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This is our biweekly briefing on the pandemic, vetted by John Bailey. .

This Week鈥檚 Top Story 

• “71% of adults say healthy children should be required to get vaccinated for measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) in order to attend public schools, down from 82% who said the same in an October 2019 Pew Research Center poll.”
• “Almost three in 10 (28%) now say that parents should be able to decide not to vaccinate their school-age children, even if this creates health risks for others, up from 16% in 2019. Among Republicans and Republican-leaning independents, there has been a 24-percentage-point increase in the share who hold this view (from 20% to 44%).”

The Big Three

• “Since the start of the pandemic through March 15 of this year, school districts across the country had spent $1.7 billion, or $199 per student, of their COVID-19 federal relief funding on tutoring, both online and in person, according to data from FutureEd, a Georgetown University research center that has been analyzing COVID-19 relief spending.”
• “In December 2020, the Jefferson County school district in Louisville, Kentucky, entered into a contract with FEV Tutor to offer about five hours of tutoring per week to around 7,000 third through 12th graders.”
• “The Jefferson County district made a point to ensure that its tutoring would follow the Annenberg research [Dena Dossett, the district鈥檚 chief of research, said]. That鈥檚 why the district went with FEV Tutor for the bulk of its program. The tutoring service helps schools in the district to identify students struggling with core subjects鈥� Those students then participate in live video tutoring with the same tutor five hours a week during class time.”
• 鈥淪o far, it has worked for Jefferson County. Students who used FEV Tutor saw their math scores increase 4.5 points and their reading scores increase 4.2 points in a winter-to-spring 2021-22 analysis of NWEA MAP scores. Students who didn鈥檛 use FEV Tutor grew, too, but not as much.鈥�

‘Late-in-the-Game鈥� COVID Relief Fund Guidance Leaves Some Scratching Their Heads

• Via 蜜桃影视
• “Earlier this month, more than two years into schools鈥� attempts to spend an unprecedented $189 billion in COVID relief funds, federal officials released a that 鈥榮trongly encourages鈥� districts not to spend the windfall on construction.”
• “There鈥檚 one hitch: According to , districts are already spending, or planning to spend, almost a quarter of funds from the American Rescue Plan on facilities and operations.”
• 鈥� 鈥楪etting clarifications and new restrictions this late in the game is tough on [districts],鈥� said Marguerite Roza, director of the Edunomics Lab at Georgetown University. 鈥榃hat happens if money is already approved and spent before these recent鈥� guidelines were released?”

• on a new
• 鈥淭he implementation challenges district leaders recounted suggest that the simple-sounding logic of academic intervention 鈥� identify students in need and provide them extra support 鈥� belies a host of complex design and implementation decisions.”
• “For example, when it comes to virtual learning tools focused on academic recovery, the study shows that some schools use them during core instruction time while others expect students to use them outside of school.”
• “Virtual learning tools (e.g., iReady, ALEKS, Dreambox) were used in four of the 12 districts to add academic time to students鈥� days beyond core instruction.”

City & State News

California: 

• Gov. Gavin Newsom announces an unprecedented .

Illinois: .

Virginia: .

Federal Updates

White House: Fact Sheet:

• “The administration is announcing that is open for a limited round of ordering this winter.”
• The Department of Health and Human Services 鈥渨ill work with states to launch teams and 鈥� partner with their Quality Improvement Organizations, home health agencies and emergency medical technicians to deliver vaccines to residents of long-term care facilities.”

Congress: Lawmakers unveil sprawling spending bill to avoid shutdown. The compromise would keep the government open through next fall. Some highlights include:

• $285 million, an increase of $50 million, to support the apprenticeship program
• $20 billion, an increase of $2.8 billion, for the Child Care and Development Block Grant and Head Start.
• An increase of $850 million for Title I grants and an increase of $850 million for Individuals with Disabilities Education Act grants to states
• $150 million, an increase of $75 million, to support additional Full Service Community Schools
• $5.27 billion, an increase of $803.2 million, for mental health research, treatment and prevention

Federal Communications Commission: To date, the has provided support to approximately 10,000 schools, 1,000 libraries and 100 consortia, and provided more than 12 million connected devices and more than 8 million broadband connections.

