Top Three
Pfizer Applies for EUA for Their Vaccine With Kids Under 5: "Vaccines for children younger than 5 could be available far sooner than expected — perhaps by the end of February — under a plan that would lead to the potential authorization of a two-shot regimen in the coming weeks, people briefed on the situation," reports the Washington Post.
The FDA announced this evening that the Vaccines and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee will meet on Feb. 15 to discuss the EUA request. Statement here.
Pfizer statement on the “rolling submission”: “Ultimately, we believe that three doses of the vaccine will be needed for children 6 months through 4 years of age to achieve high levels of protection against current and potential future variants. If two doses are authorized, parents will have the opportunity to begin a COVID-19 vaccination series for their children while awaiting potential authorization of a third dose.”
"In December, Pfizer said it was amending its clinical trial to test a three-dose version of the vaccine because the lower-dose generated an immune response in 2- to 4-year-olds that was inferior to the response measured in 16- to 25-year-olds. In 6- month- to 24-month-old children, the vaccine generated an immune response in line with 16- to 25-year-olds."
"The FDA urged the companies to submit the application so that regulators could begin reviewing the two-shot data, according to the knowledgeable individuals, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly."
"One person familiar with the most recent trial data, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said that those aged two to four years who were given shots were infected at a rate 57% lower than the children in the placebo group. Children aged six months to two years who got shots were infected at a rate 50% lower than the placebo group."
“It doesn’t make sense we would approve a two-dose vaccine on the assumption the third dose would make up for deficiencies of the two doses,” said Dr. Paul A. Offit, a panelist and director of the Vaccine Education Center at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. He also questioned why the company and F.D.A. would still need to pursue a three-dose regimen if two doses are protective."
New Analysis of School Closures: Emily Oster, Burbio, and the COVID-19 School Data Hub are out with a new report.
Data suggests school closures in January 2022 were more common in districts with less in-person school during 2020-2021 and in districts with a larger share of students who were Black and Hispanic or eligible for Free and Reduced Price lunch.
"The data clearly indicate that school closures are disproportionately affecting districts that had less in-person learning and more virtual learning in the prior school year."
Children and COVID-19: AAP's State-Level Data Report
"For the week ending January 27th, over 808,000 additional child COVID-19 cases were reported, down from the peak level of 1,150,000 reported the week ending January 20th."
"However, child cases this week remained extremely high, triple the peak level of the Delta surge in 2021."
Federal
Build.Gov: New website with guidebooks and factsheets on programs that are part of the infrastructure package.
COVID-19 Research
‘The Scariest Thing’: The Children Living With Long Covid: Good long piece via the Guardian.
Long COVID Symptoms and Duration in SARS-CoV-2 Positive Children: Study out last month.
0.8% of SARS-CoV-2 positive children reported symptoms lasting >4 weeks (‘long COVID’), when compared to a control group.
The most common ‘long COVID’ symptoms were fatigue, loss of smell and loss of taste, dizziness, muscle weakness, chest pain and respiratory problems.
In most cases ‘long COVID’ symptoms resolve within 1-5 months.
State
California: Sets a new bar for P–20W Data Policy, says DQC.
Georgia: Atlanta high schools to offer COVID vaccines at basketball games.
Louisiana: New Orleans is set to become the first district to mandate COVID-19 vaccinations for children 5 and up, though state regulations will allow parents to opt out easily.
North Carolina: NC Education Corps tutors are tackling learning recovery and building the teacher pipeline.
Texas: 859 Austin teachers have resigned over the last roughly 10.5 months; by comparison: A total of 604 resigned in the 12-month period just ahead of the pandemic.
Washington: Bellingham school district received a third of COVID tests it needed from the state last week.
Economic Recovery
4.3 Million Americans Left Their Jobs Last Month: “Some 4.3 million people quit or changed jobs in December — down from last month’s all-time high but still near record levels, as the labor market remained unsettled and the omicron variant swept through the United States,” the Washington Post reports.
“Employers reported some 10.9 million job openings in the survey, well above pre-pandemic averages.”
“The data is one window into how the labor market’s patterns have been upended by the pandemic. While the crisis was originally marked by mass joblessness — more than 20 million people lost their jobs in the earliest days of the pandemic, many temporarily — 2021 was defined by a strong labor market recovery as well as complaints by employers about difficulty finding available workers.”
Missed Work: 8.8 million workers missed work because they had COVID symptoms or were caring for someone who did, according to CBPP analysis of the Census Bureau’s Household Pulse Survey.
Resources
Covid-Aid Spending Trends by City, Suburban, Rural School Districts: Via FutureEd.
Student Walkouts Over COVID Are Sweeping the Country: Via Teen Vogue.
Homeschooling Skyrocketed During the Pandemic, but What Does the Future Hold?: Via Daniel Hamlin and Paul Peterson at Education Next.
Is Remote Learning Here to Stay? Yes, But It Needs to Get Better: Via EdWeek.
Efforts to Scrap School Mask Rules May Run Into Parent Opposition, Polls Show: Via Chalkbeat.
More Than Half of Teachers Are Looking for the Exits, a Poll Says: Via NPR.
After 2 Years, Growing Calls to Take Masks Off Children in School: Via NPR.
Test Score Patterns Across Three COVID-19-impacted School Years: New EdWorking Paper.
"Average fall 2021 math test scores in grades 3-8 were .20-27 standard deviations (SDs) lower relative to same-grade peers in fall 2019, while reading test scores decreased by .09-.18 SDs. Achievement gaps between students in low poverty and high-poverty elementary schools grew by .10-.20 SDs, primarily during the 2020-21 school year."
An 8-Year-Old Wrote a Book and Hid It on a Library Shelf. It’s a Hit.: Via the Washington Post, KTVB, and NYT:
"Dillon Helbig, a second-grader from Idaho, wrote an 81-page book about his “Crismis” adventures."
"When his grandmother took him to the Lake Hazel branch of the Ada Community Library in Boise at the end of December, he slipped the sole copy of his book onto a shelf containing fiction titles."
"The book, “The Adventures of Dillon Helbig’s Crismis” by the author “Dillon His Self,” had drawn so much attention by the end of January that 56 people were on the waiting list to check it out, said Alex Hartman, the manager of the library branch."
"The night after Dillon surreptitiously left his book on that library shelf, he came clean to his parents, his mother, Susan Helbig, said. They called the library, thinking they could pick it up from the lost and found. But the librarians were so charmed by the book that they played along with Dillon’s stunt."
"The librarians entered the book in their catalog system, but left the publisher category blank, he said. They also moved it out of the fiction section and set it alongside the graphic novels, since it has so many page-length illustrations."