Covid-19 Policy Update #528
Wednesday 6/29
Top Three
BioNTech, Pfizer To Start Testing Universal Covid Vaccine: Via Reuters: "Their experimental work on shots that go beyond the current approach include T-cell-enhancing shots, designed to primarily protect against severe disease if the virus becomes more dangerous, and pan-coronavirus shots that protect against the broader family of viruses and its mutations."
Schools Are Spending Millions on New Virtual Tutoring: Chalkbeat asks if it is working?
Clarity for Fall: Good piece by Katelyn Jetelina on an Omicron booster.
"The first presentation yesterday was from the CDC and highlighted what we know about vaccine effectiveness in the U.S. Our (piecemeal) data is showing that vaccines work against severe disease, but steady erosion is occurring. And this is happening more quickly as Omicron mutates. We don’t have data on BA.4/5 yet."
"Clinical trials originally tested the effectiveness of a BA.1 booster formula against the BA.1/2 virus and it worked great. But since then, a new Omicron variant has come on scene (BA.4/5). Pfizer and Moderna presented new data showing that the BA.1 booster formula is also effective against BA.4/5, but the impact was less. This was regardless of age or previous infection. (This is what we expected, given that we are seeing Omicron mutate more to escape neutralizing antibodies, but overall good news.)"
"Interestingly, Pfizer and Moderna came to different conclusions about needing a bivalent or monovalent vaccine. Moderna found that their bivalent vaccine was imperative for durability. The slide below shows waning was more dramatic for the monvalent Beta formula vaccine compared to the bivalent. Pfizer found the opposite: The monovalent vaccine was more effective than the bivalent. (The FDA can’t just let the manufacturers pick their favorite approach, as implementation for the public would be a nightmare in fall. The manufacturers need direction.)"
"Pfizer surprised everyone and presented fresh off the press data. They already started testing a BA.4/5 vaccine formula among mice. Results show that this vaccine worked very well against all Omicron variants. This hasn’t been tested among humans yet."
"There was some discussion on how to get everyone on the same page with boosters. The age de-escalation phases were necessary for the first vaccine series, but kids can’t continue to be 1.5 years behind. There was a mix of opinions whether we can confidently use adult data for rolling out pediatric vaccines. The vast majority agreed that the vaccine manufacturers need to collect pediatric data more quickly. (We need to start enrolling kids in trials with adults from here on out.)"
Federal
IES: Small Business Innovation Research Program (SBIR) 2022 Awards
Covid-19 Research
Covid-19 is a Leading Cause of Death in Children and Young People Ages 0-19 years in the United States: Updated preprint study after the recent CDC/FDA controversy. It does adjust the Covid ranking down, but not as much as critics thought it would - COVID is still in the top 10.
BA.4/BA.5 Now Dominant Strains: "As of the week ending Saturday, BA.4 made up 15.7% of new cases, and BA.5 was 36.6%, accounting for about 52% of new cases in the United States."
The Youngest Children May Not Be Able to Get Vaccinated at the Local Pharmacy: The NYT with why.
"Mitchel Rothholz, who leads immunization advocacy at the American Pharmacists Association, said all pharmacists are trained to administer vaccines to those ages 3 and older, but some may prefer to go through additional training before working with children younger than that."
"Kelly Jensen, of Woodstock, Ill., said she placed at least 10 phone calls early this week to locate a vaccine for her 14-month-old daughter. Many larger pharmacies are not administering the shot to children that young, and Ms. Jensen said her pediatrician was not offering the vaccine to young children, either, citing waning interest."
"A group of volunteers called Vaccinate Under 5 created a national database of pharmacies and providers administering the vaccine to young children. The map, populated by online submissions from parents and doctors, was up and running with appointments for children under 5, the group said."
