![]() –FRIDAY–
AAIE's COVID-19 BRIEFING #125 Data and Ideas to Support Your Crisis Leadership
October 16, 2020
–Highlights–
–QUICK LINKS FOR BUSY PEOPLE–
SCHOOL REOPENING TOOLBOX AAIE's ONLINE CONVERSATIONS ARCHIVE AAIE's SIX-QUESTION SURVEY RESULTS ON SCHOOL REOPENING
![]() THE SEVEN PRINCIPLES FOR THE NEW SCHOOL PROJECT
Our Phase II discussions will move from principles to practice. Please join the CONVERSATION– moving from the driving ideas into action.
Today's Quote to Consider:
" International teachers take leaps of faith with every new assignment and so fortunately they are a pretty resilient group. When you have lived through evacuations, military coups, weather disasters, etc. you build resiliency. We find the leaders being honest about what the challenges will be in an interview is essential for hiring talented faculty. " –Deb Welch and Art Charles, CS&A
NEXT WEEK'S LEADERSHIP CONVERSATIONS with International School Leaders Around the World
TUESDAY October 20 08:00AM EDT LEADERSHIP RESILIENCE– "Am I Going to Make It?"
– presented by Dr. Kristin Daniels and Ellen Mahoney, The Circulus Institute PART ONE (three parts- three Tuesdays in a row): Building Your Own Resilience
WEDNESDAY October 21 08:00AM EDT IN A SCHOOL YEAR WHERE IT CAN FEEL ALMOST IMPOSSIBLE TO SATISFY PARENTS OR GIVE SUPPORT THEY NEED, WHAT IS THE HELP THAT HELPS?
– presented by Rosalind Wiseman, Cultures of Dignity Please Join Cultures of Dignity co-founder and best-selling author, Rosalind Wiseman for a conversation on strengthening family well-being and supporting parents while their children are distance learning. Rosalind will use her new publication The Distance Learning Playbook for Parents to give school leaders concrete skills to help parents during this uncertain time.
THURSDAY October 22 08:00AM EDT SCHOOL HEADS AND SENIOR LEADERS AROUND THE WORLD #34 Our Weekly Conversation – hosted by Will Richardson Weekly Learning as a Community– All international school senior leaders are welcome. A Weekly CONVERSATION between School Heads and Senior Leaders. Our discussions continue to be contemporary, important and a time we teach each other. Thanks to Will Richardson who has facilitated our Thursday CONVERSATIONS, since the very beginning.
THURSDAY October 22 10:00AM EDT LATIN AMERICAN SCHOOL LEADERS– Our Weekly Conversation #24 – hosted by Sonia Keller (Tri-Association) and Dereck Rhoads (AASSA) The weekly Thursday CONVERSATIONS between Latin America school heads and senior leaders in collaboration with Tri-Association and AASSA. All are welcome to join the discussion. Our sessions are hosted by Sonia Keller and Dereck Rhoads.
FRIDAY October 23 8:00AM EDT THE AAIE NEW SCHOOL PROJECT: Phase II From Principles to Practice – an unprecedented collaboration between international schools around the world. Discussions Facilitated by Will Richardson, Homa Tavangar and Kevin Bartlett Thanks to all who came to today's conversation about strategies and tools during our second week of discussion on AAIE New School Principle #1:
ADAPTIVE CHANGE - “WE USE FEARLESS INQUIRY TO CONTINUALLY INTERROGATE AND SHED EMBEDDED PRACTICE THAT DOES NOT AMPLIFY AND INSPIRE PROFOUND LEARNING THROUGHOUT OUR SCHOOL COMMUNITIES.”
In this morning's session we reviewed some great curated resources around the principle gathered by Bonnie Ricci and Anna Sugarman (which you can find on our Curator's Padlet here: bit.ly/aaiensp2 .) And then we broke into small groups to begin discussing how to begin living the Adaptive Change principle by looking at what we would stop doing, what we would continue to do, what new approaches we would take, and what of our current practice we would modify or tweak? All discussions will be collated and shared at next week's meeting.
