TOP THREE
Pediatric COVID-19 Cases in Counties With and Without School Mask Requirements: CDC report.
"Counties without school mask requirements experienced larger increases in pediatric COVID-19 case rates after the start of school compared with counties that had school mask requirements"
But!..."The findings in this report are subject to at least four limitations. First, this was an ecologic study, and causation cannot be inferred"
Huge New Demand for Remote Learning, Rethinking Bans on Virtual Options: Via CRPE in The 74
"Between July and September, the number of districts in our nationwide review of 100 large and urban school systems offering remote learning more than doubled, from 41 to 94."
"Some districts were not prepared for the volume of students seeking these programs: Sacramento City Unified only had enough teachers for a quarter of their registered virtual learners a week into the school year."
"Indianapolis Public Schools is contracting with Paramount Schools of Excellence (K-8) and Phalen Leadership Academies (K-12) to operate online schools that offer small-group instruction, tutoring, social-emotional resources for students with disabilities and English learners, enrichment and electives."
Pfizer: Plans to ask for authorization for their COVID vaccine for some children under 12:
"It is a question of days, not weeks," Pfizer Chairman and CEO Albert Bourla told ABC News on Sunday"
FEDERAL
FCC: Announced that $1.2 billion in funding was committed as part of the first funding wave of the Emergency Connectivity Fund (ECF).
COVID-19 RESEARCH
COVID Vaccines for Kids: Emily Oster covers a lot in her newsletter.
Booster Reactions:
New Guidance on Booster Shots Gets Ahead of the Science, argues Megan Ranney and Jeremy Samuel Faust in the NYC
"There’s also inadequate data on the safety of third doses. The C.D.C. was honest about that. The advisory committee for the agency said it was unsure how many cases of the heart-inflammation condition myocarditis — the most common serious adverse event in young adults — a third dose might cause."
"People getting a booster now may also risk the possibility of forfeiting something better tomorrow. Coming just around the corner are data on half-dose Moderna boosters, for example. We anticipate new data on the benefits of “mix and match” boosters, in which someone who received one kind of vaccine receives a different type as a booster. Preliminary data from Britain suggest that this strategy may prove to be the most powerful type of booster. If the United States rushes today, the country might find itself with fewer options later."
This Is No Way to End a Pandemic, argues the NYT Editorial Board
"The case for Mr. Biden’s booster program is shaky. Most doctors agree that the additional shot makes sense for older and immunocompromised people, who face a higher risk of serious illness if they suffer a breakthrough infection. Yet the data suggests and experts have argued that hardly any hospitalizations or deaths will be prevented by giving boosters to other groups like frontline workers, because their risk is so low to begin with."
"The administration’s misfire leaves little confidence in its ability to navigate a coming roster of crucial decisions — about whether to authorize shots for young children or boosters for those who received the Moderna or Johnson & Johnson vaccines."
Rochelle Walensky’s Finest Hour, says the WSJ Editorial Board
"The added protection against breakthrough infections will help the country get through what could be a rough winter. Experts predict that flu and other respiratory viruses will be more prevalent this year."
"A booster shot costs the government $20 compared to $2,100 for a monoclonal antibody treatment. A non-ICU Covid hospitalization costs $33,525. Add the health and economic benefits of fewer infections, and the cost-benefit analysis seems clear. The CDC has made many mistakes during the pandemic, but Dr. Walensky made the right call on boosters."
School Reopening Tracker: To date Burbio has identified just under 2,200 in-person school closures (up from just over 2,000 last week) across 539 districts (from 469) in 43 states (from 39).
Mask Requirements in School Work!: Argues Katelyn Jetelina
We Did the Research: Masks Work, and You Should Choose a High Quality Mask if Possible: Via Jason Abaluck, Laura Kwong and Stephen Luby in the NYT discussing their research covering 340,000 adults in 600 villages in Bangladesh.
"Let us put this in concrete terms. Our best estimate is that for every 600 people who wear surgical masks in public areas, an average of one death per year is prevented, given recent death rates in the United States. Think of a church with 600 members. If a congregation learned that it could save the life of a member, would everyone agree to wear surgical masks in indoor public areas for the next year?"
