Happy Rosh Hashanah and best wishes for a good and sweet new year.
TOP THREE
The Covid Endgame: Is the Pandemic Over Already? Or Are There Years to Go? Marc Fisher in the Washington Post
"Gandhi said she believes the delta variant has hit the United States so hard that this summer will mark the peak of this virus’s strength."
"We’re in a moment of uncertainty, and humans don’t do well with uncertainty,” said Ezekiel Emanuel, a professor of medical ethics and health policy at the University of Pennsylvania. “Telling people it’s going to be two or three more years of this is really hard, but I don’t think anyone can be comfortable with the current state, with a lot of kids ending up in the hospital and a thousand deaths a day. That’s not returning to normal.”
"The virus will continue to mutate and there will continue to be outbreaks, both seasonal and in geographic clusters, but “panicking over case numbers is a recipe for continuing unwarranted panic,” said Jay Bhattacharya, a professor of medicine and health economist at Stanford University"
"Delta comes in like a hurricane, but it leaves a lot of immunity in its wake.”
"The big problem now, Gandhi said, is fear, “excessive fear of the pandemic on both sides,” she said. “Democrats overestimate the death rate and Republicans underestimate it.”
"Swann sees several possible routes back to normal life, including letting the virus burn through the population, focusing on masking and hybrid schooling, or a return to lockdowns. But her preferred pathway is mass vaccination of children — which can only happen after the vaccines are approved for the 5-to-11 age group, a step that’s not expected until at least later this year — along with masking and increased testing."
Child Covid-19 Cases Rise in States Where Schools Opened Earliest: Via WSJ
"In New Mexico, nearly 10% of the state’s 317,000 students have spent time in quarantine, state data show."
"Average daily new cases among school-age children grew at faster rates last month in all 20 states where schools opened in late July and early August, as compared with the states where schools opened later. Half of those states, which include Georgia, Indiana, South Carolina and Louisiana, have seen record rates of new daily infections among children and teens since school started, according to data from the COVKID Project"
Why a Covid-19 Vaccine for Children Is Taking So Long: Really great piece by WSJ - read the whole thing.
"The logistical dance required to make doses safe for children is among the challenges confronting researchers evaluating the vaccines in the youngsters."
"Also complicating the trials, researchers said, federal health regulators demanded that more children be enrolled in the studies than originally planned. Enrolling children takes much longer than for adults because it requires parents’ consent, and some young volunteers don’t work out because they recoil at needles."
"Then to assess whether the shots help, researchers said, they must gauge whether a child falls ill, no easy task with little ones who can’t always verbalize how they are feeling."
FEDERAL
CTC: Resources for connecting families to the Expanded Child Tax Credit
COVID-19 RESEARCH
Boosters:
White House Chief of Staff Ron Klain is walking back the Administration's announcement of making boosters available starting Sept. 20.
A disagreement between the Biden administration and Moderna over booster details may result in beginning boosters with only Pfizer recipients later this month, Axios reports.
Israel to present COVID-19 booster shot data to FDA
Europe's Infectious Disease Agency says no pressing need for boosters
Hospitalizations Associated with COVID-19 Among Children and Adolescents: CDC report:
The hospitalization rate among unvaccinated adolescents aged 12-17 was 10 times higher compared to those who were fully vaccinated.
"COVID-NET data suggest that indicators of severe disease among hospitalized children during an early period when the Delta variant predominated were generally similar to those observed earlier in the pandemic."
In the two week period in mid to late August, ER visits were 3.4 times higher in the states with the lowest vaccination rates and hospitalizations were 3.7 times higher than in states with the highest vaccination rates," CNN reports.
"One in four of the children who were hospitalized needed intensive care."
Masks in School Polling: Axios/Momentive survey and article.
"A majority of parents with school-age children (59%) say they support mask mandates for all students and staff, twice as many (30%) as the number who say they oppose all mask mandates"
"85% of Democrats, 66% of independents, and 32% of Republicans support mask mandates for all students and staff at their child’s school"
"Colorado (37%), Iowa (44%), Minnesota (38%), and Ohio (43%) have some of the strongest opposition to mask mandates among parents of school-age children."
