COVID-19 Policy Update #206
COVID-19 Policy Update
WEDNESDAY 2/24
TOP THREE
Johnson & Johnson Vaccine: FDA review confirms safety and efficacy of the single-shot vaccine.
It was found to be:
66.9% effective against moderate to severe/critical COVID-19 cases 14 days after vaccination, and 66.1% effective after 28 days.
76.6% effective against severe/critical cases after 14 days and 85.4% effective after 28 days.
Positive results from South Africa:
Moderate to severe/critical: 64%
Severe/critical: 81.7%
EUA could be granted this week with 3-4 million doses available next week.
Unvaccinated Teachers Like Me Have Reason to Worry About Reopening Schools: USA Today opinion piece:
"Forgive us for being skeptical when we are assured that we can be made safe enough to forgo a vaccination that might save us from permanent health damage or death were we to be exposed to the virus."
"Many of the upgrades schools need for a safe return would represent reasonable long-term investment in educating our children, and yet here we are in Year 2 of a global pandemic, still debating waiting."
"I do not always agree with all my fellow rank-and-file teachers or with the union leadership, but I appreciate the protection that collective bargaining affords us, and I am well aware of the peril of workers, teachers or anyone else who does not have the protection of a union."
Pew Survey: More Americans now say academic concerns should be a top factor in deciding to reopen K-12 schools. Results. 61% say K-12 schools that are not currently open for any in-person instruction should give a lot of consideration to the possibility that students will fall behind academically when deciding whether to reopen.
FEDERAL
COVID Relief Package: House Democrats plan to pass their $1.9 trillion coronavirus relief bill by Friday. The Senate hopes to take up the bill shortly thereafter and pass it before March 14.
The package includes $1,400 direct payments, a $400 per week expanded UI benefit supplement, $20 billion for vaccinations, $50 billion into COVID testing, and $350 billion into state, local and tribal government relief.
$145 billion for Education. FutureEd totals it all up.
COVID-19 RESEARCH
Global.Health: New project which will enable open access to more than 5 million anonymized Covid-19 records from 160 countries. Each record can contain dozens of data points about the case, including demographics, travel history, testing dates, and outcomes. Stat has more.
Moderna: Via Meg Tirrell: "Moderna designed (with NIH), manufactured and delivered its original #covid19 vaccine to the NIH in 42 days. CEO Stéphane Bancel tells us for the updated version targeting the B.1.351 variant, it was 30 days."
STATE
California: "A Bay Area school district plans to reopen for one hour a week. It isn't going over well."
Georgia: Marietta schools implement changes after CDC study.
Illinois: CPS, Teachers Union to begin talks on high school reopening plan
Michigan: More than 80% of school districts planned to offer some form of in-person instruction in February, which represented a more than 20 percentage point increase over the previous month
North Carolina: Vaccine eligibility expands to teachers, school staff and child care workers.
Pennsylvania: The state wants to allow districts to delay standardized testing until fall.
INTERNATIONAL
Denmark: Plans to allow shops and some schools to reopen in March
Ireland: Is set to begin reopening schools next week.
ECONOMIC RECOVERY
Retail Sales: NRF forecasts retail sales will rise between 6.5% and 8.2% this year, surpassing $4.33 trillion.
E-commerce sales will grow between 18% and 23%, to between $1.14 trillion and $1.19 trillion in sales
Child Care in Crisis: New report from Third Way.
Lack of child care is now the third-most cited reason for not working, behind layoffs and furloughs.
In 35 states, lack of child care has driven 1.2 million people from the workplace, a 36% increase on average from late April.
RESOURCES
National Trends in School Openings Since November 2020: FutureEd looks at the trends among the top 200 districts.
Response to ED's Assessment/Accountability Guidance: From Civil Rights, business, ed groups:
"However, we want to be clear: The Department must not, as part of its promised state-by-state “flexibility,” grant waivers to states that would allow them to substitute local assessments in place of statewide assessments or to only assess a subset of students."
Stop, Wash and Mask On: Johns Hopkins School of Medicine opinion piece in the Baltimore Sun:
"Kids already know ‘stop, drop and roll’ for fire emergencies; it’s time to teach ‘stop, wash and mask on’ for COVID-19"
"School-based interventions can promote positive, healthy behavioral changes, as long as these efforts include education and integration into the curriculum, changing the school culture, and engaging families and communities. The added benefit of teaching pandemic response in schools is that students copy their peers."
Not All COVID-19 Aid Is Spent. But Schools, Cities And States Say They Need More: Via NPR
For Some Teens, It’s Been a Year of Anxiety and Trips to the E.R.: Via NYT
"Rates of suicidal thinking and behavior are up by 25 percent or more from similar periods in 2019, according to a just-published analysis of surveys of young patients coming into the emergency room."
“What parents and children are consistently reporting is an increase in all symptoms — a child who was a little anxious before the pandemic became very anxious over this past year,” said Dr. Adiaha I. A. Spinks-Franklin, an associate professor of pediatrics at the Baylor College of Medicine. It is this prolonged stress, Dr. Spinks-Franklin said, that in time blunts the brain’s ability to manage emotions."
A research team led by the C.D.C. found that less than half of the emergency departments in U.S. hospitals had clear policies in place to handle children with behavior problems."
Depression, Anxiety, Loneliness Are Peaking in College Students: A Boston University survey of nearly 33,000 college students found that more than one in 10 college students has had thoughts of suicide in the last year. 39% of college students report they are, on some level, depressed.
Strategies for Building Trust Among Families as Schools Reopen: Via K12 Dive.
Reimagining School Meals for a Post-pandemic Era: New report from Angela Rachidi:
"The pandemic has presented an opportunity to reimagine the NSLP and develop a policy solution to long-term challenges facing the program. Although challenges exist, the rollout of the Pandemic Electronic Benefit Transfer (P-EBT) program in recent months has shown that moving the NSLP to an electronic benefit program could address the immediate crisis, offer more flexibility to schools, and address some of the long-term issues with the NSLP, such as stigma, integrity, and nutritional value."
Covid-19 Upended Schools. How Much Has Education Suffered? Via WSJ: Data from Renaissance Learning Inc. and NWEA show widespread performance declines at the start of this academic year, particularly in math.
American Ninja Warrior: Cookies in a cabinet are no match for this girl.