FRIDAY 8/20
TOP THREE
Student Vaccine Mandate: "Culver City Unified School District is believed to be the first in the state of California — and possibly the nation — to require students 12 and older to be inoculated," reports the NYT.
Understanding The Opposition to Masks:
I thought this long essay by Allie Beth Stuckey might provide some perspective into parents who are opposing masks: Why Kids (And You) Shouldn’t Be Forced to Mask
And this article by David Zweig, "The Science of Masking Kids at School Remains Uncertain"
"Many of America’s peer nations around the world — including the U.K., Ireland, all of Scandinavia, France, the Netherlands, Switzerland, and Italy — have exempted kids, with varying age cutoffs, from wearing masks in classrooms. Conspicuously, there’s no evidence of more outbreaks in schools in those countries."
"These countries, along with the World Health Organization, whose child-masking guidance differs substantially from the CDC’s recommendations, have explicitly recognized that the decision to mask students carries with it potential academic and social harms for children and may lack a clear benefit."
"After the CDC and the AAP issued their student-mask guidance last month, I contacted both organizations asking for the evidence or underlying data upon which they had based their recommendations. The AAP did not respond to multiple requests. The CDC press office replied that since children under 12 cannot be vaccinated, the agency “recommends schools do universal masking” and included links to unrelated materials on vaccines and a recent outbreak among adults."
"One of the costs of an intervention that lacks clear benefit, said the immunologist, is distraction from the tools that we know protect people — in the case of schools, vaccination and ventilation."
And this Tweet from a Professor at the Harvard Medical School: "With open schools and no masks for ages 1-15 in Sweden, there were zero COVID deaths among its 1.8M children during the first wave. Teachers had lower risk than average of other professions. So, we knew early on that schools are safe without masks."
Via Charles Cooke, "No, Republican Governors Are Not ‘Banning Masks in Classrooms’"
We Failed to Protect Our Youngest Kids From COVID-19. We Are About to Fail Them Again: Via IHME's
Skip AdStephen Lim:
"Recent data on the Delta variant is alarming. The virus in this form is twice as infectious. Multiple studies show that while vaccines protect against severe disease, protection against infection from the Delta variant may wane within months."
"Viral loads are similar in vaccinated and unvaccinated individuals infected with Delta, suggesting that a vaccinated person who is infected can just as easily infect others. The Delta variant also leads to higher rates of hospitalization."
"The 3 feet of physical distancing recommended by the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, which SPS is following “to the extent possible,” is an outdated standard based on less transmissible variants."
"The mandate for vaccination for school employees announced Wednesday by Gov. Jay Inslee will help but it will be at least six weeks — well after the start of the school year — for it to be fully effective."
"These requirements push families toward in-person school or toward home schooling. The former is unethical and arguably negligent. The latter is only realistic for a lucky few. Instead of this punitive option, Seattle Public Schools must offer a remote-learning option for all children through their current school which allows a return to in-person schooling. This has the added benefit of reducing the number of children in-person, further reducing risk."
FEDERAL
CDC Eviction Ban Likely Headed to Supreme Court: Via the AP: “A federal appeals court on Friday allowed the pause on evictions imposed by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to remain in place, setting up a likely battle before the nation’s highest court.”
COVID-19 RESEARCH
Booster Debate:
CDC Director Dr. Walensky said we may not need yearly Covid-19 booster shots. She also said boosters were needed now in order to "stay ahead" of the virus.
Via KHN: "As some scientists see it, the announcement is rash and based on weak evidence, and they worry it could undercut confidence in vaccines with no clear benefit of controlling the pandemic. Meanwhile, more information is needed on potential side effects or adverse effects from a booster shot, they say."
"Meanwhile, questions abound. Will boosters for fully vaccinated adults make the virus less transmissible ― that is, slower or less likely to spread to others? “I certainly hope that’s the case … but the bottom line, with full transparency, we don’t know that right now,” Dr. Anthony Fauci, Biden’s chief medical adviser, said Wednesday."
