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THE AAIE COVID-19 BRIEFING WILL RETURN ON

MONDAY, 4 JANUARY 2021 

–TODAY'S "Briefly" HIGHLIGHTS–

77,074,469 identified cases (Johns Hopkins)

 

• COMMUNICATION:  How Much is Too Much
• The research on shorter quarantines
• We need some good news...one doctor's perspective
• American School of Milan's rewrite of a classic
• Relative Harmlessness of COVID in Younger People:  Not True
• The news headlines almost one year ago
• From 40 infections one year ago to 77,074,469 today

–OUR WEEKLY CONVERSATIONS ARE ON HOLIDAY–

with International School Leaders from Around the World

How Much Communication is Too Much?

–by John Littleford

At any given time, board members should not represent present parents or any other constituency.  Board members represent the mission.  A vision only of the present and through the lens of current parents’ opinions is very short-sighted and may derail healthy long range strategic planning.

From a governance point of view, the potentially dangerous issue is how many well-intentioned board members ask this Consultant, “How do we stay in touch with parents and how do we know what they want and need and how they are feeling?” or “How can we assess faculty morale which we hear is slipping?” or “How do we handle complaints from parents who tell us that the board needs to be more involved and engaged with parents?” or “When will the board offer a portal for direct communication between the parents and the board?”

 

Recently, many boards have told this Consultant about how they think they should respond to constituent requests for information. They have recommended establishing board subcommittees  such as “Teacher Culture and Improvement”, “Community Relations”, etc.  Unfortunately such subcommittees intrude upon the head of school’s turf and they are not advisable from a governance perspective.

 

What Is the Safest and Most Helpful Mode of Parent Communication?

Current parents dominate most independent and international day school boards. They are the most generous, loyal, passionate, committed but at the same time, “dangerous” board members. Why? Because more often than not, everything little Johnny says when he comes home may eventually make its way into the board room. Many parent board members see themselves as the voice of the parent body.  This behavior can become, and should be, very worrisome.

 

At any given time, board members should not represent present parents or any other constituency.  Board members represent the mission.  A vision only of the present and through the lens of current parents’ opinions is very short-sighted and may derail healthy long range strategic planning.

 

This is not to say that the head and administration should not know and care about what parents think and how they feel.  It is management’s job to create opportunities for parent listening sessions in appropriate settings and for the appropriate audience size, NOT in-person or Zoom town meetings or any large group setting where a minority of loud angry voices may predominate.

 

One client School Board was hearing from parents who were critical of the Head. The Head had two more years remaining on his contract. The Board felt that it needed to do a parent opinion/school climate survey because parents complained to Board Members that they were not being heard.  The Board asked our Firm to do this. We declined because conducting such a survey in May is typically bad timing since parents tend to be more tired and unhappier towards the end of the school year, and the responses can be skewed towards the negative. 

 

Another Firm conducted the survey but only 25% of the parent body responded.  The Board not only published that data but acted upon the negative feedback from the survey. They fired the Head, i.e. they bought out the last year of his contract.

 

What are the lessons to be learned here?

First never undertake a parent opinion or school climate survey of parents unless you observe the following guidelines:

 

• Never do it in the winter or spring, but in the fall months.
• Never hire a school-related family or firm to do this work.
• Never publish the raw data, only the ratings.
• Never agree to publish any results unless at least two-thirds of the parent body responds.

 

In the case of the School above, the 75% of the parents who did not answer the survey and were basically happy campers, rose up in anger, demanded the resignation of the entire Board, replaced that Board and hired back the Head who had just been fired.

 

Again, appropriate communications are key. Inappropriate communications can have unforeseen and unfortunate consequences.

 

A very good idea, which is a significant investment of a  head’s time but pays off well in good will, is to hold a series of grade-level evening “coffees” that the head hosts and the parents association sponsors every fall.  It is important that these not occur in the morning, which excludes most working parents, and not at school, but in comfortable parent homes.  These can be held virtually now. 

 

For example, a 5th grade coffee might include a 7:30 to 9:00pm meeting when in the first 30 minutes the head, the primary or middle school head and perhaps one or two teachers speak.  The second hour is a listening exercise for the head to hear parent questions and views.

 

The cardinal rule of these meetings is that no one may criticize any person by name or refer to a position that is obviously attributable to a specific individual. If the head hears negative comments or concerns, he or she might say:

 

“I have not heard that before. Thank you. I will look into it.”

“I have heard that before and we are working on it and will get back to you.”

“That criticism is not grounded in facts. Please allow me to give you more information.”

