Top Three
Public School Exodus: Via Axios:
"With school funding directly tied to enrollment, experts warn the decline will have deep repercussions for individual districts."
"Districts in the country with the most remote classes lost 4% of their students, compared to a 1% drop for those that held school in person, according to a national survey by the American Enterprise Institute and the College Crisis Initiative at Davidson College."
White House Covid Coordinator: Dr. Ashish Jha with a thread on boosters for 5-11 year olds which referenced this table.
Ashley Darcy-Mahoney was helpful in pointing to the source of the table.
New Wave?: Health officials in parts of the U.S. see signals in wastewater data hinting at a worsening virus wave.
"Case counts are a “gross underrepresentation,” as many people are opting to take at-home tests instead of going to hospitals or doctors’ offices. Dr. Avegno said the rising prevalence of virus seen in wastewater testing has prompted the city to begin mobilizing resources to prepare for another spike."
"It looks like a surge in slow motion,” Dr. Avegno said. “It’s not the sharp increase we saw with Delta and definitely not with Omicron."
More via The Dispatch: "The infection numbers are almost assuredly undercounts, too. Testing has fallen off dramatically as the pandemic has shrunk from public consciousness, and plenty of at-home test results are likely going unreported. The BA.2 subvariant of the Omicron variant still accounts for most of those cases, but the highly transmissible BA.2.12.1—also an Omicron subvariant—is gaining ground. And we recently passed 1 million American deaths attributed to the virus, shattering early models’ predictions of a couple hundred thousand."
"It’s against this backdrop that CDC officials took the podium Wednesday to fight the losing battle of recommending masks again for the third of Americans—mostly in the Northeast and Midwest—who live in counties with “medium to high” transmission rates. They put Americans elsewhere on notice, too. “Prior increases of infections, in different waves of infection, have demonstrated that this travels across the country,” CDC head Rochelle Walensky said."
"Americans—mentally done with the past two years—have responded with one big shrug. Even deep-blue areas—where COVID hawkishness held strong through the end of this winter’s Omicron wave—are struggling to feign concern. “If every variant that comes, we move into shutdown thoughts, we move into panicking, we’re not going to function as a city,” New York City mayor Eric Adams said Wednesday."
"How big is that wave going to get? We’re not too sure,” Dr. Katelyn Jetelina—epidemiologist at the University of Texas School of Public Health—told The Dispatch. “How much wood does BA.2 have left to burn?”
Federal
Title 42: Via Axios, "A federal judge has blocked the Biden administration from ending Title 42 — a controversial border policy that has allowed officials to rapidly turn back migrants at the U.S.-Mexico border nearly 2 million times." Decision.
FTC: The Federal Trade Commission is warning makers of private-sector educational technology tools for kids to limit their collection and use of data to ensure compliance with the federal Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act.
FTC to Crack Down on Companies that Illegally Surveil Children Learning Online
Policy statement
Khan's statement / White House statement
Covid-19 Research
Omicron Caused 3 Times As Many Deaths as Delta in Massachusetts: Study / Press Release. "Investigators found that excess deaths were higher during the 8-week Omicron period compared to the 23-week Delta period (2,294 deaths versus 1,975)."
New Vaccine Design Timeline: Good scoop by ABC News: "Federal regulators are expected to decide on a new COVID-19 vaccine design in early July, which would allow vaccine companies to begin production for rollout this fall and winter, a top official told ABC News."
"FDA vaccine chief Dr. Peter Marks said the decision would likely come from the FDA shortly after its advisory committee meets on June 28 to review data from the vaccine companies about the versions of next-generation vaccines they're testing."
"Under consideration is how to give people "the longest duration of a high level of protection" with their vaccines, not just because it's unrealistic to keep boosting every few months, but also because experts predict another surge in the colder months."
Vaccination After Infection May Cut Risk of Long COVID-19: A large UK study suggests that COVID-19 vaccination after infection lowers the odds of persistent symptoms, with a 12.8% initial decline after the first dose and an 8.8% drop after the second—although the long-term effects are unclear.
FDA Declines to Authorize Fluvoxamine as a COVID-19 Treatment: "The primary evidence of the drug's potential efficacy against Covid-19 was a large, randomized, clinical trial of nearly 1,500 patients in Brazil. Patients who received fluvoxamine were 32% less likely to be hospitalized or need at least six hours of emergency care compared to patients who received a placebo. However, FDA said the data submitted failed to show sufficient evidence of fluvoxamine's use as a Covid-19 treatment."
A SARS-CoV-2 Delta Variant Outbreak on Airplane: Study suggests that vaccinated air passengers are more protected than unvaccinated.
Monkeypox 101: Katelyn Jetelina with unanswered questions, and the bigger picture. I won't spend much time on this outbreak as it doesn't relate to Covid (not my monkey, not my circus so to speak).
State
California: LAUSD expects enrollment to plummet by ‘alarming’ 30% in the next decade.
DC: Inside the fight over COVID case data.
"D.C. council members undercut trust in DC Health when they probed why COVID-19 data wasn’t shared recently with the CDC over a two-week span, the agency’s director said in a letter to lawmakers that was obtained by Axios."
Pennsylvania: The School District of Philadelphia will require students and staff to once again wear face masks starting next week, citing an increase in COVID-19 infections.
Economic Recovery
Recession Fears: “The U.S. economy could be heading for a recession in the next year, according to growing warnings from banks and economists, as a sudden bout of pessimism hammers financial markets, which on Thursday spiraled further from recent highs,” the Washington Post reports.
"This week alone, former Goldman Sachs chief executive Lloyd Blankfein warned of a “very, very high risk” of recession; Wells Fargo CEO Charlie Scharf said there was “no question” that the U.S. economy is heading toward a downturn; and former Fed chair Ben Bernanke cautioned that the country could be poised for “stagflation” — a slowing economy combined with high inflation."
"Goldman Sachs Group Inc. economists cut their forecasts for US growth for this year and next to reflect the shake-out in financial markets amid the Federal Reserve’s tightening of monetary policy. In a report Sunday, the economists led by Jan Hatzius said they now expect the economy to grow 2.4% this year and 1.6% in 2023, down from 2.6% and 2.2% previously."
YC advises founders to ‘plan for the worst’ amid market teardown. Copy of the letter.
Coffee Shop Vibe for Future Offices: Via Axios, "Twilio CEO Jeff Lawson imagines that rather than have offices in each city where his cloud platform employs a cluster of workers, he could just open a coffee shop where employees could work and gather."
Inflation:
"Teen Babysitters Are Charging $30 an Hour Now, Because They Can," the WSJ reports.
Changes in behavior in response to inflation, by income level.
Resources
Dropout Crisis: Communities hit hardest by the pandemic, already struggling, could face a dropout cliff.
Filling the Gap: "In partnership with the Walton Family Foundation, Bellwether Education Partners is seeking initial applications for a new grant fund designed to help families and students leverage public policy to find and engage in supplemental learning options."
Applicants should have bold ideas related to ensuring that families can access supplemental learning related to their child’s needs, interests, and goals.
Dad of the Year: Built a roller coaster for his son in their backyard.