Top Three
FDA Authorizes Pfizer Vaccine for Kids 5 to 11: Announcement here. More via Stat.
"As a mother and a physician, I know that parents, caregivers, school staff, and children have been waiting for today’s authorization. Vaccinating younger children against COVID-19 will bring us closer to returning to a sense of normalcy,” said Acting FDA Commissioner Janet Woodcock, M.D. “Our comprehensive and rigorous evaluation of the data pertaining to the vaccine’s safety and effectiveness should help assure parents and guardians that this vaccine meets our high standards.”
CDC approval is expected as early as next Tuesday.
Oakland's Plan: Transfer or Unenroll Unvaccinated Students: "Public school students who are 12 or older and have not been vaccinated against Covid-19 by January will either be transferred to an independent-study school or dropped from enrollment entirely, under a plan the approved by district’s Board of Education."
"Unvaccinated students who do not agree to be transferred to that school will be unenrolled “after having been provided with sufficient information and opportunities to access the Covid-19 vaccine as well as progressive warnings."
"Based on current vaccination rates, the Oakland memorandum said, African American, Latino or multiracial students are more likely than others to be unenrolled under the vaccination policy."
"Reasons for exemption include medical, personal belief and students who have had a single vaccine dose and are waiting to receive a second shot."
Some Parents Were Eager to Get the Coronavirus Vaccine. Now They Are Wavering on Vaccinating Their Kids: Via Washington Post:
"When a coronavirus vaccine became authorized for emergency use in the United States, Roberta Satill and her husband took it without hesitation. But... Satill is wavering on whether to vaccinate her children, who fall within that age group. The 45-year-old mother from Longwood, Fla., said she has kept her kids up-to-date on their other vaccines, but she worries about possible short- and long-term side effects from the coronavirus vaccine and whether it’s worth any perceived risks, especially given that infections have been declining nationwide."
“It’s a risk-versus-reward decision,” said Lyons, whose children are 7, 6 and 3. “And I guess my hesitation comes in that I don’t know what the real risk of covid-19 illness is for my children. Information seems to be very difficult to come by — good information, reliable information, seems difficult to come by in terms of pediatric risk.”
"But Cydney, who spoke on the condition that her last name not be used to protect her privacy, said she worried that the sample size of 2,268 participants in Pfizer’s trial was too small and that the vaccine was not studied for long enough. She also cited the lower rate of hospitalization from the coronavirus in children than in adults."
“I have been advocating for childhood vaccinations for nearly a decade, attempting to assure parents who are unsure of getting their children vaccinated against measles, tetanus, polio, etc., that the vaccines are well studied, safe, and effective,” Cydney wrote in an email. “I cannot confidently say that about the COVID vaccines yet, so I will not be vaccinating my children with the COVID vaccine at this time.”
"I think we were all kind of misled that by getting vaccinated, life could go back to normal. But that turned out not to be true,” said the woman, 40. She said she and her husband were also vaccinated against the coronavirus."
"Hayes, 38, said he is not against getting the vaccine for his daughter, but he is concerned about potential adverse reactions such as myocarditis, a condition characterized by inflammation of the heart muscle. He said he was willing to accept possible risks for himself, but he does not want to make that decision for his child."
Federal
Build Back Better Framework:
H.R. 5376, Build Back Better Act
White House Resources
USDA: Announced that they will begin accepting applications for the Rural eConnectivity Program (ReConnect Program) for Fiscal Year (FY) 2022.
The ReConnect Program will provide a total of $1.15 billion in loans, grants and loan-grant combinations to help rural communities gain access to high-speed internet through the promotion of broadband deployment.
USDA will begin accepting applications for the program on November 24, 2021, and applications can be submitted on the ReConnect Program website.
COVID-19 Research
Biden to Push Schools to Set Up Routine COVID Testing for Kids, Staff: "The Biden administration is launching a new effort with The Rockefeller Foundation to encourage schools to set up surveillance COVID testing for students and staff."
"The effort, which will be led by the Education Department and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, comes seven months after President Joe Biden pledged $10 billion for testing by schools."
"Starting Nov. 2 through December, the Biden administration and The Rockefeller Foundation will host twice weekly sessions with experts to walk school districts through how to set up a testing program."
What COVID Vaccines for Young Kids Could Mean for the Pandemic: Via Nature:
"mRNA-based vaccines have been linked to a very small risk of myocarditis, an inflammation of the heart muscle, and pericarditis, an inflammation of the lining around the heart, particularly in young men. But there were no reports of either condition in the 5- to 11-year olds involved in the trial, which is a very encouraging sign, says Andrew Pavia, chief of the division of pediatric infectious diseases at University of Utah Health in Salt Lake City."
"The COVID-19 Scenario Modeling Hub, which in September released its ninth forecast of the pandemic’s trajectory, factoring in how a vaccine for children aged 5–11 could affect new US infections and deaths."
"The forecast, which averages the predictions of nine other modeling teams, shows that although vaccines for kids would lead to lower case counts…But the data show that if a concerning variant were to emerge by mid-November, inoculating children could make a significant difference to the course of the pandemic in the United States."
COVID Now a 'Major Cause of Death' in Kids But Many Parents Remain Hesitant on Vaccine: Long piece at Newsweek.
Financial Incentives and Other Nudges Do Not Increase COVID-19 Vaccinations among the Vaccine Hesitant: NBER paper.
"We randomly assigned unvaccinated members of a Medicaid managed care health plan to $10 or $50 financial incentives, different public health messages, a simple appointment scheduler, or control to assess impacts on SARS-CoV-2 vaccination intentions and vaccine uptake within 30 days of intervention."
