Top Three
Detection of Messenger RNA COVID-19 Vaccines in Human Breast Milk: This new study prompted a bunch of incoming questions.
It's a small sample - only 11 individuals.
"The sporadic presence and trace quantities of COVID-19 vaccine mRNA detected in EBM suggest that breastfeeding after COVID-19 mRNA vaccination is safe, particularly beyond 48 hours after vaccination."
"Of 11 lactating individuals enrolled, trace amounts of BNT162b2 and mRNA-1273 COVID-19 mRNA vaccines were detected in 7 samples from 5 different participants at various times up to 45 hours post vaccination."
JAMA Pediatrics tweet: "Trace amounts of COVID19 vaccine mRNAs were detected in the breast milk of some lactating women. Caution is warranted regarding breastfeeding infants younger than six months in the first two days after maternal COVID-19 vaccination."
Do read this entire thready by Imperial College's Viki Male
Viki also maintains an Explainer on COVID vaccination, fertility, pregnancy and breastfeeding
Why Covid Cases Are Not Rising Dramatically Despite Schools Being Open: Via ABC News.
"But experts said testing data is not robust as it was during the last two school years, making it difficult to compare current data to previous seasons."
"There's good reason to be cautiously optimistic," Dr. Jim Versalovic, pathologist in chief at Texas Children's Hospital, told ABC News. "It's important to point out that we have seen over the past several weeks a steady decline in COVID positivity and in COVID hospitalizations at Texas Children's."
"He continued, "There's more at-home testing available and we don't have all the testing data, but we have enough data now to say confidently that positivity is down for COVID less than 5% in our latest rolling seven-day average and we also are now at single-digit hospitalizations, which is a big deal."
In Covid-19 Health Messaging, Loss Framing Increases Anxiety with Little-to-No Concomitant Benefits: Experimental evidence from 84 countries
"Given that subtle differences in information framing can have meaningful effects on behavior, behavioral science research highlights a pressing question: Is it more effective to frame Covid-19 health messages in terms of potential losses (e.g., “If you do not practice these steps, you can endanger yourself and others”) or potential gains (e.g., “If you practice these steps, you can protect yourself and others”)?"
"Collecting data in 48 languages from 15,929 participants in 84 countries, we experimentally tested the effects of message framing on COVID-19-related judgments, intentions, and feelings."
"Loss- (vs. gain-) framed messages increased self-reported anxiety among participants cross-nationally with little-to-no impact on policy attitudes, behavioral intentions, or information seeking relevant to pandemic risks."
"These results were consistent across 84 countries, three variations of the message framing wording, and 560 data processing and analytic choices."
Covid-19 Research
Association of COVID-19 With Major Arterial and Venous Thrombotic Diseases: A population-wide cohort study of 48 million adults in England and Wales
"High relative incidence of vascular events soon after COVID-19 diagnosis declines more rapidly for arterial thromboses than venous thromboembolic events (VTEs)."
"However, incidence remains elevated up to 49 weeks after COVID-19 diagnosis."
"These results support policies to prevent severe COVID-19 by means of COVID-19 vaccines, early review after discharge, risk factor control, and use of secondary preventive agents in high-risk patients."
Estimating Perceptions of the Relative COVID Risk of Different Social-Distancing Behaviors from Respondents' Pairwise Assessments: NBER paper.
"We asked them to indicate which in each pair depicted greater risk of COVID infection."
"Their choices imply that on average respondents considered talking 14 minutes longer to be as risky as standing 1 foot closer, being indoors as standing 3 feet closer, and removing a properly worn mask by either party as standing 4–5 feet closer."
"We explore subpopulations and perceived nonlinear and interacted effects of combined behaviors."
Test Predicts Which COVID-19 Patients Will Grow Worse: Stanford study.
"The test measures patient blood levels of a protein on the virus that causes COVID-19. High levels of the protein correlated strongly with an increased need for respiratory support five days later, regardless of the patient’s disease severity when the test was conducted, the researchers found. People whose levels were high were also likely to be hospitalized significantly longer than those with lower levels."
Vaccines Protected Pregnant Women Against Severe COVID for 3 Months: Study.
"Pregnant women who received two or three doses of an mRNA COVID-19 vaccine were well protected against Delta- and Omicron-related hospitalization and emergency department (ED) and urgent care (UC) visits for more than 3 months, but protection appeared to wane to zero by 4 months."
