News and Notes
CDC’s New Guidance: Layered Risk Reduction
Late last week, the CDC issued new guidance on K-12 school reopening. It was accompanied by a handbook from the US Department of Education. School districts are no doubt scrambling to digest this new guidance and evaluate their plans in light of it. Parents and teachers are wondering what this will mean for their schools. Here are some key...
Using Air Cleaners Correctly
Now that APS has started to deliver 1,450 portable air cleaners to classrooms, we have a few tips for any teachers or staff trying to figure out where to place them. When positioning the air purifiers in the classroom: A single air cleaner should ideally be placed centrally. If several purifiers are installed, the instruments should be...
Reproduction Rates for COVID-19 in Various Indoor Scenarios, including Schools
New modeling on transmission by aerosols compares the reproduction rates for different indoor scenarios, including schools with distancing and masks. The upshot of the article is that by taking into account the ventilation standards for public places and the behavior (time spent, type of breathing) of their occupants, the number of people...
Recent Tweets and Facebook Posts
Top question asked right now: what to do about J&J 1-shot #COVID19 vaccine & rise of #DeltaVariant? Not medical advice: lots of immunologists are hypothesizing & predicting mixing vaccines of different types could yield equal/better response. Trials TBD.🧵
https://t.co/Hd1l6hWo44
Coverage @guardianscience by @iansample
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/jun/17/previous-covid-infection-may-not-offer-long-term-protection-study-finds?CMP=oth_b-aplnews_d-1
This is so important. Some groups are circulating misinformation that we would have to give up on vaccinating kids and teens — in order to help the world. We need to do BOTH.
No. of purchased doses:
🇬🇧 517 million (additional 112M under negotiation)
🇺🇸 1.21 billion (additional 1.3B under negotiation).
Rich nations can EASILY vaccinate their 12-15 year olds AND supply doses to low/middle income nations.
It is NOT either/or.
https://launchandscalefaster.org/covid-19/vaccineprocurement
Make no mistake: the authors of the piece linked by Prof. Yamey below are extremists. They have been pushing against public health from the beginning of the pandemic, arguing against both non-pharmaceutical interventions and vaccines. https://t.co/h9GYPQkHua
Oh wonderful, the Great Barrington Declaration authors are back to tell us (what a surprise!) not to vaccinate the young.
These are the same folks who oppose: masks, test/trace, distancing, school/workplace protections, & widespread vaccination.
1/2
https://thehill.com/opinion/healthcare/558757-the-ill-advised-push-to-vaccinate-the-young
#Covid19 #schools #teachers #EdChat
One teacher’s experience of monitoring air quality in a classroom.. it’s not only about reducing virus risk, it’s about having oxygen so that children can concentrate & learn https://t.co/NkcLEi7z3t
Brief update on CO2 monitoring in school
Children arrive between 8.30 and 8.50am
Levels rose from 457ppm to 596ppm in those 20 mins - 4 windows and door open 1/
It's sort of bad the % of cases being attributed to Delta variant of SARS-CoV-2 has already more than doubled since our last tweet about this. Heaven help all the counties where only 30% of the people chose to vaccinate themselves.
This is also the 🇬🇧-->🇺🇸 warning (again)
We're at ~14% delta, UK at >90%
We are less vaccinated, 1st dose (graph) and fully
It's not a #casedemic
@LazarusLong13 @Ch_JesusChrist @CorsIAQ @linseymarr @HuffmanLabDU @jljcolorado @Don_Milton @ShellyMBoulder @drkristenkc @mvankerkhove @sltrib @RobertGehrke @kslmrichards @KUTVRon @the_churchnews @kprather88 @j_g_allen @EmilySpivak @Intermountain @UofUNews 1/ "According to ...'CONVENTIONAL' medical opinion, nearly all respiratory infections transmit as droplets through coughs or sneezes: Whenever a sick person coughs, bacteria/viruses spray out in droplets, quickly falling and sticking to any surface within a radius of 1 to 2 metres."
@AntibioticDoc Real life answer to some of those questions:
Northern Ontario First Nation community.
74% adults *fully* vaccinated.
Pop. 2245
222 active cases (10%)
138 in kids
2 infants
(strain?)
In Alberta too, vulnerable communities will likely suffer the ...most.
https://t.co/y68BJusKis
“Double wave” is coming—An internal NHS email sent to hospitals warn them to prepare for a 3rd #COVID19 wave with the 96% dominant #DeltaVariant - at the same time as a spike in serious infections among very young children. 🧵
https://t.co/31GalyvmSA
DIFFERENT SYMPTOMS—‘Loss of smell’ is no longer a top 10 symptom of the new #DeltaVariant. A headache, sore throat & runny nose are now the most common. New study says catching Delta #COVID19 can feel different— "more like a bad cold" for younger people.🧵
...https://t.co/2Uav00XshC
We need house dust from around the US for a research study at OSU! We’ll ask you to ship us some of your dust and complete a short survey. It will take about 30 min. We’ll pay shipping. Please contact Neeraja Balasubrahmaniam at balasubrahmaniam.1@osu.edu.
More evidence #COVIDIsAIrborne. The HVAC didn't work - 3 hours. Attack rate 44%, with people becoming infected up to 12 feet away. Some had also come over to converse closer to index case, too.
Does HVAC breakdown in classrooms? YES. Normal.
Do we have a plan for that in fall?
We can add a courtroom to the list of venues with well-characterized outbreaks demonstrating airborne transmission. People were distanced and unmasked, broken ventilation system, 3 hours. https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/ina.12866 Cat lawyer by Zoom is safer.
A new, highly technical paper by Lidia Morawska on classroom ventilation in dealing with #SARS_CoV_2.
It cautions the use of CO2 sensors in predicting risk though they can be helpful. It has limitations.
@Don_Milton @linseymarr
#CO2nClass #CovidCO2
https://t.co/OE7mLMBWbe
For a second, I thought you meant your office had a spy... this is what happens when you live in the DC area. Then I saw — an ACTUAL mole. He’s kind of cute.
There’s a mole in my study. A real one with fur and very large paws. Luckily I managed to rehome it to the field down the road.
This is a smart thread that explains the math behind the push to contain COVID. We need as many people as possible to get #vaccinated. Remember somewhere between 3-6% of us can’t make enough antibodies and muster a decent response to a vaccine.
Your choice DOES affect others.
Unfortunately increasing R0 and decreasing efficacy of vaccines with delta variant are making it more challenging to get to herd immunity, the point where R is < 1 even without intervention.
Just a reminder if you’re making school mitigation plans for fall based on 2020 studies of original COVID (and beliefs kids won’t get it), you are setting yourself up to help #DeltaVariant spread.
We know how to stop it. #StopSwappingAir
Summer homework: get #vaccinated!
⚠️90-96% of all #COVID19 in 🇬🇧 caused by #DeltaVariant.🧵
📍32% of all Delta cases visiting the hospital emergency room are at least 1 dose vaccinated
📍33% who are then hospitalized vaccinated
📍45% of all deaths got at least 1 shot—➡️ 29% got 2 shots.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/jun/11/delta-variant-is-linked-to-90-of-covid-cases-in-uk