Here are the policies for some major pharmacy chains:
Costco: 3 years and older
CVS: 18 months and older at MinuteClinic locations, 5 and older at others
Harris Teeter: 5 years and older
H-E-B: 3 and older
Hy-Vee: 3 and older
Kroger: 5 and older
Rite Aid: 3 and older
Safeway: 5 and older
Stop & Shop: 3 and older
Walgreens: 3 and older
Wegmans: 3 and older
Walmart/Sam’s Club: 3 and older
This Fall Will Be a Vaccination Reboot: Katherine Wu in The Atlantic.
"In one sense, this is how it was always supposed to go: When viruses evolve, vaccines should follow, and sometimes try to leap ahead. The COVID-19 shots that the U.S. has used to inoculate hundreds of millions of people are simply so new that they’ve never had to undergo a metamorphosis; up until now, their original-recipe ingredients have stood up to SARS-CoV-2 well enough. But the virus they fight has changed quite radically, and this fall, the vaccines will finally, finally follow suit."
"Here in the U.S., vaccine enthusiasm has a pretty dire prognosis. Fewer than half of the vaccinated Americans eligible for a first booster have opted for one; an even paltrier fraction of those who could get second and third boosters are currently up to date on their shots. Among high-income countries, the U.S. ranks embarrassingly low on the immunity scale—for a nation with the funds and means to holster shots in spades, far too many of its residents remain vulnerable to the variants sweeping the globe, and the others that will inevitably come."
"The round of shots rolled out this fall, then, won’t just be a sequel to the injections of the past year and a half; it will be a chance for a true cultural reboot. By year’s end, America will likely set a vaccine precedent, either breaking its pattern of injection attrition or further solidifying it, and letting the virus once again lap us."
"By the end of 2021, the U.S. had a catchall booster recommendation for adults (and has since expanded it to kids as young as 5), but whatever the benefit of a booster might be, much of the public had disengaged. Many had been infected by then, and even people who had gladly gotten doses one and two couldn’t muster the same urgency or enthusiasm again. “The feeling was, I’ve already gotten one series of shots—I’m not just going to keep getting more,” especially with no obvious end to the injection rigamarole in sight, says Stacy Wood, a marketing expert at North Carolina State University who, with Schulman, has written about the challenges of promoting COVID-19 vaccines."
"The fall boosters will reignite those communication challenges, and add some of their own. The new formulation, selected months ahead of schedule, remains an inherent gamble. “We need an updated shot,” Shen told me. That decision has to happen now, in order for boosters to be manufactured by fall. But there’s no telling what Greek-letter threat will be ping-ponging around the globe by the time winter sets in, or how good a match the shots will be."
Tests for the Visually Impaired: "The Biden administration rolled out free at-home Covid-19 tests that are designed to be more accessible for people who are blind or visually impaired."
Delta Reinfection Risk Low Among Unvaccinated Children: Via Nature:
"A year and a half after an infection, the resulting immune response was still about 80% effective at preventing reinfection, the study found."
"But it isn’t clear how the results will translate to infections by coronavirus variants of the Omicron lineage, which is now dominant in many countries."
“There is a much less-robust immune response to Omicron among previously infected and/or vaccinated individuals,” says Yvonne Maldonado, chief of pediatric infectious diseases at Stanford School of Medicine in California. “Such immune responses are also significantly less durable.”
Nudging COVID-19 Vaccine Uptake by Changing the Default: New study.
In a randomized controlled trial of 2,000 adults, half were assigned a vaccination appointment compared to the other half who could set an appointment.
It produced a 32% relative increase in vaccination intent.
Do Mask Mandates Work? Bay Area COVID Data from June Says No: Via SF Gate.
"In early June, during an uptick in COVID-19 cases, Alameda County was the only Bay Area county to bring back an indoor mask mandate."
"The graphs below compare Alameda County’s seven-day average case rate from the past two months to rates in neighboring Contra Costa, Santa Clara and San Francisco counties. Contra Costa and Santa Clara, in particular, are natural comparisons to Alameda, because they have similar vaccination rates and demographic data. San Francisco, on the other side of the bay, provides an additional point of reference."
