| | |  | BY TYLER WEYANT | Presented by Charter Communications | FUMBLE — The No. 3 and No. 4 college football teams in the country had just ended their nationally televised game in Iowa City. Tens of thousands of screaming, and perhaps intoxicated, students rushed the field. A University of Iowa epidemiologist — wearing blue and white thanks to her Pennsylvania upbringing — watched from her basement and worried. “It looked like an outdoor super spreader event,” Christine Petersen said of the end of Saturday’s Penn State-Iowa game. “I thought I was watching it.”
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Iowa Hawkeyes fans storm the field after the matchup against the Penn State Nittany Lions at Kinnick Stadium on Oct. 9 in Iowa City, Iowa. | Matthew Holst/Getty Images | Yet the early data she’s examined hasn’t shown much of an effect at all. The University of Iowa has been doing dorm-sewage testing since last spring. Although there have been some positive cases this season, tests haven’t registered any severe spikes. In a football season that’s seen its fair share of crazy events ( Alabama loses! Student journalists watching practices from atop tall buildings! Fake injuries!), one of the craziest may be what hasn’t occurred: the fierce spread of Covid driven by college football that was predicted by experts when the season began. The headlines were clear. CNN: “College football fans and traditions are back, even with Covid-19 still here.” The AP: “Crowded stadiums, pandemic create combustible mix this fall.” NBC News: “College football season is here. And so is the delta variant.” Um, POLITICO: The newsletter you are reading right now, on Sept. 8, said, “Public health officials fear packed stadiums, raucous tailgate parties and crowded bars could be tinder for the Delta variant.” And now that we’re a month-plus into the season? “We’re not seeing it,” Petersen said. “You would catch population spikes, and there is no spike happening.” A University of Florida release this week was blunt: “So far, COVID-19 spikes from college football games haven’t materialized,” with UF epidemiologist Cindy Prins noting “some of these outdoor events really are not the super spreader events that people have worried they’re going to be.” The low transmission rate on football Saturdays this fall adds to the growing data showing that outdoor activities are safer. Study after study has assessed case spread at outdoor events to be significantly lower than at indoor events. Lollapalooza, the Chicago music festival, saw thousands attend, fully vaccinated, with few reported cases afterward. Outdoor events that have seen large spreads of Covid, such as the Sturgis Motorcycle rally earlier this year, have various additional factors that play into the spread, such as large unvaccinated populations attending , plus lots of indoor drinking at bars. Indoor parties on campus are leading to outbreaks at the University of Iowa, Petersen said. But the tailgates don’t seem to be a problem. The games at Iowa City’s Kinnick Stadium do not require proof of vaccination to attend, but the surrounding area has a high vaccination rate, she said. Even so, just before she spoke to Nightly, Petersen was out grabbing masks for a local high school football team dealing with a Covid outbreak. And there’s more to worry about than Covid. Petersen said she has seen other respiratory viruses spreading across campus. Most important, the pandemic is unlikely to be over when the national championship trophy is awarded in early 2022. Peter Hotez, dean of the National School of Tropical Medicine at the Baylor College of Medicine, says the relationship between Covid and college football is still a bit murky. “Could SEC games have contributed to the terrible Delta surge in the South in September and early October? I suppose that’s possible,” Hotez wrote in an email. “Was it lessened by high vaccination coverage among the educated and students at major universities? “I still think we’ll see a fifth wave as we head into November-December. So we’re not done.” Welcome to POLITICO Nightly. Reach out with news, tips and ideas for us at nightly@politico.com. Or contact tonight’s author at tweyant@politico.com or on Twitter at @tweyant.
