causality, but a total lack of correlation IS proof that there was no material causality.

barring massive and implausible coincidence, it's essentially impossible to cause something and not correlate to it, especially 51 times.

this would seem to pose some very serious questions for those claiming that lockdowns work, those basing policy upon them, and those claiming this is the side of science.

there is no science here nor any data. this is the febrile imaginings of discredited modelers.

this has been clear and obvious from all over the world since the beginning and had been proven so clearly by may that it's hard to imagine anyone who is actually conversant with the data still believing in these responses.

everyone got the same R
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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