| | | | | |  | | By Juan Perez Jr. | Presented by Sallie Mae® | With help from Andrew Atterbury
| 
Pfizer via AP | 'BRIGHTER LIGHT AT THE END OF THE TUNNEL' — The next campaign in the country's Covid-19 fight will likely begin in earnest this week. The Food and Drug Administration just authorized the emergency use of Pfizer's Covid-19 vaccine for children ages 5 through 11. Now we're waiting for the go-ahead from a CDC advisory panel and the agency's director starting Tuesday. — Shots could become available to 28 million young children as soon as Wednesday. The White House has already laid out plans to distribute vaccines through doctor's offices, pharmacies, children's hospitals and school-based sites. Will this be how the U.S. at last gets its coronavirus rates under control? — "I truly believe that this group getting vaccinated will change the game," said Jason Newland, a pediatric infectious disease physician at the Washington University School of Medicine and the St. Louis Children's Hospital. "It's a brighter light at the end of this long dark tunnel that it feels like we've been in forever." — One Republican-led state has given schools an incentive to get child vaccination rates up quickly: exemptions to statewide school mask requirements. The administration of Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker recently extended his state's school mask mandate through at least Jan. 15, 2022. But schools have the option to abandon face coverings if at least 80 percent of all students and staff get vaccinated. Officials elsewhere in the country are establishing their own protocols for easing up on masks, too. — Health experts consulted by Morning Education agreed it's reasonable to establish 'off-ramps' for scaling back school virus safety requirements. But even as some states and schools race to abandon mask rules — if they haven't banned them outright — the pandemic is not over. Children are not immune from Covid-19, and they can spread the disease too. — "Tragically, Covid-19 was among the top 10 leading causes of death for children 5-11 years of age in the U.S.," acting FDA Commissioner Janet Woodcock told reporters on Friday. "It is perfectly possible that we could have another surge of the virus as winter develops across the country," she added. IT'S MONDAY, NOV. 1. WELCOME TO WEEKLY EDUCATION. Some vendors' objections to President Joe Biden's vaccine mandate for federal contractors have reached an inflection point. Reach out with tips to today's host at jperez@politico.com and also my colleagues Jessica Calefati (jcalefati@politico.com), Michael Stratford (mstratford@politico.com ) and Bianca Quilantan (bquilantan@politico.com). And don't forget to follow us on Twitter: @Morning_Edu and @POLITICOPro. | | A message from Sallie Mae®: Students shouldn't pay more for college than they have to, but more and more families are leaving money on the table each year. Nearly a third of students skipped the Free Application from Federal Student Aid or FAFSA® last year, and the form's complexity is a big reason why. To help students maximize federal financial aid, which is important to do before considering other options, including private student loans, Sallie Mae launched a free suite of financial education tools and planning resources, including a FAFSA support tool that can help families complete the form in minutes. See how Sallie Mae makes sense of the FAFSA. | | | | | | | 
An anti-mask mandate demonstrator waves an American flag during a press conference by a pro-mask group, Mask Up OCPS, in front of the Ronald Blocker Educational Leadership Center in downtown Orlando, Monday, Oct. 25, 2021. | Joe Burbank/Orlando Sentinel via AP | HOW MASSACHUSETTS HOPES TO DROP MASKS — Beginning in October, Massachusetts schools with a vaccination rate of at least 80 percent could ask state authorities for approval to end their campuswide mask mandates. — Here's how it works: The 80 percent "threshold rate" is calculated on a school-by-school basis. The count must include all enrolled students in a given school, plus "any staff member regularly providing in-school services," including contractors, food service workers, part-time employees, coaches and after-school staff. — Schools are responsible for collecting proof of vaccination from staff and students. Next, administrators must send an attestation form to the state Department of Elementary and Secondary Education. Masks can come off following state approval, though unvaccinated students and staff would be required to continue wearing them on-campus. — There aren't many schools who've gone this route yet, but now elementary and middle schools could become eligible. Just seven Massachusetts schools had received approval to consider lifting their mask mandate by the middle of last week, a spokesperson for the state's education office told Morning Education. One of those campuses currently only plans to drop masks during a three-week trial period. — Other states are also working out how to loosen mask restrictions. North Carolina's health department last week announced schools can consider optional mask policies for vaccinated individuals when community transmission levels in counties decline to moderate or low levels (as defined by the CDC) for at least seven consecutive days. Masks could be optional for everyone in a school building once community transmission falls to low levels, North Carolina officials say. Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards lifted his statewide mask mandate in all settings except for K-12 schools last week, but the Democrat has allowed schools to opt out as well, if they follow CDC quarantine guidelines. | | | | JOIN TUESDAY FOR A TALK ON THE FUTURE OF SUSTAINABLE AIR TRAVEL: As delegates descend on Glasgow for the COP26 global climate summit, reducing carbon emissions in the aviation sector will play a critical role in the progress of fighting climate change. Join POLITICO for a deep-dive conversation that will explore the increased use of sustainable aviation fuel, better performance aircraft, and other breakthroughs in to cut greenhouse gas emissions and meet broader sustainability goals. REGISTER HERE. | | | | | Want to receive this newsletter every weekday? Subscribe to POLITICO Pro. You'll also receive daily policy news and other intelligence you need to act on the day's biggest stories. | 
