Top Three
No Way to Grow Up: NYT's David Leonhardt, "For the past two years, Americans have accepted more harm to children in exchange for less harm to adults."
Children fell far behind in school during the first year of the pandemic and have not caught up.
Many children and teenagers are experiencing mental health problems.
Suicide attempts have risen.
Gun violence against children has increased.
Many schools have still not returned to normal, worsening learning loss and social isolation.
Behavior problems have increased.
The Omicron variant is now scrambling children’s lives again.
"Data now suggest that many changes to school routines are of questionable value in controlling the virus’s spread. Some researchers are skeptical that school closures reduce Covid cases in most instances. Other interventions, like forcing students to sit apart from their friends at lunch, may also have little benefit."
"One reason: Severe versions of Covid, including long Covid, are extremely rare in children. For them, the virus resembles a typical flu. Children face more risk from car rides than Covid."
"For the past two years, however, many communities in the U.S. have not really grappled with the trade-off. They have tried to minimize the spread of Covid — a worthy goal absent other factors — rather than minimizing the damage that Covid does to society. They have accepted more harm to children in exchange for less harm to adults, often without acknowledging the dilemma or assessing which decisions lead to less overall harm."
Children and COVID-19: State Data Report from AAP
"COVID-19 cases among US children have reached the highest case count ever reported since the start of the pandemic."
"For the week ending December 30th, over 325,000 child COVID-19 cases were reported. This number is a 64% increase over the 199,000 added cases reported the week ending December 23rd and an almost doubling of case counts from the two weeks prior."
"At this time, it appears that severe illness due to COVID-19 is uncommon among children."
Children Are Hospitalized With Covid At Record Numbers: According to an NBC News analysis, at least nine states have reported record numbers of Covid-related pediatric hospitalizations: Connecticut, Georgia, Illinois, Kentucky, Massachusetts, Maine, Missouri, Ohio and Pennsylvania, as well as Washington, D.C.
"Some of those children were found to be Covid-positive through routine testing if they had to be hospitalized for other, unrelated issues. But many have been hospitalized specifically because of complications from Covid-19."
"At Texas Children's Hospital in Houston, pediatric hospitalization numbers, at close to 70 patients, have surpassed the peak of patients during the surge of the delta variant in the summer, Dr. Jim Versalovic, a pathologist who is a co-leader of the Covid-19 Command Center. More than 90% of the cases are due to the omicron variant."
"The number of kids who simply occupied hospital beds each day, even if they ultimately weren't admitted to the hospital, reached a record average of 3,081 a day over the last seven-day period."
Related from CNN: "States also are reporting surges in the number of children hospitalized. In Illinois, that number has almost tripled since the beginning of December, Gov. J. B. Pritzker said Monday. New Jersey Health Commissioner Judy Persichilli said the total number of pediatric hospitalizations in that state has almost doubled in seven days."
Omicron
Vaccines and Prior Infections Likely Prevent Severe Omicron Disease: Via Axios
"Multiple recent preprint studies, two of which were posted online yesterday, have found that T cell responses in vaccinated people or those with prior infections remain durable against Omicron."
"That's in contrast with their neutralizing antibody responses, which are generally associated with protection against infections and aren't as effective against Omicron."
"Vaccinated people who have received booster shots — or previously infected people who are also vaccinated — have greater levels of neutralizing antibodies, other initial studies have found."
Governors Demand Schools Stay Open But Districts May Lack Enough Teachers: Via Politico
"Like the airline and health care sectors last month, schools are now grappling with Covid-19 cases among the staff needed to keep classrooms open, as well as how to maintain student safety when classmates test positive."
"Jason Peplinski, superintendent of Simi Valley Unified just north of Los Angeles, said ahead of Wednesday’s return to school he has 51 staff members out with Covid or Covid-positive tests. A neighboring district, which resumed on Monday, has 75 people out. Since clustered districts share the pool of nearby substitute teachers, they are projecting steep competition to get temporary replacements into the classrooms."
‘Insurmountable’: Parents Grapple With Omicron’s Upending Force in Schools: Via the NYT.
Updated UK Data: Steep rises in cases and hospitalizations but fewer on ventilators.
Federal
Vaccine Mandate: Federal Judge blocks COVID vaccine mandate for Head Start Teachers.
"In granting the preliminary injunction, Doughty agreed with many of the states’ claims. Federal law does not give HHS or its officials “any superpowers to implement rules such as these,” the judge wrote."
