Top Three
The Pandemic Has Been Deadlier in Red States: Reports Axios.
"COVID is killing more people per 100,000 in red states than in blue states, a reflection of GOP resistance to vaccines."
"The partisan gap, measured by deaths above what would normally be expected, was particularly stark during last year's Delta wave, when all adults had access to vaccines but stark differences emerged between Democrats and Republicans' vaccination rates."
Tutoring: Via CSM, "Students need help catching up. Tennessee tries tutoring."
"Tennessee is one of the first states to establish a statewide tutoring program, launching Tennessee Accelerating Literacy and Learning Corps (TN ALL Corps) in September 2021, with 79 of the state’s 147 school districts signed up to participate."
"The state provides matching grants to districts for three years, using federal COVID-19 relief funding, and projects the program will reach 150,000 students, which is about 15% of the overall student population."
"Other states and districts are also prioritizing tutoring efforts. At least 18 states and the District of Columbia plan to, or have started, a variety of statewide tutoring programs, according to a legislative tracker from the National Student Support Accelerator. "
"When administrators in Elizabethton City Schools found out they could offer TN ALL Corps tutoring during the school day, they quickly agreed, and hired tutors to start in the fall of 2021. Although finding tutors is challenging for some Tennessee districts, Elizabethton benefits from proximity to two universities with teacher training programs. East Side pays $800 per student for the tutoring program, with a $700 grant per student from the state making up the $1,500 needed per child."
"The tutoring program through TN ALL Corps is showing early promise. At East Side Elementary, students in the program had an average of 14% growth between their first benchmark assessment in September and their second assessment in December, compared with 6% growth for students not participating in the tutoring, according to the district."
‘Forgotten’ Parents of Kids Under 5 Push FDA to Clear Moderna Shot: Via Bloomberg
“Our public health establishment failed to prioritize young children,” said Kahn, who is part of a Facebook group of 3,500 parents and doctors pushing for the Food and Drug Administration to act quickly to review and clear vaccines for the youngest children. The group, Protect Their Future, wants the agency to move fast on Moderna Inc.’s application for authorization of its vaccine in kids ages 6 months to 5 years old."
"There is the risk that racing to authorize a vaccine in young kids that has mediocre efficacy could backfire, further confusing many other parents who are on the fence about using a vaccine in their younger kids, because they are worried about safety or uncertain about the necessity."
"Moderna’s efficacy numbers are hardly spectacular, but Anthony Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said in a White House briefing Wednesday that 44% was not such bad news. “Now that may seem like a low number, but in the era of omicron this is actually quite comparable to the efficacy against infection in what we’re seeing now with other vaccines,” he said. Meanwhile, this season's flu shot was only 16% effective in preventing mild to moderate cases in the U.S., government researchers recently found.
Federal
ED/HHS: "Joint Effort to Develop and Share Resources to Ensure Children Have Access to School-Based Health Services"
COVID-19 Research
FDA Limits Sotrovimab: Citing the rise of BA.2, the FDA is announcing that sotrovimab is no longer authorized for use at this time to treat COVID in the following states and territories: Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New Hampshire, New York, Rhode Island, Puerto Rico, Vermont, and the Virgin Islands
"New data included in the health care provider fact sheet shows that the authorized dose of sotrovimab is unlikely to be effective against the BA.2 sub-variant. Based on Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Nowcast data, the BA.2 sub-variant is estimated to account for more than 50% of cases in the states and territories in Regions 1 and 2 listed above as of March 19, 2022."
Evaluation of Science Advice During the COVID-19 Pandemic in Sweden: Pretty critical piece in Nature.
"There was an unwillingness and incapacity to admit any failures at all governmental levels; or to take any responsibility for the clearly detrimental outcomes for Swedish society."
"There were even attempts to revise history by changing, or deleting official documents, communication, and websites, and gaslighting the public."
"The Swedish authorities involved were not self-critical and did not engage in any official and open dialogue and misled the public by withholding correct information and even spreading misleading information."
"There was no intellectual/scientific discussion between stakeholders (including independent experts from different disciplines), and the international advice of WHO, ECDC and the scientific community was ignored and/or discredited."
Use of At-Home COVID-19 Tests: CDC MMWR. Test use peaked in January. Use less common among minority and low-income respondents.
