Top Three
Jeff Zients to Leave as Biden’s Covid Czar and Be Replaced by Ashish Jha: Via NYT
"Mr. Zients will be replaced as the White House coronavirus coordinator by Dr. Ashish K. Jha, the dean of the Brown University School of Public Health and a practicing internist who has urged an aggressive approach to the pandemic in frequent television appearances. Dr. Jha will coordinate the government’s Covid-19 response from inside the White House, officials said."
Scott Gottlieb praised both Zients and Jha.
An Outdated Website, an Atlantic Article & an Instagram Story: How the CDC Botched Revising Its Mask Guidance for Preschoolers: Via The 74.
"The CDC’s coronavirus guidance page for child care providers, last updated Jan. 28, lists a number of “key takeaways,” including that the agency “recommends universal indoor masking in [early childhood education] programs for those ages 2 years and older, regardless of vaccination status.”
"But in a surprising twist, about a week later, Emily Oster posted an update on her Instagram story: “After my piece in @theatlantic last week, the CDC emailed me to let me know they DO NOT recommend masking for toddlers in areas with low or moderate transmission. Toddlers’ masking recommended to align with everyone else,” she wrote. “They are struggling to get the message out so maybe this will help!”
“I realize that seems a little crazy, but I am telling you that is the email I received from a senior person at the CDC.”
"In a Thursday email to The 74, the CDC confirmed that “recommendations for masks in K-12 schools and early care and education (ECE) programs are consistent with recommendations for other community settings.”
“Children ages 2-4 have a lower risk of severe disease from COVID-19 and parents of children in ECE programs as well as ECE staff can make appropriate choices about mask wearing in school settings based on local requirements and their personal levels of risk,” wrote spokesperson Jade Fulce."
White House Releases Ventilation Guidelines: Via the EPA, "Clean Air in Buildings Challenge." More via NBC and ABC News.
"Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers, praised the Biden administration's focus on improving air quality in buildings."
Federal
COVID Supplemental:
Speaker Pelosi said she’s advised the Biden administration to seek tens of billions of dollars more in emergency COVID-19 relief, suggesting it will take more than $40 billion to meet the testing, vaccine and therapeutic needs of the U.S. and the larger global community, The Hill reports.
"But it’s unclear how the package will be paid for or when the House will consider the bill. House leaders pulled back on plans to put the bill on the floor this week after it became clear there weren’t enough votes to pass the measure. The chamber is on recess next week."
“Speaker Nancy Pelosi was visibly angry this morning, we hear, going off on her own members during a private Democratic whip meeting this morning for tanking the White House’s requested Covid relief money,” Politico reports.
COVID-19 Research
Pediatric COVID Vaccines: Emily Oster makes sense of all the recent studies.
Mother-to-Baby COVID-19 Transmission Likely Rare: Birmingham University researchers estimate roughly 2% of babies born to infected mothers test positive for the virus shortly after birth. Press Release.
Sinovac Is 38% Effective In Shielding Kids From Covid: Via Bloomberg:
"Young children who received two doses of China’s Sinovac Biotech Ltd. vaccine gained “modest” defenses against omicron infections and higher protection against developing severe cases of Covid-19, a study in Chile showed."
"Researchers, who tracked about 490,000 children ages 3 to 5 years, estimated the Sinovac shot has effectiveness rates of 38% against Covid-19, 65% against hospitalization, and 69% against an infection severe enough to require admission to an intensive care unit."
Omicron Severity: Study in Lancet.
"The risk of severe outcomes following SARS-CoV-2 infection is substantially lower for omicron than for delta, with higher reductions for more severe endpoints and significant variation with age."
The COVID Booster Debate is Back: Via Axios
"The debate over a fourth dose is at its outset plagued by a familiar question: Is the point of the COVID vaccines to prevent infections, or to keep people alive and out of the hospital?"
"Yes, but: There's plenty of emerging data that suggest protection against infection wanes pretty quickly after the third shot, and that Pfizer loses its effectiveness faster than Moderna. Experts say this is typical with vaccines."
"Some experts think waning may have been accelerated by the Omicron variant, which the vaccine wasn't made to target."
Cases and Hospitalizations Are Rising Again Across Much of the Western World: FT's John Burn-Murdoch thread.
COVID-19 Vaccine Hesitancy in the US by County and ZIP Code: IHME and COVID Collaborative.
"The overall probability of selecting 'lack of trust in the government' as the reason to be hesitant was 41%. A Non-Hispanic White with a high school degree or equivalent GED had 47% of probability selecting this, while a Hispanic with a Graduate degree had 19% probability."
State
Colorado: COVID money shores up budgets at Denver schools with declining enrollment.
Florida: $289 million plan aims to close learning gaps in Florida schools.
$105 million for afterschool, weekend, and summer learning camps that will help struggling students catch up
$47 million to purchase curriculum in line with Florida's new standards in English, math, civics, and Holocaust education
$50 million to support reading intervention and professional development for reading coaches
$44 million to support STEM programs and math acceleration
$22.5 million for parent mentorship and extra educational materials to help parents reinforce what's taught in classrooms
$5 million to establish regional mental health resiliency teams
Illinois: CPS mask-optional policy upheld, for now, by labor board in blow to Chicago Teachers Union.
Pennsylvania: Philly didn't distinguish second COVID-19 vaccine doses from first, inflating child vaccination rates.
Rhode Island: How a district adapted learning pods to improve student equity.
International
Australia: NSW school returns to remote learning as Covid cases hit classrooms
China: US News: Lockdowns, School Closures Return to Mainland China.
South Korea: 1.19% of South Korea’s population tests positive for COVID in one day.
Resources
Whack-A-Mole: School Systems Respond to Disrupted Learning in 2021: Via CRPE
"We found that implementing acceleration required school systems to work with schools in new ways, but the strategy was complicated by a host of factors that made getting to instruction difficult: challenging student behaviors, staffing shortages, and the politicization of health, safety, and education."
"All these pressures have made leading school districts in 2021–22 like playing a game of Whack-A-Mole. School districts across the country are working hard to catch students up. But the Whack-A-Mole experience of leading during the pandemic raises questions about how these pressures will affect system leaders and leadership and whether, in the future, schools alone will be able to do enough to help all students get the help they need to recover"
Two Years Covering Schools During the Pandemic: An Oral History: Via Colleen Connolly and Alexander Russo. A dozen education journalists share their best and worst moments.
National Hybrid Schools: New report.
Demographics: “"When people’s average perceptions of group sizes are compared to actual population estimates, an intriguing pattern emerges: Americans tend to vastly overestimate the size of minority groups.” YouGov poll.
Pandas: Happy National Panda Day to all those who celebrate. It was actually yesterday and they seemed to have fun.
I'll be honest, they seem a bit needy.
Happy St. Patrick’s Day: Nothing will beat the President of Ireland's dog, Bród, stealing the show during an event in Dublin.