“How far would they be able to go?” Doughty added. “Could the secretary mandate all children in the Head Start Program be vaccinated? Could the secretary mandate the parents and siblings of children in Head Start to take the COVID-19 vaccines? These examples may seem far-fetched, but so did the idea that vaccines could be mandated to millions of United States citizens.”
COVID-19 Research
Pfizer-BioNTech: CDC announced that individuals who received the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine for their primary series can now get an mRNA booster shot 5 months instead of 6 months.
Kids ages 5-11 years old with moderately to severely weakened immune systems can get an additional dose of Pfizer-BioNTech 28 days after their second shot.
"The CDC has not changed the booster interval recommendation for people who have received the Johnson & Johnson or the Moderna vaccine, which remains at two and six months respectively."
Israeli Study Shows Benefits of Second Booster Shot: “A fourth shot of the Pfizer-BioNTech coronavirus vaccine generated a fivefold boost in antibodies a week after the jab, according to preliminary results of a study made public by the Israeli government Tuesday,” the Washington Post reports.
"Israel this week became the first country to launch a major second-booster campaign, making the fourth vaccination available to anyone 60 and older whose last shot was at least four months ago."
Risk Factors for Severe COVID-19 in Children: Study in Pediatrics outlining risk factors for different ages of children.
School Safety, Masking, and the Delta Variant: Study in Pediatrics
"This report demonstrates that even with exponentially rising community cases at the start of the Delta variant surge, schools that implemented universal masking retained low within-school transmission."
But..."Although our study does not allow a comparison from the masked to unmasked setting."
State Mask Mandate Bans for Schools: Law, Science, and Public Health: Essay in Pediatrics
Universities' Covid Policies Defy Science and Reason: Marty Makary in Common Sense.
Adolescents, Parents, and Covid-19 Vaccination — Who Should Decide?: Essay in NEJM
"Although adolescents are at lower risk than adults for severe medical complications of Covid-19, they tend to be disproportionately affected by the instability that comes from school closures, social distancing, and other pandemic-related disruptions. Adolescents also make up a substantial portion of the population that is capable of spreading Covid-19. Vaccines, because of their role in keeping schools open and ending the pandemic, can address both problems — but only if they are widely administered."
"One approach to increasing adolescent-vaccination rates would be to increase the number of states that allow adolescents to independently consent to general medical treatment when treatment is in their best interest. A more feasible strategy would involve encouraging all states that already have laws allowing some statutory exceptions to parental-consent requirements (e.g., exceptions for the detection and treatment of STIs) to expand their lists of exceptions to include the prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of reportable diseases and other diseases of public health importance."
Virus Leaves Antibodies That May Attack Healthy Tissues: Reuters reports,"Among 177 healthcare workers who had recovered from confirmed coronavirus infections contracted before the availability of vaccines, all had persistent autoantibodies, including ones that can cause chronic inflammation and injury of the joints, skin and nervous system."
“We would not normally expect to see such a diverse array of autoantibodies elevated in these individuals or stay elevated for as long six months after full clinical recovery,” said Susan Cheng of the Cedars-Sinai Smidt Heart Institute in Los Angeles. Patterns of elevated autoantibodies varied between men and women, the researchers reported in the Journal of Translational Medicine.
State
Alabama: “ADPH cannot recommend shortened isolation be adopted in schools until the CDC updates its documents,” officials wrote on the department website Dec. 30.
“The new CDC guidance that came out last week – the five-day quarantine – is not applicable to schools,” Mackey told AL.com Monday afternoon.
Arizona: Governor Ducey is creating "the Open for Learning Recovery Benefit program to provide relief for parents who may face financial and educational barriers due to unexpected school closures."
"The program funds up to $7,000 for needs related to Arizona Department of Economic Security- approved child care, school-coordinated transportation, online tutoring and school tuition."
"If a school closes for even one day, students and families who meet the income requirements can utilize the Open for Learning Recovery Benefit Program — allowing students to access instruction that best meets their needs."
California: Via LA Times, "Newsom promised 6 million COVID tests for students. Only half have arrived."
"Deliveries of testing supplies did not come in time for scores of schools including those in Long Beach, Rocklin, Sacramento, Burbank, San Leandro and Carlsbad, which were among those that resumed in-person instruction on Monday or were set to resume Tuesday."
