Top Three
School Masking Policies and Secondary SARS-CoV-2 Transmission: Study published in Pediatrics that included 61 school districts, more than 3,000 schools, and more than 1.1 million students and adults from across nine states.
"Districts that optionally masked throughout the study period had 3.6 times the rate of secondary transmission as universally masked districts."
"Secondary transmission across the cohort was modest (<10% of total infections) and universal masking was associated with reduced secondary transmission compared to optional masking."
"The results of this study clearly show that universal masking reduces school transmission of COVID-19 when compared to optional masking, a finding that is consistent with earlier data," said Dr. Danny Benjamin, co-chair of the ABC Science Collaborative and professor in the Department of Pediatrics at Duke University School of Medicine. "As more students have returned to school, masking and vaccination of children 5 years and older have remained the most practical and effective mitigation strategies to keeping students healthy and learning in-person."
NIH: "Schools with mandatory masking during the Delta surge had approximately 72% fewer cases of in-school transmission of SARS-CoV-2 when compared to schools with optional or partial masking policies."
More via The 74.
Why Utah’s Test-to-Stay Went from National Model to Abandoned Failure: Via Salt Lake Tribune.
"Test to Stay failed in the onslaught of the coronavirus’s highly contagious omicron variant. But the reason wasn’t just that omicron overwhelmed the state’s test supply."
"Utah legislators have systematically neutered Test to Stay, experts say, chipping away at its effectiveness at multiple points until it had little hope of catching outbreaks before the virus spread between students, according to data and records obtained by The Salt Lake Tribune and the nonprofit news organization Documenting COVID-19."
Legislative changes created challenges. "The higher threshold “created a massive gap in the triggering of Test to Stay in elementary schools,” Hersh said. “What we had then was the inability to activate our testing mitigation strategy, which is our primary school COVID mitigation strategy this year.”
"But Utah legislators had passed a law last session that forbid schools from requiring masks after that. So when schools opened in the fall, while the delta variant was circulating, masks were required only at a few districts, under local government work-arounds."
"Everything is different in the context of universal masking,” said Hersh, who previously has noted that the original version of Test to Stay was designed to work in combination with mask requirements. That’s what kept the virus from spreading before cases signaled an outbreak that triggered testing."
Learning Loss and Education Disruptions: New bipartisan poll by Brian Stryker (Impact Research) and Robert Blizzard (Public Opinion Strategies) for WFF.
Parents report their kids missing on average 26 days of school this year (despite rhetoric about schools being open).
On average, parents say their children missed 15 days of school this school year due to COVID-19 quarantines. This is higher among Black parents (17 days) and Midwestern parents (17 days).
On average, parents say their kids missed 11 days of school this year due to school closures related to COVID-19.
More than a quarter of parents (28%) say their child isn’t seeing their assigned, full time teacher regularly. Nine percent say their child “rarely” sees their full time teacher and 19% say their child only has “some days” where they see their full time teacher.
Federal
Census: “The 2020 census undercounted the country’s population by 18.8 million people, the Census Bureau said, acknowledging that the count had underrepresented Black, Latino and Indigenous residents,” the NYT reports.
Congress: "Finger-pointing ensues after Congress fails to extend universal school meals," reports Politico.
TSA: Will extend federal transport mask requirement until April 18.
COVID Supplemental: Via Axios: "Without additional COVID response resources, the results are dire: In March, testing capacity will decline; in April, the uninsured fund — which offers coverage of testing and treatments for tens of millions of Americans who lack health insurance — will run out of money; and in May, America's supply of monoclonal antibodies will run out," said a White House official."
ED: Via EdSurge, "With Few Details But Big Ideas, Sec. Cardona Pushes Total Reimagining of Education"
COVID-19 Research
Paxlovid: "Pfizer announced Wednesday that it has started a clinical trial testing its Covid-19 antiviral pill in children as young as 6."
We Have the Best View Yet of Covid-19’s Origins. What Should We Do About It?: Via Vox.
