Top Three
Moderna and Teens: Moderna said on Sunday that the FDA is probing whether their vaccine can cause a rare side effect - myocarditis - in teens
"On Friday evening, the FDA informed Moderna that the agency requires additional time to evaluate recent international analyses of the risk of myocarditis after vaccination. The FDA notified Moderna that this review may not be completed before January 2022."
"Moderna also said it would delay asking the FDA to authorize use of a lower dose of its shot in even younger children, ages 6 to 11, while the agency continues to review its request to clear the shots in adolescents."
Florida Districts Easing Mask Requirements: Via Tampa Bay Times
"Orange County students can stop wearing face masks if their parents provide a note opting them out. In Broward County, high school students can choose to wear a mask starting Monday, and it’s strongly encouraged, but it will still be mandatory for middle and elementary school students."
"Orange County Public Schools’ 60-day mask mandate expired Saturday. Schools Superintendent Barbara Jenkins said it would not be extended in part because of the “significant reduction in the number of COVID-19 cases in Orange County.”
"In Broward County, board members said mask mandates and current quarantine policies should stay in place for the lower grades until a coronavirus vaccine is widely available for children ages 5 through 11."
Manatee County schools lifted their mask mandate as did Marion County schools, Seminole County schools. Brevard County schools are making masks optional in grades 7-12 and require a parent opt-out for grades K-6.
We Need to Talk About an Off-Ramp for Masking at School: Argues Jessica Grose in the NYT.
"Because the masking issue has been so divisive, I fear we haven’t been able to have a practical, nuanced and data-driven conversation about what a good masking policy would look like now that nearly all school-age kids can soon be vaccinated."
"To get a feel for what an off-ramp for in-school masking could look like, I interviewed 11 experts over the past week, including pediatricians, infectious disease specialists and environmental scientists who specialize in indoor transmission. It became clear that this issue won’t get sorted out easily, because these experts weren’t always unanimous."
"We should talk about where there is widespread agreement among experts: Every person I spoke to said children 5 and up should get the vaccine. The other point of significant agreement was that masks can be useful tools in our Covid prevention kit, along with measures like proper ventilation and widely available rapid testing."
"Many experts I spoke to mentioned Nevada as a model for how schools might think about creating off-ramp policies for masks. What’s nice about the state’s policy for indoor masking is it also provides a ramp back on if there are Covid surges — “an on-and-off switch based on local transmission rates."
"Whatever individual communities and states decide about what makes sense for them, part of the reason it’s necessary to talk about concrete benchmarks for unmasking is because the pandemic has created, for some, deep uncertainty."
Federal
White House: Press Secretary Psaki tested positive over the weekend. Wishing her a speedy recovery.
White House: More details on the Rockefeller Foundation partnership: Biden Administration Announces Additional Actions to Increase COVID-19 Screening Testing in Schools and Keep Students Safe.
Reconciliation:
Over the weekend, reports emerged that the House aimed to pass BIF and the reconciliation bill on Tuesday.
But then reports emerged Monday morning of the vote being delayed due to drafting issues.
And then Sen. Manchin called a press conference and upended the timeline. Over to Punchbowl:
Manchin called for an immediate vote on the $1 trillion bipartisan infrastructure bill. “Holding this bill hostage is not going to work in getting my support for [a] reconciliation bill."
Manchin accused Democratic leaders of engaging in “shell games” to hide the true cost of the reconciliation package: “However, as more of the real details outline the basic framework are released, what I see are shell games, budget gimmicks that make the real cost of the so-called $1.75 trillion bill estimated to be almost twice that amount.”
Also - the timetable for a vote likely meant members would have to vote on it without a CBO score. That seems to have been a dealbreaker for several moderates.
Politico on what went wrong last week: “What happened next is a dizzying fall of dominos. Biden didn’t directly ask House Democrats to pass his bipartisan infrastructure bill, leaving Pelosi to make the request. Then Jayapal’s progressives dug in against the infrastructure vote that the speaker wanted to tee up — using the president’s lack of a request for cover. The top three Democrats knew they were within striking distance of passing the bill that morning and were left dumbfounded by the lack of a direct ask from Biden. They all agreed that’s why they couldn’t get the votes."
