Wolf: Pa. teachers, staff will get J&J vaccine
Gov. Tom Wolf on Wednesday said the state will give the Johnson & Johnson single-dose COVID-19 vaccine to pre-K-12 teachers and other school staff, an announcement that comes as Pittsburgh Public Schools employees are expected to return to their buildings this month for the first time in a year.
Inoculations for school employees across the state could begin as soon as next week, and the governor said Pennsylvania should receive enough doses of the vaccine to get the “bulk” of staff back into their buildings by the end of March.
“This new single-dose vaccine adds another layer of support to get students and teachers back in the classroom,” Mr. Wolf said.
Pennsylvania will receive 94,600 doses this week, the governor’s office said.
A federal partnership will send another 30,000 doses of the vaccine to local pharmacies in the state, Mr. Wolf said. And by the end of the month, the governor said, Pennsylvania should receive 4 million more doses of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine.
Mr. Wolf said roughly 200,000 school staff members in
Pennsylvania will be eligible for the vaccine, although a number of them may have already been inoculated as part of the state’s Phase 1A vaccine rollout plan and others may not want to get the shot.
The governor said the vaccine will be offered to public and private school workers, early childhood education workers and child care workers.
In addition to teachers and staff, the governor said appointments also will be prioritized for people who work with prekindergarten and elementary students, children with disabilities, English learners and other at-risk students.
Those who work with older students will be next.
The Pennsylvania National Guard will assist in the distribution of the vaccine, which will be coordinated by the state’s 29 intermediate units.
“The intermediate units ... have those connections, and I think they seem to be in the best position to actually make these decisions,” Mr. Wolf said. “They’re centrally located as well, so there are a lot of reasons why the intermediate units in this case made a lot of sense.”
The Allegheny Intermediate Unit, which serves Allegheny County’s 42 suburban school districts, said it would work with the National Guard and AMI Expeditionary Healthcare LLC, which will oversee site operations, scheduling and vaccine administration.
Scheduling information will be communicated directly to eligible individuals, and vaccinations may begin as soon as March 10, according to the AIU.
“This year has been very difficult for students, families and educators throughout the nation,” Robert Scherrer, executive director of the AIU, said in a statement. “We are pleased to lend our energies and efforts
to this statewide vaccination effort so that all of our students can safely return to their in-person classrooms and learn from engaging, highly qualified teachers.”
Mr. Wolf said school staff members who are inoculated will not be forced to return to their buildings, but he expects they will.
“The state can’t force the schools [to reopen for in-person instruction],” Mr. Wolf said. “The school districts are all independent, and they make their own decisions. But the deal as far as the teachers are concerned is that we need them to get back to school, and if you’ve been offered a vaccine, you ought to be willing to go back to school.”
The governor’s announcement was met with praise from city and education officials in Pittsburgh, where schools have been fully remote since March 2020.
“Gov. Wolf’s wise decision to immediately vaccinate teachers will speed up the return of students to school, provide students the in- person attention they need after a full year away, and give teachers confidence that they can return to classrooms safely,” Mayor Bill Peduto said in a statement.
With city schools expected to reopen to some students in April, Superintendent Anthony Hamlet said the vaccines will contribute to the health and safety protocols the district has already implemented.
“The vaccinations of our teachers and school staff will add additional layer to the mitigation strategies we have in place to welcome students back for hybrid learning,” he said. “We are grateful for the advocacy of Mayor Peduto, who has consistently shared his voice to support the safe reopening of schools.”
The Wolf administration’s decision to make school staff eligible for the Johnson & Johnson vaccine comes after weeks of pressure by education groups, teachers unions and other advocates to prioritize school staff members for inoculations.
Teachers and other school staff members had been in Phase 1B, or second tier, of the state’s vaccine rollout since it began. The state remains in Phase 1A, the first tier, and it is unclear when 1B vaccinations will begin.
Most schools in Allegheny County have reopened for at least some in-person instruction this academic year, but they have had to follow strict health and safety guidelines from federal, state and local governments. Schools across the region have had to close dozens of times because of virus cases and exposures.
In January, the executive committee of the Pittsburgh Federation of Teachers, which represents teachers and other staff in the Pittsburgh Public Schools, unanimously adopted a resolution asking the district to delay the start of in-person learning until school staff could receive both doses of the COVID-19 vaccine.
The district expects to welcome back some students on April 6. Schoolbased staff must return by March 22, but they can come back as early as March 15.
Nina Esposito-Visgitis, president of the Pittsburgh Federation of Teachers, said this week that if the state made school employees eligible for the Johnson & Johnson vaccine, all staff members could be inoculated before they must return to their buildings.
“On behalf of the Pittsburgh Federation of Teachers, I would like to thank Gov. Wolf for prioritizing vaccinations for teachers and school staff in Pittsburgh and across the state,” Ms. Esposito-Visgitis said in a statement.
The announcement was also celebrated by the Pennsylvania State Education Association, the largest teachers union in the state.
PSEA President Rich Askey said prioritizing school staff members for the Johnson & Johnson vaccine was an “incredibly important step” toward fully and safely reopening schools.
The governor’s announcement did not please everyone, however.
Organizations representing state police and state corrections officers said Pennsylvania should prioritize vaccines for their members.
David Kennedy, president of the Pennsylvania State Troopers Association, said more than 700 of 4,300 state troopers — responsible for patrolling more than 85% of the commonwealth — and nearly 1,000 department employees overall have been infected with COVID-19.
“An outbreak could cripple our department,” he said. “Public safety should be a priority right now. The PSTA renews our call for the administration to vaccinate first responders so they can focus on doing their jobs.”
John Eckenrode, president of the Pennsylvania State Corrections Officers Association, said multiple state prisons have experienced COVID-19 outbreaks and nearly 1,800 corrections officers have been infected, with two deaths.
While some corrections officers have been vaccinated, he said, the state lacks a consistent systemwide effort.