COLOMBIA, SC (WIS) – Governor Henry McMaster continues to say that people 65 and older should be vaccinated in South Carolina.
“We don’t want to prevent a single elderly person from taking this vaccine. We don’t want to put a single, younger, healthier person who can die if he doesn’t get the vaccine. That’s the reason, ”said McMaster.
In the Senate, majority leader Shane Massey (R-Edgefield) tabled a joint resolution that would require the Department of Health and Environmental Control to move teachers and school support personnel to Phase 1A.
The resolution also requires DHEC and the South Carolina Department of Education to devise a plan to vaccinate all school officials who wish to receive a vaccine within 30 days after the measure is approved. But the same resolution would also require schools to offer five days a week, face-to-face learning after vaccination.
“The only way to bring teachers back to the classroom five days a week is to vaccinate them. If we don’t vaccinate them, they won’t do it, ”said Massey.
McMaster said this resolution would hinder the vaccine’s launch and the only way to do that is if all other vaccine appointments are canceled for next month.
“It could happen if you didn’t vaccinate anyone else … it would throw a wrench into the system that is now working,” he said.
Massey said he would like to feel no need to propose this resolution, but the slow start of vaccinations is what put the state in this position.
“This vaccination process had a great monkey wrench from the beginning. We should not be in the situation we are in. We shouldn’t have to make that decision now. People over 70 years of age should not deal with commitments for the next month. They should already be getting the vaccines. We are in this position because of poor planning and poor planning implementation, ”said Massey.
When asked whether teachers would be able to receive the vaccine before the end of the school year without such a resolution or the like, Massey said no.
The governor was asked the same question Thursday and said it depends on how many doses of the vaccine arrive in the state in the coming weeks.
“Whatever comes in, we need to make sure that we take care of those most at risk first,” said McMaster. “If we get a lot of vaccines from the organization that we create now and that grows every day, we should be able to accommodate those who want to enter.”
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