Top Three
Novavax: The FDA’s Vaccines and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee (VRBPAC) met today to review Novavax's submission for an EUA for its Covid vaccine. Stat's Helen Branswel live tweeted the meeting.
The advisory committee voted on whether benefits of Novavax vaccine as primary series outweigh risks for adults 18+: Yes: 21 No: 0 Abstain: 1
The FDA doesn't have to follow VRBPAC's advice but it generally does.
"If the FDA follows the recommendation, the vaccine would become the fourth COVID shot authorized for use in the U.S."
"Its vaccine uses a protein from the target virus combined with what's called an adjuvant to enhance the body's immune response. It's easier to store than Moderna and Pfizer's vaccines."
"Regulators on Tuesday said Novavax could fill an unmet need because there aren't non-mRNA COVID vaccines that can serve as first-line defenses. That could persuade some unvaccinated people to get the shots."
NYT: "But before the agency could authorize the shots, the FDA. would need to sign off on Novavax’s manufacturing process, which has stumbled again and again over the course of two years. Those ongoing issues are likely to mean the vaccine will not be available for weeks, in contrast to the already cleared Covid vaccines that became available just days after the same committee endorsed those shots."
Public Support for Educators and In-Person Instruction During the Covid-19 Pandemic: New EdWorking Paper.
"Existing evidence suggests that local political partisanship and teachers union strength were better predictors of fall 2020 school re-opening status than Covid case and death rates."
"We replicate and extend these analyses using data collected over the 2020-21 academic year. We demonstrate that Covid case and death rates were meaningfully associated with initial rates of in-person instruction. We also show that all three factors—Covid, partisanship, and teachers unions—became less predictive of in-person instruction as the school year continued."
"We then leverage data from two nationally representative surveys of Americans’ attitudes toward education and identify an as-yet undiscussed factor that predicts in-person instruction: public support for increasing teacher salaries."
"In short, there appears to be something noteworthy about counties with greater support for increased teacher salaries that may have facilitated higher rates of AY2020-21 in-person instruction, but which is conceptually distinct from the other factors known to be associated with pandemic-era school re-opening decisions."
"We speculate that communities with a deeper well of public support for educators—even if those communities faced an equivalent threat from Covid, share a common political persuasion, feature a comparable demographic composition, or support a local public school system that is similar across multiple dimensions—were better able to navigate the many inter-connected and overlapping challenges inherent in the task of bringing students back into school buildings during the first full school year of the pandemic."
A Mental Health Clinic in School? No, Thanks, Says the School Board: Via NYT:
"Over the last year, legislators in more than 30 states have considered an expansion of school-based services, according to Inseparable, a mental health policy group, and eight states, including Connecticut, have passed legislation to do so. Before the services reach students, though, they must be embraced by American communities."
"But lawmakers and conservative activists have targeted mental health curriculum in several states, often taking aim at social and emotional learning programs, known as SEL, which train students to manage emotions and practice conflict resolution. Lawmakers in Indiana and Oklahoma have put forward bills that would limit the use of SEL in the classroom."
"The plan was for licensed therapists from Generations to work in a space on the school’s third floor. Students could be referred by teachers or family members, or could come in themselves, and therapy sessions would be scheduled during school hours. Therapists would bill insurance based on a sliding fee scale, using federal funds if necessary, so there would be no cost to the school and little, if any, to the families."
"Would they advise students on birth control or abortion? (They wouldn’t give medical advice, but might discuss if it comes up.) If children were referred and didn’t want therapy, would they be forced to do it? (No.) Would students be seen by peers going into treatment, exposing them to ridicule and stigma? (Hopefully not.) Could they get therapy without their parents knowing about it?"
"Conceivably, yes, was the answer. By law, clinicians in Connecticut can provide six sessions of mental health treatment to minors without parental consent under a narrow set of circumstances — if the minor sought treatment, it was deemed clinically necessary and if requiring parental notification would deter the minor from receiving it."
"A 2021 survey of Killingly students conducted by the Southeastern Regional Action Council, a mental health policy group, found that 28.2 percent had thought about self-harm, and 14.7 percent reported making a plan for suicide. Though the response rate was low, at 42 percent, the results line up with findings from other communities, said Angela Rae Duhaime, the council’s associate director."
