Rochelle Walensky, who has been appointed director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, speaks after US President-elect Joe Biden announced his team to handle the Covid-19 pandemic at The Queen in Wilmington, Delaware, December 8, 2020.
Jim Watson | AFP | Getty Images
Teachers should not be vaccinated against Covid-19 before schools can safely reopen, the head of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said on Wednesday.
“There is growing evidence to suggest that schools can reopen safely and that reopening safely does not suggest that teachers need to be vaccinated,” Rochelle Walensky, director of the CDC, told reporters during a White House press briefing with regarding Covid-19.
“Vaccination of teachers is not a precondition for the safe reopening of schools,” she added.
The CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices voted to put “front-line essential workers,” including teachers, to receive a Covid-19 vaccine after giving priority to health care workers and long-term caregivers. . However, it may take some time for most teachers to get photos, while US officials are working to pick up the pace of vaccinations.
However, US school systems have come under pressure to reopen after switching to distance learning last year due to the coronavirus pandemic, which has infected more than 26.4 million Americans and killed at least 447,077 in just over a year. .
Some parents were forced to stay home to watch their children instead of going to work. Meanwhile, teachers and other faculties have expressed concern about returning to school and may endanger their health.
A CDC study published late last month found little evidence of the virus spreading in schools in the United States and abroad when precautions were taken, such as wearing masks, social distance and room ventilation.
The Biden administration has launched a Covid rescue plan that includes providing $ 170 billion to schools and universities for reopening. The money will be used in part to extend the tests. The administration said testing is a “critical” strategy for controlling the spread of the virus, but the added tests are not yet widely available, and the US still does not use those it has effectively.
Walensky said earlier that schools should be the first to open and the last to close in a pandemic.
Jeff Zients, the Covid-19 tsar of President Joe Biden, said on Wednesday that Biden was “very clear” that he wanted schools to “reopen and remain open.”
“That means each school has the equipment and resources to open safely,” he said during the news conference, urging Congress to “do its part” in adopting Biden’s Covid rescue plan. “Not just private schools or schools in rich areas, but all schools.”