 

The head cannot be defensive but should address the questions. If the head promises a response, he or she must respond promptly or else risks a loss of credibility.

 

It is always preferable to start these fall coffees with the transition grades i.e., Pre K, K, 5th, 6th, 8th and 9th as well as 12th grade due to college stress. That is, start with the grades where parents’ anxieties seem to be the most obvious.  If you do this, you can increase retention.

 

These small meetings have the following benefits:

The head begins to learn parent first names and styles. Acknowledging parents by name builds enormous political capital. Heads can hear the hoof beats of concerns before they become drumbeats of significant discontent. Parents are more likely to follow proper channels of communication. Instead of using social media and car pool gossip to air their concerns, they may instead reach out first to the head or division head to handle them as they should.

 

Conclusion

There is an entire science devoted to communications.  Strategies recommended are mostly proactive not reactive. 

 

The bottom line is that the Board represents only the mission. Great schools have long term board members, long term chairs and long term heads leaving long term healthy legacies and not messy constant searches, transitions, and mission confusion.

"I Needed Something Good to Happen"

–From the Washington Post

–TODAY's POEM TO CONSIDER–

A poem, just for you ... (thank you Bob Hetzel)

Invitation

  

Oh do you have time

to linger

for just a little while

out of your busy

and very important day

for the goldfinches

that have gathered

in a field of thistles

for a musical battle,

to see who can sing

the highest note,

or the lowest,

or the most expressive of mirth,

or the most tender?

Their strong, blunt beaks

drink the air

as they strive

melodiously

not for your sake

and not for mine

and not for the sake of winning

but for sheer delight and gratitude –

believe us, they say,

it is a serious thing

just to be alive

on this fresh morning

in the broken world.

I beg of you,

do not walk by

without pausing

to attend to this

rather ridiculous performance.

It could mean something.

It could mean everything.

It could be what Rilke meant, when he wrote:

You must change your life.

— Mary Oliver

STAY FOCUSED ON COVID-19 SCIENCE

'TWAS THE MONTH BEFORE

WINTER HOLIDAY BREAK!

(When it seemed the holiday would not arrive)

–THE NEWS of COVID-19

77,074,469 Cases Worldwide (Johns Hopkins CSSE)

IN OTHER NEWS...

 

Britain Tightens Lockdowns Over Virus Mutation with ‘Significantly Faster’ Transmission Rates

Faced with a newly emerging coronavirus mutation with "significantly faster" transmission rates, Britain on Saturday announced tightened pandemic restrictions that returned London and parts of the country to virtual lockdown and reversed earlier promises for relaxed rules over the holidays.

 

The new mutation, or variant, was first detected in southeast England in September and is quickly becoming the dominant strain in London and other regions in Britain. Experts said it does not appear more deadly or resistant to vaccines.

 

At a news conference from 10 Downing Street, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said the new variant “may be up to 70 percent more transmissible” than previous versions of the virus here.

 

“This is spreading very fast,” he said, announcing local and international travel bans and other extreme measures for about 18 million people in England beginning Sunday. Wales and Scotland followed with their own tightened restrictions, including banning all but essential movement around the isle.

 

Many countries have reimposed tough social distancing measures as coronavirus cases roared back in second and third waves. Britain, however, appears to be the first to point to a specific coronavirus variant for a surge in infections and the need to bring back the toughest measures.

 

“We have alerted the World Health Organization and are continuing to analyze the available data,” said England’s chief medical adviser, Chris Whitty. It was not immediately clear if the new variant had moved beyond Britain. Britain’s chief science adviser, Patrick Vallance, said the “virus has taken off” after being observed for months. “And it’s moving fast and has led to a sharp increase in hospitalizations,” he said, calling the need for new restrictions a “horrible moment.”

 

He went on, however, to say that the outbreak of the new strain “is controllable and there is light at the end of the tunnel with the vaccinations having started.” Britain was the first to approve the new Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine and the first to begin a mass immunization program earlier this month. (Washington Post)

 

Italy Latest European Country to Order Christmas Lockdown

Italy has ordered a nationwide lockdown over much of the Christmas and New Year period in an effort to combat a rise in coronavirus cases. The country will be under "red-zone" restrictions over the public holidays, with non-essential shops, restaurants and bars closed, and Italians only allowed to travel for work, health and emergency reasons. Limited home visits will be allowed.

 

Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte said it was "not an easy decision". "Our experts were seriously worried that there would be a jump in cases over Christmas... We therefore had to act," he said in a news conference.

 

Italy has recorded the highest Covid death toll in Europe, with close to 68,000 fatalities.

Mr Conte said the launch of the vaccination drive later this month would mark the beginning of "the end of this nightmare."

