Covid-19 Policy Update #657
Monday 5/15
Top Three
CDC Releases Updated Guidance forVentilation in Buildings: CDC published updated guidance for improving building ventilation to help protect people from respiratory infections, with a goal of at least five air changes each hour and an upgrade to MERV-13 filters. Added a Frequently Asked Question on “Do-It-Yourself (DIY) Air Cleaners.”
Operational Guidance for K-12 Schools and Early Care and Education Programs to Support Safe In-Person Learning: Via the CDC.
Updated COVID-19 testing language in coordination with updates to COVID-19 Testing: What You Need to Know
Replaces COVID-19 Community Levels with COVID-19 hospital admission levels to guide prevention decisions.
Inside HHS' Plan To Develop Next-Generation COVID Treatments: Via Axios.
"The Department of Health and Human Services is fleshing out targets and putting an organizational framework around the $5 billion "Project NextGen," which will operate similarly to the Trump-era public-private partnership in speeding the development of new treatments."
"The program, which was announced in April, will be led by HHS' Administration for Strategic Preparedness and Response (ASPR) and Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA), per an administration official familiar with the plans."
"Of the $5 billion, $4.7 billion will be going to BARDA, which focuses on the development of vaccines and treatments for public health medical emergencies."
"The other $300 million will go to the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases."
Federal
Commerce: "EDA is now accepting applications for Phase 1 of the new Tech Hubs Program, which is designed to invest directly in high-potential U.S. regions to enable them to become globally competitive in industries of the future."
EDA will host an informational webinar on May 18 about the Tech Hubs Program Phase 1 NOFO.
Congress: Give this intern a raise.
Covid Research
The United States’ Decision to Mask Children As Young As Two for COVID-19 Has Been Extended Into 2023 and Beyond: Via: Tracy Beth Høeg, Sebastián González-Dambrauskas, and Vinay Prasad.
State
Arkansas: Olivia Walton: Celebrate mothers, and protect them.
Florida: Orlando Sentinel: "Joseph Ladapo says anti-vaccine crusade was God's plan. It cost him his peers' trust."
Kansas: "Governor vetoes bill to strip power from public health officials on vaccines, quarantines."
New York: State Assemblywoman Catalina Cruz and state Senator Jamaal T. Bailey announced a new Senate bill (S6592) to establish the New York COVID-19 children’s fund.
"As part of the publicly funded initiative—known as “baby bonds’’—the state will invest $1,000 per year for eligible minors. Once a child turns 18, they can use the funds to pay for an education, buy a home or start a business. The bill covers children who lost a “parent, custodian, legal guardian or related adult household member” regardless of immigration status."
Rhode Island: "The Barrington School Committee has reached a settlement with three teachers who were fired for refusing to be vaccinated against COVID-19."
"Brittany DiOrio, Stephanie Hines and Kerri Thurber will each receive a payment of $33,333, a spokesperson for the school district announced Thursday in a news release. Additionally, they will receive back pay: $65,000 for Hines, $128,000 for Thurber and $150,000 for DiOrio. The three teachers' legal counsel will receive $50,000 in attorney's fees."
Utah: "Utah got $1 billion in pandemic relief to support K-12 kids. Here's where the money's going."
International
Recent Trends in Private and School-based Tutoring: Via the Sutton Trust:
"30% of young people aged 11-16 report ever having had private tutoring, up from 27% prepandemic, and the joint highest figure since the time series began in 35%, when it was 18%. 11% report receiving tutoring in the 2021/22 school year, and 12% in the previous year."
"Black and Asian pupils were more than twice as likely to have ever received private tutoring (50% and 55%), compared to White pupils (24%)."
Economic Recovery
Felix Salmon on What He Got Wrong About the COVID Economy: Via Axios.
"One of the most notable characteristics of the pandemic was that the truth became elusive and unknown — which meant that all of us were wrong even more frequently than usual."
"My own biggest error was believing that economic growth wouldn't get back on track unless and until the virus was under control."
"It's not easy to live with that kind of radical uncertainty — and as a result, many people simply chose a set of facts, often about masks or vaccines, they were comfortable with and stuck intractably with them no matter what new evidence emerged.
Covid thereby acted as an accelerant into the post-truth era."
Why Inflation Is Hard to Whip: Via Axios: "We're seeing a reversal of the economic trends that, pre-pandemic, helped put downward pressure on consumer prices. That might make it more difficult (and possibly more economically painful) to get inflation back down to policymakers’ desired level, and keep it there."
Coastal Cities Priced Out Low-Wage Workers. Now College Graduates Are Leaving, Too.: Via the NYT.
Resources
Students Are Increasingly Refusing To Go To School. It's Becoming a Mental Health Crisis: Via USA Today.
What Does The End of Title 42 Mean For Schools?: Via K12 Dive.
Fentanyl-related Deaths Among Children: Increased more than 30-fold between 2013 and 2021.
Four Addictions: New deck from Bruce Mehlman.
Why It's Hard To Explain The 1980's: Everything was a good idea. Like this Mother’s Day performance(?).
St. Louis Cardinals Outfielder Lars Nootbaar’s Mom: Surprises him on ESPN on Mother’s Day.
Happy Mother’s Day: This mama bear and her cubs had a good time lounging on a hammock they found in some woods in the western area of North Carolina.