H5N1

Mbandaka: ISTM takes measures to secure its students against the new Ebola epidemic

Via Radio Okapi, we learn that the first Ebola case was a medical student: Mbandaka: ISTM takes measures to secure its students against the new Ebola epidemic. The Google translation:

The Higher Institute of Medical Techniques (ISTM) took measures, including vaccination, to secure its students and limit the spread of Ebola, 48 hours after the declaration of the epidemic in Mbandaka by the central government.   

The first confirmed and deceased case was student Yange Bononga, enrolled in the 3rd Nutrition graduate, for the 2021-2022 academic year.   

Thus the management committee meeting on Monday, April 25 asked for the cooperation of the students and the support of the competent services.   

Among these measures taken, there is the awareness of students on the existence of the disease, the respect of barrier gestures and the obligation to present themselves free of charge to the hospital in the event of illness.   

In addition to the installation of washbasins in front of the strategic corners of the institute, the committee also requested the vaccination of the entire ISTM community, particularly the students of the 3rd Nutrition graduate.      

In addition, the ISTM has launched an appeal to public health services and humanitarian organizations to help build its capacity in information and protective equipment. Thus, a conference-debate on the resurgence of the Ebola virus disease in Ecuador is planned this week.   

All these measures are taken, continues the management committee, following the instructions of the minister in charge, to help curb the epidemic.    

Some students unfortunately had contact with the victim during his final moments.   

The management committee clarified, however, that the victim would have contracted the disease during his return trip from the holidays of Boende, where he is from.   

Although he probably arrived on April 10 in Mbandaka, he was directly admitted to health centers without attending the institute. This, until his hospitalization at the Wangata General Reference Hospital, then at the Ebola treatment center, where he passed away. 

SARS-CoV-2 incidence in K–12 school districts with mask-required versus mask-optional policies — Arkansas, August–October 2021

Just in time for the Great Unmasking of spring 2022. Via MMWR: SARS-CoV-2 Incidence in K–12 School Districts with Mask-Required Versus Mask-Optional Policies — Arkansas, August–October 2021. The summary:

What is already known about this topic?  

Masks are an important part of a multicomponent prevention strategy to limit transmission of SARS-CoV-2. Some school jurisdictions required masks in K–12 schools for fall 2021, while others did not.  

What is added by this report?  

In Arkansas during August–October 2021, districts with universal mask requirements had a 23% lower incidence of COVID-19 among staff members and students compared with districts without mask requirements.  

What are the implications for public health practice?  

Masks remain an important part of a multicomponent approach to prevent COVID-19 in K–12 settings, especially in communities with high levels of COVID-19.

Mortality rates by college degree before and during COVID-19

Via the National Bureau of Economic Research, a paper by Anne Case and Angus Deaton: Mortality Rates by College Degree Before and During COVID-19. Click through to download the paper. The abstract:

It is now established that mortality and excess mortality from COVID-19 differed across racial and ethnic groups in 2020. Less is known about educational differences in mortality during the pandemic. We examine mortality rates by BA status within sex, age, and race/ethnic groups comparing 2020 with 2019. 

Mortality rates have increasingly differed by BA status in the US in recent years and there are good reasons to expect the gap to have widened further during the pandemic. Using publicly available provisional data from the National Center for Health Statistics we find that mortality rates increased in 2020 over 2019 for those with and without a BA, irrespective of age, sex, or race/ethnicity. Although mortality rates increased by more for those without a BA, the ratio of mortality rates for those with and without a BA changed surprisingly little from 2019 to 2020. The BA was protective against mortality prior to the pandemic, and it was equally protective during the pandemic. 

Among 60 groups (sex by race/ethnicity by age) that are available in the data, the ratio of mortality rates of those without a BA to those with a BA fell for more than half of the groups. Our results suggest that differences in the risk of infection were less important in structuring mortality by education than differences in the risk of death conditional on infection.

