COVID-19 Policy Update #312
COVID-19 Policy Update
FRIDAY 8/6
TOP FOUR
Made To Save: Has launched a bunch of great resources to help schools with vaccinations. Please share with your grantees, friends, and colleagues.
White House: Fact Sheet: Biden Administration Announces Additional Actions to Help Kids Go Back to School Safely
Incorporating COVID-19 vaccination into sports physicals for student athletes this summer and fall
Sending pediatricians to ‘Back to School Nights’ to get communities vaccinated against COVID-19
Providing schools and colleges with additional resources to host pop-up vaccine clinics as students come back to school and back to campus
Launching the Back to School “Week of Action” with partners nationwide to get young people vaccinated
Related: Transcript from yesterday's Press Briefing with WH Press Secretary Jen Psaki and Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona
Chicago Teachers Union Delta Opens Door to Potentially 'Pause In-person Instruction': Letter. Among the issues still being negotiated:
Ventilation upgrades
A COVID-19 testing plan for vaccinated and unvaccinated members of our school communities
Maintenance of criteria and health metrics based on COVID prevalence to pause in-person instruction
Full-time contact tracers, nurses, social workers and counselors in every school building
A comprehensive home visit program to engage students and families in every school community
Related: Chalkbeat reports that CPS will test every student and employee for COVID every week.
Just 9% of Newark Students Met State Math Standards This Spring: Via Chalkbeat. Only 11% of students met expectations in reading.
FEDERAL
White House Considering Withholding Funds: President Biden is considering withholding funds to spur vaccinations, reports the Washington Post.
“The Biden administration is considering using federal regulatory powers and the threat of withholding federal funds from institutions to push more Americans to get vaccinated — a huge potential shift in the fight against the virus and a far more muscular approach to getting shots into arms, according to four people familiar with the deliberations.”
“The effort could apply to institutions as varied as long-term care facilities, cruise ships and universities, potentially impacting millions of Americans, according to the people, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive conversations. The conversations are in the early phases and no firm decisions have been made, the people said. One outside lawyer in touch with the Biden administration on the issue is recommending that the president use federal powers sparingly.”
"But such drastic moves are likely to trigger further backlash from many Republican-leaning regions where vaccine hesitancy has been highest, agitating conservatives already skeptical of the Biden administration and its use of federal power."
COVID-19 RESEARCH
The Protection Offered by Moderna's Covid-19 Vaccine Does Not Wane After Six Months: The initial efficacy reported by Moderna from that trial last November was 94%.
"We are pleased that our COVID-19 vaccine is showing durable efficacy of 93% through six months, but recognize that the Delta variant is a significant new threat so we must remain vigilant,” Stéphane Bancel, CEO of Moderna, said in the statement.
CDC's Booster Messaging Mess: Via Axios
"The vast majority of vaccinated Americans don’t need to worry about their level of protection against the virus, at least not yet."
"But the void of information from the federal government about what should be expected going forward is being filled by drug companies, other countries and nervous Americans themselves."
Restrictions: Thread from Youyang Gu: "People were worried cases would spike further when the UK lifted almost all remaining restrictions in July. The opposite happened. We must acknowledge that restrictions aren't all that effective in Western countries."
STATE
Arkansas:
“An Arkansas judge has temporarily blocked the state from enforcing a law that prevents schools and other governmental agencies from requiring masks,” the AP reports.
Parents considering virtual learning as school year approaches
Florida:
The Florida Board of Education will consider a proposal Friday allowing students to transfer out of schools that implement public health mandates
Story on Palm Beach County's challenges with concurrent teaching.
Hospitals report a surge of children's cases. "On June 29, the seven-day average of new cases for Florida kids under 12 was 205. By July 29, that number had increased more than sevenfold to 1,544 — slightly higher than the increase among 60- to 64-year-olds, who have been eligible for the vaccine since March 15.
Kansas: A microschool doubled in size during the pandemic, and now 97% of the new students are returning for next year.
New Jersey: NYT reports the Governor will issue a mask mandate for NJ schools.
North Carolina: Gov. Cooper urges increased vaccinations, announces latest $1M vaccine drawing winner
Tennessee: The rise in pediatric cases and deaths is prompting pastors and doctors to speak out and ask the state to take more aggressive action.
West Virginia: A homeschooling teenager received a grant from VELA to travel to England next spring to further her study of Shakespeare
ECONOMIC RECOVERY
Jobs Report: 943,000 jobs were added in July, beating expectations and representing the biggest gain since last August.
Unemployment rate came in at 5.4% (down from 5.9% in June)
Per Heather Long: The US has recovered ~75% of jobs lost during the pandemic. 5.7 million still out of work
26 States Ended Federal Unemployment Benefits Early: CNBC reports that early data suggests it’s not getting people back to work
Measuring the Child Tax Credit’s Economic and Community Impact: New report from the Niskanen Center
"Across the next 12 months, we estimate that the CTC expansion will boost consumer spending by $27 billion, generate $1.9 billion in revenues from state and local sales taxes, and support the equivalent of over 500,000 thousand full time jobs at the median wage."
RESOURCES
Some School Districts Defy Governors on Mask Rules: Via NYT
Toolkit for the $350 Billion Coronavirus State and Local Fiscal Recovery Funds: Great package of resources from SEAP that include model resolutions, Grab-N-Go policy ideas, and other tools.
New Series of Coronavirus-Fighting Barbies: Including British vaccine developer Sarah Gilbert. More here.
On the Road with Steve Hartman: Returns to a neighborhood driveway where a single man is inspiring acts of kindness across America one chalk “racetrack” at a time. Amazing story.
P.S. I'm excited to attend ASU-GSV next week. They're taking COVID precautions very seriously including asking attendees to provide proof of a negative COVID test within the previous 72 hours. One of the options suggested was a BinaxNOW home COVID test which I thought would be fun to try. So I went out to CVS to get one but realized later I had apparently administered the wrong test. What I needed was the BinaxNOW COVID-19 Ag Card Home Test which you have to order and involves a virtual consultation to ensure you administer it correctly. The results are then maintained in an app.
So I raced out today to get a traditional COVID test through my provider, but I did want to share my experience with the first BinaxNOW test. The instructions look complicated but it actually makes some intuitive sense. You squeeze drops of some sort of chemical into a hole in a card, swap your nose, insert the swap into the card, fold it over, and then the results are displayed after 15 minutes. The lines on the display confirmed that I was negative for COVID or that I'm not pregnant. Either way, that's good news. But it was an interesting glimpse into where COVID testing is hopefully headed over the next year. Incredibly convenient. Just make sure you get the test that meets the requirements of the entity asking for proof.