The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) now recommends that everyone ages 5 and older receive one updated bivalent booster if it has been at least 2 months since their last COVID-19 vaccine dose, whether that was their final primary series dose or an original (monovalent) booster.

According to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, a single dose of a bivalent COVID-19 vaccine booster provides broad protection against COVID-19 and is expected to provide better protection against COVID-19 caused by the Omicron variant, which is currently circulating in communities across the U.S.

Parents can contact their doctor, nurse, pharmacy, or health department, or visit vaccines.gov to find available COVID-19 vaccine and booster doses near them.

The ABC Science Collaborative has developed a new tool to help school districts navigate the changing COVID-19 pandemic.

The Masking and Mitigation Considerations Calculator (MC²) is an online tool based on a hypothetical model generated from the most recent mitigation strategy data.

School leaders can enter a district’s specific size (number of students) and current community case rates (cases/100,000 population/7 days), and the MC² will estimate the impact of mitigation strategy decisions on the school district and community.

The MC² is part of a suite of resources from The ABC Science Collaborative to help school districts scale back COVID-19 mitigation strategies. The resources include a blueprint, titled, “Considerations for Navigating the COVID-19 Pandemic in Schools: Spring 2022,” along with a recorded forum and slide deck that can help school leaders make informed decisions. View all of the resources on the ABC Science Collaborative website.

Study from ABC Science Collaborative compared school districts with masking policies to those without

School districts that required masking saw lower rates of COVID-19 transmission within schools last fall compared to those with optional masking policies, according to a study by the ABC Science Collaborative.

The study, publishing online on March 9 in the journal Pediatrics, found that school districts with universal masking were less likely to experience COVID-19 spreading in their schools when compared to school districts with optional masking (masked schools had 72% less within-school spread compared to unmasked schools). After taking into account the size of the school districts and how many weeks the districts contributed data, masked schools saw up to 87% less transmission.

The study is the first to compare within-school COVID-19 spread from a large population of American schools that mask with those that don’t. The study included 61 school districts, more than 3,000 schools, and more than 1.1 million students and adults from across nine states.

Of the 61 districts in the study, six (10%) had optional masking and nine (15%) had partial masking policies, meaning their masking policies changed at some point during the study or did not apply to all grade levels. The remaining 46 districts (75%) had required masking over the course of the study.

School districts reported their practices surrounding masking, quarantine, and lunch period, and reported weekly infection data from July 26, 2021 to Dec. 13, 2021. That time period occurred during the Delta variant surge and concluded in the beginning weeks of the Omicron variant surge.

During the study period, participating districts had 40,601 community-acquired infections (36,032 among students, 4,569 among staff) and 3,085 in-school infections (2,844 among students, 241 among staff).

Districts that were fully masked had lower predicted in-school infections per community-acquired infection than districts that had an optional masking policy. Classification of community-acquired and in-school infections were determined by school health staff in collaboration with the local health department.

“The results of this study clearly show that universal masking reduces school transmission of COVID-19 when compared to optional masking, a finding that is consistent with earlier data,” said Danny Benjamin, M.D., Ph.D., co-chair of the ABC Science Collaborative and distinguished professor in the Department of Pediatrics at Duke University School of Medicine.

“As more students have returned to school, masking and vaccination of children 5 years and older have remained the most practical and effective mitigation strategies to keeping students healthy and learning in-person,” Benjamin said.

The study gave participating school districts tools for monitoring the success of their mitigation measures and evaluating policies based on the needs of their communities.

“Maintaining in-person instruction is critical for children,” said Kanecia Zimmerman, M.D., co-chair of the ABC Science Collaborative and associate professor of pediatrics at Duke. “Providing districts with the ability to monitor transmission data in real time and in response to changing policies allows them to shape their mitigation efforts during an evolving pandemic.

“The findings in this study are important,” Zimmerman said. “Especially in times with higher community infection rates and more transmissible variants, masking is a critical safety effort to support continued, in-person education.”

New guidance in the StrongSchoolsNC Public Health Toolkit (K-12) gives K-12 schools in North Carolina a safe alternative to quarantine for students and staff who are identified as close contacts in school.

The update to the StrongSchoolsNC Public Health Toolkit was informed by an ABC Science Collaborative study and delivery of a report on the “test-to-stay” approach in K-12 school communities.

The North Carolina “test-to-stay” guidelines state that students and staff who have an in-school exposure to SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, will be allowed to remain in school as long as they are asymptomatic and consistently wear a well-fitted mask. The guidelines strongly recommend that these individuals receive in-school testing with a rapid antigen test at the time of notification of exposure and a second test on day five after exposure, especially for those participating in athletics.

