What?s Lost, What?s Left, What?s Next: Lessons Learned From the Lived Experiences of Teachers During the Pandemic

To understand the experiences of educators during the 2020 extended school closures, we interviewed 40 teachers from across the country in public, charter, and private schools, at different grade levels and in different subject areas. Teachers articulated three main concerns about emergency remote schooling: (a) student motivation, (b) professional loss and burnout, and (c) exacerbated inequities. As the climate emergency makes school disruptions more common, school systems must learn from the tragic school closings under COVID-19 to prepare for an uncertain future. We propose five design considerations to build school systems with greater resilience for the long-term: center equity, focus on relationship-building, address student motivation, address staff motivation and burnout, and mitigate uncertainty.

COVID-19 Vaccine Hesitancy Is the New Terrain for Political Division among Americans

Politically conservative Americans are less likely than those who identify as liberal to report a willingness to get a vaccine against coronavirus disease 2019. Using data from the Axios/Ipsos Coronavirus Survey from November 2020 to February 2021, the authors find that this partisan divide in vaccine hesitancy has increased over time. Recent scholarship has suggested that these differences can be attributed to personal characteristics, including varying levels of trust in institutions. The authors find that although the data supported this hypothesis in mid-November, by early February differences in demographics, concern about the pandemic, and institutional trust no longer explained the partisan gap. The authors explain the deepening divide by turning to recent evidence that political party affiliation has become a source of identity that shapes personal decision making. © The Author(s) 2021.

THE EFFECT OF MATERNAL AGE ON CHROMOSOMAL MOSAICISM: AN ANALYSIS BY CHROMOSOME TYPE AND MOSAIC RESULT

Objective: Previous work by our group (1) showed that the rate of chromosomal mosaicism decreases with maternal age. However, the types of chromosomes involved, as well as the types of chromosomal mosaicism in individual embryos, have not yet been examined. Our objective was to determine whether maternal age was associated with the rate of sex and autosomal chromosome mosaicism and the rates of various types of mosaicism. Design: Retrospective cohort study of all blastocysts that underwent trophectoderm biopsy for preimplantation genetic testing for aneuploidy (PGT-A) from 1/2015 to 12/2018 at our center. Materials and Methods: All patients with blastocysts that underwent trophectoderm biopsy for PGT-A via Next Generation Sequencing with ≥1 chromosome in the mosaic range (20-80%) were included. The primary outcomes were: 1) the rate of sex and autosomal chromosome mosaicism and 2) rates of segmental mosaicism, full chromosome mosaicism and complex (≥3 mosaic chromosomes) stratified by maternal age. Statistical analyses included Kruskal-Wallis (KW) and linear regression (LR) to control for paternal age, with p<0.05 considered significant. Results: 1,670 patients with 10,545 embryos biopsied overall and 3,611 embryos with ≥1 mosaic chromosome met inclusion criteria. The number of embryos biopsied decreased with maternal age (p<0.01) as expected. 3,366 (93.2%) embryos had only autosomal chromosome mosaics, which was independent of maternal age (p=0.05). Alternatively, the percent of embryos with ≥1 sex chromosome mosaic (6.8% n=245) was significantly associated with maternal age without clear trend by age group (p<0.01). Table 1 shows PGT-A results by type of mosaicism stratified by maternal age. Segmental mosaicism peaked at maternal age 35-37, while complex mosaicism increased with maternal age. Full chromosome mosaicism was similar across age groups. Conclusions: Among our embryo cohort, rates of segmental mosaicism varied and complex mosaicism increased with maternal age. These results remained significant when controlling for paternal age. The rate of sex chromosome mosaicism was associated with maternal age but may not be sufficiently powered given the low number of chromosomes. Our results provide further data for counseling patients about mosaic embryo results. [Formula presented] References: 1. An Analysis Of The Effect Of Maternal And Paternal Age On Chromosomal Mosaicism, Pacific Coast Reproductive Society Annual Conference – Cancelled by COVID-19