1/
We had suspected that we have a number of families who were not on our usual radar who are really struggling, who are soldiering on and not claiming anything or asking for support through the usual channels... including not claiming FSM.

2/
We decided to phone every family today, just to check in.
15 calls in so far.. 8 families who need help. Who DESPERATELY need help. Food, mortgages, rent, petrol... many in fear of losing their house... jobs... marriages...
3/
Families telling their children that Santa is in quarantine because they can't afford presents...
4/
Parents in tears as they tell us that they haven't told anyone because they are desperately trying to keep it together, to manage... because they know that there are others who are 'so much more worse off than us'...
5/
We are taking immediate action... food parcels, gifts for the kids, signposting to financial support, getting them to sign up for FSM, giving them the 'free data' cards we got from Vodaphone, giving them the details (again) to the county council Winter Grant hub...
6/
I know that if we had not made the calls we would never have known. Not because we haven't sent out information or because we don't engage with our parents, but because so many haven't said anything.
7/
Our 'bubble' life has also made it difficult to parents/teachers to engage with each other 'normally'. They don't see each other every day now that we are dropping off at the gate and not at the classroom door.
8/
The personal call from our amazing Inclusion Worker to ask 'how are you doing?' has been all it has taken.
She is calling every family... not just the ones who we think may be struggling.
9/
On the surface for our school no-one would guess.
But the hidden poverty is real.
The impact of the pandemic is massive. This is in an area of low cases but huge financial implications.
The impact on health and mental wellbeing are overwhelming.
10/
This is not a 'whinging headteacher' tweeting or one that is trying to be a 'hero'.

This is just life... in EVERY school right across this country.
END.

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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
Two things can be true at once:
1. There is an issue with hostility some academics have faced on some issues
2. Another academic who himself uses threats of legal action to bully colleagues into silence is not a good faith champion of the free speech cause


I have kept quiet about Matthew's recent outpourings on here but as my estwhile co-author has now seen fit to portray me as an enabler of oppression I think I have a right to reply. So I will.

I consider Matthew to be a colleague and a friend, and we had a longstanding agreement not to engage in disputes on twitter. I disagree with much in the article @UOzkirimli wrote on his research in @openDemocracy but I strongly support his right to express such critical views

I therefore find it outrageous that Matthew saw fit to bully @openDemocracy with legal threats, seeking it seems to stifle criticism of his own work. Such behaviour is simply wrong, and completely inconsistent with an academic commitment to free speech.

I am not embroiling myself in the various other cases Matt lists because, unlike him, I think attention to the detail matters and I don't have time to research each of these cases in detail.

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The chorus of this song uses the shlokas taken from Sundarkand of Ramayana.

It is a series of Sanskrit shlokas recited by Jambavant to Hanuman to remind Him of his true potential.

1. धीवर प्रसार शौर्य भरा: The brave persevering one, your bravery is taking you forward.


2. उतसारा स्थिरा घम्भीरा: The one who is leaping higher and higher, who is firm and stable and seriously determined.

3. ुग्रामा असामा शौर्या भावा: He is strong, and without an equal in the ability/mentality to fight

4. रौद्रमा नवा भीतिर्मा: His anger will cause new fears in his foes.

5.विजिटरीपुरु धीरधारा, कलोथरा शिखरा कठोरा: This is a complex expression seen only in Indic language poetry. The poet is stating that Shivudu is experiencing the intensity of climbing a tough peak, and likening

it to the feeling in a hard battle, when you see your enemy defeated, and blood flowing like a rivulet. This is classical Veera rasa.

6.कुलकु थारथिलीथा गम्भीरा, जाया विराट वीरा: His rough body itself is like a sharp weapon (because he is determined to win). Hail this complete

hero of the world.

7.विलयगागनथाला भिकारा, गरज्जद्धरा गारा: The hero is destructive in the air/sky as well (because he can leap at an enemy from a great height). He can defeat the enemy (simply) with his fearsome roar of war.