The ABC Science Collaborative has partnered with NC DHHS in an ongoing study of “test-to-stay” and has found that “test-to-stay” is a safe and effective approach for reducing student absences from school after in-school exposure to COVID-19.

The ABC Science Collaborative delivered a report on the “test-to-stay” study to NC DHHS in December 2021 that found no instances where an exposed child became infected and went on to infect other children or adults within the school building.

The implementation of “test-to-stay” during the study reduced missed days of school during quarantine by more than 90%.

“The new ‘test-to-stay’ guidelines offer North Carolina schools a practical alternative to quarantine that will keep students learning in the classroom,” said Danny Benjamin, MD, MPH, PhD, co-chair of the ABC Science Collaborative and Distinguished Professor of Pediatrics, Duke University. “The ABC Science Collaborative study found that ‘test-to-stay’ is safe and effective for keeping school communities healthy without overwhelming the system.”

The guidance, published by the N.C. Department of Health and Human Services, appears in a Jan. 7, 2022 update to the toolkit.

Top scientists and physicians from the ABC Science Collaborative outline how a more focused COVID-19 “test-to-stay” protocol can keep kids in school without overwhelming the system

Children and staff who repeatedly test negative for COVID-19 after contact with someone who has the illness can safely remain in school if universal masking programs are in place, according to a new “test-to-stay” study report from the ABC Science Collaborative.

The finding provides a safe alternative to quarantining people who have been exposed to COVID-19 and enables schools to remain open without interruptions. This research will be used by the N.C. Department of Health and Human Services to consider revising its guidelines on quarantine for schools across North Carolina.

The research, coming as the country faces the omicron variant, provides a more practical and focused approach to the “test-to-stay” protocols that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recently endorsed, which require testing of anyone within three feet of an infected person at school despite both parties being masked.

ABC Science researchers have raised concerns that this widespread “test-to-stay” approach is likely to overwhelm resource-limited schools and result in insurmountable logistical hurdles.

By contrast, the ABC Science Collaborative’s focused “test-to-stay” approach only requires testing if at least one of the exposed individuals is unmasked.

This focused approach reduces testing by ~80%; the transmission is still very low at 1.7%; and testing volume is such that most schools can complete the testing at each school, thereby serving more vulnerable children.

“The focused ‘test-to-stay’ protocol substantially reduced student absences from school after in-school exposure to COVID-19, keeping more kids in school and on a consistent educational routine,” said Danny Benjamin, MD, MPH, PhD, co-chair of the ABC Science Collaborative and Distinguished Professor of Pediatrics, Duke University. “Our research has taught us that ‘test-to-stay’ is a focused, practical way for children to avoid being out of the classroom after an exposure and can be a win-win strategy for keeping our children and schools safe without overwhelming the system.”

North Carolina schools and school districts were eligible to participate in the ABC Science study if they had a universal masking policy and approval from their local board of education and local health department. Individuals at participating schools were eligible if they were identified as a close contact by the local health department and were required to quarantine following an in-school, unmasked COVID-19 exposure.

These individuals could participate in “test-to-stay” if they were asymptomatic and consented to participate in the “test-to-stay” research study. Close contacts were given the option to quarantine according to local policies.

Participants in the study were given a SARS-CoV-2 rapid test at school when they were identified as a close contact and received testing every other day up to four times during the first seven days after the known exposure. Participants remained in school if they tested negative and were asymptomatic. A positive COVID-19 test or the development of symptoms on any day after exposure required isolation according to state public health guidelines.

Over the course of a six-week duration, more than 880 tests were performed among more than 360 participants.

“There were no instances in the ABC Science Collaborative ‘test-to-stay’ study where an exposed child became infected and went on to infect other children or adults within the school building,” said Kanecia Zimmerman, MD, MPH, co-chair of the ABC Science Collaborative and Test-to-Stay Principal Investigator, and a pediatrician at Duke University. “Implementation of ‘test-to-stay’ reduced missed days of school during quarantine by more than 90%, saving 1,628 days of in-person learning over the course of the study.”

This research was funded in part by the Rapid Acceleration of Diagnostics (RADx) Underserved Populations (RADx-UP); National Institutes of Health; the Trial Innovation Network, which is an innovative collaboration addressing critical roadblocks in clinical research and accelerating the translation of novel interventions into life-saving therapies; and the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD).

For more information view the media briefing on YouTube or visit https://abcsciencecollaborative.org.

Read a friendly formatted version of the study.

The ABC Science Collaborative has released new research that provides insights on the rapid mobilization and partnership between scientists and K-12 school districts across the country during the first year of the COVID-19 global pandemic.

