COVID-19 Policy Update #143
COVID-19 Policy Update
THURSDAY 11/5
WHAT TO EXPECT WHEN YOU'RE COUNTING
GOP Senate wins "wreaks havoc" on Biden transition plans.
Axios reporting the impact on confirmations. "It could push Biden to go with more centrist options, like Lael Brainard for Treasury or Tony Blinken for State. Susan Rice and Stacey Abrams could be early casualties, depending on McConnell's posture."
Politico reports that progressives are already urging Biden to fight back.
What it means for advocacy: Two great quotes in Politico:
“We’re likely to see a return to the ‘three yards and a cloud of dust’ offense,” Bruce Mehlman, a veteran of President George W. Bush's administration, who's now a lobbyist at Mehlman Castagnetti Rosen & Thomas , wrote in an email to PI. “Slow and steady incremental progress though smaller bipartisan collaboration,” rather than big, ambitious bills such as the Affordable Care Act, the Republican tax law and the Dodd-Frank financial reform legislation. “It’s amazing what you can accomplish if you can keep it off cable,” he added.
“Progressives may have to temper their expectations,” Invariant, the lobbying firm led by Heather Podesta , wrote in a memo to clients on Wednesday. “The left’s vision of a Biden New Deal, progressive tax reform, aggressive Wall Street regulators, social justice reform including policing, an expanded Supreme Court, and reforms to the Senate’s legislative filibuster may have to wait. A Biden-Harris Administration could face a closely divided but largely intransigent Senate in 2021, one opposed to confirming left-leaning federal judges and liberal political appointees and one bent on again blocking progressive policy proposals that emerge from the House.”
The biggest surprise of the 2020 election:
Wilbur Beast, a French bulldog, won the Rabbit Hash mayoral election with about 13,143 votes, the highest winning total in the history of the town. In a sign of our polarized times, Wilbur received 0% of the cat vote.
TOP THREE
COVID Introduced Innovations: Overdeck's Anu Malipatil writes about some of the ways nonprofits are providing tech-based solutions to classroom challenges, from video instruction and teacher support to parent training, tutoring and blended learning.
National Student Support Accelerator Launched: The Accelerator’s vision is that all K-12 students in need have access to high-impact tutoring as part of their core educational experience that helps them learn and grow - to addressing COVID-19-related learning loss, and supporting academic success in the long term.
Another Analysis Suggesting Low Risks for Schools: The American Association of Medical Colleges posted their assessment of children, schools, and COVID:
"The early data suggest that schools can reopen safely under certain conditions, but the analyses come with follow-up questions and multiple caveats — the most basic of which is some form of, “That’s what we know so far.”
"The virus spreads in schools — but schools are rarely superspreaders."
“What we haven’t seen are superspreader events” that ignited in schools, says Sallie Permar, MD, PhD, a professor of pediatrics and immunology at Duke. “The fear that you’d have one infected kid come to school, and then you’d have many other kids and teachers and relatives [at home] get infected — that hasn’t happened.”
"Schools thirst for trusted advice — and largely accept it."
FEDERAL
Senate HELP Committee: Politico reports that Sen. Burr is the likely frontrunner to replace Sen. Alexander as chair of the Senate HELP Committee. There have been no final decisions and there is still the unresolved investigation regarding the Senator's stock trades made during the pandemic.
COVID-19 RESEARCH
COVID Update: States reported 1.2 million tests and 103,000 cases - the highest daily case count to date. 52,000 people are currently hospitalized with COVID-19 and today’s death toll was 1,116. There are 34 states reporting over 1,000 cases — a new record
Children and COVID-19: State-Level Data Report: AAP's most recent report:
As of Oct. 29, there were 853,635 total child COVID-19 cases, representing 11.1% of all available cases.
In the one-week period ending Oct. 29, 2020, there were 61,447 new cases in children, representing a larger increase than any previous week.
Children were 1%-3.5% of total reported hospitalizations, and between 0.5%-6.7% of all child COVID-19 cases resulted in hospitalization
Children were 0%-0.20% of all COVID-19 deaths, and 16 states reported zero child deaths
Antibodies: New study suggesting that children and adults produce different types and amounts of antibodies in response to infection with the new coronavirus. Press Release.
Webinar - COVID-19 and K-12 Schools: Updates From the Field: The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine released the report Reopening K-12 Schools During the COVID-19 Pandemic: Prioritizing Health, Equity, and Communities. This webinar on Nov. 12 explores what they are learning about health and epidemiological issues as schools reopen for in-person education. Speakers include:
Preeti Malani, Infectious Diseases and Geriatric Medicine, University of Michigan
Nathaniel Schwartz, The Annenberg Institute, Brown University
Christina Silcox, Margolis Center for Health Policy, Duke University
Neeraj Sood, Schaeffer Center for Health Policy and Economics, University of Southern California
Moths and Vaccines: Did you have a moth cell vaccine on your 2020 bingo card? Novavax's vaccine "Made by moth cells harnessed to crank out the virus’ spike protein—which the pathogen uses to invade human cells—Novavax’s vaccine outshone major competitors on key measures in monkey and early human tests."