Mortality rates by college degree before and during COVID-19

Via NBER, a paper by Anne Case and Angus Deaton: Mortality Rates by College Degree Before and During COVID-19. Click or tap through to download the PDF. The abstract:

It is now established that mortality and excess mortality from COVID-19 differed across racial and ethnic groups in 2020. Less is known about educational differences in mortality during the pandemic. We examine mortality rates by BA status within sex, age, and race/ethnic groups comparing 2020 with 2019. Mortality rates have increasingly differed by BA status in the US in recent years and there are good reasons to expect the gap to have widened further during the pandemic. 

Using publicly available provisional data from the National Center for Health Statistics we find that mortality rates increased in 2020 over 2019 for those with and without a BA, irrespective of age, sex, or race/ethnicity. Although mortality rates increased by more for those without a BA, the ratio of mortality rates for those with and without a BA changed surprisingly little from 2019 to 2020. Among 60 groups (sex by race/ethnicity by age) that are available in the data, the ratio of mortality rates of those without a BA to those with a BA fell for more than half of the groups. 

Our results suggest that differences in the risk of infection were less important in structuring mortality by education than differences in the risk of death conditional on infection.

BC: Salmon Arm schools locked and secured after anti-vaccine protesters enter on Friday

Via CBC News: Salmon Arm schools locked and secured after anti-vaccine protesters enter on Friday.

Schools in and around Salmon Arm, B.C., were put on hold and secure on Friday after anti-vaccine protesters entered them, according to a letter sent to parents from the school district.  

The temporary lockdown meant students could not enter or leave school during the day. The school district said schools would be locked in this way beginning Monday, Sept. 20. Parents who want to enter during school hours will need to notify the school, according to the letter.  

"We have recently experienced protests at our district office from those opposed to vaccinations and masking," said Donna Kriger, superintendent of School District 83, in the letter sent to parents.  

"This [Friday] morning these protesters did something which was completely unacceptable which was, choosing to enter schools in and around Salmon Arm."  

Salmon Arm RCMP confirmed that protesters entered a school on Friday and were confronted by a security guard. The protesters left before police arrived on scene, after the school's principal informed them they had no right to be there, according to an RCMP spokesperson.  

The school district declined an interview request Friday.  

In her letter, Kriger said SD83 would be working with RCMP to ensure protests would not reach schools going forward.  

'A complete and utter disgrace'  

Public Safety Minister Mike Farnworth described what happened in Salmon Arm as "absolutely unacceptable" in a media availability on Friday.  

"This is just a complete and utter disgrace. The word 'Covidiot' doesn't even begin to describe how inappropriate the actions of these wack jobs are. It's unacceptable in the extreme," Farnworth said.   

Live Facebook videos filmed by some of the protesters show them confronting health-care workers administering vaccines in a school parking lot.  

In the videos, the protesters express outrage that children over the age of 12 are allowed to receive the shot without their parents' consent. Under the Infants Act of 1996, "mature minors" can consent to their own medical care providing they fully understand what is involved in that care as well as the risks and benefits.  

The protesters are repeatedly told to take their questions to Interior Health and to stop pointing their phone cameras toward the vaccination booth.  

The videos also show police arriving on the scene and informing the protesters that they need to keep their distance from the pop-up clinics and respect the privacy and confidentiality of those receiving vaccines.

See also the school district's official statement on this incident.

Parents on BC's Malcolm Island say most children kept home from school over staff member's mask exemption

My wife and I spend time every summer in Sointula, the town on Malcolm Island, and we know how seriously the islanders have taken the pandemic. So I can understand why they're so concerned about an unmasked teacher. Via CBC News: Parents on B.C.'s Malcolm Island say most children kept home from school over staff member's mask exemption. Excerpt:

Parents on Malcolm Island, B.C., say they kept their young children from attending their first day of school Wednesday, after learning one of the school's two teachers would be exempt from wearing a mask in class.   

"We feel this is a necessary step," said Brittany Swanson, who is a parent of three children at A.J. Elliot Elementary in Sointula — a community of around 600 people just north of Port McNeill on Vancouver Island— and also the current president of the school's Parent Advisory Council.   