The research published in the journal Pediatrics on Nov. 4, 2021 represents a collaboration between 67 scientists at Duke University and institutions across the country. The body of work focuses on the return to in-person learning in underserved K-12 schools and includes 12 papers on topics such as building partnerships between scientists and school districts, reopening schools to in-person learning during the COVID-19 pandemic, implementing diagnostic testing programs, supporting COVID-19 school safety for children with disabilities and medical complexity, masking adherence in K-12 schools, secondary transmission of COVID-19 in K-12 schools, school quarantine policies and more.

“As families, policymakers, and school leaders are making decisions that impact child health and well-being, we hope that our research can help identify best practices for mitigating COVID-19 in school communities,” said Kanecia Zimmerman, MD, MPH, co-chair of the ABC Science Collaborative.

The research is a result of a nationwide partnership between scientists from across the country that was built rapidly in response to an urgent need to return students to in-person learning.

“We started locally with state and school district partners in North Carolina and developed relationships with pediatricians and scientists across the country in order to answer key questions about COVID-19 and schools that would benefit millions of children in the U.S.,” said Danny Benjamin, MD, PhD, MPH, co-chair of the ABC Science Collaborative. “These partnerships have helped policymakers and school leaders make decisions based on science that have allowed schools to return to in-person learning and have kept students and teachers to healthy and safe.”

What’s in the report?

Read a friendly formatted version of the key takeaways from this body of research.

• Building the Evidence for Safe Return to School During the COVID-19 Pandemic
• School-Academic Partnerships in Support of Safe Return to Schools During the COVID-19 Pandemic
• Building a National Framework to Pair Scientists and Schools During a Global Pandemic
• From Research to Policy: the ABC Science Collaborative Experience With K-12 School Reopening in NC During the COVID-19 Pandemic
• Mobilizing Established School Partnerships to Reach Underserved Children During a Global Pandemic
• Implementation of School-Based COVID-19 Testing Programs in Underserved Populations
• Supporting COVID-19 School Safety for Children with Disabilities and Medical Complexity
• Masking Adherence in K–12 Schools and SARS-CoV-2 Secondary Transmission
• A School-Based SARS-CoV-2 Testing Program: Testing Uptake and Quarantine Length Following In-School Exposures
• Secondary Transmission of COVID-19 in K-12 Schools: Findings From Two States
• Quarantine Elimination for K-12 Students With Mask-on-Mask Exposure to SARS-CoV-2
• Urban Classification, Not COVID-19 Community Rates, Was Associated With Modes of Learning in US K–12 Schools

About the ABC Science Collaborative

The ABC Science Collaborative is an initiative that extends across 18 states, connecting scientists and physicians with school and community leaders to help understand the most current and relevant information about COVID-19. The program helps school leaders and state policymakers arrive at informed decisions about returning to school using data from their own communities. Our shared goal is to keep students, teachers, and their local communities healthy and safe. 

This research was funded in part by the Rapid Acceleration of Diagnostics (RADx) Underserved Populations (RADx-UP); National Institutes of Health; the Trial Innovation Network, which is an innovative collaboration addressing critical roadblocks in clinical research and accelerating the translation of novel interventions into life-saving therapies; and the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) contract for the Pediatric Trials Network.

The ABC Science Collaborative strongly encourages children ages 5-11 to get vaccinated this fall.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration issued an emergency use authorization for the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine for this age group on Oct. 29, and, on Nov. 2, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) voted to recommend the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine for children ages 5-11. The ACIP recommendation is the final step toward making the vaccine available to children younger than 12 in the U.S. The Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine is the first COVID-19 vaccine that has been authorized by the FDA and CDC for children ages 5-11.

Evidence from clinical research has shown that the vaccine is safe and effective; it has been rigorously tested for safety and antibody response in the 5-11 age group. Data from Pfizer-BioNTech showed the vaccine had 90.7% efficacy in preventing symptomatic COVID-19 disease in children ages 5-11.

“Vaccination is an important safety measure to protect children from COVID-19, particularly as cases in children have increased over the summer and as students returned to school in the fall,” said Kanecia Zimmerman, MD, MPH, co-chair of the ABC Science Collaborative. “Getting this age group vaccinated will provide additional protection from COVID-19 for students and staff going into the winter months when we typically spend more time indoors.”

The COVID-19 vaccine for children is free and available through health care providers or local pharmacies. The Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine requires two doses spaced out over 21 days, and it can be given with an annual flu vaccination or separately. The dose for children ages 5-11 is one-third the dose used in adults.

Learn more

Read the ABC Science Collaborative’s FAQ on COVID-19 vaccines.

View videos and hear why children are looking forward to getting vaccinated.

Help spread the word, use our social media kit to share stories about COVID-19 vaccination for children ages 5-11.

Join the conversation and post your reasons for getting the COVID-19 vaccine on Twitter or Instagram with the hashtag #MyVaccineWhy.