This was going to be a brief update but then a bunch of studies were released including an entire K12 education supplemental with the journal Pediatrics. Pfizer also asked the FDA to approve boosters for all adults, more than 400,000 children under 12 have already been vaccinated, the FCC released another round of ECF funding, and more. So let's get to it...
Top Three
Pfizer Asks The FDA to Authorize a Booster Dose for Everyone Over 18: Official request.
"The FDA could clear the request by the end of the month, according to health officials who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the issue. The officials are concerned about studies showing waning vaccine protection, as well as increased infections in parts of the United States," the Washington Post reports.
Quarantine Elimination for K–12 Students With Mask-on-Mask Exposure to SARS-CoV-2: New paper that explored the impact of eliminating quarantine for students with mask-on-mask exposures to COVID-19 on associated secondary transmission in schools.
"18,632 students and 2,855 staff attended in-person learning; 1,856 primary infections were among students and staff."
"Despite 3,947 student quarantines in the fall and 1,689 student quarantines in the first 10 weeks of spring semester instruction, there were only 2 cases of secondary transmission."
"A local policy change removed quarantine requirements for students with mask-on-mask exposure to COVID-19 cases. Required quarantines in the spring semester reduced by 41% per primary infection compared to the fall; no student who qualified to avoid quarantine developed a secondary infection."
"School-based COVID-19 transmission was exceptionally low in this large K–12 Nebraska school district."
Should You Vaccinate Your 5-Year-Old?: WSJ oped by Dr. Saphier, an assistant professor at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center and Weill Cornell Medical College and Dr. Makary, a professor at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine and editor-in-chief of MedPage Today.
"The risk is extremely low either way. The CDC estimates that 42% of U.S. children 5 to 11 had Covid by June 2021, before the Delta wave—a prevalence that is likely greater than 50% today."
"Of 28 million children in that age range, 94 have died of Covid since the pandemic began (including deaths before newer treatments), and 562 have been hospitalized with Covid infections."
"Serious complications are so uncommon in this age range that of 2,186 children in the Pfizer vaccine study, no child in either the vaccine or placebo group developed severe illness from Covid."
"There’s an important exception, though: If a child already had Covid, there’s no scientific basis for vaccination. Deep within the 80-page Pfizer report is this crucial line: “No cases of COVID-19 were observed in either the vaccine group or the placebo group in participants with evidence of prior SARS-CoV-2 infection.”
"Natural immunity is likely even more robust in children, given their stronger immune systems. An indiscriminate Covid vaccine mandate may result in unintended harm among children with natural immunity."
"There were no cases of myocarditis (heart inflammation), but the sample size was too small to rule out a complication that was found in 1 in 7,000 adolescent boys."
Federal
FCC: Commits $421 million in additional Emergency Connectivity Funding
"The program to date has committed to supporting 6,954 schools, 613 libraries, and 80 consortia, which are approved to receive over 6.8 million connected devices and over 3.5 million broadband connections."
Reconciliation: CBO warns their cost estimates may take longer.
COVID-19 Research
New Vaccine Campaign Targets Rural Americans: The Guardian reporting on a new series of public service messages launched by the Ad Council and the Covid Collaborative.
"The seven videos present the experiences of a variety of rural Americans – from small town family pharmacists to farmers in Kansas and Georgia to a lifelong Texas cowboy – as they talk about their decision to get educated about the vaccine and ultimately get themselves vaccinated."
Make sure to watch Craig & Leslie and this one featuring Brooks Hodges was powerful.
Evaluation of the Pfizer Vaccine in Children 5 to 11 Years of Age: NEJM study with the Pfizer data.
"Direct benefits of preventing SARS-CoV-2 infection in children include protection against severe disease, hospitalizations, and severe or long-term complications, such as MIS-C."
"Indirect benefits include the likelihood of reduced transmission in the home and in school settings, including transmission affecting vulnerable persons, and safer in-person learning."
"The robust virus-neutralizing response observed in 5-to-11-year-olds was similar to that seen in 16-to-25-year-olds from the pivotal trial, which demonstrated 95% vaccine efficacy among persons at least 16 years of age from 7 days to approximately 2 months after the second dose"
More than 432,000 Children Under 12 Have Already Received a Vaccine Dose: According to the CDC.
Unvaccinated Are 20 Times More Likely to Die of Covid: “During the month of September, Texans not vaccinated against Covid-19 were 20 times more likely to die from Covid-19-related complications and 13 times more likely to test positive than people who were fully vaccinated, according to a new study by the Texas Department of State Health Services,” the Dallas Morning News reports.
Moderna: Seeks EU authorization for COVID-19 vaccine for 6-11.
A School-Based SARS-CoV-2 Testing Program: Testing Uptake and Quarantine Length Following In-School Exposures: New paper.
"24schools, including 12,251 in-person learners, participated in the study. During the pre-implementation period, 446 close contacts were quarantined for school-related exposures; 708 close contacts were quarantined after implementation.
"After in-school testing implementation, close contacts missed (on average) 1.5 less days of school."
"Providing access to in-school testing may be a worthwhile mechanism to increase testing uptake following in-school exposures and minimize missed days of in-person learning, thereby mitigating the pandemic’s ongoing impact on children."
