Letetsia A. Fox, president of the Los Angeles 500 chapter of the California School Employees Association, receives the first COVID-19 vaccination shot by registered nurse Sosse Bedrossian, director of health care services for LAUSD.
Al Seib | Los Angeles Times | Getty Images
President Joe Biden on Tuesday called on states to prioritize vaccinating teachers and school staff against Covid-19 in order to deliver at least one blow to every educator and staff member across the country by the end of March.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has previously called on states to prioritize vaccination of teachers, but some public health experts have criticized the agency for not making vaccination a prerequisite for reopening K-12 schools.
“Let me be clear, we can reopen schools if the right measures are taken right before employees are vaccinated,” Biden told the White House on Tuesday. “But countless times, I’ve heard from educators and parents who are anxious about it.”
To help accelerate the safe reopening of schools, Biden said “to treat in-person learning as the essential service it has and that means getting the essential workers who provide this service, educators, school staff, childcare workers, to vaccinate them. ”
“My challenge to all states, territories and the District of Columbia is this: we want every educator, school staff member and childcare worker to receive at least one blow by the end of March,” he added.
Biden said he will use the federal pharmaceutical partnership, which has been established with retail pharmacies such as CVS and Walgreens, to expand access to Covid-19 vaccines, to make photos available to pre-K-12 teachers and school staff. This would give those workers the opportunity to receive the vaccine even in countries where they do not meet local eligibility requirements.
His statement is the strongest demand to date and the most ambitious timeline presented by the federal government for states to give priority to educators and school staff, although it does not fall within the mandate to do so. Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers, welcomed the president’s remarks as a concrete step toward reopening personal learning schools.
“What an extraordinary relief to have a president facing this time of crisis,” Weingarten said in a statement. “Vaccinations are a key ingredient for the safe reopening of schools, and it is the administration that is taking steps to accelerate vaccinations for educators, which is great news for all those who want to learn in school.”
As doses of Covid-19 vaccines remain low, states are rationing them into priority groups, mainly essential workers, the elderly and people with compromised immune systems. While the CDC sets out recommendations on which groups should receive the first vaccine, states ultimately make their own decisions.
The CDC recommended that teachers be vaccinated in Phase 1b, which includes all those aged 75 and over, as well as “essential front-line workers”. But some states have excluded teachers and school staff from the definition of essential front-line workers.
While the top national health agency recommends that states prioritize vaccinating teachers, CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky said teachers who are not vaccinated should not be an obstacle to reopening schools. She said that if schools comply with the public health measures set by the CDC, teachers and staff can safely return to personal learning.
However, based on the parameters set by the CDC, approximately 90% of schools in the country are in counties with substantial levels of spread in which the CDC says it is not certain that schools will reopen completely for personal learning.