Top 5 for the week
How Some Parents have Changed their Pandemic Politics, forthcoming CDC School Guidance, Chronic Absenteeism, and more
1- How Some Parents Have Changed their Pandemic Politics - NYTIMES
The NY Times last week continued its particularly misleading school coverage, leading with a story talking about "parents who joined the anti-vaccine and anti-mask cause during the pandemic, narrowing their political beliefs to a single-minded obsession over those issues... Cementing in some cases into a skepticism of all vaccines." The article seemed to conflate parents who are anti-mandate with those who have firmly cemented and broad ranging anti-vaccine beliefs. Also, it is difficult to imagine that the 27 parents journalist Sheera Frankel spoke with all had "strikingly similar paths to their new views." Even a broad look at the parent groups that Restore Childhood has been working with across the country shows incredible diversity and lack of uniform thinking, beliefs or party affiliations.
We always talk about being united around one tenet- the kids belong in school in person with teachers in the classrooms and with normalcy restored.
Finally, the liberal application of the anti-vaccine label to these parents starts to feel increasingly nonsensical, as it would then brand entire countries "Anti-vax," like Denmark, where the director general of the Danish Health Authority said he believes vaccinating children “was a mistake”; or Sweden, Finland and Norway which declined to jab kids under 12 in the first place.
2- US CDC Expected to Ease COVID-19 Guidelines for Schools This Week - Reuters
According to sources, the CDC will move away from recommending 6 feet of distancing in schools, which schools moved away from in September 2021? Quarantines will supposedly be loosened but close contacts may be required to mask.
3- A Quarter of San Francisco Public School Students were Chronically Absent Last Year - SF Examiner
Chronic absenteeism, when a student misses 10% or more school days per year (18 days), is a problem in the US and across the world. England’s Department of Education (DE) has indicated their schools have experienced unprecedented levels of absence in schools.
4- Online Schooling is the Bad Idea that Refuses to Die - Bloomberg
Nearly all of the 20 largest US school districts will offer online schooling options this fall. Over half of them will be offering more full-time virtual school programs than they did before the pandemic. The trend seems likely to continue or accelerate, according to an analysis by Chalkbeat.
5- US Public Health Agencies Aren’t “Following The Science,” Officials say - Common Sense
“It's like a horror movie I'm being forced to watch and I can't close my eyes,” one senior FDA official lamented. “People are getting bad advice and we can’t say anything.”
That particular FDA doctor was referring to two recent developments inside the agency. First, how, with no solid clinical data, the agency authorized Covid vaccines for infants and toddlers, including those who already had Covid. And second, the fact that just months before, the FDA bypassed their external experts to authorize booster shots for young children.
Have a great start to your week!
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