We’re going to make this the last update for the week given the upcoming holiday weekend. Wishing everyone a great Fourth of July and we’ll see you back here on Tuesday.
Top Three
FDA Recommends Inclusion of Omicron BA.4/5 Component for COVID-19 Vaccine Booster Doses: FDA Statement
"Following the vote, and striving to use the best available scientific evidence, we have advised manufacturers seeking to update their COVID-19 vaccines that they should develop modified vaccines that add an omicron BA.4/5 spike protein component to the current vaccine composition to create a two component (bivalent) booster vaccine, so that the modified vaccines can potentially be used starting in early to mid-fall 2022."
Pfizer Vaccine Effectiveness against Omicron in Children 5 to 11: Study
"Our findings suggest that as omicron was becoming the dominant variant, two doses of the BNT162b2 messenger RNA vaccine provided moderate protection against documented SARS-CoV-2 infection and symptomatic Covid-19 in children 5 to 11 years of age."
"This observational study of effectiveness of the BNT162b2 vaccine among children 5 to 11 years of age showed a vaccine effectiveness of 51% against documented SARS-CoV-2 infection and 48% against symptomatic Covid-19 at 7 to 21 days after the second dose. Our results also suggested that effectiveness may be greater among younger children (5 or 6 years of age) than older children (10 or 11 years of age)."
Covid School Aid Spending Trends in Red, Blue States: Via FutureEd.
Likewise, 31% of blue-state districts and charters include social-emotional learning (SEL) programs, materials, and training for staff members in their plans, compared to 28% in red states. The analysis shows that districts in red and blue states expect to spend about the same amount per student on this priority: $80 per pupil in blue state districts compared to $87 in red states."
"Surprisingly, about a quarter of districts in red states have pledged Covid-relief funds for behavioral and mental health services and for family engagement, higher than the rates in blue states. In contrast, local education agencies in blue states have made larger commitments to bringing psychologists and social workers into schools (41% of agencies compared to 31% in red states)."
"More than half of districts in blue states intend to spend on summer learning programs, making it their top learning-loss strategy and their No. 3 priority overall. By contrast, 38% of districts in red states plan to spend on summer learning, and it ranks No. 6 on their list of priorities. Spending on afterschool programs is also more common in blue states than their more conservative counterparts."
"Roughly 40% of districts in red states plan to purchase instructional materials, software and curriculum. This compares to about 30 percent of blue-state districts."
Covid-19 Research
Free Testing: The Rockefeller Foundation announced the nationwide expansion of Project Access Covid Tests (Project ACT) to provide free at-home Covid-19 tests directly to at-risk communities across the United States.
Eli Lilly to Supply Additional Doses of COVID Antibody Drug: "Lilly will provide an additional 150,000 doses of bebtelovimab for about $275 million. The drug has also shown effectiveness against the Omicron variant."
U.S. Buys 105 Million Pfizer COVID Vaccine Doses for Fall Campaign: "The $3.2 billion deal announced by the Biden administration comes as federal scientists consider how to update the vaccines to better protect Americans from the rapidly evolving virus. Federal officials said the purchase agreement includes the option to purchase a total of 300 million doses, including a mix of doses for both adults and children."
Goldman Sachs Macro Research: New report.
Just About Everyone in America is Finally Eligible for a Covid-19 Vaccine. Now What?: Asks Vox.
"For children under 4, the omicron wave led to five times as many hospitalizations as the delta variant wave, and the majority of those hospitalized kids had no underlying health problems. Infants under 6 months had the highest rates of hospitalization."
"Researchers are also still learning about how a Covid-19 infection can cause long Covid, particularly in children. A recent review paper looking at studies covering more than 80,000 children and adolescents found that more than one in four experienced long Covid."
"It’s a game of Russian roulette,” said Paul Offit, director of vaccine education at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. “It’s not five empty chambers. Maybe it’s 100,000 empty chambers. But why play the game?” It’s important, then, to avoid infections in the first place and to build up immunity with vaccines."
"Sara Oliver, a pediatrician who advises the CDC on Covid-19 vaccines, said during a webinar in June that talking to parents and kids one-on-one is going to be key to winning over the hesitant. “I think we need to be very understanding of the families who say, ‘I just need a minute, I want to think about it,’” she said. “Giving space for people who have very reasonable questions, and have them answered, is how we get those numbers up.”
The Vaccine-Hesitant Moment: Via NEJM.
Don’t Rush a Move to Change the Covid-19 Vaccine Composition: Write John Moore and Paul Offit in Stat.
"The Covid-19 vaccines currently authorized for use in the U.S. are all based on the sequence of the original SARS-CoV-2 virus, which was obtained early in 2020. The virus has evolved over the past 30 months, creating variants that are either more infectious, or harder to counter by vaccination, or both."
"In late December 2021, the Omicron variant (BA.1) emerged, becoming the most dominant strain in the U.S. BA.1 has now been almost completely replaced by other Omicron-based variants. The BA.4 and BA.5 viruses currently account for 50% of all circulating strains. Earlier variants, like Alpha and Delta, have essentially vanished."
"While vaccines made from the original SARS-CoV-2 strain provided strong protection against SARS-CoV-2 circulating in 2020 and 2021, the Omicron variants have been more problematic. They are highly resistant to neutralizing antibodies, which the human immune system uses to prevent infection. As a result, the Omicron viruses find it easier to break through this protective barrier, causing what are mostly mild infections."
"Moderna and Pfizer executives have claimed that the Omicron vaccines will be protective for longer. That may be true, but how long is longer? A few weeks? A month or two? Again, detailed modeling of the data might provide important information. It’s important to be sure that changing the booster vaccine to include the Omicron sequence offers enough of an advantage to justify the cost and complexity associated with making the switch."
"Because no one can predict how SARS-CoV-2 will further evolve, there’s no way to tell whether one or more Omicron-based boosts over the next year would be beneficial against what may emerge. What is known is that the increasingly prevalent BA.4 and BA.5 variants are even more resistant to neutralizing antibodies, typically by three- or four-fold, than the now-vanished BA.1 variant on which the Omicron vaccines are based. The trend toward greater resistance of neutralizing antibodies may well worsen."
State
Arizona: "What States Can Learn from Arizona’s New Student Transportation Law."
Florida: Florida surgeon general defends opposition to COVID-19 vaccines for children before Congress.
Economic Recovery
Working From a Tropical Island Is the New Working From Home: Via Bloomberg.
U.S. GDP’s Early 2022 Dip Was Bigger Than Previously Thought: "Spending grew at a revised annual rate of 1.8% in the first quarter, down from a previous estimate of 3.1%."
Can Four-Day School Weeks Keep Teachers From Leaving?: Via EdSurge.
Have a Great Weekend: Go catch some waves.
Coldplay - Higher Power: From NBC’S Macy’s 4th of July Fireworks Spectacular
John F. Kennedy: Reading Declaration of Independence.
What To The Slave Is The Fourth Of July?: Descendants Read Frederick Douglass' Speech