State
Maine: The Department of Education is seeking accountability and assessment reporting waivers for third consecutive year.
New York: "COVID positivity rates in New York City have crept back up to late-January levels, as top doctors warn the city may be on the verge of a sixth wave of COVID-19 driven by the "worst version" of the omicron variant yet."
Oklahoma: Oklahoma City schools budget levels out after surge of federal COVID dollars.
Related: "The largest school district in the state is looking into consolidating bus routes this upcoming school year to help cut back on gas after their fuel cost doubled from last year."
"We're not talking about condensing routes and going from, now we have one 45-minute route instead of two 15-minute routes. We're not doing that because we want to make sure our kids are safe and comfortable,” Stull said.”
Resources
Yes. Every Kid: Appoints Craig Hulse as Executive Director.
Results for America and the Annenberg Institute at Brown University: Released two new EdResearch for Recovery briefs on:
Design principles for effective online credit recovery to help student make up coursework missed during COVID-19, written by Carolyn Heinrich (Vanderbilt University), and
Strategies to improve reading comprehension for students in kindergarten to grade 4 through stronger Tier I English language arts instruction.
COVID Undermined Students’ Well-being More Than We Thought: Via Bruno Manno.
Google Public Sector: A new subsidiary focused on federal & state government as well as education.
Chicago Offers a Blueprint for Expanding Urban Internet Access: Via Bloomberg.
"In Chicago, a $50 million four-year program to give free internet to low-income students is now the largest K-12 internet connectivity program in the country."
"Chicago Connected has given high-speed broadband to more than 40,000 households in need, representing some 64,000 Chicago public school students. And with new expanded eligibility, it could reach 228,000 students by 2024."
"In a 2021 survey of Chicago Connected families, 75% of those who did not have broadband internet access before the program said it was too expensive to connect. And about 75% had annual incomes of $35,000 or less and unemployment among them was 40%."
"Community organizations like Northwest Center have been critical to overcoming social barriers. Chicago Connected rolled out with help from 35 grassroots partners; others included YMCA, Chicago Urban League and Kids First Chicago. These groups have histories of providing social services ranging from education to health care to housing assistance and are what policymakers call “trusted messengers.”
Four Ways Ed Leaders Can Prepare for Funds in Newly Enacted Gun Safety Bill: Via K12 Dive. The law targets school safety with these provisions:
$1 billion in new funding through Title IV-A of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act to lift up activities for student learning conditions, such as evidence based-practices that foster positive school climates.
$500 million for the School Based Mental Health Service Grant Program to increase the number of mental health service providers.
$500 million for the School Based Mental Health Service Professionals Demonstration Grant program to train and diversify the pipeline of counselors, social workers and psychologists in schools.
$300 million through the STOP School Violence Act to improve school violence prevention efforts.
$240 million for programs raising awareness about mental health among school-aged children and teens, and to connect students who have potential behavioral health issues with needed services.
$50 million for the 21st Century Community Learning Centers program, which invests in extracurricular, after-school and summer programs.
$28 million to support trauma care in school settings.
Related via The 74: "School Mental Health Resources Critical to Ensuring Safe School Environments"
When Life Is Flipped Upside Down: Singer-songwriter Lily Meola performs an original "Daydream."
She had a record deal and a publishing deal, and was well on her way. And then her “life flipped upside down.”
She shared that her mother, Nancy Meola, was diagnosed with cancer. The singer-songwriter ended up losing her record deal as she became a full-time caretaker.
“I think maybe it was a bit of a blessing because it gave me some extra time to really be there for her,” Meola said with emotion. “She was my biggest cheerleader.”
“She’d be so mad at me if I wasn’t pursuing what I love,” Meola said. “And ‘Daydream’ was one of her favorite songs. So I think she’d be really happy.”
“When all of these big ideas, one day they're replaced with fears. How did we get here?"