The CDC’s New Guidelines on Covid Risk and Masking Send Confounding Signals: Via KHN.
Former CDC Directors: Coordinating our nation's health data will save lives.
Vaccines and Omicron Mean Covid Now Less Deadly Than Flu in England: Via the FT.
"Despite vaccination blunting Omicron’s lethality, its fast-spreading nature meant the total number of deaths whose underlying cause was either Covid-19, flu or pneumonia has still been 50 per cent higher since Omicron took hold in early December than over the same period during a typical flu season. The total respiratory disease fatalities were also 30 per cent higher than even during historically bad flu seasons, such as 2014-15 and 2017-18."
State
California:
Push to hire 10,000 mental health clinicians in schools amid the pandemic.
"In a new budget forecast Thursday, LAUSD officials predicted that enrollment will decline by 36,000 students — enough to drop enrollment in the nation’s second-largest school district below 400,000 students — by the start of classes in Fall 2023."
Georgia: Reports show that in 2020 alone, the percentage of homeschoolers rose from 7% to 16%.
Pennsylvania: "Philly health department admits the city is far less vaccinated against COVID-19 than it has been saying."
"Most significant, only a third of Philadelphia’s 5-to-11-year-olds have received at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine, far fewer than the 53.6% officials have been touting for weeks."
"Adult vaccination rates also were inflated: Just over three-fourths of Philadelphians 18 and older are fully vaccinated, less than the 82% that had been reported."
Washington: Seattle schools will drop COVID-19 mask mandate.
International
Germany: "Reported a record number of new coronavirus cases on Wednesday — the first time the authorities there said they had registered more than a quarter-million new daily cases"
UK: "After falling for the past two months since the peak of the Omicron wave, Covid-19-related hospital admissions are on the rise again across the UK.
"There were 8,153 admissions recorded in England in the week to March 7, up 21% from the week before."
"However, more than two-fifths of Covid-19 patients in England’s hospitals are being treated primarily for something else, having incidentally tested positive upon admission."
Economic Recovery
Inflation: Reached the highest year-over-year inflation rate since 1982, at 7.9%.
"Worker paychecks fell further behind, as inflation-adjusted earnings dropped 0.8% in February, contributing to a 2.6% decline over the past year."
"Economic disruptions from Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the global response could further stoke inflation, in part because Russia is a top global supplier of oil and natural gas."
"One rule of thumb, which Fed Chairman Jerome Powell referenced last week, holds that a $10-per-barrel increase in oil prices boosts overall U.S. inflation by 0.2 percentage point."
Job Openings Near Record:
There were 11.3 million job openings in January, down slightly from the previous month’s revised 11.4 million—a new high.
The number of times workers quit their jobs fell slightly to 4.3 million while hiring remained at 6.5 million at the start of the year.
Why Workers Quit: Axios on a new Pew survey.
The New Geography of Remote Work: Via Adam Ozimek at Upwork.
2.4% of people, or 4.9 million Americans, say that they have already moved because of remote work since 2020.
9.3% of people, or 18.9 million Americans, are planning on moving because of remote work, compared to 6.1% in October 2020.
28% of people said they are moving more than 4 hours away. Another 13% said they are moving between two and four hours away.
Resources
The Pew Charitable Trusts Launches Opportunity Broadband: Announcement and website.
"Along with The Pew Charitable Trusts, the founding members of Opportunity Broadband include Heartland Forward, the James H. and Mary B. Quello Center at Michigan State University, Small Business Majority, and the XR Association."
One Year After Congress Appropriated Over $122 Billion for K-12, Many School Districts Are Struggling to Spend It: ViaThe 74.
Parent Polling: Via EdChoice/Morning Consult. Report / K-12 Parents Crosstabs / Adults 18+ Crosstabs.
"Roughly two out of five parents report that at least one child had to quarantine in the past month due to COVID-19"
All I Do Is Win, Win, Win: no matter what...
And if you going in put your hands in the air, make 'em stay there.