Dr. Rochelle Walensky, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said on Wednesday that vaccinating teachers “is not a prerequisite for the safe reopening of schools”, taking a position on a point of contention between health unions. teachers and school districts that have become an obstacle to the return of students to classroom learning.
“Yes [the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices] put teachers in category 1B, the category of essential workers, ”she said during a briefing by the COVID response team at the White House. “But I also want to make it clear that there is growing data that suggests that schools can reopen safely and that this safe opening does not suggest that teachers should be vaccinated to reopen safely.”
Walensky’s comments came in response to a question about vaccine prioritization and whether the federal government would work more closely with states to increase the vaccine supply to teachers so that schools could reopen in the fall.
She said that states could continue to decide how to distribute vaccines, as state plans “have to be in sync with how they are able to hold” their supply versus the number of people who are eligible to receive the vaccine.
“While we are implementing the criteria of the advisory committee and state and local guidelines for vaccinating these eligible communities, I would also say that opening schools safely is not – that vaccinating teachers is not a prerequisite for the safe reopening of schools, “she said.
On a article published last week in the Journal of the American Medical Association, three doctors affiliated with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention encouraged schools across the country to reopen, noting that “there is little evidence that schools have contributed significantly to increasing transmission in the community ”.
A study published on Tuesday, which is cited in the article, found that in “schools in rural Wisconsin with high mask adherence (4876 students and 654 employees), the incidence of COVID-19 was lower in schools than in community”.
Meanwhile, President Joe Biden and White House chief of staff Ron Klain defended last week teacher unions‘refusal to return to face-to-face learning, despite scientific evidence suggesting that little transmission occurs in classrooms
Biden expressed support for Chicago Teachers Union in their fight against the reopening of schools for face-to-face learning, saying: “I know they want to work”.
“They just want to work in a safe environment and as safe as we can rationally, and we can do that,” said Biden.
Biden said that widespread testing and functioning ventilation systems are critical to the reopening of schools.
In a CNN appearance, Klain defended President Biden’s plan to reopen schools in 100 days and supported teachers’ objections to teaching in person immediately, saying that schools “have not made investments to keep students safe”.
Teachers in Chicago have been ignoring several reopening dates, choosing to challenge the school district and work remotely. The district and the teachers’ union agreed to a two-day “cooling off period” on Monday, after days of tense negotiations.
The union is advocating that members with clinically vulnerable relatives at home receive accommodation for remote work and that teachers are only required to return to face-to-face classes after receiving the vaccination. It is also pushing for more employee and student testing, as well as a public health metric that would determine when schools should reopen or close.