Top Three
Paxlovid: Pfizer’s pill to treat Covid-19 retained its 89% efficacy at preventing hospitalization and death in the full results of a study of 2,246 high-risk patients.
"A panel of experts advising the Food and Drug Administration on Nov. 30 recommended 13-11 that the Merck pill, molnupiravir, should be authorized for emergency use. The FDA has not announced a decision."
"Preliminary laboratory tests gave encouraging signs that Pfizer’s experimental Covid-19 pill for the newly infected could work against Omicron," the WSJ reports.
COVID Is Driving a Children’s Mental Health Emergency: Via Scientific American.
COVID-19 and Education: An Emerging K-shaped Recovery: New analysis from McKinsey
"Students in majority-Black schools remain five months behind their historical levels in both mathematics and reading, while students in majority-White schools are now just two months behind their historical levels..."
"This means that, in math, students in majority-Black schools are now 12 months behind their peers in majority-White schools, having started the pandemic nine months behind."
"While actual closures of whole schools or districts have affected just 9% of students, quarantines and other disruptions have affected 17% of in-person students."
"On top of school closures, absenteeism rates have risen, with 2.7 times as many students on a path to be chronically absent from school this year compared with before the pandemic."
Omicron
What We Know, What We Don’t Know, Scenarios, and Implications: Great Executive Briefing from BCG
Omicron Spreading Rapidly in U.S.
"Everything points to a large wave," a senior Biden administration official told Axios.
"Top federal health officials warned in a briefing Tuesday morning that the omicron variant is rapidly spreading in the United States and could peak in a massive wave of infections as soon as January,” the Washington Post reports.
“The briefing detailed two scenarios for how the omicron variant may spread through this country. The worst case scenario has spooked top health officials, who fear a fresh wave, layered on top of delta and influenza cases in what one described as ‘a triple whammy,’ could overwhelm health systems and devastate communities, particularly those with low vaccination rates.”
“Officials stress that early data shows individuals who are fully vaccinated and received a booster shot remain largely protected against severe illness and death from omicron. But they worry about how few Americans have been boosted to date.”
Study Finds Two Pfizer Vaccine Doses Offer Less Protection Against Omicron Than Against Delta: WSJ reports.
"The study, by South Africa’s largest private health insurer Discovery Ltd., found that while Omicron reduced vaccine effectiveness against infection to 33% from 80% for Delta, its effect on protection against hospitalization was less marked, falling to 70% from 93%."
"The study—the largest to provide clues about how the vaccines hold up against Omicron in the real world—suggests that although the new strain can easily infect people who have been fully vaccinated, it is still much less likely to cause serious illness when it does."
But: "Discovery Health’s data indicated that children under the age of 18 have a 20% higher risk of admissions for complications when infected with omicron compared to the other variants"
Federal
Build Back Better:
“Sen. Manchin is telling colleagues the expanded child tax credit is both the most underpriced item — and biggest inflation-driver — in President Biden’s $1.75 trillion Build Back Better plan,” Axios reports.
“While Manchin’s concern over the CTC could trigger elimination of a program Democrats believe is crucial to address child poverty, it’s also an indication he’s engaging with the White House about how to reduce the plan’s price tag to a level he can support.”
It's not just Manchin: "Sen. Wyden, chair of the Finance Committee, told Politico there are more than 20 issues about President Biden’s social spending bill that are currently playing out before the Senate parliamentarian. In case you're wondering, that's a lot.
IES: New report: How to Text Message Parents to Reduce Chronic Absence Using an Evidence-Based Approach
COVID-19 Research
Where I Live, No One Cares About COVID: Matthew Walther in The Atlantic.
"Outside the world inhabited by the professional classes in a handful of major metropolitan areas, many Americans are leading their lives as if COVID is over."
"But I am afraid that the future, at least in major metropolitan areas, is one in which sooner or later elites will acknowledge their folly while continuing to impose it on others."
"I, for one, would not be surprised if for years to come it were the expectation in New York and California that even vaccinated workers in the service industry wear masks, the ultimate reification of status in a world in which casual dress has otherwise erased many of what were once our most visible markers of class."
How HBCU Used COVID Testing to Keep Campus Open: New study (and press release).
Long COVID Prevalence: Axios/Ipsos poll
State
California:
With coronavirus cases rising, California announces the return of a statewide indoor mask mandate. Gov. Gavin Newsom’s administration says the new mandate will be in effect from Wednesday through Jan. 15.
LAUSD poised to push back deadline for student COVID vaccinations to fall 2022
Colorado: Schools are calling in parents to serve as substitute teachers as the labor shortage disrupt public schools.
Maryland: After months on the loose, the 2 missing PG County zebras were officially found.
New York: Bus driver shortage linked to COVID outbreak forces Herkimer Co. school to close.
Economic Recovery
The Christmas Price Index: Is up 5.7% this season relative to pre-pandemic levels, the largest increase since 2013, according to PNC.
"The index measures the cost of all items in a full verse of the Christmas song “12 Days of Christmas.”
“The price — of two turtle doves, five gold rings and 10 pipers piping, for example — grew to $41,206 this year, from $38,994 in 2019."
Prices for six geese-a-laying, two turtle doves and three French hens are up 57.1%, 50% and 40.5%, respectively, in 2021 versus pre-pandemic levels.
The cost for 10 lords-a-leaping was up 12.6%, and 7.1% each for the 11 pipers piping and 12 drummers drumming.
Resources
A Guide for Democrat Advocates on Education: New Navigator deck.
The Educational Divide in American Social Life: New data from AEI's American Community Life Survey.
A Black Path to the Middle Class: WSJ on a UNCF study.
"On average and across institution type, when it comes to mobility rates HBCUs outperform all other categories and are double the national rate, being the primary post-secondary driver for moving Black Americans from poverty to the middle class.”
Pandemic Learning Loss Could Cost U.S. Students $2 Trillion in Lifetime Earnings. What States & Schools Can Do to Avert This Crisis: Via The 74.
Secret Santa: For 15 years, CBS's Steve Hartman has been covering a mysterious Secret Santa’s mission of kindness. Tonight, the tradition continues…
Here's the segment from 2019 with Milwaukee transit workers.
And this one from 2018 where a homeless man helps hand out $100 bills to strangers.