 

The announcement of the Christmas restrictions on Friday followed days of wrangling in the governing coalition between those wanting a complete lockdown and others seeking limited action to help struggling businesses and allow families to meet.

 

Meanwhile in France, President Emmanuel Macron remains in self-isolation in the official presidential residence at La Lanterne at Versailles after testing positive for Covid-19. Mr Macron said he was suffering from fatigue, headaches and a dry cough.

 

The "red-zone" restrictions will be in place across Italy on 24 to 27 December, 31 December to 3 January, and 5 to 6 January.

 

During this period people "can leave the house only for reasons of work, necessity and health," Mr Conte said. But, he added, the rules will allow people to receive a maximum of two guests, not including people under the age of 14, in their homes. A curfew from 22:00 to 05:00 will remain in place. (Washington Post)

 

More on Italy

Italy, the first non-Asian country hit by the coronavirus pandemic early this year, once again is struggling with one of the world’s deadliest outbreaks. Around 680 people are dying of Covid-19 in Italy on an average day, on par with Brazil and behind only the U.S. This year Italy has recorded about 67,900 confirmed deaths from the virus, the highest total in Europe, and fifth in the world after the U.S., Brazil, India and Mexico—which all have much bigger populations. Once again, Italians are asking themselves: Why is Covid-19 killing more people here than almost anywhere else? (The Wall Street Journal)

 

All Across Europe

A growing number of EU countries including Germany, France, Italy, Belgium, Austria, Ireland and the Netherlands moved over the weekend to halt travel from the UK after a sharp rise in coronavirus cases, caused in part by a more infectious new strain. Germany, Italy and the Netherlands announced on Sunday that they were stopping flights from the UK while Belgium banned air and rail travel. France said it was halting the entry of all passengers from the UK by any form of transport. Ireland imposed sweeping curbs on passenger flights and ferries and Austria said it was preparing a blanket ban on UK travellers. Eurostar said it would be unable to “run trains between London, Brussels and Amsterdam” from Monday. ( Financial Times)

 

South Africa’s Second Coronavirus Wave is Fueled by a New Strain and Teen ‘Rage Festivals’

For students around the world, 2020 has been a year of lost progress and pent-up energy. For high school seniors in South Africa, whose final term is ending well before vaccine rollouts, that feeling has been particularly acute: no formal dances, no graduation ceremonies — no fun.

 

But in a beach town last week, more than 3,000 17- and 18-year-olds went ahead with a huge, week-long graduation party, and more than 1,000 of them have since tested positive for the coronavirus. Hundreds more refused to get tested or gave wrong numbers to contact tracers.

 

Then, on Friday evening, South Africa’s health minister announced that researchers had discovered a new strain — similar to one found in Britain this week — that he said seemed to affect young people more than strains that had previously been circulating.

 

“Clinicians have been providing anecdotal evidence of a shift in the clinical epidemiological picture — in particular noting that they are seeing a larger proportion of younger patients with no co-morbidities presenting with critical illness,” said the minister, Zweli Mkhize. The evidence “strongly suggests that the current second wave we are experiencing is being driven by this new variant.”

 

While Mkhize did not draw a connection between the party, which other officials have termed a “superspreader” event, and the proliferation of the new strain, their combined effect has been a surge in cases and hospitalizations across three provinces in Africa’s hardest-hit country.

 

President Cyril Ramaphosa cited the party as a “harsh reminder” about irresponsible behavior while announcing the reimposition this week of a curfew, targeted lockdowns, limits on alcohol sales and the closures of most beaches and public parks. The holiday season coincides with summer in South Africa.

 

“The sad truth about this pandemic is that festivals, concerts and parties — which should be occasions for fun and joy — are proving to be sources of infection and illness, and may even lead to deaths,” Ramaphosa said. “Unless we do things differently, this will be the last Christmas for many, many South Africans.” (Washington Post)

 

How Does the Newly Authorized Moderna COVID-19 Vaccine

Compare to Pfizer’s?

A second coronavirus vaccine has now joined the fight against COVID-19 in the United States.

Here’s a look at how the two vaccines stack up against one another. Both clearly protect people ranging in age from 18 to older than 65 from developing COVID-19 symptoms.

 

Both Moderna’s vaccine — developed in collaboration with the U.S. National Institutes of Health — and Pfizer’s exceeded expectations in clinical trials. Moderna reported that their Phase III clinical trial, which includes more than 30,000 people, showed that the vaccine was 94.1 percent effective at preventing those who received it from developing COVID-19 symptoms.