THIS COMING WEEK: We take on Principle #2:
CAPACITY: WE DEVELOP THE CAPACITY IN OUR PEOPLE TO IMPLEMENT HIGH QUALITY AND SUSTAINABLE SOLUTIONS IN A TIME OF RAPID AND UNMITIGATED CHANGE.
Building school capacity will be the focus of our work next week as we spend time in discussion, deepening our understanding of the meaning and language of the principle. The more participants we have in these conversations, the more clarity and power we can bring to this work. So please join us if you can, and bring a friend or two as well. RECRUITING TEACHER AND LEADERSHIP TALENT IN THE TIME OF COVID-19
Carney-Sandoe and Associates, International Schools Services, RG175 and Search Associates Answering Your Questions and Updating Leaders on Recruiting Talent State of Play
Question: With regard to hybrid teaching and learning, what has changed in terms of criteria and new competencies being sought by recruiters from the candidates?Awareness of a focus change. How are they adapting; are they thriving or not as successful?
Question: In this unprecedented time in delivering learning, skills are front and center. Who cares for the caregiver? How do you help the Head of School and add value to the search?
Question: Can you help us probe deeper into candidates' psychological dispositions - resilience in face of uncertainty; adaptability and agility to change practice? What measures can agencies take to assess the resiliency and grit of candidates and provide that information to recruiters?...and try new things; positive thinking?
Question - What do you see in terms of any changes to the demographic for teachers? Are they staying closer to home? Are there more openings due to layoffs, furloughs or not honoring contracts? Less or more in the talent pool?
–THANK YOU–
Question - How does the HoS prepare for virtual interviews to maximize the experience online, in preparation for IFairs as well as during the process and as followup?
Question - Candidates appreciate conversation. How do you warmly invite candidates into that conversation?
Question - What additional cautions beyond the virtual interview are recommended?
Question - Strategic thinking across schools. What is the value add that recruiters bring to schools? What are you doing to help the school grow and attract diverse talent across schools?
Questions: Are there benefits to recruiting talent in the time of COVID-19– are you seeing unique opportunities emerge that can support the talent needs of international schools? What are the downsides to recruitment we all must be alert to for the coming months?
Question: Why should schools pay extensive fees to access a database of information that could be made accessible for free? What is the essential value a recruiting agency provides if they are passive repositories of files?
A SCIENCE UPDATE (Always Good to Know Where We Stand)
The Race for a Super-Antibody Against the Coronavirus INTRODUCTION:
Some scientists are betting on a dark horse: Prometheus, a ragtag group of scientists who are months behind in the competition — and yet may ultimately deliver the most powerful antibody. Prometheus is a collaboration between academic labs, the United States Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases, and a New Hampshire-based antibody company called Adimab. The group’s antibody is not expected to be in human trials until late December, but it may be worth the wait. Unlike the antibodies made by Regeneron and Eli Lilly, which fade in the body within weeks, Prometheus’s antibody aims to be effective for up to six months. “A single dose goes a long way, meaning we can treat more people,” said Kartik Chandran, a virologist at Albert Einstein College of Medicine and the group’s leader.
Among scientists, Dr. Chandran and Prometheus are famous for careful and clever work that has unearthed critical insights into deadly pathogens. While working on Ebola, for example, the team discovered a new entryway into human cells used by the virus, and used that information to design an antibody combination that works against all major strains of Ebola. “They do very innovative stuff,” said Florian Krammer, an immunologist at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York. “If they find something cool, they dig deep.”
Monoclonal antibodies are artificially synthesized copies of the most effective antibodies produced naturally by patients. In late February, AbCellera fished out an apparent winner from among 550 antibodies drawn from the blood of an infected patient. Barely three months later, partner Eli Lilly began the first trial of a synthesized version in patients. Regeneron, which has a $450 million contract from the federal government to develop its treatment, was not far behind. Its drug is a cocktail of two antibodies. One was discovered in a patient in Singapore, while the other was made using a synthetic viral snippet in mice.
