COVID-19 Policy Update #135
COVID-19 Policy Update
MONDAY 10/26
I wasn't sure how this group would respond to the introduction of a wine pairing for Monday updates. Usually the daily updates have items like "COVID cure found" and it's crickets chirping. But last week - some of you actually texted me pictures of your bottles of Prisoner. That's either awesome or a cry for help.
Tonight's pairing is the Bourbon Spice - a perfect autumn cocktail you can find at Barcelona Wine Bar. I'll give you a minute to make one and then we'll dig in.
--John
TOP THREE
Third Wave: More than 41,000 COVID-19 patients are hospitalized, up 40% from the past month. The rising numbers suggest the US might be entering a third wave.
A New Privacy Issue: As part of the agreement with the UFT to reopen NYC schools, the city agreed to test 10-20% of the in-person students and staff. Testing samples are sent to BioReference Laboratory and Fulgent Genetics for processing. According to one union delegate - Fulgent Genetics has asked if they would be “allowed to catalogue teacher and student DNA in their 'proprietary reference library of genetic information." More here. This could end up being nothing more than fear mongering, but it does illustrate some of the ways new private issues are surfacing during COVID.
Searchable Database of COVID Studies/Reports: Incredibly helpful resource provided by CRPE.
FEDERAL
Phase 4: Negotiations appear to have stalled once again. Brownstein reports that committee staff have reached agreement on several tax provisions:
Allowing taxation of remote worker earnings only by employer location;
Payroll tax credit to cover up to 50% of employer expenses related to testing, personal protective equipment, cleaning supplies and workplace reconfiguration;
An expansion of the Work Opportunity Tax Credit with “a few modifications” to the version being pushed by Republicans; and
Allowing businesses/orgs to deduct PPP expenses.
ED:
IES Director Mark Schneider announced "Operation Reverse the Loss" which aims to speed up the existing machinery IES to identify, scale, and verify the effectiveness of interventions that show promise in reversing learning loss for students at greatest risk—especially early learners, English language learners, students at community colleges, and students with disabilities.
ED releases a Parent and Family Digital Learning Guide
COVID-19 RESEARCH
Children and COVID-19 Update: AAP released updated state report. Children account for 11% of all COVID-19 cases, a 14% increase over the past two weeks.
Role of School Settings in COVID-19 Transmission: I missed this back in August, but the European Centre for Disease Protection and Control released a technical paper summarizing their assessment of the research to that point.
"If appropriate physical distancing and hygiene measures are applied, schools are unlikely to be more effective propagating environments than other occupational or leisure settings with similar densities of people."
"There is conflicting published evidence on the impact of school closure/re-opening on community transmission levels, although the evidence from contact tracing in schools, and observational data from a number of EU countries suggest that re-opening schools has not been associated with significant increases in community transmission."
"Available evidence also indicates that closures of childcare and educational institutions are unlikely to be an effective single control measure for community transmission of COVID-19 and such closures would be unlikely to provide significant additional protection of children’s health, since most develop a very mild form of COVID-19, if any."
"Reactive school closures following community outbreaks, and cases or outbreaks in schools are unlikely to be timely enough to have a significant impact on the dynamics of the local epidemic, but may need to be made due to absenteeism, or staff and parental concerns."
EU Sets Lower Standard for Vaccine: The European Union’s drug regulator would approve a vaccine even if trials showed that it was effective in less than half the people who take it, lower than the threshold set by the FDA.
Ezekiel Emanuel: Former Obama health official says he believes schools can reopen in-person when the US daily case numbers fall to 3,000.
Balancing Incomplete COVID-19 Evidence and Local Priorities: University of Kentucky Superfund Research Center (UK-SRC) paper discussing the roles of engineering (ventilation), administrative (risk communication), personal (masking) controls, and position stakeholder engagement in reopening schools.
Why Can’t We See All of the Government’s Virus Data? Christopher Murray, director of IHME in the NYT:
"Federal agencies have told us that since March they have been compiling basic data for each county and city on Covid-19 cases, hospitalizations and deaths, the timing of social distancing mandates, testing, and other factors. This information can provide insights into how combinations of public health mandates — masks, social distancing and school closures, for instance — can keep the virus spread in check."
"But the government, inexplicably, is not sharing all of its data."
Study Finds 80% of Children Who Tested Positive in Japan Were Infected by Family Members: Even in September and October, when students were back to school in many parts of the country, the “contraction-at-home” rate remained at around 80%, while the rate of virus transmission from staff at schools, kindergartens and nurseries stood low at around 10%.
Vaccines and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee: Here is a copy of the presentation presented by the Reagan-Udall Foundation who is leading the COVID-19 Vaccine Confidence Project for the FDA.
