COVID-19 Policy Update #273
COVID-19 Policy Update
THURSDAY 6/10
TOP THREE
Bipartisan Deal Reached on Infrastructure Proposal: WSJ reports that members of a bipartisan group of senators said they had reached an agreement on an infrastructure proposal that would be fully paid for without tax increases.
“While the group of 10 senators didn’t reveal details of the plan in its statement, people familiar with the plan said it called for $579 billion above expected future federal spending on infrastructure. The overall plan would spend $974 billion over five years and $1.2 trillion if it continued over eight years.”
“To move forward in Congress, the plan would need the buy-in from a broader group of Republicans and Democrats, as well as the White House. In recent days, some Democrats have indicated they are skeptical that the bipartisan talks will result in a large enough package.”
FDA Vaccine Advisory Committee: Met today to discuss the COVID vaccines for children.
The Vaccines and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee weighed in on how many kids might need to be enrolled in clinical trials and how much safety data companies might need to provide.
"Health officials said they’re seeing rare but higher-than-expected cases of a heart issue called myocarditis among adolescents and young adults who received their second shot of one of the mRNA Covid-19 vaccines."
"Overall, among all age groups, there were 573 cases of myocarditis and pericarditis reported after people received their second dose of either mRNA vaccine, compared to 216 after the first dose, according to data presented by Tom Shimabukuro, an immunization safety expert at the CDC."
"Among 16-to-17-year-olds, who had received 2.3 million doses, there had been 79 cases of myocarditis or pericarditis reported through VAERS. Based on baseline frequency of the myocarditis and pericarditis, there would have been an expected two to 19 cases in that group."
"For 18-to-24-year-olds, who had received 9.8 million doses, there were 196 cases of myocarditis and pericarditis reported, compared to an expected eight to 83 cases."
"Children need to be vaccinated against Covid-19, a top advisor to the FDA on children’s vaccines told the agency Thursday. “It just seems silly to think that we’re not going to have to include children as part of that,” said Dr. Paul Offit, director of the Vaccine Education Center at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia and advisor to the FDA. “They can suffer and be hospitalized and occasionally die.”
More than 8 in 10 Parents Plan to Send Their Children to In-person School in the Fall: A national survey of more than 2,000 parents, conducted by RAND Corporation and commissioned by The Rockefeller Foundation. Some really interesting data in the report.
90% of White parents are planning for in-person learning compared to 72% of Black and 73% of Hispanic parents.
74% of Black and Asian parents said that regular Covid-19 testing would make them feel safe compared to only 36% of White parents.
50% of parents said they would allow their child to participate in voluntary weekly testing, while 20% are unsure. A higher number of parents of color support this measure (68% of Asian parents and 61% of Hispanic parents), while only 42% of White parents say they would support it.
Only 52% of parents plan to vaccinate their children and another 17% are unsure
COVID-19 RESEARCH
Moderna: Formally asks the FDA to approve it's Covid vaccine for adolescents 12 to 17
Delta Variant May Be More Severe: Via Bloomberg:
“The coronavirus variant driving India’s devastating Covid-19 second wave is the most infectious to emerge so far. Doctors now want to know if it’s also more severe."
“Hearing impairment, severe gastric upsets and blood clots leading to gangrene, symptoms not typically seen in Covid patients, have been linked by doctors in India to the so-called delta variant. In England and Scotland, early evidence suggests the strain — which is also now dominant there — carries a higher risk of hospitalization.”
"The most alarming aspect of the current outbreak in India is the rapidity with which the virus is spreading, including to children, said Chetan Mundada, a pediatrician with the Yashoda group of hospitals in Hyderabad."
500 Million: Pfizer announced plans to provide the U.S. government at a not-for-profit price 500 million doses of the companies’ COVID-19 vaccine, 200 million doses in 2021 and 300 million doses in the first half of 2022.
"As part of the plan, the United States will allocate the vaccine doses to 92 low- and lower middle-income countries and economies as defined by Gavi’s COVAX Advance Market Commitment (AMC) and the 55 member states of the African Union."
I also loved seeing this in the announcement: "Partnering with Zipline through funding and technical expertise, to design and test a delivery solution that can safely and effectively distribute all COVID-19 vaccines in difficult to reach areas of the countries where it operates."
STATE
Arkansas: LRSD launching digital academy to continue giving students online options.
Colorado: Schools prioritize COVID relief for mental health
Maryland: Governor Hogan said schools should be open in the fall without masks, social distancing
Michigan: Lansing School District is opening a new online school option this fall.
ECONOMIC RECOVERY
Consumer Price Index: Consumer prices rose 5% year-over-year, including a 0.6% increase between April and May.
"The fastest pace since August 2008 and higher than Wall Street expectations."
"The 3.8% rise in the core inflation rate, which excludes food and energy prices, was the sharpest increase in nearly three decades."
Black Entrepreneurs: New HBCU summer internship aims to open doors for budding Black entrepreneurs.
Consumer Protections For Income-Share Agreements: How To Get Them Right: Via Preston Cooper
RESOURCES
What Teachers Can Learn From New Technology In The Classroom: Via WEF
Master ideas, not keystrokes
Transform the software and the mindware
Design user-centered solutions
Better data for better decisions
Catholic Dioceses Are Betting on Online Schools: Catholic schools saw a 6.4% decline in enrollment at the start of the 2020-2021 school year. Now some dioceses are trying to attract new students with online schools.
"Catholic dioceses such as the Diocese of Raleigh, which covers the eastern half of North Carolina, are experimenting with the model. In addition to its 31 physical schools, the diocese will start a permanent online school for grades K-8 by partnering with Catholic Virtual, an accredited for-profit organization started 10 years ago to help expand and enrich Catholic school curriculum."
"It has recently partnered with 10 dioceses for new online schools beginning this fall. Another 15 are discussing the idea."
Reimagining Teacher Teams to Address Students’ Mental Health: Wonkathon's winner: Angela Jerabek
The Pandemic's Toll on Teen Mental Health: OpEd in WSJ:
"The CDC released a report last week warning that adolescent hospitalizations due to Covid-19 were on the rise. The media picked up the message and ran with it. But it isn’t true."
"The CDC misrepresented the data and played down a more important finding that provides further evidence that pandemic-control measures are likely having a serious adverse impact on young people’s mental health.""But while the CDC oversold the teen Covid narrative, it failed to emphasize the most troubling aspect of its study: 20% of teen hospitalizations in the study between Jan. 1 and March 31, 2021, were for psychiatric emergencies, not Covid."
"The proportion of children seeking emergency mental-health services who required immediate hospitalization, including for eating disorders, rose 75% in 2020 compared with 2019. Twenty-one percent of adolescents treated in the Children’s Hospital of San Francisco emergency department in January 2021 expressed active or recent suicidal ideation, up from 14% in January 2020. These data reflect the highest proportion of suicidal adolescents ever recorded at the hospital."
Where Are The Chinese Elephants Going and Why? For more than a week, China has been gripped by a new internet sensation: a herd of 15 marauding elephants, who have journeyed 300 miles outside of their reserve.