Top Three
What’s Holding Up the COVID Vaccines for Children Under 5?: Via ProPublica.
"Many parents who want a vaccine say they don’t expect perfection: They don’t expect it to prevent infection, but want to lower the risk of the worst outcomes for their children, like hospitalizations or Long COVID."
“In addition to those people who are really excited about getting their kids vaccinated, there are also a lot of people out there that are like ... I really want to know that, if the FDA tells me I’m going to have to give this to my kid or I should give this to my kid, I want to know that it really works,” an FDA official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, told me."
"The challenge we have is, if we take something forward where there’s tremendous controversy because the data are not really clear, there can be a lot of confusion in the public, and ultimately, it can be counterproductive for getting the population vaccinated,” the official said."
"Here’s the good news: Two companies could have data on vaccines in kids under 5 in a matter of weeks. Pfizer has said it’ll have data on three doses “in spring” and Moderna has said it’ll have data by the end of March."
"The bad news is that this far into the pandemic, communication is still floundering in the face of a public that is increasingly distrustful of scientists and federal health agencies."
COVID-19 Has Left Millions Of Students Behind. Now What?: Via FiveThirtyEight
"The biggest trend I’ve seen in the last 6-12 months is that schools are struggling to get the basics down. Staying open is hard,” said Chase Nordengren, the principal research lead for Effective Instructional Strategies at NWEA. He’s seen many cases where federal funds, which otherwise may have been spent on staffing tutoring programs to mitigate learning loss, were spent instead on things like better ventilation, personal protective equipment and substitute teachers."
North Carolina Missed Learning Report: NCDPI releases “COVID-19 Impact Analysis of Lost Instructional Time”
"On average, students made less progress during the pandemic than they did in previous years."
"Results show that there was a negative impact for all students, for all grades, for almost every subject (except English II), and especially for Math (5th-9th); Science (8th)."
"Students who returned to the classroom for face-to-face learning and where specific and targeted resources and supports were immediately put in place, did better than the students whose instruction was purely remote and who were physically disengaged from their school community."
Federal
COVID Supplemental: Administration seeks $22 billion for supplemental COVID funding.
$12.2 billion for additional vaccines, oral antivirals and antibodies.
$2 billion for testing.
$4.25 billion to help support the global vaccination effort, support therapeutics and provide humanitarian assistance.
Midterms: Punchbowl's Canvas survey of Congressional staff.
"89% believe Republicans will be in control of the House following the midterm elections. Even Democratic staffers believed that their party would lose the majority (80%)."
"The Senate is a toss-up. 54% of respondents said they believe Republicans would control the Senate following the midterms. Only 26% of Democratic staffers believed their member would be in the minority after the midterms. That number soared to 82% amongst Republican staffers."
"Democratic staffers in both chambers believe swing voters favoring Republicans is the greatest threat to their majority. 68% of Democratic respondents are worried about losing swing votes."
"68% of Democrats said moderate Democrats are more likely to help preserve their majorities. 60% of Republicans said their party’s moderates will help them retake Congress."
Ken Duberstein: Reagan chief of staff, dies at 77.
Sen. Ben Ray Luján (D-N.M.): Is back in the Capitol roughly one month after suffering a stroke. "This is a huge deal for Luján, the White House and the 50-50 Senate as a whole, especially with a Supreme Court nomination pending."
COVID-19 Research
COVID-19 Community Levels: CDC's new framework says more than 90% of the U.S. population is in a location with a low or medium COVID-19 Community Level.
Assessment of Clinical Effectiveness of Pfizer COVID-19 Vaccine in US Adolescents: New study from Yale with data related to Delta.
"Overall, the estimated effectiveness of the BNT162b2 vaccine was 91%, with 93% protection against symptomatic infections and 85% effectiveness against asymptomatic infection."
Third Vaccine Dose Boosts Omicron Protection, With Some Waning: Study.
"Two doses of the AstraZeneca/Oxford, Pfizer/BioNTech, or Moderna COVID-19 vaccine offered limited protection against symptomatic infection with the SARS-CoV-2 Omicron variant, and although a third dose with any of the three vaccines boosted effectiveness substantially, it waned a bit over time."
Ten Communication Tactics to Combat Pandemic Messaging Fatigue: Via NPHIC.
Hospitalization Rates: "Black New Yorkers were hospitalized with Covid-19 at more than twice the rate of white New Yorkers during the recent Omicron wave, an indication that the health disparities that have marked the entire pandemic are in some respects deepening, according to a new report released Wednesday by New York City officials."
State
Arizona: Governor Ducey launches AZ OnTrack Summer Camp. More information here.
California: "A pilot program intended to measure the results of online tutoring for K-12 students has shown promising results in helping them recover from pandemic-driven learning loss, researchers at UC San Diego announced."
"The CovEd college students worked one-on-one with predominantly underserved students twice a week for 30 minutes for 12 weeks. Tutoring focused on building personal relationships with students and supplementing their learning in math and reading. Around 230 tutors participated in the pilot program from across 47 U.S. colleges and universities. They mentored 264 students."
Illinois: As city, state drop mask requirements, Chicago schools face period of mask limbo, Chlakbeat reports.
New York: Via NYT, "As New York Students Shed Masks, Elation Mixes With Trepidation"
“It feels like Covid is kind of over, even though it is not,” said Jordan, 11, after first period began and the initial rush of masklessness wore off. “It feels like everyone just kind of gave up on it.”
Pennsylvania: Philadelphia schools could be mask-optional starting March 9.
Virginia: With new K-5 learning program, Hampton City Schools flex virtual learning muscles.
Economic Recovery
Conflict in Ukraine Could Affect Supply Chain: Via Axios:
"Global wheat supplies had already plunged to a five-year low in 2021, as poor growing conditions in the Northern Hemisphere strained wheat markets in recent years.”
“Now a war between two of the top five largest exporters of wheat threatens to disrupt supplies."
Resources
Investment in Action: Telling the Story of How Federal Pandemic Recovery Funds Are Supporting Students: New resource from CFC.
Biden Sounds Alarm on Youth Mental Health, Urges Americans to Aid Schools’ COVID Recovery: Via EdWeek.
Resilient Education Models Need More Support, Not Less: Via Adam Peshek.
A Good Question: How does this species survive in the wild?