TOP THREE
Unvaccinated Risk of Infection, Hospitalization, and Death: Unvaccinated people are 11 times more likely to die of COVID than those who've gotten the shot according to a new CDC study.
Los Angeles Mandates Vaccines for Students 12 and Older:The Board of Education voted 6-0 in support of the requirement.
"The four-month timeline before proof of vaccination is required on Jan. 10 would allow the district to partner with community organizations, clinics and doctors’ offices to reach approximately 80,000 students who are eligible for vaccination but have not been inoculated."
Accelerating Learning: Tech Advice to Make It Happen: Via EdWeek
"One way to grasp the difference between acceleration and remediation: Think of the “previously on” segments that play before new episodes of your favorite television drama. Those quick catch-ups help you understand enough about the characters and plot of the show to be able to follow the upcoming episode. But a viewer wouldn’t get nearly as much of the backstory as they would if they, say, binge-watched the past few seasons.
"In a similar way, acceleration gives students the background information they’ll need to access a particular grade-level concept, as opposed to trying to catch them up on all of the information they may have missed the previous year. That way, students will stay on grade level, reviewing only the concepts that are most important to learning what comes next."
"Some districts—including Omaha Public Schools, the state’s largest—are using Zearn as their main instructional tool in summer school. On the other end of the spectrum, though, some districts are just distributing information about the program, along with a login, to parents who may want their children to get some extra math practice before school starts again."
"Other good features to look for: a uniform and comprehensive screening tool to gauge students’ skill levels. That provides, “a coherent, systemwide approach to assessing students’ immediate needs,” said Todd Davis, the chief academic officer for the Aldine school district, which serves portions of Houston and the surrounding Harris County."
FEDERAL
White House: Transcript of yesterday's remarks by President Biden on Fighting the COVID-19 Pandemic
ED: Announces Project SAFE grants to support districts facing state penalties over masks.
COVID-19 RESEARCH
FDA Will Follow The Science On COVID-19 Vaccines For Young Children: Interesting press release issued yesterday.
"Children are not small adults – and issues that may be addressed in pediatric vaccine trials can include whether there is a need for different doses or different strength formulations of vaccines already used for adults."
"Just like every vaccine decision we’ve made during this pandemic, our evaluation of data on the use of COVID-19 vaccines in children will not cut any corners."
"Until we authorize or approve a vaccine for this younger population, it’s especially important that parents and others who interact closely with children under 12 years of age get vaccinated, wear masks, and follow other recommended precautions so that we can protect those who cannot yet protect themselves through vaccination."
Pfizer to Seek Approval for Children: "Is set to request approval across the globe to use its COVID-19 vaccine in children as young as five over the next few weeks and preparations for a launch are on track, the biotech firm's two top executives told Der Spiegel." More from the Guardian.
Moderna's Three In One Vaccine: The company announced pre-clinical data demonstrating their ability to combine 6 mRNAs against three different respiratory viruses in a single vaccine: COVID-19 booster + Flu booster + RSV booster.
Estimating COVID-19 Vaccine Effectiveness: CDC study of real-world effectiveness. Collectively, vaccines were 86% effective in preventing hospitalization. Moderna was the highest (95%), Pfizer-BioNTech (80%), Johnson & Johnson (60%).
"The CDC report doesn’t explain why Moderna might offer a greater benefit. One possibility is that Moderna’s dose of mRNA is three times that of Pfizer-BioNTech’s. The interval between shots is also longer: four weeks for Moderna instead of three weeks for Pfizer-BioNTech. Some research has shown that longer intervals between shots — including much longer periods, beyond four weeks — could be advantageous to building immunity."
White House Unveils Sweeping New Vaccine Mandates for Employers: Good set of resources and guidance from the Health Action Alliance.
Should Having Covid Count As A Single Dose of Vaccine? Asks Eric Topol.
Benefits and Challenges of Smartphone Applications to Augment Contact Tracing: GAO report
"Reported app development costs for selected states varied, ranging from no cost (provided by a nonprofit organization) to $700,000."
"Marketing costs for selected states ranged from $380,000 to $3.2 million."
"Reported app download levels in the selected states ranged from 200,000 to more than 2 million, as of June 2021."
Great discussion of the opportunities and challenges.
Visualizing How Fast the Pandemic is Getting Better or Worse: Stat updates its state by state data. Really shows how the wave is moving out of the south and up the midwest.
STATE
California:
Will give a shorter version of its Smarter Balanced math and English tests next spring (Presentation here).
L.A. County schools see 30% decrease in COVID cases among children as testing, masking protocols implemented.
Kentucky: Lawmakers scrap statewide mask mandate in schools.
Mississippi: State gives approval for schools’ use of incentives to encourage staff get vaccinated.
North Carolina: North Carolina sounds alarm that nearly half of state's middle and high school Covid-19 clusters tied to sports.
Oregon: Oregon has announced plans for weekly screening testing of K-12 students, backed by $127 million in ARP Funding, but so far, only 35 of the state’s 197 public school districts are enrolled.
Texas: Gov. Abbott signs law enabling virtual learning expansion during pandemic.
"The new law permits districts and charters that received a C rating or higher in the most recent round of state academic accountability grades to offer remote classes to students living in the district. Enrollment would be capped at 10% of a school system’s enrollment during 2021-22."
Virginia: Full-time Virtual Virginia enrollment is 18 times higher than 2 years ago.
INTERNATIONAL
UK: Northern Ireland's chief medical officer, Professor Sir Michael McBride, said:
"It is my professional opinion, which is shared by my chief medical officer colleagues across the UK, that very few, if any, children or teenagers will come to long-term harm from Covid due solely to attending school."
"This has to be set against a certainty of long-term harm to many children and young people from not attending school."
RESOURCES
Best-Selling Author Michael Lewis’s Revealing Celebration Of School Closure: Via Rick Hess.
"Oddly, in a book published more than a year after COVID struck, Lewis never discusses evidence on the costs and benefits of the extraordinary measures they sought, or even whether such actions did (or would’ve) made a big difference."
"In a book published well after evidence showed that schools were not proving to be significant sources of community spread, he nonetheless writes enthusiastically about the promise of school closure because models suggested that “when you closed schools and put social distance between kids,” community spread “fell off a cliff.”
20th Anniversary of 9-11
Photos That Defined 9/11, and the People in Them—20 Years Later
9-11 Memorial & Museum video, featuring John Legend's "Never Break"
The tenacity of a tree. Great story of the "Survivor Tree" that survived the collapse of the towers, was recovered, and then returned to the site of the memorial.
If you're looking for a great series, consider: Rising Ground Zero. Narrated by Ed Harris, it tells the story of the rebuilding at Ground Zero: the symbolism of the designs and architecture and the stories of individuals who built the new structures.