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Public schools that kept universal masking requirements in place last year had significantly fewer coronavirus cases than their counterparts that lifted mandates as state policies changed, according to a study published in the New England Journal of Medicine that weighs in on the hotly debated pandemic safety measure. The study, which followed schools in the Boston region during the 2021-2022 academic year, found that the end of mask requirements was associated with an additional 45 coronavirus cases per 1,000 students and staff members — or nearly 12,000 cases during a 15-week period from March to June. (St. George, 11/10)

The data should help dispel misinformation about the effectiveness of universal masking requirements in stemming viral transmission in schools, said Julia Raifman, an assistant professor at the Boston University School of Public Health and an author of an editorial accompanying the new study. “Even as recently as this summer, people were saying, ‘Oh, Covid doesn’t spread in schools,’ and there was a misconception that kids don’t get Covid,” said Dr. Raifman, who was not involved in the new research. “But what we see in the study is that Covid does spread in schools, and it spreads back home, and it spreads to teachers.” (Rabin, 11/10)

JAMA Network Open published a new study yesterday showing higher cord blood COVID-19 antibodies in women who were vaccinated compared with those who were infected with COVID-19, suggesting vaccination produces more than 10-fold higher antibody concentrations in unborn babies compared to natural infections. (11/10)

Yesterday in a letter to the New England Journal of Medicine, Israeli researchers reported an overall vaccine effectiveness of a fourth Pfizer COVID vaccine dose of 41% in the first 6 months, but they said protection decreased from 52% during the first 5 weeks after vaccination to no protection at 15 to 26 weeks. (11/10)

The FDA declined to comment on Pfizer's and Moderna's studies because they are ongoing, but an agency official said the chance of having myocarditis occur following vaccination is "very low." The condition does not lead to cardiac-related death, the official said, as claimed by Florida's surgeon general last month who cited an unpublished analysis of state data. (Lovelace Jr., 11/12)

Dr. Anthony Fauci may be stepping down from his role as chief medical advisor to the president in December, but the immunologist says he's "not even close" to completely retiring. (Miller and Powell, 11/12)

KHN: Thousands Of Experts Hired To Aid Public Health Departments Are Losing Their Jobs 

As covid-19 raged, roughly 4,000 highly skilled epidemiologists, communication specialists, and public health nurses were hired by a nonprofit tied to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to plug the holes at battered public health departments on the front lines. But over the past few months, the majority of the CDC Foundation’s contracts for those public health workers at local and state departments have ended as the group has spent nearly all of its almost $289 million in covid relief funding. The CDC Foundation, an independent nonprofit that supports the CDC’s work, anticipates that no more than about 800 of its 4,000 hires will ultimately staff those jurisdictions, spokesperson Pierce Nelson said. (Weber, 11/14)