Vox Sentences - Delta in the classroom

As kids return to school, Covid-19 cases among children are surging; a Belarusian opposition leader faces 11 years in prison.

Tonight's Sentences was written by Ellen Ioanes.

A back-to-school Covid-19 spike

Paul Bersebach, MediaNews Group/Orange County Register via Getty Images

• More than 1,000 schools in 31 states have closed as pediatric Covid-19 cases surge, raising new concerns about the safety of in-person learning, as well as the need to vaccinate children. [WSJ / Yoree Koh]

• In the final full week of August, pediatric cases made up 22.4 percent of all Covid-19 cases, according to the American Academy of Pediatrics, compared to about 15 percent throughout the pandemic. [The Hill / Justine Coleman]

• The delta variant is responsible for many of these new pediatric coronavirus cases, and is making its way through communities with low vaccination rates — mostly in the southern US. A recent CDC report found that unvaccinated teens are 10 times more likely than their vaccinated counterparts to be hospitalized with the disease. [University of Minnesota Center for Infectious Disease and Research Policy / Stephanie Soucheray]

• Pediatric hospitalizations are increasing sharply: The Children’s Hospital Association, an organization comprising more than 200 children’s hospitals, recently pleaded for help as its members reach capacity. “[T]here may not be sufficient bed capacity or expert staff to care for children and families in need,” CHA head Mark Wietecha wrote in an August 26 letter to President Joe Biden. [NPR / Joe Hernandez]

• Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, reiterated that the best way to protect children under age 12, who cannot yet get vaccinated, is to “surround the children with vaccinated people.” He also urged administrators to adopt mask usage in the classroom. [CNN / Madeline Holcomb]

• The start of the school year (and looming colder weather) has raised the pressure on the Food and Drug Administration to expedite the approval of Covid-19 vaccines for children under 12. At the moment, a number of studies are investigating whether children’s immune systems can handle the available vaccines. But data from Pfizer’s pediatric clinical trials won’t be available until late September — and Moderna’s results aren’t expected until the end of the year. [Politico / Laura Gardner]

• Children have thus far made up a small portion of severe cases and deaths from Covid-19. Scientists have a number of hypotheses for why, ranging from children having a greater number of certain cells helping with rapid immune response to the fact that pediatric Covid-19 patients seem to have a less violent inflammatory response to the virus than adults. Still, health experts worry that the virus could continue to evolve in ways that evade natural immune system protections. [Nature / Smriti Mallapaty]

Belarusian opposition leader found guilty of “extremism”

• Maria Kolesnikova, a Belarusian political activist and a member of the protest group the Coordination Council, has been found guilty of extremism and trying to seize power for her role in nationwide protests against strongman leader Aleksandr Lukashenko, who has ruled the country since 1994 and is often called “Europe’s last dictator.” She faces 11 years in prison. [AP / Yuras Karmanau]

• Kolesnikova, one of the most visible faces of the opposition along with former presidential candidate Svetlana Tikhanovskaya, has gained fame for dramatic acts of protest in the face of government pressure, including dancing as her trial began and ripping up her passport in 2020 to foil Belarus’s efforts to deport her. [Deutsche Welle]

• Kolesnikova and other members of the Coordination Council have called for a peaceful transition of power to Tikhanovskaya, who claims to have won the August 2020 presidential election. [Guardian / Andrew Roth and Yan Auseyushkin]

• Lukashenko also claims to have won that election, after having rigged it in his favor by arresting nearly all of his rivals. Official results say Lukashenko received 80 percent of the vote — a number many in Belarus have rejected as ridiculous. The results spawned massive crowds demanding fair elections and for Lukashenko to step down, and state violence toward protesters has been condemned internationally. [The Conversation / Félix Krawatzek and Gwendolyn Sasse]

• While the mass protests that sprang up last year seem to have quieted for now, small groups of activists continue their quiet and creative dissent throughout the country. [NYT / Ivan Nechepurenko and Valerie Hopkins]

• Western countries have expressed their dismay at Kolesnikova’s conviction and that of her fellow opposition leader, Maxim Znak. US Secretary of State Antony Blinken decried it as “politically motivated conviction and shameful sentencing.” [Reuters]

• But the world’s sympathy for Belarus’s plight is limited; Poland recently imposed a state of emergency on its border with Belarus, in part to prevent its citizens from trying to gain entry into Poland. [BBC]

Mexico’s Supreme Court ruled unanimously to decriminalize abortion, as a feminist movement surges in the world’s second-most-populous Catholic country. [Washington Post / Mary Beth Sheridan and Alejandra Ibarra Chaoul]

• El Salvador will now begin using bitcoin as legal tender; while the government is enthusiastic, saying it will boost business, many citizens are suspicious, fearing they won’t be able to use it to collect remittances from abroad, which fuel the country’s economy. [Deutsche Welle]

• Federal unemployment benefits ended on Monday, plunging millions further into economic uncertainty as Covid-19 cases surge anew in many parts of the US. [Washington Post / Yeganeh Torbati, Andrew Van Dam, and Alyssa Fowers]

• The Wire actor Michael K. Williams, who received his fourth acting Emmy nomination for his work on Lovecraft Country, was found dead on Sunday at age 54. [NYT / Julia Jacobs, Annie Correal, Matthew Haag, and Jeremy Egner]

“The Taliban have had no achievements since they have taken power except for killing people and spreading terror.”

[Afghan activist Rezai, who helped organize a women-led protest against the Taliban in Kabul on Tuesday]

Doors are hard because all of game development is hard. [YouTube / Edward Vega]

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