40% of Parents Say Masks Hurt Their Children at School: A Harvard/Politico poll finds:
More than 4 in 10 parents believe “mask-wearing harmed their children’s overall scholastic experience, compared to 11 percent who said it helped.”
“Forty-six percent of parents said mask-wearing hurt their child’s social learning and interactions, and 39 percent told pollsters it affected their child’s mental and emotional health.”
"Roughly two-thirds of parents who send kids to schools that no longer required face coverings said masks were unnecessary, twice the number of parents with kids in schools that still required masks."
State
Georgia: The state doesn't have enough mental health providers, but the need is only growing.
"That problem is especially acute in Georgia’s rural committees. “One hundred fifty out of 159 counties are considered mental healthcare professional shortage areas… Seventy-seven counties have no psychiatrist working full-time. Seventy-six counties don’t have a licensed psychologist.”
New York: New York state reports 3,450 new coronavirus cases, an increase of 49% from last week.
North Carolina: Guilford County Schools to receive $2 million for tutoring program.
Wisconsin: Madison's new online school to expand in the 2022-23 school year.
International
UK: Covid infections jump by a million in a week.
"UK-wide infection rates are now just shy of the record-high levels reached in early January when the country was under tighter restrictions as it battled the first Omicron variant surge."
2,326 people hospitalized with COVID-19 in Scotland, the highest since the pandemic began
Economic Recovery
America's COVID Shuffle: Via Axios, "In new U.S. census data showing migration from July 2020 to July 2021, five of the top 10 counties in numeric growth were in Texas — Collin, Fort Bend, Williamson, Denton and Montgomery counties."
Understanding the Economic Impact of COVID-19 on Women: Brookings report and Axios article.
“Far more mothers, and other women who are caregivers, have been stressed, frustrated, and anxious because they did not leave their jobs than have been forced to exit the workforce or cut back their hours."
“The big differences are by education rather than gender, and that makes it more similar to previous recessions,” Goldin writes.
"With schools and daycare centers closed, women, much more so than men, spent additional time caring for children. For example, childcare (including schooling) by college-graduate women who worked full time, could work remotely, and had elementary school-aged children in two-parent households more than doubled—from 8.7 hours a week before the pandemic to 17.3 hours in the early months of the pandemic. Childcare hours for custodial fathers in the same group spiked during those early months, probably to around 15.8 per week, but greatly decreased as work resumed. Because total childcare hours remained about as high, childcare hours increased for women by fall 2020."
States Look to Ease Inflation Pain:
“At least 22 governors have proposed cutting or suspending gas taxes, seven states are considering measures to alleviate food costs, and about a dozen are maneuvering to reduce income taxes.”
“States are flush with cash after reaping a windfall from the federal government in the early going of the pandemic, when federal stimulus dollars were flowing. So they’ve got some money to spend.”
Resources
Governors’ Top Priorities For Supporting Children And Families In 2022 State Of The State Addresses: Excellent list and summaries of initiatives compiled by NGA from state of the state addresses. Some state tallies:
Mental And Behavioral Health: Alabama, Alaska, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Georgia, Hawai’i, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Michigan, Missouri, Nebraska, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Mexico, New York, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, South Dakota, Vermont, Washington, Wisconsin.
Child Care And Early Childhood: Alabama, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Georgia, Hawai’i, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Louisiana, Maine, Michigan, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Dakota, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Utah, Vermont, Washington, Wisconsin.
Food And Nutrition: Alaska, Delaware, Hawai’i, Idaho, Illinois, Kansas, Kentucky, Maine, Massachusetts, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, North Dakota, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Dakota, Virginia, West Virginia, Wisconsin.
Tutors Take Center Stage As Students Try To Make Up Pandemic Losses: Via NBC News.
High-Quality Instructional Materials and Professional Development Network Case Study: CCSSO resource and case study addresses the importance of engagement around adopting high-quality instructional materials (HQIM) and the role states can play in signaling quality to the field and incentivizing adoption of HQIM.
What Happened After Los Angeles Schools Cut Police Funds and Hired Mental Health Staff for Black Students: Via The 74.
A LEGO-sorting Vacuum: The LEGO Suck It.
Related: BrickIt is an AI/AR app that scans a pile of LEGO bricks and tells you what you can build.
I didn't know this, but the plural of LEGO is LEGO... not LEGOs.