Federal
Treasury: Announced that Louisiana, New Hampshire, Virginia, & West Virginia were the first states to be approved to receive funds from Treasury’s Capital Projects Fund. The funds will be used to connect 200K+ homes & businesses to affordable high-speed internet
Midterms:
CNN's Harry Enten’s forecast for the 2023 House makeup…would have Republicans winning between 236 seats to 241 seats, while Democrats are on target for 194 to 199 seats. Enten said Republicans are in their best position in more than 80 years.
Politico: "Republicans gearing up for a House takeover this fall are privately crafting legislative goals for next year that would almost certainly fall prey to the Senate filibuster and not become law, regardless of which party controls the upper chamber. The House GOP wants to pass bills to revive the Keystone XL pipeline, finish the wall along the U.S.-Mexico border and establish a “parental bill of rights” to capitalize on Covid-19-era frustration with education, according to interviews with more than half a dozen Republican lawmakers."
Covid-19 Research
Don’t Wait to Get Your Kid Vaccinated: Katherine Wu in The Atlantic.
"But the case for kids getting their shots as soon as possible is still strong, even two and a half years and billions of infections into SARS-CoV-2’s global sweep. Vaccination will not just protect children during the current surge but also prep them for the fall and winter, when schools resume session and another wave of cases is expected to rise."
"It’s true that SARS-CoV-2 hospitalizes and kills a smaller percentage of kids than adults. But that small percentage has ballooned into catastrophically large absolute numbers. Experts have also dismissed the notion of stacking childrens’ stats against adults’. The more apt comparison, rather, weighs the life unimmunized kids could be leading if they were vaccinated. The availability of immunizations has turned COVID-19, especially in its severest forms, into a vaccine-preventable disease; that alone, experts told me, makes the shots worth taking."
"The mRNA vaccine technology has been in tightly monitored development for decades, and since its public debut in 2020, has proved exceptionally safe in adults, teens, and older kids. The same attributes that make the shots ultrasafe in those populations should hold extra true in the youngest children. The pediatric vaccine pipeline is designed to prioritize safety above almost all else; it’s part of why the data from both Moderna and Pfizer took some time to generate. To minimize the risks of side effects, Pfizer’s under-5 doses are just three micrograms of mRNA, a tenth of adult doses, and Moderna’s under-6 doses are 25 micrograms of mRNA, a quarter of the adult dose. "
Ventilation Improvement Strategies Among K–12 Public School:I missed thisCDC MMWR. Ventilation strategies with schools across different poverty levels.
The Association Between COVID-19 Mortality And The County-Level Partisan Divide In The U.S.: Study. Article in Stat. More via CIDRAP.
"In this observational study that captured data from a majority of US counties, we compared the number of COVID-19 deaths through October 31, 2021, among counties with differing levels of Republican vote share, using 2020 presidential election returns to characterize county political affiliation."
"We found a positive dose-response relationship between county-level Republican vote share and county-level COVID-19 mortality. Majority Republican counties experienced 72.9 additional deaths per 100,000 people relative to majority Democratic counties during the study period, and COVID-19 vaccine uptake explains approximately 10 percent of the difference."
"Deaths in Republican counties began to outnumber those in Democratic counties in November 2020, with a winter surge and the advent of vaccines, which made up roughly 10% of that difference.”
“The authors factored in demographics, health care availability, and health status before concluding that partisanship explains the different death rates. "Our findings suggest that county-level voting behavior may act as a proxy for compliance with and support of public health measures that would protect residents from Covid-19."
State
California: Los Angeles Unified School District dropping its COVID-19 mass testing requirements.
Louisiana: Schools that require COVID vaccine could soon face lawsuits.
"House Bill 54, authored by Rep. Larry Bagley, R-Stonewall, passed the House and Senate after multiple rounds of amendments. Bagley, a retired educator, chairs the House Health and Welfare Committee."
"The bill passed by a 58-32 vote in the Louisiana House of Representatives and by a 27-5 vote in the Louisiana Senate."
"Originally, Bagley’s legislation would have made it a crime to deny someone entry based on their vaccination status in Louisiana with a fine of up to $1,000 with the possibility of up to six months in jail time. The bill was amended to make vaccination status discrimination a cause for civil action and not a crime. The jail time was also removed through an amendment, but the $1,000 fine remained on the version the House approved Monday."
