US President Joe Biden continues to be at odds with governors who are outlawing school mask mandates as the country's Delta (B1617.2) surge continues, ordering the Department of Education to support schools seeking such mandates.
COVID-19 hospitalizations for children, meanwhile, have hit a new record, up 30% from the nation's previous peak.
Overall, the United States reported 137,815 new COVID-19 cases and 1,145 deaths yesterday, according to the Johns Hopkins COVID-19 tracker. This brings the country's total cases to 37,198,723, including 624,567 deaths.
In-person schooling, mask mandates
Yesterday Biden ordered the Department of Education to help school districts that seek mask mandates in light of gubernatorial decrees prohibiting them. "We're not going to sit by as governors try to block and intimidate educators protecting our children," he said in his Wednesday address, according to Politico.
Education Secretary Miguel Cardona, EdD, responded via a department blog post, "The Department has the authority to investigate any state educational agency whose policies or actions may infringe on the rights of every student to access public education equally."
Eight states are actively banning school mask mandates, but others are facilitating COVID-19 mitigations. For example, Cardona writes, Pennsylvania has in-progress plans for school-based vaccination clinics, and Arkansas is considering incentives for student vaccinations.
Teachers and school personnel in Washington state now require full vaccination, according to the New York Times. Unlike California's school employee mandate, though, Washington's plan has no alternative for regular testing and only waives vaccination for medical or religious reasons.
Polls highlight parents' concerns
Two new polls have also given some insight on what parents are thinking. Compared with in May, more parents polled in July are interested in a return to in-person schooling, but differences are still seen between White and minority respondents, according to results of a RAND Corporation survey posted yesterday.
Overall, 89% would prefer in-person schooling compared with the earlier 84%, but White parents have a 12- to 13-percentage-point higher preference when compared with Hispanic and Black parents, respectively.
Additionally, at least two thirds of Black, Hispanic, or Asian parents said they wanted ventilated facilities, fully vaccinated teachers, physical distancing, mandatory masking, and regular COVID-19 testing, but White parents were less concerned.
A poll today by the Kaiser Family Foundation highlighted parental concerns over their children's well-being over schooling during the pandemic: 39% said their children fell behind academically, with 50% of Hispanic parents and 51% of lower household income parents stating their concern.
About 36% of parents said their children fell behind socially and emotionally due to pandemic issues, and 29% said their child had mental health or behavioral issues. Parents who reported these concerns were more likely to have children who attended school mostly, if not all, online.
The poll also showed that 39% of parents had at least one adult in the household leave their job or change their work schedules for their children in the past year, with 53% of Black parents and 51% of parents in lower household income doing so. As the country continues to see a shortage of school bus drivers, some of these disruptions may continue—in Michigan, some districts have told parents that their children can ride the bus only 2 weeks each month, according to CNN.
Hospitalizations up in younger age-groups
The Washington Post tracker says that 91,297 people are currently hospitalized in the country, and CNN reports that COVID-related hospitalizations for every age-group under 50 has surpassed its previous record. The biggest increases are in adults ages 30 to 39 and children, both of whom are more than 30% higher than their previous peak.
COVID-19 vaccinations have also continued to rise, though, with 60% of the total US population at least partially vaccinated and 51% fully vaccinated. This is 0.1 percentage points better than yesterday's data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention COVID Data Tracker.
While some of the increase is due to individuals deciding to get vaccinated in light of the current surge, a Kaiser Health News story also reflects on the extra effort unvaccinated employees may face when their organization requires vaccination. "That will get old very quickly for a lot of people," concludes William Schaffner, MD, Vanderbilt University professor, in the article. "That will push a lot of people off the fence and onto the vaccination side."
As for yesterday's White House vaccine booster announcement, it has been met with mixed reactions from experts interviewed by Stat. Besides wariness about the impact on global vaccination rates and the decided 8-month cut-off, the sources highlighted skepticism about the overall timing.
While US health officials said the booster program could begin Sep 20, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has not given its decision on Pfizer's application for a third shot, and Moderna has not submitted an application for a booster dose.
"In the heat of the moment and when we're all dealing with a real public health emergency, it becomes almost doubly important that we continually reassess and have the normal processes in place. And I do worry that we not put the cart before the horse," Jesse Goodman, MD, MPH, former chief scientist at the FDA, Center on Medical Product Access, Safety, and Stewardship director at Georgetown, told Stat.
Other US headlines
- Biden announced yesterday that he is ordering the Department of Health and Human Services to require nursing home staff to be vaccinated for their sites to qualify for Medicare and Medicaid payments, affecting more than 1.3 million workers, according to CBS News.
- Two dosage strengths of the drug tocilizumab, used for severe COVID-19, are out of stock in the country, with another likely to run out at the end of the week, the Wall Street Journal reported yesterday.
- Transportation Security Administration data show that the number of people traveling through US airports hit a 10-week low on Aug 17, according to the Washington Post.