STATE
California: Verily’s COVID testing program halted in San Francisco and Oakland "amid concerns about patients’ data privacy and complaints that funding intended to boost testing in low-income Black and Latino neighborhoods instead was benefiting higher-income residents in other communities."
Florida: According to a poll of 12,539 Manatee County parents, 12% said they have either slow internet or no internet at all. 28% of kids either have no computer or tablet, or they have to share a computer or tablet with others in the home.
Louisiana: Two more Jefferson Parish students suspended after teachers saw weapons in their rooms over the computer during online classes.
Massachusetts:
The Department will audit school districts that vote prematurely to suspend in-person learning.
North Bay high school students create app for coronavirus contact tracing.
Minnesota: Four school districts say they will spend at least $23 million on COVID-related costs through the end of this year. Additional costs with teachers, custodians, and online learning systems.
New York:
Only 26% of NYC students are attending in-person classes.
The number of students in Erie and Niagara counties who began the school year as home-schoolers rose 53% from this same time last year.
Utah: More than half of 1,000 likely voters, or 53%, said it was safe for students to return to in-person learning, up from 51% in September. But among parents of school-age students surveyed, two-thirds or 66% said it was safe, up from 61% in September.
Virginia:
61% of Arlington Public Schools teachers prefer to continue remote learning.
44% of Rappahannock County High School students are failing due to incomplete or late work.
Virginia launches dashboard with number of coronavirus cases in schools
Washington: The state Health Department is seeking feedback on its newly released COVID-19 vaccine distribution plan.
INTERNATIONAL
Belgium: School principals are turning to secretaries and parent volunteers to replace falling ranks of teachers.
Israel: Coronavirus cabinet met Sunday to discuss putting first and second grade children back into group "pods" to allow them to return to school. The State Comptroller’s faulted The Education Ministry for failing to identify how much computers, laptops and Internet service packages were needed for students.
UK: During September and October, just 59% of students benefited from "full schooling"
ECONOMIC RECOVERY
Our Unequal Recovery: Great piece from Abby McCloskey: "This educational crisis for a generation of young people demands a response. It must go beyond just reopening schools as soon as possible, as much damage has already been incurred. Our approach to education thus far has been bureaucratic and union-driven, with minimal federal assistance. What’s needed is a more scrappy response, significantly more resources, and likely the creation of nonprofits and community groups in urban centers to help get a generation back up on its feet. When a pilot faces turbulence in a plane, she doesn’t stay in the gray clouds pushing ahead until “things return to normal.” She adjusts, moving to clear air and changing the speed of the plane to make up for lost time. This, too, should be our approach to education during this season."
Workers Aren't Using Their Coronavirus Paid Leave: This is a bit of a mystery and will need additional research. Although half of workers are eligible for emergency paid leave created under the Families First Coronavirus Response Act, more workers are taking unpaid time off instead during the pandemic. WSJ has more.
Missed Rent/Mortgage Payments: 6 million households missed their rent or mortgage payment in September. Student debt borrowers were the most likely of the three groups to miss one or more payments: 16.2% of student loan borrowers missed one payment over the two quarters, 8.8% missed two payments, 7.0% missed three payments, and 22.7% missed four or more payments.
Future of Globalization: Video from a really fascinating discussion with Ian Bremmer on the future of globalization.
Reimagining Higher Education: McKinsey brief. Read the whole thing, but I was struck by this one chart showing how spending on student services has grown 4x spending on instruction.
LEARNING PODS
Churches: North Hills Church in Taylors, SC will open an educational pod to help minority and low-income children.
RESOURCES
NewSchools Venture Fund: Video outlining their New Investment Strategy for 2021-2023.
SeeSaw: Interesting article on the experience of the startup during COVID. "The number of student posts on its app increased tenfold from February to May and the paid customer base has tripled from last year."
Chromebooks: IDC estimated that in the third quarter device makers shipped around 9 million notebooks running Chrome OS, up 90% from a year earlier, compared with the 15% growth rate for all PCs. Chromebooks represented 11% of total PC shipments in the quarter.
The Dangerous Instability of School Re-openings: Via Axios. "In the longer term, this precarious period threatens to destabilize the whole public education system as parents lose faith in it," says Jon Hale, a professor of education at the University of Illinois.
Some Parents Are Demanding In-Person Schooling as the Pandemic Stretches On: Via Time. “I think in many places, there’s probably a way to make the schools safe, but often, people don’t even agree on what safe means,” says Whitney Robinson, an associate professor of epidemiology at the University of North Carolina Gillings School of Global Public Health"
Election Analysis: What to Expect in the 2020 Elections via our partners at Mehlman Castagnetti.
It's Monday: Let's start the week with a 6 yr old rapping.