"Maternal mRNA COVID-19 vaccination, including booster dose, was associated with protection against medically attended COVID-19."
"VE estimates were higher against COVID-19–associated hospitalization than emergency department visits and lower against the Omicron variant than the Delta variant. Protection waned over time, particularly during Omicron predominance."
State
Colorado: CEI: "Social Emotional Solutions: Do Now! Creating Belonging in Colorado Classrooms."
DC: "D.C. has finally collected two months' worth of wastewater COVID data, but has yet to send it to the CDC or make the data public."
"D.C. received funding in Nov. 2021 to begin wastewater analysis. The city told Axios in March it expected to make data public in April, pending the arrival of necessary equipment. Five months later, nothing."
Maryland: Baltimore City Public School staff hope phone bank will return absent students to class.
Economic Recovery
Decomposing Supply and Demand Driven Inflation: The San Francisco Fed's Adam Shapiro updates his paper that breaks down the supply and demand components of inflation. His analysis continues to suggest that much of the excess of overall inflation is driven by supply issues but much of the excess of core inflation is driven by demand.
Trump Country Wins in the Biden Economy: Axios on a new EIG report.
By early 2022, Trump counties had nearly recovered all the jobs they lost to the pandemic recession.
Purple battleground states have led the country’s jobs recovery.
On business measures, political-geographic divides are smaller.
Inflation is biting harder in red and purple areas.
Resources
What School Staffing Shortages Look Like Now: EdWeek on the new IES Pulse Survey results.
"60% of principals surveyed said they are struggling to fill nonteaching positions, while 48% reported hiring teachers has been a challenge."
"For both teaching and nonteaching openings, more than 6 in 10 school leaders said their biggest challenge has been finding enough candidates to apply, much less fully qualified ones."
Long Days, Long Weekends: The Four-Day Week Takes Off in US Schools: Via the Guardian.
Fueled by Pandemic, Homeschool 'Hybrids' Gain Traction With Middle-Class Parents: Via The 74.
Future of Data in K-12 Education Initiative Can Help Inform a Critical Impasse: Via the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.
“Historic learning loss has occurred across the board, and we need to find a way to get kids caught up,” Caitlin Codella Low, vice president of policy and programs at the U.S. Chamber Foundation, said. “It takes time. It’s not even a problem that money can solve alone. And so right now is the time to make sure that the federal and state and local policies that are in place, are serving the kids in a way that ends up giving them what they need to be successful in the future.”
Post-Pandemic Schooling: What Now?: Via Rick Hess.
Tune out the noise
Catch kids up
Maintain transparency
Expand options
Rewrite the pandemic playbook
With Covid Aid, Schools Try Something New: Giving Students Jobs: Via Chalkbeat.
"When the Houston school district launched a peer tutoring initiative with iEducate, a local nonprofit, officials there specifically targeted students interested in education. Using COVID relief funds, the district is paying its high schoolers and local college students, many of whom are recent graduates, $14 an hour or more to tutor elementary schoolers."
"It gives tutors “an opportunity to build those relationships with our scholars, to help with that learning loss from COVID in our schools,” said Joseph Williams, a district administrator who oversees the tutoring initiative. “It also gives them that experience to see what teaching is about, and hopefully build a pipeline of future teachers.”
"The district has hired student tutors in the past, but the new funding dramatically expanded the support the district could offer. This summer, high schoolers and recent grads worked with 21,000 elementary schoolers, and the tutors are getting ongoing training in skills like managing a classroom and lesson-planning."
"So far Houston schools have paid $560,000 to their student tutors, and officials budgeted another $2 million for the upcoming school year. Some 200 tutors will be working in schools as of next week, and the district is still looking for several hundred more."
Schools Scale Back Home Internet Help as Remote Learning Fades: Via Chalkbeat.
"Just 45% of public schools are providing home internet access to students who need it this school year, down from 70% earlier in the pandemic."
College in High School Alliance: Released new paper: Remote Dual Credit: Key Components and Best Practices
This One's For the Dinosaurs: NASA’s DART spacecraft successfully collides with an asteroid.
Higher quality video.
View from the ATLAS telescope.
Speaking of Discovery: This is what happens when you discover a water hose for the first time.