“I just feel completely let down by our local, state and federal leaders. It feels as if they have had no foresight, even though scientists were ringing the alarm about Omicron many weeks ago,” Schwarz said."
Georgia: Forsyth County Schools pivots to online-only classes this week.
Illinois: Via Politico:
"The union unsuccessfully urged city officials to consider a two-week pause to in-person learning — or require negative virus tests to access classrooms — after families overwhelmed mailboxes with tens of thousands of screening tests last week, to the point where they spilled onto sidewalks."
"Many of those test samples now appear to be useless. According to district staff and student testing data, nearly 25,000 of approximately 36,000 virus tests completed between Dec. 26 and Jan. 1 were deemed “invalid.”
Maryland: 11 of Montgomery County's 209 schools will move to 14 days of virtual classes beginning tomorrow due to high COVID case rates.
New Jersey: Via Emily Oster: "Using the COVID School Data Hub data, we explored the 2021 opening status for those districts who have gone virtual in 2022. No surprise, they are also much, much more likely to have been virtual in 2021. Same kids who lost school then are losing it now."
Ohio: Cincinnati Public Schools proposes temporary remote learning amid surge.
"On the district's first day back from winter break, the teachers union reported more than 300 employees were out with positive COVID-19 cases."
"CPS confirmed more than 60 central office staff members helped on Monday to ensure 11 schools would remain open — something administrators said is not sustainable."
"Student attendance was at 77% Monday, with 80 reported positive COVID tests. The district also reported 23 nurse absences."
Pennsylvania: 81 Philadelphia schools going temporarily virtual due to staffing challenges related to pandemic.
Tennessee: Tennessee officials are appealing a judge’s order that blocked the state’s new severe limits on when public schools can require masks during the COVID-19 pandemic and its ban against local officials making decisions about quarantines in schools.
International
UK:
"As the new term got under way, most primary schools managed to reopen, but some heads reported difficulties as a result of sick staff and pupils having to isolate, and warned that the situation could deteriorate fast."
"In an email sent to schools on Sunday, the Department for Education (DfE) advised heads to deal with staff absence by teaching larger groups, but school leaders said this was not a workable long-term solution, with one warning it could lead to something “like a scene out of Mad Max”.
Economic Recovery
More Workers Quit Their Jobs Than Ever Before: “More than 4.5 million people voluntarily left their jobs in November… That was up from 4.2 million in October and was the most in the two decades that the government has been keeping track." the NYT reports.
Heather Long points out the most alarming trend: skyrocketing quits in health care. "Doctors, nurses, aides & more are burned out and we're still in a pandemic"
More via Axios.
Resources
From the Capitol to the City Council: How Extremism in the U.S. Shifted After Jan. 6: NBC News segment (and Twitter thread) which covers one of the participants in the Jan 6 riot who has since turned to school board protests focused, among other issues, COVID mitigation measures.
"Aguilar’s changing focus is indicative of a broader transformation by many of the extremist groups that participated in the Jan. 6 Capitol riot. After a brief cooling-off period, groups like Aguilar’s all-women militia group, Mamalitia, and many others have focused on local politics — most notably school boards and county health boards — where they have found success in pushing back against everything from Covid mitigation proposals to public school curricula."
"Public schools in Vancouver, Washington, went into lockdown in September, after the far-right group Patriot Prayer, known in the Pacific Northwest for targeting political opponents at violent pro-Trump Portland rallies, spread a rumor that a child faced arrest for failing to wear a mask. The false claim was amplified by Proud Boys members, which resulted in an impromptu anti-mask protest outside a high school."
Fresh Round of School Closures Tests Biden's Promise: Via Yahoo News
Emergency Connectivity Fund: I wrote up a quick update on where things stand with the FCC's Emergency Connectivity Fund, including some state-by-state data.
"As of December 2021, the FCC has committed more than $3.8 billion to support more than 9,000 schools, 760 libraries, and 100 consortia, providing nearly 8.3 million connected devices and over 4.4 million broadband connections. Additional awards will be announced in the weeks ahead."
Amazing: The James Webb Space Telescope team has fully deployed the spacecraft’s 70-foot sunshield, a key milestone in preparing it for science operations.
"With all five layers of sunshield tensioning complete, about 75% of our 344 single-point failures have been retired!"
Good video of all the steps needed for it to unfold and become operational.
Pandas + Snow: You would be hard pressed to find anyone who enjoys a DC snow day more than the National Zoo's pandas.