The new pooled testing initiation for MA schools is a game changer. Looking forward to seeing how this is going to roll out. Initial plans seem to call for pooled PCR testing for classes, followed by rapid antigen testing for pools that are positive. 1/

This is NOT exactly what colleges are doing. MA colleges are screening with individual testing, not pooled testing. BTW, this has been very successful. It's not just screening, it's also going all in on tracing, isolation, distancing, masks, education. 2/ https://t.co/fPjrDscO4q
But no question that infection rates are much lower than the general population. Check out this graph from Dec 19. Percent positivity is much lower in higher ed.

I don't think this is because college students stay at home all day and never have risky social interactions! 3/
But there are a LOT more K-12 students than college students. So use of pooled PCR tests is crucial to keep costs down. Also intrigued by the proposed use of rapid antigen tests to find the infectious member of a positive pool. 4/ @michaelmina_lab
https://t.co/e9Aktj8WU1
One of the lessons from higher ed is that regular PCR testing is really the best test to detect asymptomatic infection, which will be even more common in K-12 than college-aged students. 5/ @mbebinger @RanuDhillon https://t.co/oT7QMvNII1
Of course, tracing, masking, distancing will still need to be done. Vaccination of teachers too. All these measures will be made even more effective by regular screening.

Community rates are surging so this is the time to bolster defenses against the virus. 6/ @AbraarKaran
Expect this to help control COVID in the community too. K-12 students are likely to get infected at home. So if a case is detected with school screening, backwards tracing may find the source of transmission in the household and stop ongoing community transmission. 7/ @BillHanage
Make no mistake, this will be highly complex and will need weeks or months to implement fully. But I'm glad no one is saying "it's too late". Children will likely be the last to be vaccinated, and schools will need screening for a long time. 8/ @nataliexdean @conarck
Kudos to Tufts University, piloting pooled testing in Somerville and Medford. @MonacoAnthony
9/ https://t.co/8lrg9PLU5c
And to Gingko Bioworks, piloting pooled testing in Salem and other school districts. @jrkelly @Lens_of_Ben @dsallentess 10/
https://t.co/VfnCM31aus

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global health policy in 2020 has centered around NPI's (non-pharmaceutical interventions) like distancing, masks, school closures

these have been sold as a way to stop infection as though this were science.

this was never true and that fact was known and knowable.

let's look.


above is the plot of social restriction and NPI vs total death per million. there is 0 R2. this means that the variables play no role in explaining one another.

we can see this same relationship between NPI and all cause deaths.

this is devastating to the case for NPI.


clearly, correlation is not proof of causality, but a total lack of correlation IS proof that there was no material causality.

barring massive and implausible coincidence, it's essentially impossible to cause something and not correlate to it, especially 51 times.

this would seem to pose some very serious questions for those claiming that lockdowns work, those basing policy upon them, and those claiming this is the side of science.

there is no science here nor any data. this is the febrile imaginings of discredited modelers.

this has been clear and obvious from all over the world since the beginning and had been proven so clearly by may that it's hard to imagine anyone who is actually conversant with the data still believing in these responses.

everyone got the same R
This is a piece I've been thinking about for a long time. One of the most dominant policy ideas in Washington is that policy should, always and everywhere, move parents into paid labor. But what if that's wrong?

My reporting here convinced me that there's no large effect in either direction on labor force participation from child allowances. Canada has a bigger one than either Romney or Biden are considering, and more labor force participation among women.

But what if that wasn't true?

Forcing parents into low-wage, often exploitative, jobs by threatening them and their children with poverty may be counted as a success by some policymakers, but it’s a sign of a society that doesn’t value the most essential forms of labor.

The problem is in the very language we use. If I left my job as a New York Times columnist to care for my 2-year-old son, I’d be described as leaving the labor force. But as much as I adore him, there is no doubt I’d be working harder. I wouldn't have stopped working!

I tried to render conservative objections here fairly. I appreciate that @swinshi talked with me, and I'm sorry I couldn't include everything he said. I'll say I believe I used his strongest arguments, not more speculative ones, in the piece.

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