Also via Punchbowl, "Immigration remains unresolved as well. This is a topic that’s not getting nearly enough attention. Three House Democrats -- Reps. Chuy Garcia (Ill.), Lou Correa (Calif.) and Adriano Espaillat (N.Y.) -- have vowed to oppose both the reconciliation package and the bipartisan infrastructure bill unless immigration-related provisions -- including a pathway to citizenship for Dreamers, TPS holders and other groups -- is added to the Build Back Better Act. The problem, of course, is that the Senate parliamentarian has already ruled those out on two occasions. Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin and Sen. Robert Menendez (D-N.J.) have been working on a “Plan C” for the parliamentarian, but it’s unclear when that ruling could be issued."
Vaccine Mandate:
"The Biden administration will publish in the coming days a rule requiring businesses to ensure their employees are vaccinated against Covid-19, the Department of Labor said on Monday," CNBC reports.
"The AFL-CIO and about two dozen other major unions representing teachers, service employees, meat processing plant, auto and steel workers spoke with the Biden administration on its proposed safety rule in an Oct. 18 teleconference call with White House officials from OMB."
"Three of the biggest labor groups, specifically the AFL-CIO, the Service Employees International Union and the United Food and Commercial Workers International Union... asked the administration to expand employee protections, requiring employers to improve ventilation and enforce mask rules and social distancing. Reindel said companies should also be required to conduct a risk assessment, in consultation with labor, to determine which combination of mitigation measures are needed to best protect their employees in the workplace."
16 states plan to sue over federal vaccine mandates
AGs from Alaska, Arkansas, Iowa, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, New Hampshire, North Dakota, South Dakota and Wyoming joined the lawsuit, which was filed in a federal district court in Missouri.
Georgia is planning to file a similar federal lawsuit to block the requirement for contractors. That suit will include complaints from Alabama, Idaho, Kansas, West Virginia, Utah and South Carolina.
How state/city mandates are playing out:
26 FDNY firehouse companies out of service over vaccine mandate staff shortage.
Some early data from Washington and Oregon give a sense of what we might expect with religious exemptions: 11% of Oregon's state executive branch workers, nearly double the rate of faith-based exemptions approved for state workers in Washington; 19% at the Oregon Department of Corrections and 14% for Oregon State Police to 2% at the Higher Education Coordinating Commission and none at the Oregon Public Utility Commission.
COVID-19 Research
Large Study Shows High Protection of 3 vs 2 Pfizer COVID Vaccine Doses: A third Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine dose is 92% more effective in reducing severe COVID-related outcomes than two doses of the same vaccine received at least 5 months previously (study, commentary, news release).
"A large population study by Noam Barda and colleagues, in The Lancet, reports a natural experiment on booster doses in Israel. Different rates of severe breakthrough infections of COVID-19 were studied, comparing matched pairs of individuals who received either two or three doses of Pfizer–BioNTech's BNT162b2 mRNA vaccine."
"In a well designed study using clinically relevant endpoints, the authors report a 85% reduction in the incidence of COVID-19-related admission to hospital, 76% reduction in severe disease, and 94% reduction in COVID-19-related deaths, when the three-dose group was compared to the two-dose group."
Pfizer for Kids: First picture of the packaging of the vaccine for 5-11 year olds.
Johnson & Johnson: New study from the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota found that a person who received the vaccine was 3.5 times as likely to develop brain blood clots as an average person before the pandemic.
Face the Nation Interview: With Dr. Claire Boogaard, a pediatrician who oversees the COVID vaccine program at Children's National Hospital in DC and was part of the Pfizer trial.
Covid Shots Are a Go for Children, but Parents Are Reluctant to Consent: Via NYT
Covid Was Not Developed as a Bio-Weapon: According to an intelligence report declassified and published by the DNI on Friday.
"The IC assesses that SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, probably emerged and infected humans through an initial small-scale exposure that occurred no later than November 2019 with the first known cluster of COVID-19 cases arising in Wuhan, China in December 2019."
