Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
High Schools Open And Worries Intensify
CNN: Georgia Student Suspended After Posting A Photo Of A Crowded School Hallway Says It Was 'Good And Necessary Trouble'
A viral photo showing students in a Georgia high school crowded in hallways and with few visible masks resulted in the sophomore who posted it being suspended, she said.Hannah Watters, a student at North Paulding High School in Dallas, Georgia, saw a photo of packed halls on the first day of school go viral. And when she saw that little had changed after that, she told CNN's Laura Coates on Thursday, she felt she had to share what it looked like inside the school. So, she took a photo of the scene and posted it to social media. (Holcombe, 8/7)
The Washington Post: Virus Keeps Spreading As Schools Begin To Open, Frightening Parents And Alarming Public Health Officials
Even before President Trump admonished his top coronavirus adviser for saying the country was entering a "new phase" of widespread infection, patients at Mississippi's only Level 1 trauma hospital were already on a wait for ICU beds. “Our ICUs have been full for weeks,” LouAnn Woodward, a vice chancellor at the University of Mississippi Medical Center in Jackson, said Thursday. “It’s a very acute issue we’re facing here.” (Fowler, Gearan and Weiner, 8/6)
The New York Times: ‘I Was A Little Scared’: Inside America’s Reopening Schools
It was the purple Powerade that convinced her. Kennedy Heim’s first day of high school was last Thursday. By the weekend, her school in central Indiana had already closed its doors, after a staff member tested positive for the coronavirus and other employees were required to quarantine. Kennedy’s mother got a call from a contact tracer saying her daughter, a 14-year-old freshman, might have been exposed. So on Monday, they went for testing at the National Guard Armory, just down the street from her school. Wednesday morning, they got the results: Kennedy had tested positive. (Wren and Levin, 8/6)
The Hill: 8 In 10 Teachers Concerned About Returning To K-12 Classes In The Fall: Poll
The overwhelming majority of teachers have concerns about returning to in-person classes in the fall as the coronavirus pandemic rages across the country, according to a new NPR-Ipsos poll. Eighty-two percent of K-12 teachers surveyed said they are concerned about holding in-person classes in the new school year, and 66 percent would rather teach their classes remotely. (Axelrod, 8/6)
The New York Times: How To Proactively Prepare For Distance Learning
Normally we rely on teachers and counselors or coaches and people in our communities to help us spot problems, then identify solutions. We try to build a village to not have to do everything alone. But now the village is quarantined, and it’s increasingly clear it’s still on us to try and make the best decisions for our families — though it feels like there are 200,000 new choices to make every day. (Anderson, 8/5)
States and schools plot their reopening plans —
AP: Utah No Longer Recommends Modified Quarantine In Schools
Utah will no longer recommend that schools allow students who have been exposed to COVID-19 to come to class following pushback from doctors and educators, state officials said Thursday. The state issued a new recommendation Thursday that any student or teacher who has come into close contact with a confirmed case should quarantine at home for 14 days. (Eppolito, 8/6)
AP: Arizona Sets Virus Spread Guidelines For School Reopenings
Arizona’s top health official and the state’s education chief laid out a series of guidelines Thursday that public schools were urged to use when deciding whether coronavirus infection rates are low enough to safely reopen for full in-person learning. The officials, however, said parents should not expect to see a return to normal at their child’s school anytime soon. (Cooper and Christie, 8/7)
Detroit Free Press: Gretchen Whitmer Orders Masks For Children At Camps, Daycare Centers
Children and staff at child care centers and camps will have to wear masks while riding a bus or walking down a hallway, with more stringent requirements for older children, under an executive order issued by Gov. Gretchen Whitmer on Thursday. “Child-care workers have been on the front lines of this crisis and have worked tirelessly to provide a safe place for our children and families during this time," Whitmer said in a news release. (Boucher, 8/6)
GMA: School Buses Adapt To Keep Kids Safe During COVID-19 Crisis
School is back in session in some parts of the country, raising major questions about how to transport kids safely to class amid the pandemic. With 26 million bus-riding students, districts are taking extra precautions to help stop the spread of COVID-19. (8/6)
