COLOMBIA – The South Carolina Senate voted unanimously on Tuesday for a proposal that would make all teachers and other key school officials – along with daycare staff – eligible for the coronavirus vaccine.
The resolution also requires all school districts to offer students face-to-face classes five days a week immediately after spring break, even if teachers are not fully vaccinated by then.
“We either vaccinate teachers now or we don’t need to vaccinate them until June,” said Senate majority leader Shane Massey.
Groups of teachers say educators should be vaccinated soon because the already low levels of staff in schools are being exacerbated by the pandemic, with staff on sick leave or quarantined. This makes it difficult for schools to maintain in-person learning options. Teachers are now grouped with other essential frontline workers in Phase 1B of the state plan; the proposal would move them to 1A.
But senators struggled to decide how to include teachers in the state’s coronavirus vaccine plan without pitting them against the elderly who also called for vaccines.
Thousands of older people are still on vaccine waiting lists, while others find it difficult to navigate online appointment scheduling systems. The state is still in Phase 1A of its vaccination plan, which includes healthcare professionals and people aged 70 and over. About 1.3 million people are eligible at the current stage.
Lawmakers considered temporarily putting teachers in front of all senior students to obtain two full months of face-to-face learning this spring.
However, putting teachers at the front of the line would lead vaccine providers to cancel up to thousands of appointments already scheduled for seniors, said Sen. Tom Davis of Beaufort, a heavy retiree. It would be unfair for the elderly to navigate the state’s “Kafka-esque” process to secure an interview only to cancel it later, he added.
Davis suggested designating the week of March 15-22 to vaccinate teachers, with a second week in April for second doses. This was based on information he received from the South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control.
“There will be more interruptions. There will be more confusion, ”said Davis.
Massey said that such a solution addresses the “political problem” of putting teachers ahead of senior students, but not the “practical problem” of getting children into schools more quickly.
Governor Henry McMaster, who previously opposed the plan, said that transferring teachers ahead of the elderly in the vaccine line would be “unethical, immoral and absolutely unacceptable” because the elderly are more likely to die from the virus.
“Breaking the faith by decreasing, interrupting, canceling or delaying the vaccination of any elderly person is a bad idea with deadly consequences,” he tweeted on Tuesday night. “I cannot – and will not – allow their lives to be put at risk.”
The governor could still veto the proposal, but the General Assembly could override any veto by a two-thirds vote.
More than half of the state’s school districts are operating at times that combine face-to-face and online classes, according to the South Carolina Department of Education.
A survey the department asked school districts to conduct last week found that about 57% of school staff – or 70,000 people – would get the vaccine if provided immediately.
The state received a total of 970,250 doses of vaccines and administered 548,214 of them, according to DHEC.
The health department opened vaccination appointments for people aged 65 to 69 on Monday, leading to a further increase in demand for vaccines, providers said. Previously, people aged 70 or older have been eligible for the vaccine since mid-January.
Some hospitals say they are already seeing fewer doses in their regular shipments. The state’s largest health care system, Prisma Health, said it canceled some appointments and interrupted visits after receiving fewer doses than expected on Monday.
Some legislators in the House introduced a separate resolution that would move teachers to Phase 1A and instruct schools to reopen five days a week for 28 days.