Implementation of School-Based COVID-19 Testing Programs in Underserved Populations: New paper.
"The largest barrier identified across projects was the limited perceived advantages of COVID-19 testing among school stakeholders when weighed against the perceived burden of testing in schools (ie, “relative advantage”)."
"Obtaining consent forms also emerged as a challenge across projects, and our teams presented a wide variety of strategies to overcome this barrier. First, consent forms must be in formats that are relevant to the local context, including online or paper and in multiple languages. Use of plain language writing techniques, particularly for settings serving children with disabilities, is strongly encouraged."
"Implementation of school-based testing requires heavy data tracking and reporting. Local public health agencies can be critical in helping to facilitate this process."
"Testing for COVID-19 holds promise for making schools safer during the COVID-19 pandemic and can offer lessons for future infectious disease outbreaks and pandemics."
Urban Classification, Not COVID-19 Community Rates, Was Associated With Modes of Learning in K–12 Schools: New paper.
States were included in the analysis: Michigan, Missouri, North Carolina, Ohio, and Wisconsin.
"No relationship between mode of learning and community COVID-19 rates was observed. County urban classification of school location was associated with mode of learning with school districts in nonmetropolitan and small metropolitan counties more likely to be in-person."
"Community COVID-19 rates did not appear to influence the decision of when to provide in-person learning."
Secondary Transmission of COVID-19 in K-12 Schools: Findings From Two States: New paper.
"Participating districts in North Carolina (NC) and Wisconsin (WI), and NC charter schools offering in-person instruction between 3/15/2021–6/25/2021 reported on distancing policies, community- and school-acquired infections, quarantines, and infections associated with school-sponsored sports."
During the study period, 1,102,039 students and staff attended in-person instruction in 100 NC school districts, 13 WI school districts, and 14 NC charter schools
“Students and staff had 7,865 primary infections, 386 secondary infections, and 48,313 quarantines."
"For every 20 community-acquired infections, there was one within-school transmission event."
"Secondary transmissions associated with school sports comprised 46% of secondary transmission events in middle and high schools.
"Relaxed distancing practices and increased children per bus seat were not associated with increased relative risk of secondary transmission."
‘Mask Up, America’ Made Sense in 2020. Now? Not So Much: Via Bloomberg
"Universal masking was sound policy before Covid-fighting tools emerged. Now that there are vaccines, medicines and better science, the costs might be starting to outweigh the benefits."
"The number of hospitalized patients has fallen to half of the latest summer peak. The virus isn’t going away, but its menace is subsiding. That should make it possible to reconsider the shrinking benefits of masking and especially mask mandates against real costs that public-health authorities have been loath to acknowledge."
"Even many of the experts who pushed for universal masking are calling for a reversal. “This isn’t about whether masks work,” said Joseph Allen, an assistant professor at the Harvard University School of Public Health. “I wrote a piece in April 2020 saying everyone needed to wear a mask … but now we have other tools in place, and this is why I don’t think mask mandates make sense anymore.”
Study of Long COVID in Kids: Arkansas Children’s Research Institute to coordinate a 14 state study of long COVID in kids.
No Widespread COVID School Backlash: In the latest Axios/Ipsos Coronavirus Index (story)
State
Alabama: Birmingham Promise was awarded a $1.8 million grant from Bloomberg Philanthropies to expand its apprenticeship and internship program for seniors in Birmingham City Schools.
Connecticut: Legislators consider permanent virtual school as interest grows.
Hawaii: Sen. Schatz says, "Shutting down schools is wrong on public health and wrong on education and it is massively unpopular."
Illinois: Two pediatricians write an oped: "Chicago schools should require the COVID-19 vaccine for students."
New York: The state launched a College Scholarship Vaccine Incentive for kids 5-11.
"The state will select 50 names of children who will receive a full ride to a SUNY or CUNY institution for college."
More than 4,500 New York City students ages 5 to 11 got vaccinated on the first day of the citywide in-school drive
Ohio: Schools adjust COVID mitigation measures.
Huber Heights and Springboro have stopped mask mandates in recent weeks amid decreasing coronavirus cases and with vaccines for younger students now rolling out.
Centerville, Kettering, Oakwood, Miamisburg, Northmont, Springboro, Tipp City, Troy and West Carrollton all revised quarantine rules after the state adopted new guidelines late last month based on a Warren County pilot program.
Pennsylvania: Governor Wolf will let the school mask mandate expire in January.
Texas: New UT/TT poll finds that 57% of voters support mask requirements in indoor public spaces based on local conditions, while 58% support mask requirements in public schools.
International
Israel: Is set rule on child COVID vaccines out of the public eye amid anti-vax threats.
Singapore: Halts free COVID treatment for people "unvaccinated by choice"
UK: Covid infections drop among secondary school children in England
ONS data shows that infection rates among children 11-6 dropped to 7.5% down from a high of 9.1% the week before.
Economic Recovery
Parents Still At Home: Moody's Mark Zandi tweets:
Resources
STOP Award: Semifinalists announced.
Anyone Else Really Tired? This video seems to capture the current mood.