Covid-19 Policy Update #530
Tuesday 7/5
Top Three
Biden-Harris Administration Launches National Effort to Support Student Success: White House Fact Sheet / ED Fact Sheet
The Administration is launching the National Partnership for Student Success and recruiting 250,000 new tutors and mentors.
Expanding the Department’s Best Practices Clearinghouse to share best practices around academic and mental health recovery efforts.
Empowering parents and school communities with knowledge about how their school is using and can use federal funds to provide the necessary academic and mental health supports.
Tracking Progress in Providing Additional Learning Opportunities: IES will use monthly surveys to track schools’ continued progress in providing summer learning and enrichment, tutoring, and afterschool supports.
White House Toolkit: How State and Local Leaders Can Use American Rescue Plan State and Local Fiscal Recovery Funds to Address Students’ Academic and Mental Health Needs.
FDA Will Not Require Clinical Trial Data to Authorize Redesigned Boosters: Reports Reuters.
"The FDA will not require companies to submit clinical trial data on COVID-19 vaccines modified to protect against the BA.4 and BA.5 versions of Omicron in order to authorize those shots."
"Dr. Peter Marks, head of the agency's Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research, told Reuters the agency will rely on data from clinical trials vaccine makers have run on shots designed to combat the BA.1 lineage, as well as manufacturing data, for emergency use authorization submissions before the fall."
"Relying on existing data will let the FDA and COVID-19 vaccine makers move more quickly to make booster shots available. But the virus is still spreading rapidly, and they may not be ready in time to stave off a BA.4 / 5 wave."
NYT: "But building a fall booster campaign around vaccines at the forefront of the virus’s evolution could also come at a cost. Pfizer and Moderna said that they could deliver subvariant vaccine doses no earlier than October. Some F.D.A. advisers warned in a public meeting last week that the timeline could be slowed even further by any number of routine delays."
"The F.D.A.’s decision to give its blessing to updated vaccines may have ripple effects across the globe, setting Moderna and Pfizer on the path to making those shots. But some countries may choose boosters targeting the earlier version of Omicron because they will be ready sooner."
NYC Considering a Student Vaccine Mandate: June 30 transcript:
"Question: Mayor, I had a question about vaccinating more children ahead of the school year in September. Have you made a decision about that, and how do you increase these rates among people like my son and young children?"
"Mayor Adams: When you say vaccination, you're talking about is it going to be mandatory or not? Question: For schools, yes."
"Mayor Adams: Yes, we are still meeting, we're discussing to come up with the best way to do it. We want to do it in a way that is thoughtful and that is not going to decrease our number of students who are in schools, but Dr. Vasan and the team is really flushing through. And we want to notify parents as early as possible so that they can be prepared. Within the next few weeks, we'll know exactly how we're going to move."
"Commissioner Vasan: I have three kids of my own. One of them is under five, and I'm getting them vaccinated, but it's a conversation with pediatricians and trusted people around whom and with whom you make medical decisions for your child. But look, I think we're also waiting for products to become fully licensed by the FDA. That builds a lot of confidence in our student required vaccines. Most of our student required vaccines are fully licensed products by the FDA and mandated by the state. And so we're working with the state, we're working with our federal partners to really decide what's the right timing and when and if we bring in a student vaccine requirement, and so we're under consideration now. It's definitely something we're talking about."
Federal
The Canvass: K Street: Via Punchbowl.
Covid-19 Research
New BA.2 Variants Found: May have role in ongoing surge in India.
Thread by Ulrich Elling on why BA.2.75 is concerning.
Where More Kids Got COVID Shots: Axios on a new CDC report.
"Vaccine coverage was 1.66 times higher in counties with at least one pharmacy or other active COVID-19 vaccine providers than in counties with no active providers from November through April."
The Health Risks of Getting Covid-19 a Second (or Third) Time: Via the WSJ:
"Each new infection carries a risk of medical problems, including hospitalization, death and long Covid, according to preliminary data from a study of patients in the Veterans Affairs health system."
