Top Three
The FDA Is Expected to Authorize Pfizer Booster for 5- to 11 Year Olds: Via the NYT.
The decision "is expected as early as Tuesday to authorize a booster shot of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine for children 5 to 11, according to multiple people familiar with the plan. That would make those children the youngest Americans eligible for the additional shot."
"A meeting of outside vaccine experts on an advisory committee to the CDC has been scheduled for Thursday. Dr. Rochelle P. Walensky, the C.D.C.’s director, is then expected to issue her own recommendation on the shot."
"Some experts have suggested that because children 5 to 11 received a much lower initial dose than older children or adults, they are particularly in need of a booster shot. One study done by New York researchers found that for children ages 5 to 11, the Pfizer vaccine’s effectiveness against infection fell to 12 percent from 68 percent within 28 to 34 days after the second dose. Another C.D.C. study stated that two Pfizer doses reduced the risk of Omicron infection by 31 percent among those ages 5 to 11, compared with a 59 percent reduction in risk among those age 12 to 15."
How America Lost One Million People: Very good long piece in the NYT.
“The magnitude of the country’s loss is nearly impossible to grasp.”
“More Americans have died of Covid-19 than in two decades of car crashes or on battlefields in all of the country’s wars combined.”
“Experts say deaths were all but inevitable from a new virus of such severity and transmissibility. Yet, one million dead is a stunning toll, even for a country the size of the United States, and the true number is almost certainly higher because of undercounting.”
“It is the result of many factors, including elected officials who played down the threat posed by the coronavirus and resisted safety measures; a decentralized, overburdened health care system that struggled with testing, tracing and treatment; and lower vaccination and booster rates than other rich countries, partly the result of widespread mistrust and resistance fanned by right-wing media and politicians.”
Buffalo Mass Shooting: An 18 year-old shot 13 people at a grocery store in Buffalo, New York on Saturday, killing 10. "Eleven of the 13 people shot were black, and law enforcement officials purport to have found a 180-page document from the accused shooter detailing his racist motives for the massacre, which he attempted to livestream." The FBI is investigating the attack as both a hate crime and as racially motivated violent extremism. The gunman had planned the attack for months and had also threatened his high school last year.
Federal
ED: Extended the deadline an additional 18 months for school districts to spend their Covid relief funds from the ARP.
"The original deadline was Sept. 30, 2024, but now school districts have until spring 2026 or even longer if they’re encountering “extraordinary circumstances,” according to the department. The extension is to help school districts whose efforts to spend their grant money have been hampered by staffing shortages, inflation and other obstacles."
White House: Issued a clarification after publishing a tweet claiming that there were no vaccines available when President Biden took office.
The Staggering $163 Billion in Pandemic Unemployment Waste and Fraud: "Identity theft and other sophisticated criminal schemes contributed to potentially $163 billion in waste, while inflicting harm on unwitting victims," The Washington Post reports.
Covid-19 Research
319,000 Preventable Deaths: Via Axios:
'That's 319,000 preventable COVID deaths between January 2021 and April 2022, according to a new analysis by researchers at Brown School of Public Health, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and Microsoft AI for Health."
Readmission Rate for COVID-19 is 11%: According to a new study (press release)
"The study authors said the readmission rates for COVID-19 were similar to other respiratory tract illnesses which require hospitalization, suggesting the system for discharge in Alberta and Ontario hospitals did not need to be adjusted.
"Length of hospital stay and in-hospital death rates were higher for COVID-19 patients."
COVID Vaccines May Cut Hospital Omicron Cases in Youth: Via CIDRAP, "Two new observational studies detail Pfizer/BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine protection among US children and adolescents amid the Omicron variant surge, one finding 71% efficacy against infection after a third dose in 12- to 15-year-olds, and the second showing lower risks of infection and hospitalization in vaccinated youth aged 5 to 17 in New York state."
Omicron Tied to Croup in Children: New study, "The investigators noted that, from Mar 1, 2020, to Jan 15, 2022, 75 children were diagnosed as having COVID-19–associated croup at Boston Children's Hospital. Of those, 61 (81%) were diagnosed during the Omicron period. One child tested positive for rhinovirus in addition to SARS-CoV-2."
How Often Can You Be Infected With the Coronavirus?: Via the NYT.
"This is not how it was supposed to be. Earlier in the pandemic, experts thought that immunity from vaccination or previous infection would forestall most reinfections."
"The Omicron variant dashed those hopes. Unlike previous variants, Omicron and its many descendants seem to have evolved to partially dodge immunity. That leaves everyone — even those who have been vaccinated multiple times — vulnerable to multiple infections."
“If we manage it the way that we manage it now, then most people will get infected with it at least a couple of times a year,” said Kristian Andersen, a virologist at the Scripps Research Institute in San Diego. “I would be very surprised if that’s not how it’s going to play out.”
"If reinfection turns out to be the norm, the coronavirus is “not going to simply be this wintertime once-a-year thing,” he said, “and it’s not going to be a mild nuisance in terms of the amount of morbidity and mortality it causes.”
The Answer to Stopping the Coronavirus May Be Up Your Nose: Akiko Iwasaki in the NYT.
"The currently available Covid-19 vaccines are injected into people’s arm muscles and are highly capable at combating the virus once people are infected. But they are not as successful at preventing people from getting infected to begin with. To do that, you ideally want to stop a virus from spreading right at the site where people get infected: the nasal cavity."
"Groups of scientists, including myself, are working on nasal Covid vaccines for this very reason. Ideally, a nasal vaccine could enter the mucus layer inside the nose and help the body make antibodies that capture the virus before it even has a chance to attach to people’s cells. This type of immunity is known as sterilizing immunity."
"By catching viruses right at the site of infection, antibodies induced by nasal vaccines can give the body a head start at combating the virus before it causes symptoms. Not only could nasal vaccines be better positioned to prevent infections, but they can also develop the same kind of immune system protection as other vaccines, and even stronger because this immune memory is at the portal of virus entry. These vaccines can establish highly protective memory B cells, which make faster and better antibodies to future infections, and memory T cells, which help kill infected cells and support the production of antibodies."
The Covid Capitulation: Via Eric Topol with a good, but critical, piece up over at his Substack.
State
DC: Several D.C. Council members are probing DC Health over why the agency failed to submit COVID-19 data to the CDC for two weeks.
Iowa: No mask mandates in Iowa schools, for now, court rules; exceptions could be made in future.
New York: New York City issues mask advisory for all indoor public places, says COVID-19 Alert Level approaching “high.”
International
UK: Only 7% of 5-11s in England have had the Covid vaccine as parents hesitate.
Resources
How Have School Districts Spent ESSER Funds So Far? A Summary of Findings from ASBO International’s ESSER Spending Survey.
Students Kept Waiting While Tutoring Funding Hangs in Limbo: Paul DiPerna in The Hill.
Cap-and-Gown Shortage: Via the WSJ.
The Opportunity Accelerator: Results for America, the Center for Government Excellence at Johns Hopkins University, Code for America, the Harvard Kennedy School Government Performance Lab and the W. Haywood Burns Institute are helping governments work with place-based partnerships and residents to remove barriers to upward mobility and improve life outcomes.
Summer Sticker Shock: Via Axios.
"Tom Rosenberg, president and CEO of the American Camp Association, told CNN that camp fees could jump 10% to 15% from last year."
"Just as households are paying more for everyday goods and services, camp operators said they’re incurring more costs by having to pay more for camp supplies such as food, bus transportation staff and insurance."