Via NPR, "By diverting doses away from unvaccinated people, booster shots will help drive the emergence of more dangerous mutants, the WHO doctors said."
"Any available vaccine should first go to people around the world who are at high risk of hospitalization and deaths, said Dr. Michael Ryan of the WHO. "If we think about this in terms of an analogy, we're planning to hand out extra life jackets to people who already have life jackets, while we're leaving other people to drown without a single life jacket."
Masks Are a Must-Have to Go Back to School during the Delta Variant Surge: Via Scientific American
IHME: Weekly briefing and forecast. I thought this graphic of ICU utilization was interesting in showing the waves within states.
"At the national level, cases and deaths continue to rise due to the Delta surge. Some states including Missouri, Arkansas, and Louisiana appear to have peaked. Our reference forecast from two weeks ago predicted these peaks, and our current reference scenario suggests many states and the country as a whole should see reported cases peak in the next 2–3 weeks."
How CDC Data Problems Put the U.S. Behind on the Delta Variant: Via the Washington Post
"When Pfizer representatives met with senior U.S. government health officials on July 12, they laid out why they thought booster shots would soon be necessary in the United States. Data from Israel showed the vaccine’s effectiveness waned over time, especially in older and immunocompromised people."
"But officials from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention disagreed, saying their own data showed something quite different, according to four people with direct knowledge of the meeting who spoke on the condition of anonymity."
"Other senior health officials in the meeting were stunned. Why hadn’t the CDC looped other government officials on the data? Could the agency share it — at least with the Food and Drug Administration, which was responsible for deciding whether booster shots were necessary? But CDC officials demurred, saying they planned to publish it soon."
"They say the CDC’s inability to share real-time information led top administration officials, including the president himself, to offer overly rosy assessments of the vaccines’ effectiveness against delta that may have lulled Americans into a false sense of security, even as a more wily and formidable variant was taking hold."
STATE
America's Patchwork Back-to-School Plan:Axios reports from nine cities.
Arizona:
Colorado River Union High School District Governing Board passed a rule saying staff cannot discuss vaccination status or mask-wearing with students.
A for Arizona selected to administer new public K-12 transportation grant program
Florida: A judge denied a request by Governor DeSantis to throw out a lawsuit challenging his ban on mask mandates in schools, setting up a clash next week that could see the court block his executive order.
Hawaii: DOE officials said that more than 2,300 students are in distance programs at schools, another 660 preferred State programs. The waitlist will shrink as more teachers are hired, but schools also have to plan for distance learning when kids face quarantine shutdowns.
Kentucky: Federal judge blocks Kentucky governor's school mask mandate
New Jersey: Gov. Murphy is expected to announce teachers must be vaccinated for COVID.
Oregon: “Gov. Brown announced that Oregon is expanding its COVID-19 vaccine requirement to include all teachers, educators, support staff and volunteers in K-12 schools,” the AP reports.
Texas:
TEA reverses course, now says schools must notify families when kids are exposed to COVID
Children with disabilities sue Gov. Abbott over ban on school mask mandates
Houston schools report 40% more COVID cases overnight. HISD to offer virtual learning option for students too young to get COVID vaccine who have a compromised immune system
Dallas ISD brings back 90 day virtual option
Virginia: Alexandria and Fairfax teachers and staff will have to submit proof of vaccination or take routine COVID-19 tests.
ECONOMIC RECOVERY
Cutoff of Jobless Benefits Is Found to Get Few Back to Work: Via NYT
"Data released Friday by the Labor Department provided the latest evidence. It showed that the states that cut benefits have experienced job growth similar to — and perhaps slightly slower than — growth in states that retained the benefits."
In an NBER paper, researchers "found that ending the benefits did have an effect on employment: In states that cut off benefits, about 26 percent of people in the study were working in early August, compared with about 22 percent of people in states that continued the benefits.