The comparable results are likely because the pair of COVID-19 vaccines are “a lot more alike than they are different,” says Susanna Naggie, an infectious disease physician at Duke University. “I think that’s why we are seeing a very similar profile in terms of the early efficacy data.”

 

For Pfizer, that efficacy was comparable across age groups ranging from 16 to 89 years old. Among Moderna clinical trial participants aged 18 to 64 years old, the vaccine was 95.6 percent effective. But in people older than 65, it had a lower efficacy of 86.4 percent. 

 

That difference, however, is based on a small number of cases from that older age group — four in the vaccine group and 29 in the placebo group — and is not statistically significant, Jacqueline Miller, head of the Moderna’s infectious disease development, said in the Dec. 17 FDA advisory hearing. The vaccine’s “efficacy in the elderly is consistent with its efficacy in the overall population,” she said.

 

Moderna’s vaccine might provide better protection after the first dose.

While both vaccines require two doses to give people the best protection, early evidence hints that Moderna’s may do a better job fending off symptoms as early as two weeks after the first dose. 

 

Pfizer’s vaccine regimen includes two shots spaced 21 days apart; Moderna’s two doses are separated by 28 days. After people in the Pfizer trial were given their first dose, there were 39 COVID-19 cases in the vaccine group and 82 in the placebo, giving the vaccine an efficacy of 52.4 percent. Moderna’s, on the other hand, had an efficacy of 80.2 percent after the first dose. 

 

Moderna’s vaccine may be better at preventing severe symptoms, but it’s too soon to know.

Moderna’s vaccine initially showed an impressive 100 percent efficacy at preventing severe symptoms in people who received it. While 30 people in the clinical trial’s placebo group developed severe disease, no vaccinated person did. Since that analysis occurred, however, one person in the vaccine group may have developed a severe case, but that is not yet validated, Rachel Zhang, a medical officer with the FDA, said in the Dec. 17 hearing. 

 

Unlike Pfizer, Moderna has preliminary data that suggest its vaccine stops infection, not just symptoms. Some early data suggest that the Moderna vaccine might protect vaccinated people from asymptomatic infections as well as symptomatic disease. While it’s clear that the vaccine, along with Pfizer’s, prevents people from developing COVID-19 symptoms, stopping infections entirely is crucial to curb the coronavirus’ spread and build immunity in communities.

 

Of more than 14,000 people who received a placebo, 38 tested positive for the coronavirus — without showing symptoms —  after their first injection but before their second. Only 14 who received the Moderna vaccine, however, were asymptomatic carriers of the virus when those people were tested before their second dose, the company reported. That two-third reduction in COVID-19 cases without symptoms in the vaccine arm of the trial compared with the placebo group hints that some infections could be prevented, even after a single vaccine dose.

 

The vaccines both use a genetic molecule called mRNA that is enclosed in a nanoparticle to deliver instructions to cells to make the coronavirus’ spike protein, which the virus uses to break into cells. The immune system then learns to recognize and defend against the spike when it is encountered in an infection. 

 

Both vaccines trigger similar side effects, though questions remain about serious allergic reactions. Each vaccine can induce similar side effects after being injected into the body. “It pretty universally causes arm pain,” Cox says. Such “systemic” symptoms like fatigue, chills, body aches or headache were also common among participants in both trials, particularly after the second dose. 

 

But “tenderness, swelling and [the rates of] some systematic symptoms are a bit higher” with Moderna’s vaccine than Pfizer’s, Cox says. That could be because Moderna included more mRNA in each dose, sparking rapid and strong symptoms as the immune response reacted to foreign material, Cox says. Those types of side effects are not unusual with vaccines. “In fact, it shows that your body is developing a robust immune response, which is exactly what you want,” Naggie says.

 

Triage in California?

With intensive care units full and projections showing big increases in hospitalizations through New Year’s Day, Southern California’s medical system is faced with the prospect of not being able to provide critical medical care to everyone who needs it, which would significantly increase the chances of patients dying as they wait for help. Already, hospitals are juggling resources to keep up, placing the overflow of ICU patients in other parts of hospitals not designed for them, clearing out critical care wards of patients who can survive elsewhere and in some cases keeping patients on ambulances for as long as eight hours until space is available. ( Los Angeles Times)

–Tracking the Virus Around the World–

–FROM JOHNS HOPKINS CSSE–

The Cultures of Dignity Resources for Supporting

Social-Emotional Wellness 

A Final Note: The AAIE COVID-19 Briefing is provided to support your leadership for the school community you serve. We encourage you to use these resources in any way, shape or form that helps you, your communications and toward furthering close relationships across your community.  – The AAIE Board