Top Three
CDC Signs Off On Updated Covid-19 Boosters:
CDC Statement: CDC Recommends the First Updated COVID-19 Booster
Stat: "Your questions on the new Covid vaccine boosters answered."
"During a press conference on Wednesday, Peter Marks, the head of the FDA center that oversees vaccine authorizations, said that the agency is waiting for the companies to submit data related to authorizing the shots in younger children.”
“He said that the age range in the authorization would be expected to drop over the next month or two. Marks declined to specify exactly what data the FDA will need to see to lower the age of the authorization.”
“During that same press conference, Robert Califf, the FDA commissioner, emphasized that overall the vaccination rate for very young children is “very low” in the U.S. and said that he hoped parents would “pick up the pace of vaccination of younger children.”
Katelyn Jetelina: "Considerations for your fall booster." She recommends:
<2-3 months since infection/vaccination: Wait.
3-4 months since infection/vaccination: Consider a booster if you’re high risk, or have an event. (Get your booster 2 weeks before this event for optimal protection).
4-6 months since infection/vaccination: Get your booster at some point.
6+ months since infection/vaccination: Get your booster ASAP. This includes me—I haven’t been infected, and I had my booster last November.
Public Health Communications Collaborative: Updated Toolkit: COVID-19 Booster Dose Messaging and Outreach Tools.
Jobs Report: CNBC: “The economy added 315,000 jobs for the month, just below the Dow Jones estimate for 318,000. The unemployment rate rose to 3.7%, two-tenths of a percentage point higher than expectations.”
Permanent Virtual Classes Now Offered at Some U.S. Schools to Protect Vulnerable Children: Via the WSJ.
"School districts in Texas, New York and California are creating permanent, full-time virtual schools for the first time ever this year, in a nationwide movement that has gained steam since the coronavirus pandemic in 2020 prompted schools to seesaw between in-person and remote learning."
"The virtual option might be appropriate for about 4% of students in Dallas, according to a study commissioned by officials there last year."
"New York City Deputy Chancellor Dan Weisberg said the city’s new virtual high school, called School Without Walls, was created this year to meet the needs of families whose lives were disrupted by Covid-19. “We learned a lot over the last few years,” Mr. Weisberg said."
Federal
Biden Seeks $47 Billion for Aid Package: “The Biden administration on Friday asked Congress to approve more than $47 billion in new emergency funds this fall to combat the coronavirus, secure new monkeypox vaccines, bolster Ukraine’s defenses and respond to devastating floods in Kentucky,” the Washington Post reports.
"Targeting the coronavirus, the Biden administration proposed $22.4 billion, much of which would facilitate the purchase and development of next-generation vaccines and treatments. The money also would help restart programs that recently ran out of funds, including an initiative to provide free tests that the White House said it had to wind down this week after months of congressional inaction."
Commerce: President Biden announced the 21 winners of the $1 billion Build Back Better Regional Challenge.
USDA: Is extending a key funding flexibility in the WIC program that has allowed state agencies and their infant formula manufacturers to work together to provide more options for WIC families in need of formula.
Covid-19 Research
Parental Intentions and Perceptions Toward COVID-19 Vaccination Among Children Aged 4 Months to 4 Years: Via the CDC
"Among parents of 393 children aged <5 years in this analysis, 64% indicated at baseline that they were likely to have their child vaccinated with the COVID-19 vaccine."
"During a 3-month observation period, however, parents indicated decreased intention to vaccinate and decreased confidence in COVID-19 vaccine safety and effectiveness as well as less trust in the government."
"Among the subset of participants who were in the study for 6 months, perceptions of vaccine safety, vaccine knowledge, and intent to vaccinate increased, but only in models that were not adjusted for potential confounders including SARS-CoV-2 infection during the study period. Perceptions of vaccine effectiveness and trust in government remained neutral or negative after 6 months."
COVID-19 mRNA Vaccine Safety Among Children Aged 6 Months–5 Years: Via the CDC.
"Approximately, one million young children have received an mRNA COVID-19 vaccine. The findings in this report are consistent with those from safety data from preauthorization clinical trials for young children."
"Trial participants aged 6 months–4 years who received Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine and 6 months–5 years who received Moderna vaccine most frequently reported mild or moderate local and systemic reactions; no serious adverse events judged to be related to vaccination were reported in the trial data."
"Initial postauthorization safety monitoring of 19 serious reports identified one report of febrile seizure plausibly associated with vaccination."
"Among VAERS reports for Pfizer-BioNTech recipients aged 6 months–4 years and Moderna recipients aged 6 months–5 years, 98% or more were nonserious. Vaccination errors were among the most common events reported to VAERS in this age group. No adverse event was associated with vaccination errors in 92% of these reports."
State
Arizona: Launches teacher residency program to address shortages, turnover.
"In an effort to recruit and retain teachers long term, the Arizona Department of Education this summer awarded the Arizona K12 Center at Northern Arizona University a $5 million grant using federal COVID-19 relief dollars to launch and expand the Arizona Teacher Residency program. About 30 residents will be in the first cohort this school year. The program is expected to expand in the following years, with a goal of including 100 teacher residents per cohort."