Both Regeneron and Eli Lilly have stockpiled tens of thousands of doses of their drugs, rather than wait for F.D.A. approval. Without the resources or reach of these bigger companies, Prometheus has lagged behind... CLICK HERE TO KEEP READING Halloween to Holiday Gatherings Ideas to Add Value to Your School Safety-Operational Plans: More on Mitigating Risk ![]()
Innovative Holiday and Winter Gatherings in the Time of COVID-19–The pandemic will not be over anytime soon. We have to learn how to connect in new ways.
Overall, controlling the spread of SARS-CoV-2 remains challenging, and transmission rates are high in many areas. And now we’re moving into a time when fall and winter weather in many areas of the country may limit outdoor activities. Halloween will be the first holiday to negotiate, and we also have to think about how to make Thanksgiving and the winter holidays meaningful in new ways.
This pandemic will not be over any time soon, so we need to figure out how to have enjoyable experiences with friends and family. Nothing is zero risk, but we can all make choices that minimize risk. Innovation is woven into the fabric of America and will be important to creating meaningful holiday experiences while staying healthy. A decision-making framework can help us pace ourselves for this next phase in the pandemic marathon. There are a few core elements to consider as you plan for the holidays and gatherings ahead:
How about the Halloween scenario?: Halloween Trick-or-Treating
–THE NEWS of COVID-19– 39,131,360 Cases Worldwide (Johns Hopkins CSSE)
The Second Wave in Europe is Very Real From France to Russia, from Britain to the Czech Republic, European leaders are confronting a surge in coronavirus cases that is rapidly filling hospital beds, driving up death tolls and raising the grim prospect of further lockdowns in countries already traumatized by the pandemic. The continent, which once compared favorably to the United States in its handling of the pandemic, is being engulfed by a second wave of infection. With an average of more than 100,000 new infections per day over the past week, Europe now accounts for about one-third of new cases reported worldwide. (The New York Times, WHO Covid Dashboard)
The Pandemic and Declines in College Enrollment U.S. colleges are seeing sharp declines in enrollment of new students this semester in another sign of the economic toll that Covid-19 is having on higher education. The number of first-year undergraduate students enrolled fell 16%, the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center said in a report Thursday. Total undergraduate enrollment slid 4% from last year at this time, led by international students. Empty seats are inflicting financial damage on colleges already reeling from the pandemic. Earlier this year, when the virus began spreading, many schools cleared their campuses of students and refunded housing costs. With enrollment waning, revenue from tuition, dormitories and dining halls is being hurt at a time when some institutions are posting low endowment returns. (Bloomberg News)
London Lockdown? London is on the brink of a local lockdown that would bring another nine million people under tough restrictions on socializing and traveling. Sadiq Khan, the mayor, briefed the capital’s health chiefs about the move into the “high” Tier 2 coronavirus category after a meeting of the Joint Biosecurity Centre yesterday and an announcement could come as soon as tomorrow. The meeting, chaired by Matt Hancock, the health secretary, and Chris Whitty, the chief medical officer for England, also recommended that most of the northwest and northeast and large parts of Yorkshire and the Midlands be placed in the “very high” Tier 3. (Times of London)
Paris Curfew French President Emmanuel Macron has announced a night-time curfew in Paris and eight other cities to try to curb the rapid spread of coronavirus. The measure - from 21:00 to 06:00 - will go into effect from Saturday and last for at least four weeks, Mr Macron said in a televised interview. A public health emergency has also been declared. (BBC News)
Countries Stepping Up for the Chinese Vaccine Indonesia is taking steps toward approving emergency usage of Covid-19 vaccine candidates from China, a senior health official said, a move that would make it the second country outside China to do so. The United Arab Emirates approved a Chinese vaccine for emergency use last month. Within China, hundreds of thousands of people, from front-line medical workers to customs staff, have been injected with vaccines outside of clinical trials. Indonesia’s government says it will procure 18 million doses by the end of the year from China’s Sinovac Biotech Ltd., Sinopharm and CanSino Biologics, whose vaccines are still undergoing clinical trials in various parts of the world. (The Wall Street Journal)
Another USA Record The United States topped 62,000 new coronavirus cases Thursday, the country’s highest daily count since it reported more than 66,000 cases on July 31. Cases in the Midwest began to surge during October. On Thursday, Wisconsin, Ohio, Indiana, North Dakota, Montana, New Mexico and Colorado tallied new single-day highs for positive test results. Fourteen states exceeded their 7-day averages of new infections. (Washington Post)
Coronavirus Cases Hit Records in Europe, Surpassing the United States Europe set a record this week for new coronavirus infections, overtaking the United States in cases per capita, and a top World Health Organization official warned on Thursday that death rates on the continent this winter could be five times worse than the April peak if people are not strict about masks and social distancing.