Vaccine Safety Efforts to Feature App Tracking of Vulnerable Groups: The CDC and drugmakers plan to roll out a smartphone app to detect whether COVID-19 vaccines cause any serious side effects once approved for widespread use, aiming to fill gaps in existing safeguards given the expected speed and scope of the rollout.
STATE
Alabama: Birmingham approves LGBTQ safe space charter school for 2021 opening.
California: Is considering a shorter Smaller Balanced assessment this year.
DC: DC schools chief says the primary barrier for in-person learning is supply of teachers.
New York: NYC is launching the second cohort of its NYC[x] Innovation Fellows program to expand on their collaboration with USDS that embeds small teams of technologists with City agencies to rapidly solve specific challenges through the use of best practices in digital service delivery.
North Carolina: State Health Director Elizabeth Cuervo said, “Although there are cases and there are clusters in school settings, and we all expected that, we still aren’t seeing our school settings as a big driver of the cases." Infections related to K-12 school clusters make up 0.1% of the 285,661 lab-confirmed cases recorded in the state.
Pennsylvania: Less than a third of eligible Philadelphia students have opted to return to school.
Rhode Island: The Governor said today, "We know schools are not significant spreaders. We know that's true all over the country and all over the world."
ECONOMIC RECOVERY
How COVID Is Changing Retail Jobs: Employees report more time spent cleaning, stocking shelves and expanding their skills as they cover both in-store and online retail duties. One nugget:
"Retailers this year, especially ones in the apparel and fashion space, are increasingly leaning on workers’ ability to morph into online sales people. One prominent example is Lululemon’s Digital Educator program, which allows customers to book for free, one-on-one 15 or 30-minute appointments with a quarantined associate. Lululemon said the program kept a number of employees from being laid off or furloughed, as well as a high sales conversion rate for Lululemon. But it meant that staff had to go from running fitting rooms and point-of-sale to providing customers service, as well as fit and style tips from their homes."
Sak's CEO: Pandemic Pushed Us To Do The Absurd: Good story illustrating the pace at which companies are adapting new digital technologies and services. Saks said the pandemic forced the company to compress four years of digital strategy into months, including business practices such as curbside pickup that sounded absurd in luxury retail before the crisis.
Turning Dead Malls Into Community Assets: Via Tom Vander Ark: "Given the need for 500 of these catalytic development deals nationally, there is opportunity to build a new kind of tenant solutions firm that builds bundles of national and regional human services including:"
Fitness, wellness, and health centers;
job services, workforce training, and college extensions,
Small elementary and secondary schools,
Daycare, elder care, and pet care;
Mixed income housing units;
Thrift stores, food and clothing banks;
Restaurants and coffee shops; and
Presentation, exhibition, entertainment and event space.
Tracking Unemployment Transitions: A Hamilton Project study providing useful insights in the transitions of the unemployed. "A higher share of job loss is now accounted for by permanent layoffs, and, while small, a steady share of workers who started off being temporarily laid off have ended up on permanent lay off—and workers on permanent layoff are much less likely to become reemployed."
LEARNING PODS
Boston Children's Museum: Announced Explore It Enrichment Pods.
Mother Calls Suffolk Learning Pod A Relief: Kari said sending her 6-year-old daughter, Taylor, to TCFW Learning Pod is a relief. TCFW stands for “Too Cute For Words.”
Switch to Homeschooling: "Jenna Mate, of Hillsdale, did everything she could to avoid homeschooling her kindergartner. But two weeks ago she finally made the leap to homeschooling after virtual learning wasn't working for her daughter."
New Grants: A For Arizona announced two new grant opportunities: General Expansion & Innovation Fund Microgrants and Small Learning Community Grants.
RESOURCES
$145 Billion Needed to Improve School HVAC Systems: Mixing classroom air with outside air and filtering both can stop the virus from lingering and reduce the chances of transmission. More here.
Khan Academy / NWEA Partnership: More than 100 school districts are participating in two programs:
Khan Academy Districts provides tools, professional development and data insights to help teachers, district administrators and principals monitor student use of Khan Academy districtwide.
MAP Accelerator, a personalized learning tool developed in partnership with NWEA.
Online Culinary School: New online program launched by Sur La Table, Rouxbe, Chef Scott Conant, and Strategic Education.
What You Need Today: A baby using a baby voice with a new puppy.