New Jersey: Newark and learning loss:
"An analysis of the test scores found Newark district students in grades 4-8 were less than half as likely as students statewide to be able to read at grade level. In Newark, 22.1% of students scored at grade level in English language arts (ELA) compared to 44.8% statewide, for a gap of 22.7 percentage points."
"In math, about one-third of district students in grades 4-8 were as likely as students statewide to be able to do math at grade level. An analysis of the test data showed 6.8% of Newark students scored at grade level in math compared to 24% statewide."
"Newark students take an additional assessment called the NWEA MAP Growth test. In March, district officials reported that no more than 6% of students in any grade from 3-7 are expected to be proficient on the state math tests that were taken a few weeks ago. In English, about 10% of the students or fewer are expected to reach proficiency in the state exams. The 2022 state exam results will be made public in the summer."
"One of the district’s key strategies to address learning loss, the superintendent said, is the district’s summer programming, where students can enroll in various courses such as credit recovery and enrichment programs. District officials have implemented curriculum changes as well as invested in professional development for teachers."
North Dakota: Superintendent of Public Instruction Kirsten Baesler announced free, upgraded software for students, teachers and families to access online learning tools.
Texas: A cow was on the loose on the highway in Oklahoma, so they brought in a Cowboy to take care of it.
Virginia:
Parents in Fairfax question county's plan to address learning loss.
Bear spotted casually walking around Arlington today. And Instagram video.
International
Canada: Three teams of researchers from Nova Scotia have received almost $500,000 each from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research to examine how the pandemic is affecting the lives of children with complex needs, woman who face violence and equity-deserving groups.
China: Offering Covid vaccine insurance to win over jab skeptics.
"Dozens of cities across the country have begun offering people aged 60 and older free insurance that pays out up to Rmb500,000 ($75,000) if they fall ill — or worse — because of Covid-19 vaccines."
"The packages also promise payouts to families if it can be proven that a loved one’s death was related to receiving a jab. In Beijing alone, about 60,000 seniors have signed up for the coverage since April."
Economic Recovery
Inflation: “Three of the key supply-side factors driving today’s global inflation levels have already turned around, meaning relief could be on the horizon for shoppers worldwide,” Bloomberg reports.
Resources
Americans Have Little Trust in Their Government: Pew:
“Americans remain deeply distrustful of and dissatisfied with their government. Just 20% say they trust the government in Washington to do the right thing just about always or most of the time."
65% say most political candidates run for office “to serve their own personal interests.”
Advancing Equity in Education: Via America Succeeds.
How We Support Evidence-Based Decision Making in Curricula and Professional Learning: Via Overdeck
"The impact of EdReports can be seen in a few ways: as a result of this work, at least 60 instructional series have been updated and improved, and 51% of ELA materials and 44% of mathematics materials are now standards-aligned. Forty-six percent of school leaders report having heard of EdReports and 32% of those leaders have used EdReports to identify, select, and implement instructional materials. Nearly 1,300 districts representing almost 14 million students have used EdReports to support and strengthen their curricula."
"Looking ahead to the 2022-23 school year and beyond, it is critical for school and district leaders to ensure that students benefit from all the puzzle pieces coming together—excellent teachers, high-quality curricula, and aligned, ongoing professional learning."
Innovative Ways States Are Using ESSER Funds: Via ECS.
Teachers on the Brink: Via Axios.
"Today's teachers are navigating school shootings, a pandemic and intensifying political interference in their lesson plans — all while their wages remain stagnant."
"Why it matters: Teachers are asking whether the burdens are worth it. Experts warn of a coming staffing shortage."
Classmates Wouldn’t Sign His Yearbook: So older students stepped in.
“No one helped me when I was in that situation,” said Maya, 14. “So I wanted to be there for him.”
"She rounded up her friends, all of whom were eager to give Brody a confidence boost. The impromptu initiative spread throughout the school, and on May 25, the day after the yearbooks were distributed, a swarm of older students filed into Brody’s sixth-grade classroom, ready to sign his yearbook."
"Maya, for her part, promised Brody that beyond signing his yearbook, she would continue to be there for him. She gave him her phone number, and they have already met for ice cream with a few of her friends. They bonded over their shared experience with bullies, and she imparted words of wisdom: “Whoever is trying to bring you down is already below you,” she told Brody."
Related: Avery Dixon's shared how he was bullied. But his sensation sensational saxophone skills earned a golden buzzer from Terry Crews. Really great, powerful segment.