Schools Cram for Their Covid-19 Tests: Via NYT
U.S. Adults' Estimates of COVID-19 Hospitalization Risk: Via Gallup
"Most Americans overstate the risk of hospitalization for both groups: 92% overstate the risk that unvaccinated people will be hospitalized, and 62% overstate the risk for vaccinated people."
"Democrats provide much higher and more accurate vaccine efficacy estimates than Republicans (88% vs. 50%), and unvaccinated Republicans have a median vaccine efficacy of 0%, compared with 73% for vaccinated Republicans."
"The results suggest that the low vaccine uptake among Republicans may be driven, at least in part, by an inaccurate understanding of the published data on vaccine effectiveness"
3D Printed Vaccine Patch: Pioneered at Stanford and UNC could revolutionize how we distribute vaccinations.
How the Definition of Success Has Changed in the COVID Fight: "Experts say the U.S. will likely have to learn to live with the virus."
Public School Staff Covered by President Biden’s OSHA Vaccine or Testing Mandate: Via Nat Malkus
Covid’s Hidden Toll: One Million Children Who Lost Parents: Via WSJ.
Covid’s Partisan Pattern Grows More Extreme: The NYT's David Leonhardt: “The political divide over vaccinations is so large that almost every reliably blue state now has a higher vaccination rate than almost every reliably red state.”
STATE
Arkansas: Arkansas Children's CEO says mental illness-related visits have jumped 150% during pandemic.
California: San Francisco plans on opening 100 vaccination sites to help inoculate kids under 12.
DC: Washington Post oped by the head of Rocketship DC "My D.C. charter schools required staff to be vaccinated. Here’s what happened."
Illinois: Amazing set of data and visualization from WBEZ Chicago: "Tracking COVID-19 In Schools: Your Guide To The Official Data For Chicago And Illinois"
Visualization of teen vaccination rates showing a crazy range from 4% to 93%
New York:
Governor Hochul is considering employing the National Guard and out-of-state medical workers to fill hospital staffing shortages with tens of thousands of workers possibly losing their jobs for not meeting a deadline for mandated COVID-19 vaccination.
Court sets hearing for Wednesday on New York City schools vaccine mandate.
Tennessee: Third judge blocks Gov. Lee's mask opt out in schools
West Virginia: WV Dept. of Ed. receives five-year, $9 million Federal Advancing Wellness and Resiliency in Education grant to support and increase wellness and resiliency in students.
INTERNATIONAL
UNICEF: The LEGO Foundation becomes the single largest private sector contributor to UNICEF’s COVID response with $70 million donation.
ECONOMIC RECOVERY
Disparate Impacts of Job Loss by Parental Income and Implications for Intergenerational Mobility: New paper by Emily Nix et al. Show job loss causes much more damage for those from less wealthy backgrounds, which has implications for intergenerational mobility. Double unemployment post job loss for adult children born to the bottom 20% relative to top 20%.
Related: Check out Emily's great tutorial on creating a lightboard.
RESOURCES
2021 Social and Emotional Learning Report: Released by McGraw Hill
Schools and districts in urban areas are more likely to have moved to full-time online/remote learning (51%) compared to those in suburban (39%) and rural (29%) areas
56% of educators report that their school has begun implementing an SEL plan.
Administrators report their institution is using standalone SEL programs (34%) far more than they did in 2018 (16%)
Why America Has a School Bus Driver Shortage: Great long piece by The Hustle.
NWEA: Chris Minnich: "Leaping forward in partnership with districts and states to support student learning"
"We announced today that we will acquire an advanced assessment platform from ETS, a nonprofit we have been collaborating with to provide assessments and associated services to states. We have also invited a group of ETS staff working on the platform to join our State Solutions Division. With this new platform and staff, we will bolster our ongoing efforts to develop and implement new, more student-centered approaches to comprehensive assessment systems in partnership with states."
"In addition, we will be expanding our state partnerships as Questar, a subsidiary of ETS, transfers state testing contracts (pending state approval) with Georgia, Mississippi, Missouri, and New York to NWEA."
Oak Rose Group: Katherine Haley, Jason Gaulden, Alissa McCurley Vogel, Myles Mendoza, and Jonathan Tee.
Getting Our Groove On: We danced our way into the weekend and now this couple is helping us dance our way into the new week.