Top Three
Reactions to President Biden's Comments on the Pandemic:
"It is unlikely the U.S. will eradicate the coronavirus and a “suspicious” new variant, BA 2.75.2, is on the horizon, President Joe Biden’s chief medical adviser, Anthony Fauci, said Monday during a fireside chat with the Center for Strategic and International Studies."
"The White House also downplayed the rhetorical significance of Biden’s comments, dismissing it as the president’s attempt to highlight the administration’s success in beating back the virus. Widely available vaccines and treatments are capable of blunting the worst of Covid’s effects, businesses and schools are open, and emergency health measures have largely evaporated. Even if the U.S. is technically still in a pandemic, aides argue, Biden was trying to express that most people’s lives are no longer being controlled by it."
HHS spokesperson: "The COVID Public Health Emergency remains in effect & HHS will provide a 60-day notice to states before any possible termination or expiration."
"We in Europe still consider the pandemic as ongoing and it's important that member states prepare for rollout of the vaccines and especially the adaptive vaccines to prevent further spread of this disease in Europe," the European Medicines Agency's (EMA) Chief Medical Officer Steffen Thirstrup told a media briefing, referring to vaccines targeting specific strains of the virus."
CNN reports, Senator Burr, top Republican on Senate HELP, just sent a letter to Biden detailing the pandemic-era policies that he says will need to be wound down after Biden’s comments (including the Student Loan Forgiveness). He says there needs to be a “clear plan” articulated to the public.
Biden Is Right to Declare the ‘Pandemic Is Over argues Ross Barkan.
Is the Covid-19 pandemic over? The answer is more art than science, via Stat's Helen Branswell.
“It’s over when people decide that it’s over. … And most people seem to have decided it’s over,” said John Barry, author of “The Great Influenza,” a history of the 1918 Spanish flu."
"Two intertwined, troubling issues also illustrate why that statement is disconnected from the science. First, there is now strong evidence of imprinting, meaning that after being exposed to an earlier strain of COVID-19, we do not mount as strong an immune response to new strains. This gives the virus a further edge. Not only are some new variants more evasive of our immune system, but also our bodies are less capable of taking them on when we do fight back."
"Then there are the new variants that have already surfaced, such as BA.2.75.2, which exhibits more evasion of our immune system than any prior version. It is sadly inevitable that this variant, or another one with many new, important mutations, will lead to another wave months from now. Such variants are so distinct from what we’ve been exposed to — what our immune systems recognize after infections and vaccines — that we will be less protected against future waves."
"We desperately need a way to block infections and transmission, along with more durable, effective and variant-proof vaccines."
Wake-up Calls’: New Parent Survey Shows 9% Enrollment Drop in District Schools: The 74 on new research from Tyton Partners.
"Districts faced persistent annual enrollment challenges due to a set of factors we call the “Three Ds”: dropouts, demographics, and deferments." From Spring 2021 to Spring 2022, we estimate a decline of roughly 300,000 students in district public school enrollment due to these three factors."
"Parents report their top reasons for changing schools are concerns with academic quality and safety considerations."
"In addition, our analysis determined that parents’ political beliefs had little to no impact on their reasons for changing their child’s school. Conservative, liberal, and moderate parents alike ranked academic quality and safety as their top motivations."
Shifting Students: A Look at Washington State School Enrollment From 2020 to 2022: Via CRPE.
"There were 16,371 fewer students enrolled in all Washington schools in the 2021-22 school year than in 2019-2020."
"Enrollment in Washington’s district-run public schools declined 2 percent per year on average from September 2019 to September 2021."
"During the same period, private school enrollment increased by 10 percent per year on average, enrollment in homeschool increased by 27 per year on average, and enrollment in charter schools increased by 28 percent per year on average."
"While charters schools’ enrollment growth outpaced their corresponding districts in the first year of the pandemic, charter enrollment slowed to less than that of their corresponding districts in 2021–22."
Federal
CHIPS: Via the White House: "Biden-Harris Administration Announces CHIPS for America Leadership"
Ronnie Chatterji will serve as the White House Coordinator for CHIPS Implementation at the National Economic Council (NEC).
At Commerce, Michael Schmidt will serve as Director of the CHIPS Program Office, Eric Lin will serve as Interim Director of the CHIPS Research and Development Office.
Congrats Todd! “Todd Fisher will serve as Interim Senior Advisor in the CHIPS Program Office, housed within NIST.”
Covid-19 Research
U.S. Delivers Over 25 Million COVID Boosters: Moderna's shot in limited supply.
"According to the HHS Office of the Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response (ASPR), retail pharmacies will be receiving millions more doses of Moderna this week and that production is ramping up."
State
California: Governor Gavin Newsom announced that every Californian can now receive live, 24/7 online tutoring and homework help in every K-12 subject with Brainfuse HelpNow.
Illinois: Gov. J.B. Pritkzer ends COVID-19 test mandate for unvaccinated school and day care workers.
Massachusetts: Boston will give $75 gift cards to people getting vaccinated at back-to-school event.
New York: New York City is lifting its private sector COVID-19 vaccine mandate on November 1.
Puerto Rico: Got nearly 3 feet of rain from Hurricane Fiona.
International
Confronting Covid’s Lost Generation: Very long and important piece in Politico.
Economic Recovery
The Uneven Geography of Remote Work: New report from EIG.
"The highest rate of remote work is in Washington, DC, where 33.6% of the population worked remotely in 2021. The next highest is San Francisco, CA, and third is Austin, TX."
"While remote work is clustered along coastal areas and superstar cities, it is also prevalent in a variety of places in the interior of the United States and a handful of smaller areas."
"13.7% of the country lives in a commuting zone where remote work share is greater than 25%."
"Remote work is related to occupation mix, higher education levels, longer commute times, and more expensive housing markets."
Resources
What to Expect in State Legislatures Next Year (Top Policy Issues in 2023): Via MultiState
New Directory of Innovative School Models Aims to Encourage Experimentation: Via EdSurge on the Innovative Models Exchange.
Read Not Guess: Thread from Chad Aldeman on why he launched Read Not Guess.
Broadband:
Massachusetts Broadband Institute MBI "seeks to designate approximately 10-15 Partners as qualified organizations that can implement a suite of digital equity projects that meet the goals outlined in the state’s $50 million funding program"
College towns where Internet speeds make the grade (and where they fail).
New York City launched "Big Apple Connect" on Monday, bringing free high-speed internet to NYCHA residents in what is the nation's largest free municipal broadband program.
Walk-Ons: Eli Manning goes undercover as a College Football walk-on at Penn State.
"Think fast, run fast."
Working From Home Is Challenging: Especially keeping track of where you filed things.