Top Three
Guidance for In-person Education in K-12 Educational Settings: From Children's Hospital of Philadelphia. More via PhillyVoice.
Continue indoor masking requirements within buildings and at school activities, regardless of vaccination status.
Emphasize to family and staff that individuals with respiratory illness stay home while symptomatic.
Students and teachers with mild symptoms consistent with COVID-19 may consider testing.
Discontinue required weekly testing of asymptomatic students, teachers and school staff.
Allow COVID-exposed, but asymptomatic staff and students to continue attending school in person under a 7-day “modified quarantine” during periods of high community transmission (otherwise known as “mask to stay”)
Encourage all staff and students to update vaccinations.
Update on Chicago Public Schools:
Chicago faces fourth day of canceled classes. What do both sides want?, via Chalkbeat
COVID-19 school shutdowns across Chicago area pose steep hardships for families: ‘Parents are between a rock and a hard place’
Chalkbeat’s analysis of Chicago’s school-based vaccination and testing data:
Majority Black high schools had an average vaccination rate of 28%, compared to majority Latino high schools, which averaged 57%.
Opt-in rates for school-based testing, like vaccine rates, vary widely by school, with some South and West Side campuses having fewer than five students opting in.
At more than 200 schools, the opt-in COVID testing rates fall short of the city’s 10% threshold goal. At 70 schools, 10 or fewer students are enrolled in the school-based testing program
School Disruptions: Burbio identified 5,409 school disruptions.
Omicron
America’s Omicron Wave Already Looks More Severe Than Europe’s: Via the Intelligencer.
“This is the point I’ve made over and over,” Gounder says. “The simple math I give is even if it’s half as virulent — so half as deadly, your case fatality rate is reduced by half — if you have twice as many cases, you have actually the exact same number of deaths.”
"Why might our Omicron surge be different from the European one? Looking at the country as a whole, one big answer is obvious: Our vaccination rates are markedly lower than most European countries....or a possibility is that the relatively high levels of severe disease we are seeing in New York and throughout the U.S. are the residue of that lingering Delta wave."
Nearly a Quarter of Hospitals Are Reporting a Critical Staff Shortage: Via CNN.
Hospitalizations Skyrocket in Kids Too Young for COVID Vaccines: The AP reports.
"The hospitalization rate in these youngest kids has surged to more than 4 in 100,000 children, up from 2.5 per 100,000."
"The rate among children ages 5 to 17 is about 1 per 100,000, according to the CDC data, which is drawn from over 250 hospitals in 14 states."
Hospitals Are in Serious Trouble: Via Ed Yong
"In this surge, COVID-19 hospitalizations rose slowly at first, from about 40,000 nationally in early November to 65,000 on Christmas. But with the super-transmissible Delta variant joined by the even-more-transmissible Omicron, the hospitalization count has shot up to 110,000 in the two weeks since then."
“The volume of people presenting to our emergency rooms is unlike anything I’ve ever seen before,” Kit Delgado, an emergency physician in Pennsylvania, told me"
"Every part of the health-care system has been affected, diminishing the quality of care for all patients. A lack of pharmacists and outpatient clinicians makes it harder for people to get tests, vaccines, and even medications; as a result, more patients are ending up in the hospital with chronic-disease flare-ups."
Early Data Hints at Omicron’s Potential Toll Across America: Via NYT.
Scott Gottlieb,"U.S. decoupling between cases, hospitalizations, deaths, while measurable vs prior waves, isn't as strong as UK; perhaps due to lower U.S. vax/booster rates (50% eligible adults boosted). Our protracted wrangling over boosters may have sowed confusion, sapping consumer interest"
Federal
IRS: Treasury officials warned that taxpayers should be prepared for delays as returns and refunds are processed, and for difficulties in reaching the IRS, Axios and Bloomberg report.
"IRS representatives were only able to answer about 10% of phone calls to the agency last filing season, and, as of mid-November 2021, the agency still had a backlog of roughly 8.6 million returns to process."
ED: List of all approved state ESSER plans.
COVID-19 Research
Home Tests to Be Covered by Insurance: “Starting Saturday, private health insurers will be required to cover up to eight home COVID-19 tests per month for people on their plans,” the AP reports.
Closing Schools Again Won’t Stop Omicron. It’ll Just Hurt Kids: Washington Post OpEd by three physicians:
"We have ample evidence that closing schools is not effective in containing the virus and is, in fact, harmful to children. We have better ways of keeping communities safe besides robbing students of valuable in-school learning."
"We also know from many studies from the United States and around the world that schools are not major drivers of community spread. A study published in October in the journal Nature Medicine found that, in the 12 weeks after U.S. schools reopened in 2020, there were no significant increases in hospitalizations or deaths in surrounding communities."