"While messages increased vaccination intentions, none of the treatments increased overall vaccination rates."
"Our study also provides some suggestive evidence on the potential for financial incentives and messaging to backfire. Some experts worry that financial incentives and other perks may have the perverse effect of validating vaccine concerns among the SARS-CoV-2 vaccine hesitant because they are not typically used for other vaccination campaigns."
"The results of our heterogeneity analysis suggest that financial incentives may have had this effect for still unvaccinated individuals who are aged 40 and those who supported Trump in the 2020 presidential election."
"Similarly, negatively framed messages that emphasize the direct health consequences of SARS-CoV-2 infection have been controversial, with some concerned about the potential backlash among the unvaccinated. Consistent with this hypothesis, we find evidence that such negatively framed messages may decrease vaccinations for men and those under 40, depending on the messenger."
Should My Child Get a Coronavirus Vaccine? Is It Safe? Here’s What You Should Know: Via Washington Post.
NYC's Vaccine Mandate: "New York City workers, including members of the police and fire departments, face a 5 p.m. deadline to receive at least the initial shot of a coronavirus vaccine."
20% of the New York Police Department’s 55,000 officers and civilian employees had yet to comply
At the Fire Department, 29% of the 17,000 personnel had not complied.
They will be placed on unpaid leave “until they show proof of vaccination to their supervisor,” the mayor’s office has said.
Only 26% of Pregnant Women Are Vaccinated Against COVID-19, New Survey Sheds Light on the Reasons Why: Via Maven.
Most do not know the CDC recommends vaccines during pregnancy.
Misinformation about vaccine safety from a broad array of sources, including but not limited to the medical community.
The majority of unvaccinated pregnant people do not plan to get vaccinated during their pregnancy.
The most important factor they take into account when deciding to get vaccinated is the health and safety of their baby.
CDC Study: Suggest vaccination protects much better against Covid than having been previously infected.
State
Colorado: "Three sisters were part of a COVID-19 vaccine trial. They hope other kids get the vaccine."
Florida: After the Florida Department of Education withheld funds from two school districts amid an ongoing mask mandate fight, ED filed a complaint asking an administrative judge to block Gov. Ron DeSantis’ administration’s actions.
Illinois: New data out that suggests the number of students enrolled statewide dropped by almost 70,000.
That 3.6% drop in enrollment, the largest in over 15 years. Chicago Public Schools enrollment was down 2.5%
The rate of chronic absenteeism, defined as students missing at least 1 in 10 school days, rose from 17.5% in 2019 to 21.2% in 2021.
For English language arts, the percent meeting or exceeding standards dropped from 22.6% in 2019 to 15.6% in 2021, while in math the drop was from 11.1% to 5.9%.
New York:
NYC enrollment has dropped by about 50,000 students since the fall of 2019, the Department of Education said on Friday
Only 1 in 5 NYC students took last year’s state tests, making results almost moot.
NYC will receive 231,000 pediatric COVID vaccine doses next week. How will shots get in arms?
Washington: According to data from the Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction, 90.4% of staff who work in classrooms in close proximity to students have been fully vaccinated.
International
EU: W.H.O. urges schools in Europe to remain open, despite a surge in cases.
South Korea: Will fully resume in-person school classes on Nov. 22.
Uganda: Schools to reopen in January.
UK:
"Young people are being urged to do a rapid Covid test before they return to school after half-term to prevent more new infections....The UK Health Security Agency says cases among 10 to 19-year-olds are currently the highest of any age group."
Another article on the EPI research: "Average learning losses for primary school pupils were over 2 months in reading and over 3 months in maths by the end of the spring term, before recovering by the summer term as pupils were able to return to in-person learning in schools."
Resources
Students Who Learned Remotely Felt They Mattered Less: "A study of Canadian students suggests that children who learned remotely during the COVID-19 pandemic reported they felt they ‘mattered less’ than their peers who studied in-person."
"These results were not driven by a selection effect for school choice during the pandemic—our experimental design showed that students’ perceptions of mattering did not differ by current learning modality when they were asked to reflect on their experiences before the pandemic even though some were also learning online full-time at the time they responded to our questions. No gender differences were found."
"The study found that elementary school students who attended school in-person reported feeling that they mattered the most, followed by secondary school students who learned part-time in-person and the rest of the time online."
What Science Says About Helping Students Catch Up After COVID Closures: Jill Barshay in The 74.
"Research points to intensive daily tutoring as one of the most effective ways to help academically struggling children catch up."
"Afterschool programs might seem like a good idea because they give teachers extra time to cover material that students missed last year. But getting students to attend faithfully is a chronic problem."
"Repeating a grade, what educators call retention, might make intuitive sense, especially for students who missed most of the past year at school and weren’t able to engage with online instruction. ...It’s not clear if the retention research is a good guide right now."
"One promising approach is to assign students who are far behind to both a remedial class and a grade-level class simultaneously."
"A May 2021 report by a nonprofit online math provider, Zearn, found that students learned more math during the 2020-21 school year when truncated review material was woven into grade-level lessons than when they were retaught many of the previous year’s lessons. This comparison of the two approaches using education technology is promising, but more research is needed."
2021 Testing Participation Varies Widely: Via K12 Dive using CRPE data.
Understanding Student Monitoring: Via FPF
"During the pandemic, 12 more of the 25 largest school districts in the country started using monitoring technology for suicide prevention."
Sometimes You Think You Can't Do It: So surround yourself with people who believe you can (wait for the 0:48 mark).
Happy Halloween from Bentley: