Teachers have bad reactions to COVID vaccine, delaying school reopenings
STAMFORD — The anticipated reopening of the city’s elementary schools to full-time in-person instruction has been delayed at least one more day, this time due to a number of teachers reporting adverse effects from the Johnson & Johnson vaccine they received over the weekend.
Roughly 40 percent of people who receive a vaccine from one of the three major providers experience symptoms, said Dr. Michael Parry, chairman of infectious diseases at Stamford Health.
“You can’t lose 50 percent of your workforce and open your schools,” he said.
More than 1,000 Stamford elementary teachers and staff members were eligible to get the vaccine this weekend as part of a mass effort to get educators in the city inoculated. Parry said about 900 teachers received the shot either Saturday or Sunday.
The district has not disclosed how many teachers reported symptoms, but schools spokesperson Sharon Beadle said more teachers called out sick Monday than on Friday.
“We just wanted to make sure that staff had enough time to prepare for the return of students full-time,” Beadle said.
Enough of the teachers reported issues that caused the district to delay returning to full-time inperson learning to Wednesday. Last week, the reopening date was moved from Monday to Tuesday to give teachers more time to prepare.
Diane Phanos, president of the Stamford Education Association teachers union, said she received numerous texts and emails from teachers after they received the vaccine about symptoms they were experiencing — often headaches, chills and fever. She did not say how many people complained of having symptoms.
She said educators still feel the reopening plan is being rushed.
“I think it’s a good idea that the delay was called, but I’m still concerned about returning to school,” she said. “I think it’s too soon.”
Parry said the most common symptoms from the COVID-19 vaccines are low-grade fever, headache, generalized muscle aches, nausea and chills.
“I think it’s a sign the immune system is responding to the vaccine,” he said.
Parry said the symptoms usually last one or two days.
Starting on Wednesday, students in elementary schools who are not in the remote-only distance learning academy will be able to attend class five days a week for the first time in a year. Middle school students will be able to do the same next week, and teachers in the secondary level will have access to the vaccine this coming weekend.
Superintendent Tamu Lucero has said the vaccine was not part of the decision to go back to fulltime in-person learning. Instead, Lucero has said she was driven by guidelines released last month by the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Those guidelines included recommendations for schools related to community transmission, and Stamford’s transmission rate dropped from “substantial” to “moderate” risk in the CDC’s latest recommendations.
Under the moderate risk threshold of 10 to 49 new cases per 100,000 people in the previous seven days, the CDC recommended “K-12 schools open for full inperson instruction,” with “physical distancing of 6 feet or more to the greatest extent possible.” Stamford’s most recently reported rate per 100,000, for the two weeks from Feb. 14 to Feb. 27, was 31.
Until Jan, 8, Stamford students had the option of attending classes in-person every other day under the hybrid model, or participating in the fully remote distance learning academy. But students were told they would have to stick to one of those models after the January deadline.
Only students in the hybrid model will be allowed to return to classes every school day. Those in the academy, roughly 25 percent of the district, will remain in remote learning.
While elementary and middle schools prepare for more students in the coming days, high schools will remain in the hybrid model for now. No date has been set for an eventual five-day-a-week return for the district’s oldest students.