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 new community vaccination center at the Oakland Coliseum. “I would not just like to prioritize teachers, we are prioritizing teachers.”
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.
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 weather, 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 low enough levels – less than 25 new infections per day per 100,000 residents – that would allow more primary schools to open if school operators choose to do so. But the daily rates of new coronavirus cases would have to fall below a level of less than 7 a day per 100,000 residents to allow primary and secondary schools to reopen.
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 Director of Public Health, Barbara Ferrer, has suggested that it may take a few weeks before the threshold to allow districts to reopen primary schools more fully is reached.
California authorities are now allowing access to the vaccine only to healthcare professionals, people living in nursing homes and other long-term care institutions and the elderly aged 65 and over. Teachers and educators are in the next group set to receive the vaccine, but there is no formal deadline for when they will start being vaccinated.
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. “Doing so, he added, will also require” responsibility in terms of enforcing the rules of the road “.
United Teachers Los Angeles and other teacher unions hesitated to resume face-to-face education before teachers are vaccinated. LA Unified Supt. Austin Beutner said it is critical that health officials specifically target school staff for vaccinations while campuses are closed, so that this impediment to reopening is removed.
“Vaccinating school staff will help open classrooms early,” said Beutner this week.
The Times staff writer Howard Blume contributed to this report.