COVID-19 Policy Update #311
COVID-19 Policy Update
THURSDAY 8/11
TOP THREE
Education Secretary Warns That Politicizing Masks Could Lead To In-Person School Disruption: CNN reports.
"I'm worried that the decisions that are being made that are not putting students at the center and student health and safety at the center is going to be why schools may be disrupted. So we know what to do. And, you know, don't be the reason why schools are disrupted, because of the politicization of this effort to reopen schools. We know what works. We have to keep our students safe. We have to keep our educators safe."
Surprise Dip in UK COVID Cases Baffles Researchers: Reports Nature.
"Nobody really knows what’s going on,” says epidemiologist John Edmunds at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine (LSHTM). In particular, it’s not clear whether this sudden trend indicates that the peak of the third wave has passed, or whether it is a blip caused by complex social factors."
"Another major reason for the decline could be the end of the school term. Many schools in England closed around 23 July — which is too recent for an effect to show in the COVID-19 data. But a school-related decline in cases could already be apparent because some finished a week or so earlier, many older students were already off school after their exams, and around 20% of pupils were self-isolating at this time."
"If so, this reflects how big a driver of UK infections schools and young people now are — which has implications for the government’s recent decision not to vaccinate most under-18s."
Children and COVID-19: State-Level Data Report: Via AAP
4.2 million total child COVID-19 cases reported, and children represented 14.3% of all cases
Among states reporting, children were 0.00%-0.26% of all COVID-19 deaths, and 7 states reported zero child deaths
COVID-19 RESEARCH
Why Vaccine Passports Are Still Just a Dream: Axios:
"Several practical and technological hurdles will stand in the way of widespread "vaccine passports."
"New York City, the first city in the country to impose a vaccine requirement for many indoor businesses, will accept Excelsior Pass, an app developed for New York state, to verify people's vaccine status."
Sidenote: I have an upcoming trip to NYC and tried registering with the Excelsior Pass but kept getting an error message saying it couldn't find my record - likely because I'm out of state.
The C.D.C. Needs to Stop Confusing the Public: Via Zeynep Tufekci in the NYT
"The C.D.C. is still mired in the fog of pandemic, with too little data, collected too slowly, leaving it chasing epidemic waves and trying to make sense of information from other countries. Epidemics spread exponentially, so delayed responses make problems much worse."
"The agency is simply not doing a good job at what the pamphlet advises: being first, right and credible, and avoiding mixed messaging, delays and confusion."
"The Provincetown study was certainly useful. It provided one more example of how well the vaccines worked in preventing severe disease or worse, but also of the need to take Delta seriously: to expand vaccine mandates, speed up formal approval of vaccines, work hard at increasing vaccinations and urge the use of masks for everyone, especially in crowded, poorly ventilated indoor spaces in areas where infections are high and vaccinations are low."
"The Epidemic Intelligence Service unit of the C.D.C. has a core principle that needs to remain at the forefront of everything the administration does: A pandemic is a communications emergency as much as it is a medical crisis. Effective communication is much more than choosing the right words. It needs a wholesale approach starting with clarity of purpose, a realistic assessment of where things are including factors outside the agency’s control, collection and presentation of detailed data when possible and an open acknowledgment of uncertainty and underlying reasoning when precautionary steps are being advised."
When Will Delta Peak? CNBC reports - Evercore ISI: “The Delta trend line of the U.S. remains right on top on the U.K. on a lag that would put the U.S. peak about 3 weeks away if it continues to follow the same path.”
Fully Vaccinated Half As Likely To Catch Covid-19 And Less Likely To Infect Others: According to a new Imperial College London study (preprint).
"One in 26. That’s the chance of being infected with Covid-19 if you’re in contact with an infected individual and fully vaccinated, the researchers found. This is compared to a one in 13 chance for the unvaccinated."
We're Asking American Businesses to Create #COVIDSafeZones. Here's How: By Dr. Mark McClellan, Andy Slavitt and John Bridgeland. Learn more here.
The Most Important Act of the Last Two Decades?: Marginal Revolution makes the case for the 2004 Project Bioshield whose primary goal was to create advance market commitments to purchase countermeasures for chemical, biological, radiological or nuclear agents (CBRN).
"The third aspect of the act was not considered a big deal at the time but is the one that has proved to be the most important. Project Bioshield created the Emergency Use Authorization (EUA)."
Half of Unvaccinated People Fear the Vaccine More Than The Virus: Via KFF COVID Vaccine Monitor
STATE
Arizona: A teacher is suing a school district for implementing a mask mandate despite the governor's ban.
Arkansas: New data on kids and Covid led Gov. Hutchinson to flip on masks in schools
Georgia: Online learning to continue in two Clayton schools, bus routes impacted by COVID-19
Illinois: The State announces mask mandate for schools, vaccinations for state workers
Minnesota: Parents are asking for online options as two-thirds of the state is now considered high or substantial risk.
Mississippi: Magee High to begin virtual learning after COVID-19 cases reported.
Texas:
65 COVID-19 cases were reported in children under the age of nine in Richmond between June 21 to July 19. That jumped to 184 cases between July 5 to Aug. 2.
Cook Children's Hospital on Wednesday announced it is now treating 24 patients for the coronavirus and is closing in on the record of 27 set in January.
ECONOMIC RECOVERY
The Data Labs: Roadmap to Recovery: Partnership with NGA and the Beeck Center to facilitate collaboration between data and policy experts, empowering state governments to use data more effectively, efficiently, and equitably.
Three Keys to Building a More Skilled Postpandemic Workforce: Via McKinsey
RESOURCES
Baby Elephants: Running home for dinner.