The WHO is seeing “exponential increases” in daily cases in Europe, said Hans Kluge, the agency’s director for the continent, noting that at 8,000 deaths a day, covid-19 is now Europe’s fifth-leading cause of death. In just the past 10 days, a million new coronavirus cases have been recorded in Europe, raising the total since the start of the pandemic to 7 million in the WHO’s 53 European member countries. He said that by January, daily deaths could be “four to five times higher than what we recorded in April.”
The alarm echoed warnings from London to Latvia that the virus is rapidly spiraling out of control. France, Germany, Italy, Poland, the Netherlands, Croatia, Slovakia and the Czech Republic all posted records Thursday. Britain would have as well if not for an earlier glitch in its case counts. Case numbers are higher now than in the spring in part because testing is more readily available, but other indicators, such as the positive rate of tests and hospitalization rates, are also blinking red. Death rates, though far lower, are also creeping upward.
Europe clamped down hard on the pandemic this spring, and the payoff was a summer that was more normal than many people had expected. Cases remained low, even as many countries reopened their economies. Some Europeans ventured on vacation. But by the end of August, infections were again on the rise, with more cases concentrated among younger people — who perhaps considered the virus a more remote threat. Now it is spreading to their parents and grandparents, and medical systems are beginning to feel the strain. (Washington Post)
A Pandemic, Financial Crisis and Sustainability World Bank Chief Economist Carmen Reinhart said the coronavirus pandemic is turning into a major economic crisis and warned of the possibility of a financial crisis emerging. “This did not start as a financial crisis but it is morphing into a major economic crisis, with very serious financial consequences,” Reinhart said in an interview with Bloomberg Television. “There’s a long road ahead.” Reinhart, who took her new role in June, is best known for her work with then-Harvard colleague Kenneth Rogoff on the last financial crisis in their 2009 book “This Time Is Different: Eight Centuries of Financial Folly.” (Bloomberg News)
A Safe Vaccine, Less Effective on Older Adults A Chinese Covid-19 vaccine candidate based on inactivated coronavirus is safe and elicits an antibody response, preliminary results have shown. The research, published in the journal Lancet Infectious Disease, is based on small early phase randomized clinical trials involving 640 participants. Scientists said those aged 60 and over were slower to respond, with antibodies taking up to 42 days to be detected in blood tests, compared with 28 days for participants aged 18 to 59. They also found antibody levels to be lower in those aged 60 to 80 years, compared with those aged 18 to 59. (The Daily Telegraph, thelancet.com)
Why School Safety Plans Must Be Effective and Stay the Course Young and healthy people should be prepared to wait their turn for immunization, experts warned this week. The World Health Organization’s chief scientist suggested that the delay could last well over a year for some among the young and healthy. “People tend to think, ah, on the first of January or the first of April, I’m going to get a vaccine and then things will be back to normal,” Soumya Swaminathan said in an online WHO question-and-answer session on Wednesday. “It’s not going to work like that.” “There will be a lot of guidance coming out, but I think an average person, a healthy, young person, might have to wait until 2022 to get a vaccine,” she said. (The Washington Post)
Europe Overtakes USA in Daily Reported Cases The European Commission urged member nations on Thursday to step up preparations against the new surge of coronavirus infections and recommended common measures to roll out vaccines should they become available. With new cases hitting about 100,000 daily, Europe has by a wide margin overtaken the United States, where an average of more than 51,000 COVID-19 infections is reported every day. "Time is running out," said EU Health Commissioner Stella Kyriakides, urging greater coordination in tracing infections. (Reuters)
