COVID-19 Policy Update #401
Friday 12/17
Top Three
CDC Embraces ‘Test to Stay’ Policy for Schools: CDC finally released guidance around test-to-stay which can in certain situations replace the quarantines that have disrupted so much learning this fall.
More on their evaluation of the research and here is the guidance.
CDC also released two studies of test-to-stay programs.
In Los Angeles, students at schools that did not participate in the pilot program, and who had to quarantine, lost an estimated 92,455 in-person school days between Sept. 20 and Oct. 31, while students exposed to the virus in schools trying out the program lost no days. Schools that used test-to-stay also did not see increases in virus rates among students.
In Lake County, Illinois, researchers estimated that up to 8,152 in-person learning days were saved between August and October in schools that participated in the program. Of the 16 students in the program who tested positive for the virus in the two weeks after exposure, none appeared to transmit it to others at school, the report said.
Jason Furman, "MA has been doing test-and-stay since Sep. Has made a big difference for our children's education & mental health. I don't know whether to be grateful that the CDC has come around or angry for all the children who suffered because of the caution/delay."
More via The 74
Pfizer’s Low-Dose Shot Did Not Provoke An Adequate Immune Response in 2- to 5yr Olds: Pfizer statement.
"In ongoing clinical trials, the companies tested 3 micrograms of the vaccine — one-tenth of the adult dose — in children 6 months to less than 5 years of age. After two doses, children between 6 months and 2 years produced an immune response that was comparable to that of people aged 16 to 25 years, the companies said. But children between 2- and 5-years-old did not."
"The companies said Friday they would begin testing the addition of a third dose in the children, and if successful, would ask U.S. health regulators to authorize use sometime during the first half of 2022."
Modeling Suggests Rapid Spread of Omicron in England but Same Severity as Delta: New Imperial College London report.
"Estimates that the risk of reinfection with the Omicron variant is 5.4 times greater than that of the Delta variant."
"This implies that the protection against reinfection by Omicron afforded by past infection may be as low as 19%."
"The study finds no evidence of Omicron having lower severity than Delta, judged by either the proportion of people testing positive who report symptoms, or by the proportion of cases seeking hospital care after infection. However, hospitalisation data remains very limited at this time."
"Depending on the estimates used for vaccine effectiveness against symptomatic infection from the Delta variant, this translates into vaccine effectiveness estimates against symptomatic Omicron infection of between 0% and 20% after two doses, and between 55% and 80% after a booster dose."
Omicron
Denmark: A report from Denmark on the first 785 Omicron cases. "Most hadn't travelled abroad. Three-quarters were vaccinated; 7% had been boosted. Only 9 required hospitalization, with 1 ending up in the ICU."
Preliminary Laboratory Data Hint at What Makes Omicron the Most Superspreading Variant Yet: Via Stat.
Good Sense of Where Things Stand: Great thread by Dr. Ashish K. Jha.
Federal
Build Back Later:
Punchbowl: “There’s one reality Democrats need to get comfortable with when they turn back to this in January: This is now Joe Manchin’s bill. We knew this all along, but Manchin controls the fate of the BBB. If and when the BBB comes out of the Senate, it seems likely to be watered down to reflect Manchin’s priorities, much to the frustration of the progressive wing of the party. Can the Squad and House Progressives back such a bill? It depends on what they think of the party’s prospects heading into November.”
Biden: “My team and I are having ongoing discussions with Senator Manchin; that work will continue next week. It takes time to finalize these agreements, prepare the legislative changes, and finish all the parliamentary and procedural steps needed to enable a Senate vote. We will advance this work together over the days and weeks ahead; Leader Schumer and I are determined to see the bill successfully on the floor as early as possible.”
"You’ll notice Biden’s statement doesn’t say anything about bringing BBB to the floor in January. Just “as early as possible.” This is a recognition that legislating is hard and unpredictable. And a bill of this magnitude is especially difficult to get across the finish line."
ED: Sec. Cardona urges schools to use COVID relief money to hire staff, raise pay. Letter to State Chiefs. Chalkbeat article.
White House: The Jonas Brothers want you to get vaccinated. I honestly have no idea what's going on here, but here you go.
COVID-19 Research
Pfizer: Asks the FDA to approve their Covid-19 vaccine for kids as young as 12. Statement.
"The companies submitted Phase III clinical trial data to FDA as a supplemental application for their vaccine, which is already approved for adults and children as young as 16. In the new data, their vaccine was 100 percent effective at preventing symptomatic Covid-19 in children who received the vaccine up to four months after their second dose. All children who developed Covid-19 in the trial had received the placebo."
