Top Three
Excess Death Rates for Republicans and Democrats During the Covid-19 Pandemic: NBER paper.
"We estimate substantially higher excess death rates for registered Republicans when compared to registered Democrats, with almost all of the difference concentrated in the period after vaccines were widely available in our study states."
"Overall, the excess death rate for Republicans was 5.4 percentage points, or 76%, higher than the excess death rate for Democrats. Post- vaccines, the excess death rate gap between Republicans and Democrats widened from 1.6 percentage points (22% of the Democrat excess death rate) to 10.4 percentage points (153% of the Democrat excess death rate)."
"The gap in excess death rates between Republicans and Democrats is concentrated in counties with low vaccination rates and only materializes after vaccines became widely available."
Incidence of Myocarditis/Pericarditis Following mRNA COVID-19 Vaccination Among Children and Younger Adults in the United States: Study.
"From 14 December 2020 through 31 May 2022 (persons 18–39 years) and 20 August 2022 (persons 5–17 years), 320 potential cases of myocarditis/pericarditis were identified 1 to 98 days after 6,992,340 vaccine doses as part of primary series COVID-19 vaccination, with 224 (70%) verified."
"Of these, 137 (61%) occurred 0 to 7 days after vaccination; 18 were after the first dose (of 3,562,311 doses administered) and 119 were after the second dose (of 3,430,029 doses administered).
"In all age groups, incidence per million doses 0 to 7 days after vaccination was numerically higher in male than in female persons and after dose 2, although confidence intervals were wide and overlapped across sex for some age groups. Incidence was highest for male adolescents ages 12 to 15 years and 16 to 17 years following dose 2."
"Our findings can inform risk–benefit analyses, which thus far have consistently found the benefits of mRNA vaccination greatly outweigh the risks."
Face Masking for Children - Time to Reconsider: OpEd in the Journal of Infection.
"Proponents of facemasks will quote laboratory studies demonstrating the protective barrier effect of facemasks. They will also point out that there are very few downsides to children wearing facemasks and any protection from masking would contribute to reducing infection rates as part of wider mitigation measures in educational settings."
"Indeed, attitudinal surveys show that children generally do not mind wearing facemasks in educational settings, often because they consider facemasks will help prevent transmission of the virus to others rather than for personal protection."
"Opponents, on the other hand, would argue that face masks can disrupt speech understanding by concealing lipreading cues and reducing transmission of high-frequency acoustic speech content, especially for children with sight and hearing problems."
"Opponents would also argue that young children would struggle to wear their mask properly and hygienically for prolonged periods even with the best of intentions."
"The lack of randomised controlled trials on the protective effects of facemasks in children in any settings means that we have to rely in observational studies. Unfortunately, even those published in peer-reviewed journals have been fraught with serious epidemiological and methodological confounders to such as extent as to invalidate their results."
"The first step must be to accept that there is no robust evidence to recommend face masks for children. Whilst a precautionary approach might have been appropriate early in the pandemic, the onus must be to prove that an intervention works before recommending large-scale implementation."
"In conclusion, despite having the lowest risk from SARS-CoV-2 infection, children have endured the most disproportionate disruption to their lives during their most formative years. We urgently need to return to first principles and focus on evidence-based interventions that help protect children not only against COVID-19 but also other infections. An obvious first step would be to improve educational settings to provide a safer environment for staff and children."
"Larger premises, smaller class sizes, cleaner environment, better ventilation and improved outdoor facilities will all help reduce the risk of infections in educational settings and keep children healthy. Other interventions, however, should only be implemented after proven objective evidence of clear benefit with minimal perceived or actual harms to children."
Federal
White House: Carmel Martin is leaving DPC to become the VP's Domestic Policy Advisor. Congrats Carmel!
HHS/ED: The Department of Education and the Department of Health and Human Services, through the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA), is rolling out the roughly $314 million for health professionals in schools and in emergency departments.
"The DOE said it is dedicating $144 million a year for five years to a grant program for growing the amount of mental health professionals in schools, plus $143 million a year for five years to a grant program for "boosting the mental health profession pipeline" around schools that are most in need."
SCOTUS: The Onion filed an amicus brief before the Supreme Court in defense of parody under the First Amendment… and it’s exactly what you’d expect.
SCOTUS: “The U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear a challenge by Missouri and nine other states - mostly Republican-led - to President Joe Biden's COVID-19 vaccine mandate for workers in healthcare facilities that receive federal funds.”
"The justices turned away an appeal by the states after a lower court declined to immediately consider their claims that the vaccine rule violates federal administrative law and tramples over powers reserved for the states under the U.S. Constitution."
CDC: Ends country-specific COVID travel health notices.
"As fewer countries are testing or reporting Covid-19 cases, CDC's ability to accurately assess the Covid-19 THN [Travel Health Notice] levels for most destinations that American travelers visit is limited," an agency spokesperson said in a statement to CNN Travel."
Covid-19 Research
Once Known for Vaccine Skeptics, Marin Now Tells Them ‘You’re Not Welcome’: Via the NYT.
"Among children 5 to 11, 80 percent in Marin County have both of their Covid shots, more than double the statewide or national rates. The rate among those under 5 is more than five times the nation’s."
"The anti-vaccine movement used to be a place where the left met the right, but increased polarization during the pandemic has made such a combination difficult to sustain, said Jennifer Reich, sociology professor at the University of Colorado Denver and the author of “Calling the Shots: Why Parents Reject Vaccines.”
“When we start to see such vastly different sources of information about what the risks of infection of Covid are, you start to see people making wildly different decisions in their life,” Ms. Reich said. “The vaccine and scientific expertise has become politicized.”
"Given that a fifth of elementary-school-age children here still have not gotten the vaccines, it is not clear that Marin holdouts have changed their minds. But anti-vaccine parents no longer feel as empowered to voice their opinions."
State
California: "A group of hackers has released sensitive data stolen from the Los Angeles Unified School District’s online systems during the Labor Day weekend ransomware attack, district officials confirmed Sunday."
Florida:
NOAA is releasing aerial damage assessment images through a map that you can scroll and zoom into.
Reopening of Lee County Schools uncertain after Hurricane Ian, 3 schools destroyed
Coast Guard releases some incredible video of rescues. Petty Officer Tyler Kilbane seems pretty cool.
New York: New York’s private schools are gaming vaccine exemptions in ‘obvious’ fraud, Politico reports.
International
OECD Indicators at a Glance: Released today.
Resources
How COVID Relief Funds are Transforming our Schools: Members of the Coalition to Advance Future Student Success have been supporting their members in investing federal relief funds.
The How COVID Relief Funds are Transforming our Schools blog series highlights how these organizations and their respective members are leveraging this moment to chart a path forward toward an equitable education recovery.
Teacher Shortages: Teachers from Philippines help struggling U.S. schools amid teacher shortage.
Teachers Making the Shift to Equitable, Learner-Centered Education:New report from the Aurora Institute.
Come to Class, Win a Toyota: Districts Launch Campaigns to Boost Attendance: Via The 74.
Participation is Down: Among the 10 most popular boys and girls high school sports compared to the last full pre-pandemic school year, save for two: boys golf and girls volleyball.
Flying: The Chicago Cubs put together a drone tour of Wrigley Field, and it’s incredible.