California: "More than 1 in 8 California students ages 4 to 6 did not have their measles, mumps and rubella vaccination — one of 10 vaccinations California requires — before school started this year, according to the California Department of Public Health. That means that there could potentially be many more students who haven’t had other required vaccinations that could put them at risk of being sent home."
Michigan: Detroit district students slide back on M-STEP tests as pandemic challenges linger.
"Only 10% of third graders scored proficient or above, six percentage points lower than in 2018-19, the last time students took the test before the pandemic. Among fourth grade students, 5.5% scored proficient or above, down from 10.9% in 2019."
"In English, 9% of third grade students scored at or above proficiency, compared with 11.9% in 2019."
"During 2021-22, 77% of students were chronically absent, meaning they missed 10% of school days or more. That was up from 62% before the pandemic."
New Jersey: "Newark Public Schools’ face mask rules will stay in place, but some parents are frustrated," reports Chalkbeat.
New York: NYC schools will revamp reading program after national study showed significant decline in test scores.
Virginia: Governor Glenn Youngkin announced new measures to address teacher shortages and recover learning loss that include:
"Build the K-12 teacher pipeline with an innovative, no-cost apprenticeship program."
"Provide individualized student data reports so that every K-8 student, parent and teacher has all of a student’s assessment information in an understandable, actionable report. This information about student proficiency and learning loss empowers these critical stakeholders to make the best decisions to ensure every child is prepared for life."
"Ensure every student who is not on track has a Personalized Learning Plan that commits to a set of actions that teachers, parents, and students will take to address learning gaps. These Personalized Learning Plans will be developed and executed in partnership with teachers, parents, and students."
"Provide comprehensive training to teachers on how to communicate with parents and students about where a student is academically and the steps that will be taken together to get a student to grade-level proficiency."
Economic Recovery
‘Inflation Fever’ Is Finally Breaking — But Central Banks Won’t Stop Hiking Rates: Via Bloomberg
"After the worst price shock in decades, the speed at which relief arrives will vary, with Europe in particular still struggling. But for the world as a whole, analysts at JPMorgan Chase & Co. estimate that consumer-price inflation will fall to 5.1% in the second half of this year — roughly half of what it was in the six months through June."
The Most-Regretted (And Lowest-Paying) College Majors: The Washington Post on a 2021 Federal Reserve Survey.
Why More Women Are Self-Employed Now: Via Axios:
"More women are self-employed now than prior to the pandemic — particularly Black and Hispanic women and those without bachelor's degrees, finds a new analysis from the Center for Economic and Policy Research."
"A lack of access to childcare has made many women seek more flexible work arrangements in order to oversee their kids," write the authors of the piece."
"And those with less education have a harder time finding jobs that allow for remote work."
Resources
Randi Weingarten Flunks the Pandemic: Via WSJ Editorial Board
"The 2020 NAEP tests were administered shortly before pandemic lockdowns and school closures, so this year’s results provide a snapshot of how students have weathered those two years. It’s not pretty. Average nine-year-old scores declined the most on record in math (seven points) and in reading since 1990 (five points). Two decades of progress have been erased in two years."
"You’d think this would be cause for reflection by our education elites, but no such luck. Media headlines blamed “the pandemic,” as if Covid-19 ran America’s school districts and decided to force students to sit at home in front of screens for more than a year. Educators—as they call themselves—did that."
"American Federation of Teachers chief Randi Weingarten, who pushed shutdowns as long as she possibly could before parents revolted, tried to forget this ever happened with her statement on Twitter: “Thankfully after two years of disruption from a pandemic that killed more than 1 mil Americans, schools are already working on helping kids recover and thrive. This is a year to accelerate learning by rebuilding relationships, focusing on the basics.” But she and her union were the chief disrupters."
"America’s teachers unions demanded that schools be kept shut even as they remained open in Europe. At the same time unions used the pandemic to extort money from Congress. Schools received some $190 billion in federal Covid relief to safely reopen and address learning losses, but schools stayed closed and much of the money still hasn’t been spent."
‘Graduation Counselors’ Go Door-to Door to Find Missing Students: Via EdWeek
"Every week, Walker gets a list from her supervisor at Lowcountry, which is technically a public charter high school, of students who have dropped out of or aren’t attending their public school in one of three partner districts: Charleston, Berkeley, and Dorchester. She calls, emails, and texts the families’ last known numbers before driving out to find them in person."
"Every day is a new challenge for Walker, who moved to the Charleston area a year ago. Some days, she makes more stops on a single street than a mail delivery person. Other days, she’s driving far out of town to rural South Carolina. “No Trespassing” signs hang on some homes, where she is not authorized to knock ; other times, people appear to be at home but choose to not answer."
“I can knock on 18 doors and nobody answers. The success rate is kind of iffy, just depends on their timing,” she said. “Because this is a population of students who kind of have dismissed school.”
"Many of the 250 students enrolled at Lowcountry have life commitments, such as jobs or having to take care of family members. Some also have behavioral or mental health challenges, such as anxiety, that stop them from succeeding in a traditional high school environment. Those students have the flexibility they need to finish their high school credits at Lowcountry."
Back to School Q&A: Redshirting, School Ratings, Reading, and Montessori: Via Emily Oster.
Computer Science: Google pledges $20 million to expand computer science education in the US.
Back to School Can Be Tough: Which is why it's great to be welcomes home…