TOP THREE
Mixing and Matching: Highly anticipated NIH study.
Recipients of Moderna or Pfizer’s original vaccines could easily swap third doses; the results were about the same.
But the study suggest J&J vaccine recipients may be better off getting a booster shot from Pfizer or Moderna.
The study involved 458 volunteers who were divided into nine groups with 50 in each group. Those who initially got the two-dose Moderna vaccine got either another Moderna shot, a Pfizer shot or a Johnson & Johnson shot as a booster four to six months after their primary immunization.
"In an email to NPR, Nathaniel Landau, a microbiologist at the New York University Grossman School of Medicine, said the findings show that getting a J&J boost after the initial one-shot immunization is "not as good" as receiving one of the other vaccines as a booster. The antibody levels of people in those groups went up 10 to 20 times higher than in those people who got another J&J shot."
The Association of Opening K12 Schools With The Spread of COVID-19: New study
"We find that counties that opened K–12 schools with in-person learning experienced an increase in the growth rate of cases by 5 percentage points on average, controlling for a variety of policies, past infection rates, and other factors."
"This association of K–12 school visits with case growth is stronger when mask wearing is not mandated for staff at school."
"The impact of school openings on the spread of COVID-19 on case growth may be different across counties and over time because it may depend not only on in-school mitigation measures but also on contact tracing, testing strategies, and the prevalence of community transmissions"
"Finally, our result does not imply that K–12 schools should be closed... However, given their relatively low implementation costs, our findings strongly support policies that enforce masking and other precautionary actions at school and prioritizing vaccines for education workers and elderly parents/grandparents."
How Bad Are School Staffing Shortages? What We Learned by Asking Administrators: Survey of school administrators by EdWeek
15% said shortages are “very severe,” 25% said they’re “severe,” and another 37% classified staffing challenges as “moderate.”
Slightly more than three-quarters of respondents said they’re having trouble finding enough substitutes to cover teacher absences;
68% said bus drivers are hard to come by; and 55% said they’re struggling to fill open positions for paraprofessionals and instructional aides.
20% had difficulty finding nurses and mental health counselors.
FEDERAL
OSHA: OSHA officially submitted the text of its emergency temporary standard rule to OMB's OIRA. We likely won't see the actual text for a while but it means the draft is ready for OMB, White House, and interagency review. FCC: Announced another $1 billion in Emergency Connectivity Funding for 2,471 schools, 205 libraries, and 26 consortia.
Over $2.4 billion committed to date, connecting nearly 8 million students, with nearly 60% of applications processed
IES: Building a community around Digital Learning Platforms
Digital Promise Global will host an event on October 22 at 3pm Eastern Time with introductory remarks from IES Director Mark Schneider. At the event, each of the five platform teams will briefly share the purpose of their project.
Reconciliation:
As Democrats work to whittle down the $3.5 trillion bill, some education proposals might be on the chopping block. Politico reports, "On child care proposals, top Democrats are discussing making a choice between Biden’s universal free pre-K plan and his plan to subsidize high quality daycare." The "free community college" proposal may also not make it.
COVID-19 RESEARCH
Boosters: FDA published J&J's brief as part of the upcoming meeting for booster shots. Interestingly, they said there wasn't time for the FDA to complete its own analysis of the data. They concluded "there may be a benefit" to boosting at two months but notes wide confidence intervals, lack of data on Delta. FDA staff makes no recommendation on J&J booster shot
Children's Vaccines: “The White House told governors to start preparing to vaccinate children as young as 5 by early next month in anticipation of clearance of Pfizer’s Covid vaccine for the age group in the coming weeks,” NBC News reports.
STATE
Texas: Gov. Abbott bans any COVID-19 vaccine mandates — including for private employers.
INTERNATIONAL
New Zealand: Most of New Zealand's health care workers and teachers will be legally required to get vaccinated against the coronavirus.
ECONOMIC RECOVERY
Inflation: BLS reported that a key inflation gauge (the CPI-U) rose by 0.4% in September, with the prices for “food and shelter” leading the way.
Represents a 5.4% increase year to date.
Energy prices have risen nearly 25% since 2020, with food prices up 4.6%.
Heather Long points out a key sentence: "The indexes for food and shelter rose in September and together contributed more than half of the monthly all items seasonally adjusted increase."
Businesses are beginning to pass on costs to customers. In September, 46% of small businesses said they planned to raise prices in the next three months
Half of All College Students Take Online Courses: New analysis of ED's Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System found that 51.8% of students took at least one online course in 2019-20. This number is much higher than the 37% reflected in the fall 2019 enrollment data.
RESOURCES
Obesity Rate in Children Climbs Above 20% in 2020: The obesity rate among children ages 2 to 19 increased to 22.4% in 2020 from 19.3% the previous year, according to a new report from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, with the highest rates in Southern states.
October 2021 National Poll on Child Care & Preschool Support: From FFYF
What College Board Learned From One of the Nation's Largest-ever Online Exam Deployments: "Students took about 1.8 million AP exams digitally out of about 4.8 million overall."
"The College Board bought and prepared more than 25,000 laptops to send to any student who needed one, ensuring device access was no barrier"
Q&A With Paige Kowalski: Getting Transparent About Student Data
School Board Protests:
Watch this video of Brevard, FL School Board member Jennifer Jenkins describing some of the threats she and her family have received.
And Brian Jones with a thoughtful piece in the Washington Post.
"Violence or the imminent threat of it, we can all agree, is beyond the pale. But I worry about the Justice Department’s actions seeming to imply that angry, even disruptive and intimidating parents should be silenced."
"As the Justice Department proceeds, I would urge it to do so carefully. For it is also important that our civic institutions and the public servants who lead them model respect for the freedoms of assembly and expression that define us as Americans"
"In the vast territory of civic anger and frustration lies the opportunity for growth and enlightenment, and better decision-making among public servants willing to listen."
It's Wednesday!: We made it. Together.
Here's your happy dance.