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A message from Charter Communications: We’re proud to announce that Spectrum Internet ranks No. 1 in the U.S. News & World Report 2021-22 “Best Rural Internet Service Providers” rankings. This recognition underscores our ongoing commitment to connecting more communities from coast to coast, including rural areas. And we’re just getting started. | | | | | — Biden to meet with Pope Francis: Biden will embark on a three-leg trip to Europe starting at the end of October that will include a Vatican meeting with Pope Francis , the White House announced today. The president and first lady Jill Biden plan to travel to Rome in conjunction with the G-20 summit on Oct. 30-31. While there, Biden will also hold bilateral meetings with other world leaders, details of which the White House said would be made available closer to the event. — U.S. unemployment claims fall to lowest level during pandemic: The number of Americans applying for unemployment benefits fell to its lowest level since the pandemic began, a sign the job market is still improving even as hiring has slowed in the past two months . Unemployment claims dropped 36,000 to 293,000 last week, the second straight drop, the Labor Department said today. That’s the smallest number of people to apply for benefits since the week of March 14, 2020, when the pandemic intensified, and the first time claims have dipped below 300,000. Applications for jobless aid, which generally track the pace of layoffs, have fallen steadily since last spring as many businesses, struggling to fill jobs, have held onto their workers. — Jan. 6 investigators move to hold Bannon in contempt: The head of the House panel investigating Jan. 6 announced today that he has scheduled a vote to hold former Trump adviser Steve Bannon in contempt of Congress. On Tuesday, the select committee will vote on a report making the case that Bannon is in criminal contempt of Congress, according to Chair Bennie Thompson. That document will include language of a contempt resolution that could come to the House floor.
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| | THE MILKEN INSTITUTE GLOBAL CONFERENCE 2021 IS HERE: POLITICO is excited to partner with the Milken Institute to produce a special edition "Global Insider” newsletter featuring exclusive coverage and insights from one of the largest and most influential gatherings of experts reinventing finance, health, technology, philanthropy, industry and media. Don’t miss a thing from the 24th annual Milken Institute Global Conference in Los Angeles, from Oct. 17 to 20. Can't make it? We've got you covered. Planning to attend? Enhance your #MIGlobal experience and subscribe today. | | | | | — FDA advisers endorse Moderna booster shot: The Food and Drug Administration’s vaccine advisory panel today unanimously endorsed use of Moderna’s Covid-19 booster shot for the elderly and younger people whose jobs, underlying health or other factors elevate their risk. The panel recommended giving the shots at least six months after initial immunization. Its vote is not binding, but the FDA normally follows the recommendations of its advisory committees. — Deere & Co. workers go on strike after rejecting contract: More than 10,000 Deere & Co. workers went on strike today, the first major walkout at the agricultural machinery giant in more than three decades. The union had said its members would walk off the job if no deal was reached by 11:59 p.m. Wednesday. The vast majority of the union rejected a contract offer earlier this week that would have delivered 5 percent raises to some workers and 6 percent raises to others at the Illinois company known for its green tractors. — GOP megadonor pours $1M into primary against Arkansas’ Boozman: One of the Republican Party’s biggest donors is working to defeat Arkansas Sen. John Boozman in next year’s GOP primary. Dick Uihlein, a prominent conservative megadonor, is giving $1 million to a newly formed super PAC aligned with Republican Jake Bequette, an Iraq war veteran and retired NFL player who is challenging Boozman.
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5 points The drop nationwide in math scores by 13-year-olds in the National Assessment of Educational Progress. The nation’s 13-year-olds are less proficient in math and reading than the same age group was almost a decade ago, according to data collected just before the start of the pandemic and released today. It's the first time these scores — gathered as part of the National Assessment of Educational Progress’s long-term trend study — have dropped in either subject in the 50-year history of the test. |
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The flags of the U.K. and China hang at the London Stock Exchange. | Getty Images | BEIJING WARNS LONDON OVER TAIPEI AND VILNIUS — China warned new U.K. Foreign Secretary Liz Truss today not to create “new obstacles” in relations between London and Beijing after she promised solidarity with Lithuania, which has become Beijing’s arch foe in Europe because of its growing ties to Taiwan, Stuart Lau writes. In a meeting earlier this week, Truss and her counterparts from Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia said they would jointly “remain principled on our shared values in the face of the systematic challenges posed by China.” This comes after Beijing accused Lithuania of breaching the “One China” policy by allowing Taiwan to set up a representative office in Vilnius under the name “Taiwanese,” rather than using the word “Taipei,” which is the more acceptable term to Beijing. Responding to Truss’ position, a spokesman for the Chinese embassy in London said in a statement: “We have noticed the relevant reports and express our concern over the remarks of the U.K. side.”
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