33% of parents are very concerned of a surge in coronavirus cases in their area resulting from the start of the school year.
Get state-by-state numbers here.
Vaccine Efficacy by the Numbers: Emily Oster breaks it down.
75% of Adults (>18) Have Received at Least One Dose: More via NYT Vaccine Tracker
America is Flying Blind When It Comes to the Delta Variant: Writes Eric Topol in the Guardian.
"Still being reported by CDC, from their latest website data, and a constant refrain from public health officials, is that “99.99% of people fully vaccinated against Covid-19 have not had a breakthrough case resulting in hospitalization or death.” That could not be further from the truth."
"In the July Provincetown Delta outbreaks that the CDC reported on the risk of fully vaccinated requiring hospitalization was 1%, not .01%, and that may not be a reliable estimate for the incidence of such infections occurring throughout the country."
"Without tracking, we have no idea of the proportion of people fully vaccinated who are getting ill, hospitalized, or dying."
One in 5,000: The real chances of a breakthrough infection, estimates David Leonhardt.
"I will confess to one bit of hesitation about walking you through the data on breakthrough infections: It’s not clear how much we should be worrying about them. For the vaccinated, Covid resembles the flu and usually a mild one. Society does not grind to a halt over the flu."
"Our level of Covid anxiety is higher, especially in communities that lean to the left politically. And there is no “correct” response to Covid. Different people respond to risk differently."
"As Dr. Monica Gandhi, an infectious-disease specialist at the University of California, San Francisco, wrote on Friday, “The messaging over the last month in the U.S. has basically served to terrify the vaccinated and make unvaccinated eligible adults doubt the effectiveness of the vaccines.” Neither of those views is warranted."
Which States Are Reporting COVID-19 Cases in Schools?: ViaEdWeek. Only 25 states and the District of Columbia provide public dashboards with information on the number of COVID-19 cases in individual schools or districts..
School Disruptions: Burbio's tracker has identified over 1,400 in-person school closures (up from 698 last week) across 278 districts (from 158) in 35 states (from 25).
STATE
Alabama: Almost all schools require masks.
California:
L.A. teachers union drops demand for student vaccine mandate, but wants strict quarantines.
LA Times Editorial: Learning loss is real. Stop pretending otherwise.
"Others have suggested that not only is learning loss a myth but that suggesting it exists is racist because it pigeonholes Black and Latino students and reinforces an unfairly negative image of them. It is, in their eyes, a ploy by capitalist reformers and the companies that create standardized tests to hound public schools."
"It is imperative for the public, parents and policymakers to recognize that this rosy view of the pandemic’s outcome is a form of denial that threatens to compound the harm already visited on vulnerable young people during the last 18 months."
"Standardized tests are not and never should have been the be-all measurement of academic excellence. But they are not the work of the devil; they can be one useful tool for assessing what students are learning and what areas most need addressing."
Iowa:
Iowans sue Gov. Reynolds over mask mandate ban in schools
The 74 with how schools are using CARES Act funding to support mental health services.
Iowa schools are barred by law from a hybrid schedule or moving to online classes only unless they make up the days amid the COVID-19 pandemic, the AP reported.
Maryland: Nearly 1,000 Montgomery County students, staff quarantined
Montana: Teachers unions sign agreement about requiring teachers to wear masks in Billings Public Schools
Nebraska: Schools get conflicting advice on quarantines
"The state Department of Health and Human Services is telling schools that students who had contact with an infected person would not have to quarantine as long as they don’t have any symptoms of COVID-19."
"But the CDC "says that students who aren’t vaccinated and have close contact with an infected person should still quarantine themselves. The CDC says vaccinated people who are showing no symptoms are not required to quarantine after a contact."
Ohio: Unvaccinated, unmasked students exposed to coronavirus could remain in class, under potential pilot project.
"The plan, which is still being worked out, would allow unvaccinated, non-masked students at the 10 districts who are exposed to the virus to remain in class if they wear a mask for a “limited period of time” and are tested on two different occasions, DeWine said during a news conference in Columbus."