"We are not comfortable with an unmasked teacher in contact all day long with our children who are not old enough to be eligible to be vaccinated," Swanson told CBC, adding she learned from an online group chat with other parents that around 28 of the school's 34 children were held back Wednesday.  

The CBC has reached out to School District 85 but has not heard back.  

The Ministry of Education said in a statement that a Vancouver Island Rapid Response Team has reached out to the district and is "reviewing local safety plans to ensure safeguards are in place to support a healthy learning environment ... as well as to help communicate with parents."    

Parents say concerns being brushed aside 

Currently, the province's safety measures for the 2021/22 school year require all students and staff in grades 4 to 12 to wear a mask indoors, except those "who cannot tolerate wearing a mask for health or behavioural reasons" or are unable to use a mask without help from another person, among some other exceptions. 

The province confirmed there is no mandate for teachers, staff and eligible students to be vaccinated against COVID-19 in order to return to the classroom.  

Swanson said parents learned school officials would not be asking the staff member for proof of a medical exemption, and that parents would not be notified on whether the staff member is vaccinated, due to privacy legislation.  

She recalled that many parents learned of the mask exemption last Friday when the district called them to a sudden Zoom meeting for the following evening, which included board representatives and the North Island's medical health officer. 

Swanson said parents were dissatisfied when officials refused to discuss their concerns about the mask exemption, and instead focused on "educating us about COVID [precautions]."

Seizing the moment to rethink health systems

Via The Lancet Global Health: Seizing the moment to rethink health systems. The summary:

The COVID-19 pandemic has made vivid the need for resilient, high-quality health systems and presents an opportunity to reconsider how to build such systems. Although even well resourced, well performing health systems have struggled at various points to cope with surges of COVID-19, experience suggests that establishing health system foundations based on clear aims, adequate resources, and effective constraints and incentives is crucial for consistent provision of high-quality care, and that these cannot be replaced by piecemeal quality improvement interventions. 

We identify four mutually reinforcing structural investments that could transform health system performance in resource-constrained countries: revamping health provider education, redesigning platforms for care delivery, instituting strategic purchasing and management strategies, and developing patient-level data systems. 

Countries should seize the political and moral energy provided by the COVID-19 pandemic to build health systems fit for the future.

‘Lost generation’: Education in quarter of countries at risk of collapse, study warns

Tomorrow marks the start of a new school year in much of the world, and this will be the most challenging school year in a long time. Via The Guardian: ‘Lost generation’: education in quarter of countries at risk of collapse, study warns.

The education of hundreds of millions of children is hanging by a thread as a result of an unprecedented intensity of threats including Covid 19 and the climate crisis, a report warned today.  

As classrooms across much of the world prepare to reopen after the summer holidays, a quarter of countries – most of them in sub-Saharan Africa – have school systems that are at extreme or high risk of collapse, according to Save the Children.  

The UN estimates that, for the first time in history, about 1.5 billion children were out of school during the pandemic, with at least a third unable to access remote learning.  

Now, as much of the developing world faces a combination of interrelated crises including extreme poverty, Covid-19, climate breakdown and intercommunal violence, there are growing fears for a “lost generation of learners”.  

In an analysis ranking countries according to their vulnerability, Save the Children found eight countries to have school systems at “extreme risk”, with the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Nigeria and Somalia deemed most vulnerable, with Afghanistan following closely behind.  

The analysis calculated how vulnerable school systems were as a result of a range of factors including coronavirus vaccination coverage, the climate crisis, physical attacks, and the proportion of school-age children with a home internet connection.  

It found that a further 40 countries, including Yemen, Burkina Faso, India, the Philippines and Bangladesh, were all at “high risk”.  

Gwen Hines, chief executive of Save the Children UK, said: “We already know that it is the poorest children who have suffered the most as a result of Covid-19 school closures. But sadly Covid-19 is just one of the factors putting education – and children’s lives today and tomorrow – under threat.”  

