Governor Gavin Newsom said he believed schools could begin to reopen even if all teachers have not yet been vaccinated against COVID-19, as long as appropriate security measures and support are in place – although some teacher unions, including United Teachers Los Angeles, said vaccinations should be a prerequisite to resume face-to-face education.
“We can safely reopen schools as we process a prioritization for our vaccination teachers,” said Newsom on Wednesday.
“I would love to have every vaccine in the state that chooses to be vaccinated,” he said during a press conference held to announce the future opening of a community vaccination center at the Oakland Coliseum. “I would not just like to prioritize teachers, we are prioritizing teachers.”
However, United Teachers Los Angeles and other teacher unions have refused to resume face-to-face classes before teachers are vaccinated. LA Unified Supt. Austin Beutner said it is crucial that health officials specifically target school staff for vaccinations while the campuses are closed, so that this impediment to reopening is removed.
“Vaccinating school staff will help open classrooms early,” said Beutner this week.
Newsom’s comments were made the same day that Dr. Rochelle Walensky, director of the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said that schools can reopen safely, even if all teachers are not vaccinated against COVID- 19.
“I … want to make it clear that there is growing data that suggests that schools can be reopened safely, and that the safe reopening does not suggest that teachers need to be vaccinated to reopen safely,” Walensky said in an interview with White Team response from COVID-19 on Wednesday. “Vaccination of teachers is not a prerequisite for the safe reopening of schools.”
Jeff Zients, coordinator of President Biden’s COVID-19 task force, said on Wednesday that the president wants schools to reopen and remain open.
“And that means that each school has the equipment and resources to open safely, not just private schools or schools in wealthy areas, but all schools,” said Zients.
When asked about the CDC director’s latest comments, Newsom said he endorses “the Biden administration’s point of view, reinforced again today at his press conference, that we can safely reopen schools with [an] appropriate level of support. “
“The science, reaffirmed by the Biden administration, is that schools can be safe learning and working environments with the appropriate safety measures in place,” wrote Daniel Lopez, Newsom’s press secretary, in an email Wednesday afternoon -market. “The administration is focused on ensuring that schools implement these science-based safety measures, incorporating vaccines as quickly as possible, but without waiting.”
A commentary by researchers at the CDC published in the Journal of the American Medical Assn. last month concluded that there is a way to “return mostly or entirely to face-to-face education”, but actions that need to be taken include “measures to reduce community transmission and limit school-related activities, such as playing indoor sports or competing that could increase the risk of transmission. ”
There is little evidence that instruction on campus has contributed significantly to increasing community transmission, the researchers wrote. But there were some notable exceptions.
In Israel, for example, two infected students triggered a major outbreak two weeks after their school reopened in May. This outbreak was attributed in part to crowded classrooms and insufficient physical distance. In addition, because of the hot climate, students were exempted from using face masks and recycled air conditioning in closed rooms.
But overall, the CDC team wrote, most of the evidence “has been reassuring” because the type of rapid spread seen in nursing homes and crowded workplaces has not been reported in schools. “Preventing transmission in school settings will require addressing and reducing transmission levels in neighboring communities through policies to stop transmission (for example, restrictions on meals in restaurants),” the researchers wrote.
Several counties in California are finally seeing new daily rates of coronavirus cases drop to levels low enough to lead to the reopening of schools. Recently enacted state guidelines allow primary schools to reopen when the seven-day average of daily cases drops to 25 or less per 100,000 residents. For secondary schools, the adjusted rate is seven cases or less per 100,000 residents.
On Tuesday, the adjusted rate for new daily cases in Los Angeles County was 38.7 per 100,000, the state Department of Public Health reported. LA County Public Health Director Barbara Ferrer has suggested that it may take a few weeks before the threshold to allow districts to fully reopen primary schools is reached.
In addition to allowing healthcare professionals, people living in nursing homes and other long-term care facilities and the elderly 65 and older to have access to the vaccine, local health officials also have the authority to allow teachers and other staff school are vaccinated.
However, given the scarcity of vaccines and regional variations in the rate of vaccine distribution, health authorities in many counties have not allowed educators to be immunized, while other counties have paved the way for teachers.
For example, the city of Long Beach, which runs its own public health department, started vaccinating teachers, while the LA County Department of Public Health did not.
In the San Francisco Bay area, some health agencies that opened up vaccine eligibility to those working in schools recently decided to stop and focus on health care providers, those who live in long-term care facilities and the elderly. Marin County announced on January 21 that a limited supply of vaccine forced health officials to prioritize doses for people at least 75 years old and stopped scheduling appointments for categories of people in one low priority group, which includes teachers.
Newsom also emphasized that resources are a key piece in the puzzle of the school’s reopening. In his budget proposal, released last month, the governor earmarked $ 4.6 billion to deal with the loss of learning, money that school districts must use for an extended academic year or summer school. He asked for $ 2 billion in reopening grants that would be available to all school districts and campus-based charter schools. Her proposal was not approved by Democratic lawmakers, who strongly criticized her.
“I am confident that we can get where we need to go, and that it will safely reopen our schools for face-to-face education – starting with the newest grades and those with special needs,” said Newsom. “I say this not academically or intellectually, but as someone with four young children: the younger ones are not getting the benefits of distance learning than the older ones. And I am very concerned about the equity lens in terms of this conversation, because many private schools are open. “
He continued: “I believe that we can safely reopen public schools for face-to-face education with adequate levels of safety and support and responsibility in terms of enforcing traffic rules, and we are committed and determined to do so.”