COVID-19 Policy Update #279
COVID-19 Policy Update
FRIDAY 6/18
TOP THREE
Why Are We Turning Our Backs on Remote Learning?: EdWeek oped from Theresa Rouse, the superintendent of Joliet Public Schools District 86, in Illinois
"Advocates need to take care. Ham-fisted mandates banning or requiring remote learning are likely to throw the baby out with the bath water."
"As a district superintendent, it is essential that I have options to offer families that help place their children in the best learning environments for them. Allowing parents a choice among fully online, hybrid, and in-person learning is the right thing to do as we move into a postpandemic world. Why would we go backward when we can augment our options for students to better ensure their success?"
"It is time for school leaders to stand up and insist that we cannot let the system revert to the status quo ante. It is time for us to stand up for our students and their families by providing them with as many options as we can so that they can be as successful as they want to be and we want them to be. It is time, too, that we stand up for our staff by providing them with all the resources needed to meet the needs of their students."
African American Research Collaborative and the Commonwealth Fund Poll: Fascinating poll with a nifty website allowing you to see various crosscuts of the data.
Nearly one-third of parents say they will not sign their child up for a COVID-19 vaccination when it becomes available.
Half of unvaccinated people would get ta shot from their doctor
One out of three Americans who expressed some hesitancy to getting a COVID-19 vaccine would prefer to hear from their doctor, outranking friends and family who have been vaccinated, local hospitals, religious leaders, elected officials, celebrities, and athletes.
Nearly one-third of unvaccinated Black Americans and one-fifth of unvaccinated Native Americans who expressed some degree of vaccine hesitancy say the discrimination their communities have faced within the healthcare system makes it hard to trust COVID-19 vaccines are safe and effectiv
Three out of five unvaccinated Americans have heard the Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccine is unsafe and can create blood clots. Most who have heard about this issue say it makes them less likely to get any COVID-19 vaccine, which shows a strong spillover effect this news has had on vaccine uptake.
They tested 24 messages with unvaccinated people to see which made them more likely to get vaccinated. Play around with the different cuts (income, race, 2020 vote, etc)
Kids, Covid and Delta: Good piece from David Leonhardt
"For children under 12, however, the situation is more complicated. They are not yet eligible to receive a vaccine. And with the spread of the Delta variant of the virus, many parents are understandably anxious."
"Delta does appear to be worse than most, as I described in Monday’s newsletter. It may be the worst variant yet, in terms of contagiousness and severity. Yet it also seems to be in the same broad range as the earlier ones."
"The best assumption seems to be that Delta will be modestly worse for children than earlier versions of the virus. “I haven’t seen data to make me particularly worried about Delta in kids,” Jennifer Nuzzo, a Johns Hopkins epidemiologist, told me."
"This evidence suggests that serious versions of Covid will continue to be extremely rare in children."
"The interruption of school and other normal activities has caused substantial damage to children — academically, socially and psychologically."
"There are still enough Covid uncertainties that some precautions can make sense for children, like wearing masks indoors or avoiding crowded places."
"The riskiest areas are those with the lowest vaccination rates, which tend to be in the Southeast and the Mountain West."
COVID-19 RESEARCH
Delayed CDC Meeting: The CDC's Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, will meet next week to review the 300 cases of a rare heart issue in certain cases, many adolescent, after being vaccinated.
The meeting was originally scheduled for Friday, but was rescheduled late Thursday after President Joe Biden signed a bill into law declaring Juneteenth a federal holiday
Most Teachers Vaccinates: The NEA said about 86% of its members have received at least one dose of the vaccine, up from 49% a month ago
"76% of those polled said they are prepared to return to full-time in-person instruction"
Lotteries Work: Blacks, Latinos see biggest gains in week after unveiling of NC’s $1 million vaccine lottery
SARS-CoV-2’s Seasonality: New study suggests that heat, humidity and UV rays linked to COVID-19 spread.
"SARS-CoV-2’s reproductive number is attributable to seasonal factors; temperature (3.73%), humidity (9.35%) and UV radiation (4.44%)."
Brain Imaging Before and After COVID-19: New study which is believed to be the first time where participants had been already scanned as part of UKB before contracting the virus. They were then imaged again, on average 37 months later, after some had tested positive for COVID-19.
“In short, the study suggests that there could be some long-term loss of brain tissue from Covid, and that would have some long-term consequences,” Scott Gottlieb said."
STATE
California: Distance learning lawsuit against California involving Oakland families moves forward
"A huge part of our goal is accountability in terms of how the state has not responded to and supported low-income Black and brown families, really ever. But definitely during the pandemic,” said The Oakland Reach’s CEO Lakisha Young in an interview."
"The initial 84-page complaint details the experiences of several Oakland and Los Angeles families who struggled to get laptops, internet hotspots, and academic support from their schools to attend the online classes that were set up hurriedly in the spring of 2020 after the pandemic forced campuses to close."
Missouri:
More than 100 schools have bought ‘often unproven’ air-cleaning technology
Learning about black history in Summer Academy
ECONOMIC RECOVERY
Automation is Replacing More Workers Than Outsourcing: New NBER paper.
"Over the last four decades, workers without a college education have found it hard to get ahead. High school dropouts and grads are making less money than they did in 1980, adjusted for inflation.
Remote-learning Program: Which offers free degrees and paid work expands to the US
"Like the in-person iterations previously delivered in partnership with Ottawa’s Carleton University and Toronto’s York University, the remote version of Dev Degree lets students transition between classroom education and real-world work opportunities at Shopify."
"The Ottawa-based e-commerce company covers the cost of tuition and pays students for their time on the job; it says that the total package is equivalent to $110,000 USD worth of salary, tuition, and vacation over four years."
LEARNING PODS
Pandemic Learning-pods Here To Stay: From Florida:
"Ana Solanki is a former teacher who came out of retirement during the pandemic to lead a learning pod of her own. It’s called ‘Bliss Academy,’ located in the heart of Jupiter."
"She says since she started, the demand and interest from other parents has grown tremendously. She’s even had to rent a larger space for her students come August."
RESOURCES
EdTech:
GV leads $72M investment in Brightline offering virtual behavioral healthcare for kids
BookClub raises $20 million Series A
Juneteenth:
Great interactive from the Washington Post.
Great piece from Historian Kenneth Davis
"Still, 150 years after its birth, Juneteenth remains largely unacknowledged on America’s national calendar. Many Americans are unaware of its existence, or its roots. Sadly, that ignorance of Juneteenth reflects a deeper issue: the continued existence of two histories, black and white, separate and unequal."
"Frederick Douglass voiced that fundamental divide in a memorable speech on July 4, 1852. “The rich inheritance of justice, liberty, prosperity and independence, bequeathed by your fathers, is shared by you, not by me,” he said. “This Fourth [of] July is yours, not mine.”
"Juneteenth is the flip side of the Independence Day coin. One hundred and fifty years after General Granger told the enslaved people of Texas they were free, Juneteenth is viewed by many of those who are aware of it as an “African-American holiday.”
"That perception unfairly diminishes the fundamental significance of Juneteenth. The day should be recognized for what it is: a shared point of pride in the symbolic end of centuries of racial slavery — a crime against humanity and the great stain on America’s soul. As meaningful as Independence Day itself, Juneteenth completes the circle, reaffirming “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness” as the rights of all, not a select few."
Be As Excited for the Weekend: As Sierra Schmidt is to compete.