COVID-19 Research

• Updated bivalent (two-strain) mRNA booster shots, which target the Omicron BA.4/BA.5 sublineages of COVID-19 and the original strain, cut the risk of contracting severe COVID-19 by up to 57%, according to a . 
• A second showed the bivalent boosters are particularly effective at preventing hospitalizations in elderly Americans.  
• and .

• on a new
• “Vaccinated or previously infected COVID-19 hospital patients had lower rates of severe illness and death than their unvaccinated, COVID-naive peers during both Omicron and Delta variant predominance.”
• “While the unvaccinated had fewer poor outcomes during Omicron than in Delta, their risk was similar to that seen with previous SARS-CoV-2 strains.”

More noteworthy research

• COVID-19 Vaccines Saved $1.15 Trillion, 3 Million Lives: A estimates that, through November 2022, COVID-19 vaccines prevented more than and 3.2 million deaths and saved the country $1.15 trillion. More via .
  
• Autopsies Show COVID-19 Virus in Brain, Elsewhere in Body: “An analysis of tissue samples from the autopsies of 44 people who died with COVID-19 shows that SAR-CoV-2 鈥� including into the brain 鈥� and that it lingered for almost eight months. The () was published 鈥� in Nature.”
  
• Only Half of COVID Preprint Studies Later Published in Journals: : “Slightly more than half of COVID-19-related scientific studies posted on the preprint server medRxiv were published in peer-reviewed journals within the next two years, according to a published [Dec. 8] in JAMA Network Open.” The 鈥渦nprecedented increase in preprints has been subject to criticism, mainly because of reliability concerns owing to their lack of peer review,鈥� the letter says.

Viewpoints and Analysis

• about the group of volunteers who quickly became Google鈥檚 and then the U.S. government鈥檚 best source on where to find vaccines during the pandemic. Some highlights:
• “The essential workers list heavily informed the vaccination prioritization schedule. Lobbyists used it as procedural leverage to prioritize their clients for vaccines. The veterinary lobby was unusually candid, in writing, about how it achieved maximum priority (1A) for veterinarians due to them being 鈥榟ealth care workers.鈥� “
• 鈥淭eachers unions worked tirelessly and landed teachers a 1B. They were ahead of 1C, which included (among others) non-elderly people for whom pre-existing severe disability meant that 鈥榓 CID-19 infection is likely to result in severe life-threatening illness or death.鈥� “

• 鈥淭hey had to increase their pace 鈥� and they did,鈥� said Marguerite Roza 鈥� who previously questioned whether schools would meet the September 2024 deadline to exhaust the funds. Her new forecast: 鈥淚 don鈥檛 think there will be any money left over.鈥�
• 鈥� 鈥榊ou don鈥檛 snap a finger and do that in a week,鈥� said Dennis Roche, co-founder of Burbio, a data service that tracks school spending. 鈥業t takes time.鈥� 鈥�
  

• 5 best practices from EdWeek
• Be strategic about who receives tutoring
• Develop relationships with consistent tutors
• Ensure tutoring is high-dosage and done during the school day
• Involve teachers
• Evaluate throughout the school year

鈥� And on a Lighter Note

Breaking News: .

Kindness: In 1999 Ayda Zugay was an 11-year-old refugee fleeing the former Yugoslavia with her older sister when a stranger handed them an envelope on a flight to the United States. Inside 鈥� a $100 bill. .

In 1999 Ayda Zugay was an 11-yo refugee fleeing the former Yugoslavia with her older sister when a stranger handed them an envelope on a flight to the United States. Inside- a $100 bill. More than two decades, they found the woman who helped them,

— CBS Sunday Morning 馃尀 (@CBSSunday)

For even more COVID policy and education news, .

Disclosure: John Bailey is an adviser to the Walton Family Foundation, which provides financial support to 蜜桃影视.

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