"The risk of developing medical issues such as lung and heart problems is most acute in the first 30 days after an infection. Those risks remain elevated for up to six months for most conditions and increase with each subsequent infection. For instance, out of 100 people with a reinfection and 100 who had only one infection, five more people with reinfection developed a lung or respiratory issue or heart problem within a six-month period."
Leading Causes of Death in the US During the COVID-19 Pandemic, March 2020 to October 2021: Study
"From March 2020 to October 2021, heart disease (20.1%), cancer (17.5%), COVID-19 (12.2%), accidents (6.2%), and stroke (4.7%) were the most common causes of death in the U.S."
"Deaths from cancer, heart disease, and COVID-19 accounted for the largest number of deaths in every group aged 55 years and older. The leading 3 causes of death in these age groups were the same in 2020 and 2021. Among people aged 85 years and older, COVID-19 was ranked as the second leading cause of death in 2020 (110 000 deaths, 12.8% of deaths), and third in 2021 (69 000, 8.9% of deaths). Among those aged 45 to 54 years, COVID-19 was the fourth leading cause of death in 2020 (17 000 deaths, 10.4% of deaths), following heart disease, cancer, and accidents; in 2021, however, it was the leading cause of death (30 000 deaths, 16.8% of deaths)."
Association Between School Mask Mandates and SARS-CoV-2 Student Infections: Evidence from a Natural Experiment of Neighboring K-12 Districts in North Dakota: Tracy Høeg study.
"We observed no significant difference between student case rates while the districts had differing masking policies nor while they had the same mask policies."
"Our findings contribute to a growing body of literature which suggests school-based mask mandates have limited to no impact on the case rates of COVID-19 among K-12 students.""
Why the Rush for Toddler Vaccines?: Allysia Finley in the WSJ:
"At least Moderna’s trial showed modest efficacy against symptomatic Omicron infection—37% among 2- to 5-year-olds and 51% for those 6 months to 2 years old. Pfizer claimed its vaccine was 80% effective, but this is misleading. For one, Pfizer contravened numerous clinical-trial conventions. Its initial protocol involved only two doses, but this failed to generate the antibody levels required for FDA approval. So Pfizer added a third dose, which the FDA generously allowed. Usually the agency won’t let drugmakers make a course correction when a trial ends in failure."
"Pfizer then planned to track at least 21 cases to establish a bare-bones measure of efficacy. By comparison, Moderna tracked more than 250 cases. Yet Pfizer truncated its data collection on April 29—the day after Moderna announced it had submitted its application for emergency-use authorization—even though a mere 10 cases had been recorded after the third dose."
"The FDA standard for approving vaccines in otherwise healthy people, especially children, is supposed to be higher than for drugs that treat the sick. But the FDA conspicuously lowered its standards to approve Covid vaccines for toddlers."
COVID-19 Vaccination for Children 5–11: Shamez Ladhani in the Lancet:
"Clinicians and parents must balance the relatively small risks of severe disease outcomes with the relatively small risks that accompany vaccination in children aged 5–11 years."
"Although many countries continue to actively recommend COVID-19 vaccination for children aged 5–11 years, some countries, such as Sweden, have advised against vaccinating healthy 5–11 year-olds, whereas others, such as Norway, have made the vaccine available should parents wish to vaccinate their children."
"With the US Food and Drug Administration authorisation of use of COVID-19 vaccines in children younger than 5 years, the same dilemmas are likely to resurface, although with even more marginal risk–benefit ratios. In particular, considering that the global population has been living through the pandemic for more than 2 years and has been exposed to multiple waves of different SARS-CoV-2 variants, governments, policy makers, and clinicians need to urgently address the added value of vaccination—be it primary or boosters—for protection against severe disease outcomes in children who have already been infected by the virus."
"Above all, public messaging of the risks and benefits of vaccinating children against COVID-19 needs to be clear to encourage public confidence in vaccines and trust in those advocating for vaccination to prevent other, more serious diseases."