Families protest any potential mask mandates before the Hillsborough County Schools Board meeting held at the district office on July 27, 2021 in Tampa, Florida. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommended those who are vaccinated should wear masks indoors including students returning to school. | Octavio Jones/Getty Images | HEALTH EXPERTS WEIGH IN — Experts maintain that protective measures should stay in place when the coronavirus is actively spreading in a community. But if schools get to a place where most students and staff are vaccinated, and transmission rates in surrounding communities are low, there's emerging consensus that it's reasonable to consider winding down mask mandates. — "I do think it's time to start having that conversation, because then it gives people at least something to look forward to," said Yvonne Maldonado, a pediatric infectious disease expert at Stanford University. "People like having a goalpost. They want to move forward." — Of course, Maldonado noted, in many parts of the country, this wasn't even a conversation. "They chose to ignore them or pretend that it wasn't a public health measure that was important," she said. "So we know that experiment is already going on. And we've seen what has happened with it." — " I live in Missouri. We're not going to hit 80 percent vaccination rates. And numerous school districts, I'm going to tell you right now, they've already dropped masks in some of their schools," said Newland of Washington University in St. Louis. "I would prefer to see really high vaccination rates, and that's the incentive. But the reality of it, and the politics of the world mean that's not how it's gonna play out. The ideal situation is to live in Vermont or Massachusetts." — But don't expect many schools to be eligible for a plan like Massachusetts' immediately. "Under the best of circumstances, it would take months for a significant portion of elementary-aged students to be vaccinated," National Education Association President Becky Pringle said in mid-October. — There's also the issue of hesitancy. Roughly three in 10 parents of 5-11 year-olds said they are eager to get a vaccine for their younger child as soon as one is authorized, according to the latest from the Kaiser Family Foundation's overview of public views towards the vaccine. But a third said they will wait to see how the vaccine works, and about 30 percent of parents said they definitely will not get their children vaccinated. — Interest in vaccines for adolescents has also dipped. About 1 percent of unvaccinated children between 12-17 years of age received their first dose during the week that ended Oct. 27, according to the American Academy of Pediatrics. That low point follows surges of first-dose vaccinations for adolescents and teens over the spring and summer. | | | |   | | | | | | | 
Joann Marcus of Fort Lauderdale, left, cheers as she listens to the Broward School Board's emergency meeting, Wednesday, July 28, 2021, in Fort Lauderdale, Fla. | Marta Lavandier/AP Photo | FLORIDA'S SOUL-SEARCHING ON MASK REQUIREMENTS — Covid-19 cases among children in Florida are at their lowest point since the school year began, POLITICO's Andrew Atterbury writes. But this welcome development hasn't silenced the ongoing clash between Gov. Ron DeSantis and local school boards — backed up by the White House — over student mask policies. And some school leaders are sticking to their mask requirements. — The latest chapter unfolded last week when the Florida Department of Education moved to revoke funding from school boards that have chosen to require masks on campus, despite DeSantis' order outlawing such mask requirements. Top U.S. Department of Education officials warned Florida that its intentions to pull federal grant dollars from noncompliant school boards would violate requirements in federal law. The state did it anyway. — The Biden administration fired back Thursday with an administrative complaint seeking to stop Florida from stripping some $567,000 in government funds from school board members in Alachua and Broward counties, arguing it was unlawful for the state to revoke that money. — Meanwhile, the Florida Department of Health reported 2,293 cases and a 4.6 percent positivity rate among children younger than 12 years old between Oct. 15 and 21 , a stark decline compared to two months prior. At the summer peak in late August, Florida saw 26,475 cases in the same age group, along with a 19.4 percent positivity rate, in a week span. — Only a handful of Florida school districts, including some of the state's largest systems in Miami-Dade and Broward counties, still impose student mask mandates. Other counties have reversed course after facing state penalties, as well as after seeing Covid-19 caseloads decline. — Broward's school board scaled back its mask mandate for high schools last week, keeping the rules in place for elementary and middle school students. But even that decision was divisive, with board members thinking the move was either too strong or too weak. — Even though student caseloads are looking better now , some officials are concerned that Covid-19 could make another comeback after the holidays — a possibility that pushed one board member to vote against scaling back the mask mandate at all. — "It seems that we are having this discussion here in the state of Florida, but there are other school districts nationally where this is not even a question," said Broward County school board member Sarah Leonardi. | | A message from Sallie Mae®: The Free Application for Federal Student Aid, also known as the FAFSA® , opens the door to $150 billion in federal financial aid, including scholarships, grants, work study, and federal student loans. But too many students and families are missing out on aid because they simply never complete the form. To help simplify the process, Sallie Mae launched a tool that helps students file the FAFSA in minutes, empowering them to make informed choices with confidence. See how Sallie Mae makes sense of college financing. | | | | | | — Inside the last-ditch effort by Democratic women to pressure Manchin and salvage paid family and medical leave: Washington Post — Incentive program boosts COVID-19 shots for Minnesota teens by 38 percent: Minneapolis Star-Tribune — New York City will receive 231,000 pediatric COVID vaccine doses. How will shots get into arms? Chalkbeat — Has Covid-19 infected huge numbers of younger children? New York Times
| | | | BECOME A GLOBAL INSIDER: The world is more connected than ever. It has never been more essential to identify, unpack and analyze important news, trends and decisions shaping our future — and we've got you covered! Every Monday, Wednesday and Friday, Global Insider author Ryan Heath navigates the global news maze and connects you to power players and events changing our world. Don't miss out on this influential global community. Subscribe now. | | | | | | | | | Follow us on Twitter | | | | Follow us | | | | |
No comments:
Post a Comment