Paxlovid: Pfizer is planning a pediatric study of their antiviral pill for next year.
Should We Mandate COVID Vaccines for Children?: Asks the great bioethicist Arthur Caplan. He argues we should persuade parents, not mandate it.
Should We Treat COVID-19 As An Emergency or As Endemic?: Asks Kristen Soltis Anderson.
"Trust in scientific authorities has fallen during COVID and increasingly, people are frustrated to discover that restrictions we have lived under - like requiring little kids to wear masks on the playground, something almost no other countries on the planet do - aren't as rooted in good science as advertised. Support for things like mask mandates and requiring people to show proof of vaccination to go about their day has been slipping gradually."
"Most Americans - including two thirds of Republicans and six-in-ten Independents - say: we don't think we are ever getting to COVID zero, so let's learn to live with it."
"The idea that if we all just spent a few more weeks hunkered down, "fifteen days to slow the spread" and all that, we can just beat this thing once and for all is increasingly viewed as nonsense.
NFL: The National Football League will postpone three games this weekend due to a surge in Covid-19 cases.
State
Colorado: The Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment (CDPHE) will send text messages to parents and guardians of Colorado children ages five to 11 who have not received a first dose of the COVID-19 vaccine.
Illinois: 68% of South Side Chicago school in quarantine due to COVID-19.
Louisiana: New Orleans expands indoor and school vaccine mandate to children ages 5 and up, a first in the U.S.
Maryland: Prince George’s County just closed schools for in-person learning until Jan. 18.
Michigan:
Detroit district to start winter break early, citing low attendance
Detroit school district will require COVID-19 vaccines for staff members.
Montana: "As the new system to handle paying for in-school mental health treatment for Montana students with serious emotional problems is “on the brink of being put into place,” school districts around the state say it’s not workable."
New York: Big surge in test positivity. "We've never seen this before," says Dr. Jay Varma, a top health advisor to Mayor Bill de Blasio.
12/9: 3.9%
12/10: 4.2%
12/11: 6.4%
12/12: 7.8%
Ohio: Via NPR, "They didn't plan to be a family of 17. Then, the opioid crisis hit their community"
International
COVID Hits Europe Schools Hard as Omicron Stalks New Year Return: Via Bloomberg.
"In France, there were so many class closures last month that the government backtracked on a rule that classes would shut for a week as soon as one student was found to be positive, instead requiring the entire class to get tested. The rate of children under nine years old testing positive skyrocketed to 634 per 100,000 by Dec. 6, up from fewer than 100 in early November."
"Children are the biggest contamination pool at the moment,” Karine Lacombe, who heads the infectious-disease department at Saint Antoine hospital in Paris, said on RTL radio Tuesday."
"Denmark’s government closed all primary schools on Tuesday, as much as a week ahead of schedule. That’s also happened in the Netherlands and parts of Switzerland."
Economic Recovery
Portable Benefits in Action: A Roadmap for a Renewed Work-Related Safety Net: Via Aspen Institute's Future of Work initiative.
Inflation Is Near a 40-Year High. Here’s What It Looks Like: Via WSJ
Resources
Can This Woman Save American Public Education? NYT's Michelle Goldberg on Randi Weingarten.
Bloomberg Philanthropies Recognizes 10 U.S. Cities for Excellence in Using Data and Evidence: Release.
Getting Personal: The Future of Education Post Covid-19: Report from the Economist and Qatar Foundation. More from EdWeek.
"Nearly all of the educators surveyed—99%—said that COVID-19 accelerated their schools’ adoption of personalized learning, with 51% strongly agreeing with that statement. (The other 48% “somewhat” agreed.) Nearly a third—30%—strongly agreed with the statement that the pandemic “made personalized learning more relevant than ever.”
"Already, 70% of schools use digital tools to deliver what they define as personalised learning, and 93% expect they will either increase or start doing so in the next two years."
Remembering Denis Doyle: Wonderful tribute by Checker Finn. And Rotherham Reflects.
He was a coauthor of "Reinventing Education: Entrepreneurship in America's Public School" with then CEO of IBM Lou Gerstner, a book that I found particularly thought provoking when I was working at the Pennsylvania Department of Education.
He later launched Schoolnet with Jonathan Harber, a company that was in many ways several years ahead of its time.
But more than anything, I remember his kind, wise, and encouraging mentorship when I was serving at the U.S. Department of Education. He will be missed.
You Made It To Friday: Hope you're as happy as this deer who scored a goal.