The districts suggested the pilot project in a letter to DeWine and Vanderhoff dated last week."
Pennsylvania: Teachers unions have been influential during the COVID-19 pandemic
Texas: Cases tripled in the last three weeks. There are more than 51,000 student cases - up from the 18,000 recorded just two weeks ago. There are also more than 13,000 staff cases.
Utah: "With schools unable to create mask mandates, parents are left to navigate public health advice and sometimes conflicting messages from districts."
"If we are not going to do mask mandates, I’m frustrated we didn’t amp up other ways to keep COVID in check,” said Emily Clifford, the mother of a Holladay first grader who tested positive last week for the coronavirus. “It’s been 18 months. We knew this was going to happen. But we keep making decisions when things are at traumatic levels, versus making any preparations.”
INTERNATIONAL
Chile: Chilean health regulator approves CoronaVac use among children over age 6
Denmark: Eases school Covid-19 rules: close contacts can stay in class
"From now on it will only be the infected (children) who will have to go into self-isolation. Children who are close contacts are recommended testing so they can stay at their school or daycare"
Israel:
Israel is planning to administer FOURTH Covid shot which could be adjusted to fight new variants as country battles wave of infections despite hugely successful vaccine roll-out
How home COVID-19 tests keep 180,000 students in school.
Related, here in the U.S. Eric Topol is frustrated because there are "30 different rapid home tests sitting at the FDA, some since April, that could provide guidance for kids, teachers, staff, parents each day, in <15 mins, infectious or not."
UK:
UK minister: no decision yet on COVID-19 vaccines for healthy children
On Friday the JCVI recommended widening the existing vaccine program to include an extra 200,000 12 to 15-year-olds with specific underlying conditions
Nadhim Zahawi, the vaccines minister, said 12- to 15-year-olds could override their parents’ decision on vaccination “if they’re deemed to be competent to make that decision, with all the information available”.
England could have ‘a difficult few weeks’ as schools reopen, says Neil Ferguson, professor of Infectious Disease Epidemiology at Imperial College London.
A quarter of English children need a year to catch up on learning lost to Covid.
"England’s schools must be made safe:" An open letter to the education secretary from a number of scientists. Calls for reinstating masks, providing the vaccine for teens, and offering remote learning options.
ECONOMIC RECOVERY
A Generation of American Men Give Up on College: ‘I Just Feel Lost’: Via WSJ
"At the close of the 2020-21 academic year, women made up 59.5% of college students, an all-time high, and men 40.5%."
"Among University of Vermont undergraduates, about 55% of male students graduate in four years compared with 70% of women."
Goldman Cuts Growth Forecast as Consumer Sees ‘Harder Path’: Growth now expected at 5.7% vs the previous forecast of 6% reports Bloomberg.
Expanded Unemployment Benefits: Expired over the weekend.
RESOURCES
Will 2020s Missing Students Find Their Way Back to Classrooms?: Asks the Hunt Institute's Javaid Siddiqi
Understanding Parent Expectations and Concerns about Their Children Returning to School: PTA survey.
Delta Surge is Test for US Schools as Classrooms Reopen: Via the FT
As Districts Insist on Vaccines, Some Teachers Push Back: Via The AP
Two Districts — One in Suburban Virginia, the Other in Rural Pennsylvania — Shows How Divided School Leaders Are: Via Washington Post.
Student Learning Pods — From Crisis Response to Sustainable Solution?: CRPE via The 74
"37% of all learning pods identified in the database operated through the full 2020-21 school year."
"Many of the learning pods that existed before the pandemic as afterschool programs or summer camps switched back to their pre-pandemic programming. For example, as schools opened, some YMCAs, Boys & Girls Clubs, and other afterschool enrichment clubs simply closed their school-day supervision."
"But others continued on. Some, like the Equity Pods network, which supported culturally relevant community-based pods across the country for Black and brown students, finished out the school year even as districts in some locations opened for at least some of the year."
No Better Way to Start September: Than jumping around on a trampoline with your dog.