COVID-19 Policy Update #278
COVID-19 Policy Update
THURSDAY 6/17
Tonight's update is a bit more text heavy due to a number of substantive stories, including concerns around the Delta variant, an IES report that gives us a first glance at the impact of COVID disruptions on college students, a story about the CDC where school openings take a central role, and details on the bipartisan Infrastructure package. A lot happened over the last 24 hours! So on with tonight's update...
TOP THREE
Delta Concerns: Delta - formerly known as the B.1.617.2 variant which was first detected in India - is expected to become the dominant strain in the U.S. in three to four weeks.
If vaccination rates continue to slow, the variant could fuel surges in pockets of the country this fall - particularly the southern states.
"The steady uptick in B.1.617.2 "very much mirrors what happened in the United Kingdom about a month ago. And so I fully expect that sometime in the next three or four weeks, the Delta variant will be the dominant SARS-CoV-2 lineage in the U.S.," says Andrew Pekosz, a virologist at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health."
The variant appears to be about 64% more transmissible than the most common variant right now in the U.S.
Early data from England and Scotland indicate the risk of hospitalization from B.1.617.2 was twice that of B.1.1.7.
"We have a mistaken belief [the pandemic] is over here, but there are over 100 counties where less than 20% of the people have one dose of vaccine," says Michael Osterholm, director of the University of Minnesota's Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy.
"Scientists have long worried about a coronavirus variant that's more dangerous than the original virus in three key ways: It would be more transmissible, result in more serious illness, and evade protection from existing vaccines. The data today says that this variant gets a full checked box for more infectious, probably gets a checked box for more serious, and at least gets a partial checked box for immune evasion. And that's scary," said Bob Wachter, the chair of the Department of Medicine at the University of California"
Dr. Tom Frieden: "People who are only partially vaccinated are only partially protected. In one study, 1 dose of Pfizer vaccine provides only 33 percent protection against developing symptomatic Covid disease caused by the Delta variant, compared to 88 percent effectiveness after both doses."
IES: Released their First Look at the Impact of the Coronavirus (COVID-19) Pandemic on Undergraduate Student Enrollment, Housing, and Finances
22% of students at private for-profit less-than-2-year institutions took a leave of absence, in contrast to students at other types of institutions
Students without Pell Grants moved back to their permanent address at higher rates (26%) than students with Pell Grants (16%)
Students with Pell Grants received emergency financial assistance from their institution at over twice the rate (22%) of students without Pell Grants (9%)
Black students, Hispanic or Latino students, American Indian or Alaska Native students, and students of two or more races had difficulty accessing food or paying for food at higher rates (10 to 14%) than either White or Asian students (7%)
Only 34% of students received technology or technical services from their institution. Black students (40%) were more likely to receive assistance than white students (31%)
22% had difficulty finding safe and stable child care
Only 38% of students received a room-and-board refund. Huge differences though:
60% of private 4yr vs 45% public 4 yr.
51% New England institutions vs 24% in Far Western states.
42% White vs 31% Black vs 25% Hispanic
Can the CDC Be Fixed?: Long piece at the NYT Magazine where schools play a central role in the story:
"So far, there was no national plan for how to move forward. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention was advising everyone to wear masks and remain six feet apart at all times. But that guidance was a significant impediment to any full-bore reopening, because most schools could not maintain that kind of distance and still accommodate all their students and teachers. It also left many questions unanswered: How did masks and distancing and other strategies like opening windows fit together? Which were essential? Could some measures be skipped if others were followed faithfully?"
"The C.D.C. seemed incapable of answering these questions. From the pandemic’s earliest days, the agency had been subject to extreme politicization and troubled by what looked, at least from the outside, like pathological clumsiness."
"When it came to the question of school reopenings, the Covid Rapid Response Working Group found itself going in circles. It was possible to control the spread of infections indoors; hospitals did it all the time. But when it came to schools, where the risk was much lower, everyone seemed to be at a loss. Why was that? What, exactly, made hospitals so different? “It makes no sense,” Thomas Tsai, a surgeon in the group, said. “Hospitals are not special. We don’t use magic. We just use basic infection control.”
"Allen and her colleagues had already published at least one report on school safety, but when the Biden administration set a national goal of opening most schools by May 1, they partnered with a larger initiative, the Covid Collaborative, and formed a task force to address the issue of infection control. They parsed research, brought educators and other stakeholders together for sustained dialogue and, by late April, produced a detailed road map: Most schools could remain open for full-time in-person instruction even when the virus was circulating at high levels in the community, as long as they had good infection-control programs."