T-cells From Common Colds Can Provide Protection Against COVID-19: Study. More from Reuters:
"The study, which began in September 2020, looked at levels of cross-reactive T-cells generated by previous common colds in 52 household contacts of positive COVID-19 cases shortly after exposure, to see if they went on to develop infection."
"It found that the 26 who did not develop infection had significantly higher levels of those T-cells than people who did get infected. Imperial did not say how long protection from the T-cells would last."
One-Way Masking Works: Olga Khazan in The Atlantic.
Most States Are Wary of Mandating COVID Shots for Kids: Via Pew.
COVID and Diabetes: CDC report finds children and teens who have had COVID are up to 2.5 times more likely to have a diabetes diagnosis after infection.
But... a number of folks have pointed to the limitations of this analysis.
State
California:
Coronavirus-infected hospital staff without symptoms can stay on the job.
"Allowing infected health workers to continue their duties is needed “due to the critical staffing shortages currently being experienced across the health care continuum,” according to the health department’s letter, posted online Saturday, to acute care and psychiatric hospitals and skilled nursing facilities."
12 Oakland schools close after teachers stage ‘sickout,’ citing COVID safety worries.
CA state assessment results. More via CA Ed Source and the LA Times
"The results show that about half of all California students tested did not meet state standards in English language arts and about two-thirds did not meet standards in math."
"The scores of Black, Latino and economically disadvantaged students were significantly lower, with more than 60% not meeting English standards and about 80% not meeting math standards."
Colorado: The Denver Classroom Teachers Association is asking Superintendent Alex Marrero to go remote for a full week.
Florida: “Gov. DeSantis defended his administration’s decision to allow up to one million Covid-19 rapid test kits to expire,” Politico reports.
Maryland:
Montgomery County to keep 11 schools virtual this week; will give all students KN95 masks.
More than a third of Baltimore City schools shift to online amid spread of COVID-19
Michigan: 'Frozen' characters to administer COVID-19 vaccines during clinic.
Minnesota: "The Anoka-Hennepin School District has been hit hard by pandemic-related employee shortages, including among the janitorial staff. A new program, piloted at Blaine High School, has high school students cleaning classrooms for two hours each afternoon."
Missouri: "Chaos" continues in St. Louis area schools with staff, student absences because of COVID-19.
New York:
NYC School operations struggling.
"Some 300,000 students missed class on average this week."
"For others, going to class in-person consisted of little actual learning as students were herded into auditoriums with teachers in short supply."
"Students stuck at home had no virtual option, and parents had to decide whether to send their children in or risk them falling further behind."
NY Dept. of Health pediatric COVID update (and more detailed report)
"Seven out of ten children across New York State who contracted COVID-19 and were hospitalized were symptomatic and 54% had no comorbidities."
"Of children newly admitted, 91% of 5 – 11-year-olds were unvaccinated and only 4% were fully vaccinated. Among 12-17-year-olds, 65% were unvaccinated while 26% were fully vaccinated."
More than half we admitted "for COVID" not for another condition and then tested positive.
Powerful table - the hospitalization rate for vaccinated school-aged kids is 2-3 per million.
North Carolina:
Former Superintendent James Pughsley: "So how does one address the COVID crisis while simultaneously improving urban public schools? To operate schools safely I suggest school districts adopt a trimester schedule."
North Carolina high schools suspend bus service after too many drivers test positive for COVID-19
Oregon: Oregonian Editorial: Even in COVID's surge, in-person school must be the norm.
Pennsylvania: The American Federation of Teachers in Pennsylvania is imploring the state’s Department of Education to pause in-person learning or mandate enhanced COVID-19 mitigation until the current surge of cases subsides.
International
Uganda: Reopened its schools after what is reported to be the longest pandemic-prompted shutdown in the world.
Resources
As More Teachers’ Unions Push for Remote Schooling, Parents Worry. So Do Democrats: Via the NYT.
Covid-19 School Closures Reignite Political Jockeying Ahead of Midterms: Via WSJ.
More Studies Mark the Pandemic’s Toll on Student Achievement: Via Hechinger.
Our Kids Are Behind in School. Here’s How to Help Them: Jay Caspian Kang in the NYT.
In Memoriam:
Richard Leakey, a world-renowned Kenyan conservationist and fossil hunter.
Sidney Poitier — choking up, describing how a kind co-worker offered to teach him how to read as an adult — is one powerful moment.
Flat on His Face: This could also be what it felt like trying to get back into work mode last week. Make sure to watch to the end.