She added: “We need to learn from this dreadful experience and act now – but it is simply not good enough to build ‘back’ to how things were. We need to build ‘forward’ and differently, using this as an opportunity for hope and positive change.”  

As much of the developed world welcomes a return to more normal schooling this term, more than 100 million children remain out of the classroom in other parts of the world due to nationwide Covid closures in 16 countries, according to Unicef.  

It is feared that between 10 and 16 million children are at risk of not returning to school at all, with girls most vulnerable.  

Rob Jenkins, global director of education at Unicef, said that even before the pandemic, much of the world had been experiencing a global learning crisis.   

“Now we are running a risk of a losing a generation of learners,” he warned. “It could have lifelong implications unless we move to catch-up programmes offering full, comprehensive support to children – not just for their learning but also for their mental health, nutritional support [and] a sense of protection.”

Texas: At least 45 districts shut down in-person classes due to COVID-19 cases, affecting more than 40,000 students

Via the San Antonio Current: At least 45 districts shut down in-person classes due to COVID-19 cases, affecting more than 40,000 students. Excerpt:

At least 45 small school districts across Texas have been forced to temporarily stop offering in-person classes as a result of COVID-19 cases in the first few weeks of the new school year, according to the Texas Education Agency.  

The shutdowns, which affected about 42,000 students as of Thursday, come as cases caused by the highly contagious delta variant have plagued administrators who hoped for a normal return to the school year.  

Caseloads have left districts scrambling when many have said they have fewer tools at their disposal to combat the spread of the virus and have had to come up with their own strategies that can differ from district to district. Administrators are tasked with protecting students’ and staff members’ health, providing a quality education and staying open enough days to avoid tacking on extra days at the end of the school year.  

“By far this is worse in terms of planning than last year,” said Tim Savoy, spokesperson for Hays Consolidated Independent School District, which closed some classrooms. “There’s no question about it. Last year we had a lot of tools at our disposal: We could require masks, and we could provide a virtual option that was funded. … [Then], the delta variant really kind of appeared and just exploded on us.”  

State data about the number of coronavirus cases in districts that have closed at least once during the school year thus far is incomplete — 19 have not reported any cases in students or staff to the state, while case totals in 22 districts have been suppressed by the state due to privacy policies. The list of public school closures in Texas is also incomplete, according to TEA. The agency is tracking closures informally based on media and district reports since districts are not required to report closures to TEA, said Frank Ward, an agency spokesperson.  

From Aug. 23-29, there were 27,353 new positive COVID-19 cases among students in Texas public schools, according to the Texas Department of State Health Services, making it the biggest one-week increase in the entire pandemic. The state reports 51,904 cases among students and 13,026 among staff since the school year began. That’s about 1% of the 5.3 million students enrolled in the state as of January.  

Children’s hospitals, which have been inundated with COVID-19 patients at levels never seen before during the pandemic, have also seen an uptick in patients as the school year is underway, said Dr. Corwin Warmink, medical director of emergency services for Cook Children’s Health Care System in Fort Worth.  

“Every year when school starts, we expect a bump in volume [in our emergency room] — we planned for it, we scheduled for it,” Warmink said at a news conference Wednesday. “In the regular year we’ll see about 300 kids a day during this time. On Monday, we saw 601, an all-time record. ... At 600, we’re physically unable to care for kids in a timely fashion.”

Norway registered 1,550 new corona cases in the last 24 hours

Via Norway Today: Norway registered 1,550 new corona cases in the last 24 hours.

In the last 24 hours, 1,550 corona infection cases have been registered in Norway. That is 135 more than the same day last week. 

In the last seven days, an average of 1,404 corona infection cases has been registered per day. 

On Thursday, 89 corona patients were hospitalized – six more than the day before. Out of the total, 25 of the patients are in the intensive care unit, and 13 among them are on respirators, according to the Norwegian Directorate of Health’s overview.

Another story in the same issue reports that 3 out of 4 Norwegian school and kindergarten teachers are now vaccinated.