TOP THREE
COVID-19 School Data Hub: Launch day for Emily Oster's new data hub (Press Release / Emily's Substack Post / Here's the hub)
NYT says it's "a site that includes data from about 56,000 schools across 31 states. It is one of the most comprehensive efforts yet to document how schools operated during the pandemic, and, eventually, the researchers hope, measure the impact on children and the education system itself."
"In the future, researchers may be able to answer if and how school closures affected high school graduation rates, crime, obesity and mental health needs"
"The data hub will fill an important information gap. There is no federal database of coronavirus cases discovered inside school buildings or during extracurricular activities such as sports."
Quick and Inexpensive Saliva Screening is Raising Hopes for a Less Disruptive School Year: Via The 74
Why School Districts Are Unprepared for COVID-19 Disruptions, Again: Asks EdWeek
FEDERAL
ED:
James Kvaal confirmed as Under Secretary of Education
Announced Return-to-School Road Trip to spotlight safe return to in-person learning.
The destinations include Eau Claire, Madison and Milwaukee, Wisconsin; Palatine and Chicago, Illinois; Kendallville, Indiana; Toledo, Ohio; and Mt. Pleasant, Lansing, Detroit and Canton, Michigan.
CTC: Third round of checks deposited today.
COVID-19 RESEARCH
Study Designs Completed for National Institutes of Health Consortium Study of Long-Term COVID-19: More here. Includes a pediatric study
"An important aspect of the RECOVER initiative is the development of the pediatric main protocol for study of long COVID-19 in children."
"The pediatric study will enroll up to 20,000 “dyads,” in which the impact of SARS-CoV-2 is tracked for both children and their parents or caregivers."
Majority Back Vaccine, Mask Mandates: According to a Monmouth University Poll
66% of Americans support requiring that face masks be worn by students, teachers, and staff in schools. This includes majorities of blue state (68%) and red state (63%) residents.
Pope Questions Vaccine Skeptics: Pope Francis doesn't understand why people refuse to take COVID-19 vaccines, saying “humanity has a history of friendship with vaccines” and that a discussion was necessary. Francis said that there were skeptics even in the college of cardinals.
What's the Right Dose for COVID Boosters?: Opinion piece in Med Page Today
"We've known since earlier this year that a half-dose of the Moderna vaccine produces antibody levels similar to the standard-dose and newer information suggests that even a quarter-dose vaccine may do the same."
"If a half or quarter dose is nearly as effective as a standard dose for first and second shots then a full dose booster may well be an overdose."
"The essential task of a booster is to "jog" the immune system's memory of what it's supposed to fight."
"Lower doses could also reduce risks of adverse effects."
"The chosen booster dose also has profound implications for global vaccine equity. Producing boosters for developed countries will reduce the supply of first and second doses available to countries where most people haven't received a first dose. A slower vaccine rollout in the developing world isn't just unfair -- it increases the death toll and likely facilitates the emergence of more variants."
Vaccinating People Who Have Had Covid-19: Why Doesn’t Natural Immunity Count in the US?: In BMJ
"Many of us were saying let’s use [the vaccine] to save lives, not to vaccinate people already immune,” says Marty Makary, a professor of health policy and management at Johns Hopkins University."
"Still, the CDC instructed everyone, regardless of previous infection, to get fully vaccinated as soon as they were eligible: natural immunity “varies from person to person” and “experts do not yet know how long someone is protected,” the agency stated on its website in January. By June, a Kaiser Family Foundation survey found that 57% of those previously infected got vaccinated."
"Other countries do give past infection some immunological currency. Israel recommends that people who have had covid-19 wait three months before getting one mRNA vaccine dose and offers a “green pass” (vaccine passport) to those with a positive serological result regardless of vaccination."
"But Klausner, Gandhi, and others raise the question of fairness for the millions of Americans who already have records of positive covid test results—the basis for “recovered” status in Europe—and equity for those at risk who are waiting to get their first dose (an argument being raised anew as US officials announce boosters while the virus spreads in countries lacking vaccine supply)."
"If natural immunity is strongly protective, as the evidence to date suggests it is, then vaccinating people who have had covid-19 would seem to offer nothing or very little to benefit, logically leaving only harms—both the harms we already know about as well as those still unknown,” says Christine Stabell Benn, vaccinologist and professor in global health at the University of Southern Denmark."
Why Are Covid Vaccine Boosters Needed and Who in the UK Will Receive Them? Really great article in the FT but this Tweetorial is also great (complete with data in GoogleSheets).
"The level of protection provided by vaccines against severe disease and death wanes in the period beyond three months after a second dose, according to data published on Tuesday by Public Health England."
“A booster programme for Covid-19 vaccines among the higher-risk adult population is a natural follow-on from the observed waning in vaccine effectiveness as time from the completion of primary two-shot vaccination course extends,” said Penny Ward, visiting professor in pharmaceutical medicine at King’s College London."
1 in 500 Americans Have Died of Covid-19: Via Washington Post
STATE
Georgia: Almost 60% of new COVID cases reported in K-12 schools, state health officials say
Kentucky: School districts begin virtual programs; they’re seeing waitlists.
Maryland:
RESOURCES
Student Quarantines Will Cause the Next Major School Disruptions. Here Are 3 Ways to Help Ensure Kids Will Keep Learning: My piece in The 74.
"First is the need to quickly scale up and ramp down services as needed. There is little ability to forecast COVID-19 cases within a school, much less estimate the number of students who will be subject to quarantine. The prepared school will be one that leverages online technologies and expert partners to bolster instructional support with little to no warning."
"Second, programs should prioritize live online interaction with students and their teachers or tutors."
"Finally, high-quality programs will leverage diagnostic assessments to help identify students’ strengths and needs."
"The quarantine support functions as an instructional insurance policy that hopefully will never be used, but is available should circumstances require it."
How States Are Rethinking Accountability and Assessment Policies in the COVID-19 Era: Via Knowledge Works
Teachers Are at a Breaking Point Over Covid. Ease Up On Them: Argues Trent Bowers
Woolly Mammoths Could Walk the Earth Again: If CRISPR startup succeeds...ummmm, haven't we seen how this ends? But maybe they'll have a sense of humor.
New Day for Social-Emotional Learning: How the Pandemic Has Altered District Needs: Via EdWeek
Welcome.Us: Former Obama and Bush administration officials are launching a new organization aimed to help streamline the process of resettling the roughly 65,000 Afghans forced out of their home country and now making the United States their home.
Former President George W. Bush and former first lady Laura Bush, Former-President Bill Clinton and former Secretary of State and first lady Hillary Clinton, and former President Barack Obama and former first lady Michelle Obama are honorary co-chairs of the organization.
I Could Be Anything You Like: And I can't seem to get this song out of my head now...