COVID-19 Policy Update #242
COVID-19 Policy Update
TUESDAY 4/27
TOP THREE
Children, Schools, and Transmission: New study from Israel which finds young children are at a low risk and do not play a "substantial" role in virus spread while attending school, but children ages 10-19 should resume school only when community transmission is lower.
Analyzed data on 47,620 children up to age 9; 101,304 youths 10 to 19 years old; and about 320,000 adults 20 years old and older in Israel, all of whom tested positive for COVID-19 between late August and December.
Those aged 10 to 19 had a three-fold higher risk for infection after returning to school compared to when they still were at home.
"Children are more likely to contract COVID-19 from infected family members rather than from other children in school settings," said Somekh, a professor of pediatrics at Mayanei Hayeshua Medical Center in Bnei Brak, Israel.
"In conclusion, our study’s findings suggest that children aged 0 to 9 years did not have substantial rates of SARS-CoV-2 infection during school attendance periods, and it may be assumed that they did not have a substantial role in COVID-19 spread either during this period. Therefore, resuming school for this age group when lockdown was released appears to have been safe for them."
"It is probably safer to resume school attendance for youths aged 10 to 19 years only when the epidemic is under control and after implementation of steps to decrease spread in schools."
ED: Officially kicks off the Summer Learning & Enrichment Collaborative
Comprehensive Center Network Team running the project.
Partners: The National Governors Association, the Council of Chief State School Officers, AASA: The School Superintendents Association, the Council of the Great City Schools, the National Association of Elementary School Principals, National Association of Secondary School Principals, the American Federation of Teachers, the National Education Association, the National Rural Education Association, the Association of Educational Service Agencies, the National Summer Learning Association, Boys and Girls Clubs of America, StriveTogether, the Wallace Foundation, the Education Trust, and the RAND Corporation.
More at EdWeek
CDC Guidance on Masks and Vaccinated Individuals: New guidance including fully vaccinated Americans don’t need to cover their faces outside anymore unless they are in a big crowd of strangers. Helpful visualization of risk levels, indoor/outdoor activities, and vaccinated/unvaccinated individuals.
FEDERAL
CDC: Updated contacting tracing guidance for K12 schools and institutions of higher education.
USDA: Announces summer P-EBT expansion
COVID-19 RESEARCH
Why Black And Latino People Still Lag On COVID Vaccines — And How To Fix It: Via NPR
"We know that Black residents are disproportionate among essential workers," says Sharrelle Barber, a social epidemiologist at Drexel University. "Their flexibility to just not show up to work and get vaccinated is just limited."
"Latino community leaders cautioned that immigrants may feel uncomfortable going to a clinic where National Guard members in military fatigues greeted them out front."
Vaccine Hesitancy: ‘We want to be educated, not indoctrinated,’ say Trump voters wary of coronavirus vaccination.
"Be honest that scientists don’t have all the answers. Tout the number of people who got the vaccines in trials. And don’t show pro-vaccine ads with politicians — not even ones with Donald Trump."
"Participants were adamant: They all believed the coronavirus threat was real, with many having contracted it themselves or aware of critically ill friends and family, and they didn’t want to be condemned as “anti-vaxxers” who opposed all vaccines."
"Instead, they blamed their hesitation on factors like the unknown long-term effects of new vaccines."
"They also accused politicians and government scientists of repeatedly misleading them this past year — often echoing Trump’s charges that Democrats used the virus as an election-year weapon and overhyped its dangers. Several said that recent political appeals to get the shot were only hardening their opposition."
"But the focus group applauded Frieden — an appointee of President Barack Obama, a detail that went unmentioned — particularly after he rattled off “five facts” about the virus and the vaccines, such as the overwhelming share of doctors who have chosen to get vaccinated. Participants praised the former CDC chief for his apolitical bent and repeatedly cited arguments they said had changed their minds, like the tens of thousands of people who participated in coronavirus vaccine trials last year."
STATE
Indiana: Tippecanoe County will use roughly $127,000 in grant money to place WiFi hotspots where students have struggled to access high speed internet.
Maine: The state will launch an optional 'pooled' COVID-19 testing program for schools.
New Jersey: Newark Public Schools moves to four days of in-person instruction
West Virginia: Gov. Justice announced the state will begin offering $100 savings bonds to people aged 16 to 35 who get vaccinated.
INTERNATIONAL
France: Schools reopen across despite spike in ICU admissions
UK: The Speech Link Multimedia study of 50,000 students in schools in England showed around an extra 20-25% of four and five-year-olds needing help with language at school.
ECONOMIC RECOVERY
The College Degree Barrier to Work: Via Axios: "Around 75% of the new jobs that were added to the U.S. economy between 2008 and 2017 required college degrees or higher, but nearly two thirds of the labor force is composed of workers without college degrees."
College Students Want Online Learning Options Post-Pandemic: According to Digital Learning Pulse survey.
The majority of students, 73 percent, "somewhat" or "strongly" (46 percent) agreed that they would like to take some fully online courses in the future.
For in-person courses, 68 percent of students strongly or somewhat agreed that they would like to see greater use of technology.
Students and faculty members both reported that their attitudes toward online learning had significantly improved in the past year. A majority of students, 57 percent, said they felt more positive about online learning now than before the pandemic.
College Accounts at Birth: State Efforts Raise New Hopes: Creating and seeding accounts for every newborn is found to have an impact on aspirations as well as savings.
"Research about the Oklahoma project published this month by the Center for Social Development at Washington University in St. Louis, which created SEED OK, found that families that had been given accounts were more college-focused and contributed more of their own money than those that hadn’t been. And the effects are strongest among low-income families."
“The big thing is how a stock of assets can change the attitudes of mothers and kids,” said Ray Boshara, a senior adviser for the Institute for Economic Equity at the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis. “College accounts change their attitude about their ability to go to college.”
Steve Case on The Endless Frontier Act: OpEd: "With federal support, the US can recreate Silicon Valley success nationwide."
"America’s share of global R&D has fallen to 28 percent as of 2018, according to the Congressional Research Service."
"A new bipartisan bill has emerged to do exactly that. Senators Chuck Schumer (D-NY) and Todd Young (R-IN) have worked with Reps. Ro Khanna (D-CA) and Mike Gallagher (R-WI) to craft The Endless Frontier Act which, in addition to authorizing $100 billion for a new directorate focused on R&D and commercialization at the National Science Foundation, explicitly directs $10 billion to the Department of Commerce to make investments in places on the cusp of establishing themselves at the forefront of a new, more expansive, wave of innovation."
The Commerce secretary would designate, through a competitive process, ten to fifteen new innovation hubs poised to combine the intellectual capital found at universities, the entrepreneurial vision that fuels start-ups, the capital resources to experiment and learn and a workforce equipped to bring ideas to life."
"Each hub would receive an infusion of federal capital to be used for R&D, workforce training, entrepreneurship and manufacturing."
LEARNING PODS
Meet the Moment 2.0: After awarding $2.5 million last fall to support learning opportunities that are happening outside of traditional classrooms, VELA just released its application for its new round of funding of up to $5 million through Meet the Moment 2.0. Entrepreneurs can apply to receive a microgrant of $2,500 or $10,000 to support innovative, nontraditional education programs.
RESOURCES
School Nurses: Can school nurses be the link between student health and academic gains?
Zoom: Launches Immersive View to unify participants in the same virtual room.
Got Vaccinated? Here's all the free stuff you can get
Prom: Young man asks girl (who is blind) to the prom by laying out chocolates in braille.