"Among other things, the incoming director, Rochelle Walensky, has made a point of bringing agency guidelines back under the exclusive domain of agency staff members. But those guidelines are still confusing, the agency’s messaging is still deeply muddy and communities across the country — and school districts, especially — are still struggling with next steps. Schools are reopening, but vaccines have yet to be approved for children younger than 12."
FEDERAL
Infrastructure: Details of the bipartisan compromise bill were leaked last evening, including the Pay-Fors.
Summary document. Still includes $65 billion for broadband.
21 Senators have signed onto it - significant in the growing number signing on and also the number of GOP Senators who have signed on.
The bipartisan Problem Solvers Caucus will be briefed today.
Punchbowl has a good list of reasons why Biden should take the deal and also why he shouldn't.
FCC: The $7 billion Emergency Connectivity Fund Application Window opens June 29
IRS: Launched a Child Tax Credit tool for low-income families, but some find it hard to use.
NTIA: Unveiled a new broadband mapping tool with much more detailed data. (Press release)
COVID-19 RESEARCH
Parent Vaccine Hesitancy: Harris poll (Summary / 350 pages of crosstabs) found that 27% of parents of children under 12 and 25% of parents of older children say they will not get their children vaccinated.
LetsGetChecked: Receives EUA for use of at-home COVID-19 collection kit by minors as young as two years old.
Free At Home Testing: Any North Carolina resident may receive a home test kit that is shipped overnight directly to their homes at no cost.
CureVac's Vaccine Disappoints: German vaccine maker CureVac announced yesterday that its mRNA Covid-19 vaccine performed poorly in a 40,000-person trial. The vaccine, which was being tested in people in Europe and Latin America, was only 47% effective against Covid infection, according to preliminary data.
STATE
Colorado:
Governor Polis signed two Colorado Comeback bills into law that will provide tutoring for K-12 students – helping to address learning loss kids endured during the pandemic as well as support the state’s educator workforce.
HB21-1234 allocates $5 million to the newly created Colorado high-impact tutoring program to provide grant funding to local education providers, to create high-impact tutoring programs to address student learning loss and unfinished learning resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic.
'Kids are suffering greatly:' Area medical professionals say COVID-19 sparked a behavioral health crisis
"During the 13 years he has worked as a pediatrician at Colorado Mountain Medical, Dr. Leslie Fishman has never seen anything like the current mental health crisis affecting local kids."
“This is the worst it has ever been, and it’s not even close,” said Dr. Fishman. “It’s not just the number of kids affected, but it is the seriousness of their problems. Kids are suffering greatly.”
Illinois: Superintendents are frustrated over inconsistent COVID guidelines
INTERNATIONAL
India: Over 30,000 children lost parents since Covid-19 hit India; 39% aged between 8-13 years:
UK: Debate over vaccinating children.
"Nobody is going to make a final decision at this point. The JCVI will want to weigh up the benefits against the risks before vaccinating children, and it wants more data."
“So we’re now coming into a really interesting ethical and moral debate here about vaccinating children for the benefit of others.”
ECONOMIC RECOVERY
Inclusive Wealth Building Initiative: Launched by EIG this week including results from "Retirement Security and Wealth Attitudes: National Voter Survey"
Over half of Americans support a policy proposal to provide government matched retirement contributions, more than UBI, child allowance, baby bonds
In 2016, only 41% of Black families and 35% of Hispanic families had any retirement savings at all
RESOURCES
The Resilience of K-12 Teachers: Tyton Partners survey
46% of teachers report being less effective this year than in years past, and 66% report students experienced less academic growth than in a typical year
89% of teachers reported their performance improved as it relates to incorporating technology into instruction and 59% improved ”their own efficiency and workflow”
99% of teacher’s plan to continue incorporating new tools and techniques that they adopted as a result of Covid-19
80% of teachers report LMS systems will be important to their practice next year, consistent with this current year
70% report classroom management tools will be important – a 12% increase from this current year
Reimagining K-12: Emerging from Disruption with Insights for Reform: Report from CED
EdTech:
Online edtech platform ApplyBoard raises $300 million
Craig Jones, Co-Founder and CEO of Formative, discusses the challenges to the current education system and how the company's platform allows teachers to do away with cumulative test-taking.
Juneteenth: President Biden signed the Juneteenth National Independence Day Act into law this afternoon. The House passed the bill 415-14 on Wednesday night. The Senate approved the bill unanimously on a voice vote Tuesday.
The holiday, which memorializes when the last enslaved people in Texas learned about their freedom under the Emancipation Proclamation, is the first new federal holiday since Martin Luther King Jr. Day was created.