"In addition, the IC was able to reach broad agreement on several other key issues. We judge the virus was not developed as a biological weapon."
"Most agencies also assess with low confidence that SARS-CoV-2 probably was not genetically engineered; however, two agencies believe there was not sufficient evidence to make an assessment either way."
"As of August 2021, we still have not observed genetic signatures in SARS-CoV-2 that would be diagnostic of genetic engineering, according to the IC’s understanding of the virus. Similarly, we have not identified any existing coronavirus strains that could have plausibly served as a backbone if SARS-CoV-2 had been genetically engineered."
CDC Plagued by Confusing Messaging: Via Yahoo News.
"Former Baltimore Health Commissioner Leana Wen told Yahoo News in an email that “it would be helpful if the CDC can specify what conditions masks are no longer needed — for example, if everyone in a workplace or school is vaccinated and tested, or if everyone is vaccinated and the community transmission is below a certain level.”
"Inside the CDC, there is a feeling of exhaustion and exasperation, both with an unpredictable pandemic and the persistent stream of misinformation, much of it coming from conservative media, that has frustrated attempts at clarity, nuance and flexibility."
"Even as the Delta variant subsides, Walensky has made no suggestion that mask guidance will be revised, at least on the federal level. She has made clear that the CDC will continue to recommend masking in schools, too, even as children between the ages of 5 and 11 stand to receive their inoculations in November."
“We are acting like it was before we had vaccines,” said Dr. Monica Gandhi, an infectious disease expert at the University of California at San Francisco."
State
Arizona: Gov. Ducey to fight threats by the Biden administration to strip Arizona of $163 million in federal COVID-19 relief dollars.
"Deputy Treasury Secretary Adewale Adeyemo said that runs afoul of legal requirements to use those dollars to finance "evidence-based efforts to stop the spread of COVID-19.''
"Ducey, for his part, said Friday he's doing nothing wrong. "It's going to schools that follow the law,'' he said. That refers to a state law, approved by the Republican-controlled legislature earlier this year, which forbids schools from imposing mask mandates."
Hawaii: Contact tracing device plans at Maui school spur protests.
"The wearable device produced by SaferMe comes in the form of a card attached to a lanyard that should be worn unobstructed around the neck. Using Bluetooth technology to record when it comes close to another user, the cards do not track locations or personal information and are not equipped with GPS, according to a school email to parents."
Maryland: State officials advising school systems to relax rules on quarantines.
International
Canada: Ontario will provide a supply of take-home testing kits to all publicly funded schools starting in mid-November.
Pandemic Threatens to Drive Unprecedented Number of Children into Learning Poverty: World Bank report.
Economic Recovery
Google: Is giving all U.S. community colleges free access to their four career certificates.
Microsoft: Launched a national campaign to help community colleges expand the cybersecurity workforce
Resources
Digital Equity Guide: Released by The Learning Accelerator.
What Teachers Who Might Quit Are Really Thinking: Via EdWeek
Why Personalized Learning Works in Some Schools, But Not in Others: EdWeek's Alyson Klein interviews Dabae Lee, an assistant professor at Kennesaw State University in Georgia, on her paper, "Differences in personalized learning practice and technology use in high- and low-performing learner-centered schools in the United States."
Where Voters Find Common Ground on Race & K-12 Education: New polling by Echelon Insights for PIE Net.
A Dad Replicates the Marshmallow Test With His Boys: The result was hysterical.
Hope you had a great Halloween. There was a tremendous amount of joy and laughter in my neighborhood this year. The kids seemed to enjoy themselves too. Very few Star Wars characters but a surprising number of firefighters and witches. Teddy went as Super Dog.
A quick update on Bentley. Over the summer, he was diagnosed with degenerative myelopathy which is a disease affecting the spinal cord. He's not in any pain, but the condition has led to him losing the ability of using his back legs. Walking is difficult and mostly involves me holding up his back while he walks with his front legs. He just got some new wheels which helps with his mobility and the timing was perfect for Halloween since he resembled Rex from PAW Patrol.