RESOURCES
Why America’s Largest Teachers’ Union Refuses to Support Vaccine Mandates: Well worth your time reading thisinterview with The Atlantic's Emma Green and NEA's Becky Pringle.
"We have been working the whole year to try to ensure that every single school has the big R: resources."
"The CDC is continuing to do research and trying to understand this Delta variant. We know already that it’s more virulent. We know already that there are more cases of infection, and that those infections are leading to more severe illness. [Atlantic Editor’s note: The CDC has found that Delta is more transmissible than other dominant variants, leading to quickly rising case rates. Research on whether it leads to more severe disease is still not definitive.] "
"So it sounds like you don’t support vaccine mandates?: Pringle: We are calling for districts and employers to work directly with educators and their unions to address the complexities of vaccinations and accommodations that will need to be made for educators."
"The reason I’m pressing you on this is that we know that vaccines are the No. 1 way to stop the spread of COVID-19...Knowing that, why would the NEA not be in support of a mandate for teachers to get vaccinated and make their classrooms safer for themselves and for their students? Pringle: It goes back to what I said earlier. We know the complexities of vaccinations. We have to make sure that school districts work with educators to address accommodations that need to be made, whether it is [reaching] those who have not yet been vaccinated or ensuring that any adults who are with students are being tested."
"Just to push back for a minute, we have data that suggest that the tension over schooling is not just manufactured by politicians and the media. Trust in public schools has really plummeted over the pandemic. Homeschooling rates in the United States spiked significantly over the past year....Are you worried that the long-term effect of keeping schools closed last year will diminish public trust in public schooling, and that fewer parents will want their kids in public school?: Pringle: My No. 1 concern is for our students and educators. We know that in-person learning is best for our students. It is the best way for educators to nurture and educate them. We know that over the pandemic, parents had to make very hard decisions about what to do to keep their students safe and ensure they continued to learn..."
AEI's Michael Strain: "Here’s the simple truth: The U.S. needs to be okay with some children catching Covid. It’s a hard thing to say. But it would be in the long-term interest of children and parents."
"Kids who test positive should stay home until they are no longer contagious. Everyone else should be free to stay in classrooms for in-person learning, confident in the knowledge that childhood deaths from Covid are extremely uncommon. Shutting down classrooms and schools may be reasonable in cities with overwhelmed hospitals. But remote learning should be the rare exception, not the default."
Higher Education Institutions Delaying Reopening:
Clemson University averted a planned faculty walkout Wednesday, the first day of classes, by announcing a three-week indoor mask mandate.
Rice University is shifting classes online for the first two weeks of the semester as Covid-19 cases increase in the Houston area. The school also plans to push back the start of classes by two days to Aug. 25.
Spelman College’s faculty council told students that they would no longer teach in-person classes, citing a lack of “clear and enforceable” safety guidelines from the school administration,
Poll on Masking Fight: New Economist/YouGov data shows that the governors have maintained popularity among Republicans as they each gear up for a fight with the Biden administration over masking.
"Americans overall believe masking should be required in K-12 schools (52% say this), though partisanship affects opinion. Four in five Democrats (82%) support requiring masks in schools, compared to half of Independents (48%) and one-quarter (26%) of Republicans."
"Women (60%) are far more likely than men (44%) to support requiring masks in schools, and opinion in the South is much like national opinion (53% support it)."
The Health Case for Getting Kids Back to School in Person: Via KFF's President Drew Altman
"Almost half (47%) of parents whose kids attended school virtually or a mix of in-person and virtual during the last school year say they fell behind academically compared with a quarter (26%) of parents whose kids attended all or mostly in person."
"One in five (22%) parents of kids who went to school say their kids experienced mental health or behavioral problems due to COVID, but the number rose to 39% for kids whose school experience was largely through a computer screen."
Back to School for All: AFT's summary of their back to school tour.
Hold On: It's been a long week, during a long month, during a long year. So enjoy H.E.R. And Kodi Lee performing "Hold On"
Kodi's back story. And here's his performance in honor of his mom.