A German Disaster in the Making?– a Warning from Angela Merkel Angela Merkel is said to be deeply concerned that new coronavirus restrictions agreed by regional leaders do not go far enough and Germany may be heading for "disaster.” The warning comes as Germany and Italy – two countries that appeared to have escaped the worst of the second wave – recorded their highest daily rise in infections since the start of the pandemic. Mrs. Merkel put on a brave face for the cameras after German regional leaders stopped short of agreeing tough new measures she had proposed on Wednesday. But behind closed doors she reportedly lost her temper during marathon six-hour talks with the leaders of Germany's 16 states, telling them she was "not happy" and warning: "What you've agreed is not enough to avert disaster." (The Daily Telegraph)
Calamity in Portugal? A renewed state of “calamity” has been declared in Portugal as the government tries to contain a significant worsening of the pandemic. Public gatherings have been limited to five people and masks look likely to be made mandatory in busy public places as confirmed case numbers surge well beyond the first wave, with 2,072 on Wednesday alone. The first change to restrictions since September 15 came after slow and steady growth dating back to the middle of August accelerated significantly in the past week. (The Daily Telegraph)
What Happens When Covid-19 Meets Toxic Air? India Is About to Find Out As a thick quilt of smog wrapped itself around New Delhi on Thursday, signaling the start of the fall pollution season, doctors and scientists warned that the deteriorating air quality could make the city’s Covid-19 problems even worse.
One of the most common symptoms of severe coronavirus cases is breathing difficulty. And doctors say that if the ambient air suddenly becomes more toxic, as it does every year around this time in northern India, then more people who become infected by the virus might end up in the hospital or die. "If two people are shooting at the lungs, then obviously the lungs will have more problems,” said Arvind Kumar, a chest surgeon and founder of the Lung Care Foundation in New Delhi, a group that raises awareness about respiratory problems.
India is now struggling with two major health challenges that are both assaulting the respiratory system and peaking at the same time.
Coronavirus cases are spreading far and wide, putting the country on track to have the largest reported virus caseload in the coming weeks. With 7.3 million reported infections, it is just behind the United States’ 7.9 million. And each day, India outpaces the United States in new infections by around 10,000 more cases per day, even as India’s death rate remains much lower.
In the background is India’s vexing air pollution, which shoots up in the fall and winter. The rapid economic growth of the past two decades — and along with it, increased urbanization and congestion — has left Indian cities horribly polluted. In the fall, air temperatures and wind speeds drop, condensing pollutants over India’s cities, especially in the north. And farmers in the surrounding rural areas burn the stalks and refuse from their crop, sending up huge clouds of black smoke that drift for miles.
This year there have been five times the number of farm refuse fires in northern India as the same period last year, and experts say it is a bad sign of what’s to come. The agricultural sector has been a rare bright spot in an Indian economy that has been shattered by the pandemic, and pollution experts fear that more farming will mean more burning.
“My gut is it’s going to be a bumper, bumper harvest and a bumper, bumper combustion event, probably the biggest of our lifetime,” said Jai Dhar Gupta, an Ivy League-educated environmental activist and entrepreneur. “And now that you’ve got the combined impact of a respiratory virus and respiratory contaminants, every public health specialist is holding their breath to see what happens,” Mr. Gupta said. “We’re just sitting ducks,” he added.
Doctors say long-term exposure to severely polluted air can cause chronic lung inflammation, which can leave people who are exposed to the coronavirus more vulnerable. A recent study from Italy found a correlation between long-term exposure to dirty air and an increase in excess mortality — a measure of deaths above normal — from the coronavirus. (New York Times)
–The STATS–
TOTAL GLOBAL CASES:
Johns Hopkins– 39,131,360
WHO–38,789,204
GLOBAL DEATHS (WHO):
Today–1,095,097
Two Days Ago–1,083,234
EVOLUTION OF-GLOBAL CASES (WHO):
Today–38,789,204
Two Days Ago– 38,002,699
NEW CASES (WHO):
Today–383,588
–Tracking the Virus Around the World–
–FROM JOHNS HOPKINS CSSE–
The Cultures of Dignity Resources for Supporting Social-Emotional Wellness
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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 |