Associations of BMI with COVID-19 Vaccine Uptake, Vaccine Effectiveness, and Risk of Severe COVID-19 Outcome: Study
"Vaccine protection was slightly lower in people with underweight, who were also less likely to be vaccinated. When investigating severe COVID-19 outcomes in the vaccinated cohort, people with underweight and those with obesity remained at greater risk of hospitalisation or death from COVID-19 than people who are a healthy weight, even after a second dose of the vaccine."
"In summary, this large community-based cohort of 9 million people in England provides evidence that people with overweight and obesity who are vaccinated are more protected against severe COVID-19."
State
DC: Just 7% Under 5s have gotten their first COVID-19 vaccine dose since June 29.
New York: New York City is creating the first mobile testing units that will allow people who test positive for the coronavirus to immediately receive for free the antiviral treatment Paxlovid.
Texas: "Texas students’ standardized test scores in reading and math moved closer to pre-pandemic levels after falling to levels not seen in a decade the year before."
Virginia: Governor Glenn Youngkin Announces Additional Key Administration Appointment. Some phenomenal picks including Andy Rotherham and Bill Hansen for State Board of Education.
International
Germany: Will not shut schools and non-essential businesses again if the COVID-19 infection rate rises again later this year but protective masks would play a bigger role, Chancellor Olaf Scholz told broadcaster ARD on Sunday.
But..."Health Minister Karl Lauterbach wants to give states the option of closing schools if a more dangerous variant of Covid emerges in autumn."
Economic Recovery
If This Is a Recession It’s a Strange One: Via the WSJ
“The U.S. economy has experienced 12 recessions since World War II, and each one included two features: Economic output contracted and unemployment rose."
“Today, something highly unusual is happening. Economic output fell in the first quarter and signs suggest it did so again in the second. Yet the job market showed little sign of faltering during the first half of the year. The jobless rate fell from 4% last December to 3.6% in May.”
“It is the latest strange twist in the odd trajectory of the pandemic economy, and a riddle for those contemplating a recession. If the U.S. is in or near one, it doesn’t yet look like any other on record.”
‘This is a Crisis Point’: Job training deficit leaves critical jobs unfilled, via Politico.
Resources
State Education Data Lessons From the COVID-19 Pandemic: Via ECS and DQC. Chalkbeat article:
"Before the pandemic, Indiana collected attendance annually, according to John Keller, the chief information officer at the Indiana Department of Education. Indiana switched to daily attendance updates, Keller said, “essentially collecting a million records about attendance every single day.”
"It’s unclear whether the temporary federal influx of funds went as far in other states. Out of 25 states, 17 said in the ECS survey that they do not generally have the time, funding, or staff to invest as much as they wanted in their data systems."
Confidence in U.S. Institutions Down; Average at New Low: Gallup
"Americans are less confident in major U.S. institutions than they were a year ago, with significant declines for 11 of the 16 institutions tested and no improvements for any."
"Notably, confidence in the major institutions of the federal government is at a low point, at a time when the president and Congress are struggling to address high inflation, record gas prices, increased crime and gun violence, continued illegal immigration, and significant foreign policy challenges from Russia and China."
Gen Z is Here. Are We Ready? Aspen Ideas panel:
Romy Drucker, Education Program Director, Walton Family Foundation
Krasi Staykov, Student, University of Louisville; Senior Advisor, Kentucky Student Voice Team
Emma Bloomberg, Founder and CEO, Murmuration
Usher Raymond, Singer; Performer
John Della Volpe, Director of Polling, Institute of Politics, Harvard Kennedy School; CEO, SocialSphere
Iyana Gross, Student, Morgan State University
Delashay Lawrence, Student, University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff
Happy Fourth of July:
Thoughtful essay by former Secretary of the Navy Richard Danzig: "July Fourth is a time to sing our complicated country’s praises."
Happy 10-year anniversary to the greatest fireworks show in history, when San Diego accidentally shot off 7,000 fireworks at once.
The British Embassy Washington: Made a Fourth of July playlist.
Loren Allred performs "God Bless America" at the 2022 A Capitol Fourth
