Schools closed until March/April? (part 4) **Mod warning in OP 22/01**

Corona study suppressed by education authorities
A single person caused a mass infection at the Hamburg school

Almost 40 people infected with corona at the Heinrich Hertz School in Hamburg: When this became known in September, it was one of the first major outbreaks at a school in Germany. At the time, the authorities said: Many pupils had been infected outside of school. But now it turns out: That was not true. On the contrary, the outbreak is predominantly due to a person through whom the coronavirus then spread at school.

This emerges from information from the Hamburg labor, social and health authorities, which was published shortly before Christmas on the “Ask the State” platform (the request can be found here). Accordingly, the Heinrich Pette Institute (HPI) and the Eppendorf University Hospital, in cooperation with the Hamburg-Nord Health Department, investigated the outbreak at the Heinrich Hertz School, a district school from the 5th grade.

"Most likely due to a source of infection"

As a result, the researchers gained the following findings, it continues: “Infections / transmissions took place in school.” A large number of identical genome sequences were identified in the examined and usable samples. “Therefore, the vast majority of transmissions are most likely due to a single source of infection. The possibility that the outbreak results from independent entries can be ruled out with a probability bordering on certainty. "

When asked on Monday, Adam Grundhoff, the virologist responsible at HPI, added that the result was also so clear because the genome signature in question had not yet appeared in Hamburg at the time: "So this is due to a source."

In total, “under 30” cases could be reconstructed, which practically all had this genome signature. However, he does not assume that all outbreaks in schools run like this: "That is certainly more heterogeneous." It is planned to incorporate the analysis into a larger study. The analysis was finished at the beginning of October, but he could not say when the results were communicated by the health department.

Politically explosive result
The result of the analysis is politically explosive not only because it contradicts the culture ministers' mantra that schools are not the drivers of infection in the pandemic.

At the beginning of January, the Conference of Ministers of Education and Cultural Affairs wants to discuss how schools should continue after the lockdown. So far it looks as if the KMK is not planning to change its strategy and continues to rely on the fastest possible resumption of normal operation without major protective measures, apart from ventilation. The study should make that more difficult.

The study could also be tricky for Hamburg's school senator Ties Rabe (SPD). Because the impression arises that Rabe's school board wanted to suppress the publication of the study.

Their results were only made public now because a user asked about them on “Ask the State”, citing the Hamburg Transparency Act. It was not the school authority that was asked to answer, but the health authority.

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Previously, the school authorities had dismissed the results of the study as not relevant - namely in an article in "Die Zeit", in which genome sequencing was reported for the first time.

The school board saw "no relevant results" in October
“Zeit” had asked the school authorities for the results of the study in vain. "Unfortunately, we did not find any relevant findings from which meaningful school protective measures could be derived," is quoted in the article Peter Albrecht, spokesman for Ties Rabe. Precise results would have to be requested from the health department, which was also silent.

According to "Zeit", Rabe's spokesman announced this at the end of October (the article itself was only published in mid-December). The school authorities must have known about the study and its results by the end of October.

Did the Senator Deceive the Public?
If so, the questions not only arise why the school authorities classified the findings as "not relevant" and why they have not published the results of their own accord since then.

Senator Rabe would also have deceived the public when he presented his own data on the infection situation in schools in mid-November . At that time, Rabe put forward the thesis that “the risk of infection outside of school is much higher”.

The genome sequencing - the transmissions within the school in question in numerous cases - were not mentioned at the press conference. Rabe rather spoke of the fact that there were 80 of the 372 documented cases in which “perhaps” the school was the site of infection. With everyone else, you can rule that out anyway. The ministers of education then repeatedly referred to these figures when it came to classifying the school as safe.

Representation of the school authority is difficult to understand
An inquiry from the Tagesspiegel to the school authorities about the timing and assessment of Senator Ties Rabe's security situation at the schools initially remained unanswered on Monday morning.

Instead, a spokeswoman referred to a press release on Sunday that described the results that have now become known as “good news”.

This assessment, which seems strange at first glance, was justified as follows: The genome sequencing indicated that 25 of the 39 infections could have happened in the Heinrich Hertz School during the outbreak. However, the school authorities assumed 34 in their calculation in November, so the proportion of total infections in schools has even decreased.

This representation is difficult to check - because the data basis for the calculation by the school authorities cannot be found in writing anywhere. At the press conference at the time, as I said, the outbreak at the Heinrich Hertz School was not mentioned, so it is not clear how Senator Rabe came up with the sum of the infections that “maybe” took place within a school.

School authorities do not want final results until the end of November
On Monday afternoon, the school authorities announced that the "final results" of the HPI analysis had only been submitted by the health authority to the school authority on November 24th. The school authorities have never questioned the fact of the school-internal infections "in principle and specifically at the Heinrich-Hertz-Schule", but presented in September that “there were external and internal infections at the Heinrich-Hertz-Schule”.

In the meantime, the authority also considers the results of the analysis to be "relevant", it continues. However, the study "does not allow any conclusions to be drawn as to why there were a large number of internal school infections at this one school, while there were no internal transmissions at 151 other schools despite individual children with corona disease," said a spokeswoman: "In relation to We need further studies on this important question. " That is also the opinion of the senator. He also emphasized that "schools are safe places in relation to other areas of life". He sees himself there "in agreement with RKI and Leopoldina.

plodder wrote: »

https://www.rte.ie/news/coronavirus/2021/0314/1203878-coronavirus-ireland/


Has to be related to schools.

If they are serious about keeping them open I think they are going to have to vaccinate teachers asap.