Push is on to get teachers vaccinated quickly

States and cities across the country are moving to put teachers near the front of the line to receive a coronavirus vaccine, in an effort to make it safer to return to classrooms and provide relief to struggling students andweary parents.

In Arizona, where many schools have moved online in recentweeksamida virus surge, Gov. Doug Ducey declaredthatteacherswould be among the first people inoculated. “Teachers are essential to our state,” he said. Utah’s governor talked about possibly getting shots toeducatorsthismonth. And Los Angeles officials urged prioritizing teachers alongside firefighters and prison guards.

But indistrictswherechildrenhave spentmuchof the fall staring at laptop screens, including some of the nation’s largest, itmaybetoo early for parents to get their hopesupthat public schools will throw open their doors soon, or that studentswillbe back in classrooms full time before next fall.

Giventhe limitednumber ofvaccinesavailable to states and the logistical hurdles to distribution, including the fact that two doses are needed severalweeks apart, experts said that vaccinating the nation’s 3 million schoolteachers could be a slowprocess.

And even once enough educators are inoculated for school officials and teachers’ unions — which hold considerablepower inmany large districts— to consider it safe to reopen classrooms, schools will likely need to continue requiring masks and distancing students for many months, experts said, until community spread has sharplydropped, possiblyby summer.

“I thinksomepeoplehave in their head that we’re going to start rolling out the

Getting the nation’s 3 million teachersvaccinated againstCOVID-19 could be a slowprocess becauseof logistics and other factors. Above, elementary school students in theBrooklyn borough ofNewYorkCity.

vaccine and all this other stuffisgoingtogoaway,” said Marcus Plescia, the chief medical officer at the Association of State and Territorial Health Officials, which represents public health agencies.

But in schools, as in daily life, he said, therewill be no quick fix. “My feeling is that we’re all going to be wearing masks and keeping our distance and trying to be careful around each other for probablymost of 2021.”

Vaccination could have thelargestimpactonschools in placeswhereteachinghas remained entirely remote this fall, or where students have spent limited time in the classroom.

That includes many big cities and districts in the Northeast and on theWest Coast, which have been the most cautiousaboutreopening despite little evidence of schools — and elementary schools in particular— stoking community transmission.

At thesametime, thereare many schools in the South, theMidwest and theMountain States where a large percentage of teachers and studentsarealreadyinclassrooms, and where a vaccine would most likely not have as much impact on policy. But even in some of those parts of the country, such as Arizona, distance learning has resumed in recent weeks as coronavirus cases havesurged, andvaccinating teachers could help reduce such disruptions.

The nation’s full-time teachers are considered essential workers by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which means that in states that follow federal recommendations, theywould be eligible to receive the vaccine after hospitalemployeesand nursinghomeresidents.

But the essential worker group is huge — some 87 million Americans — and states will have flexibility in how they prioritize within

that population. Manymore peoplework in schools than just teachers, including nurses, janitors and cafeteriaworkers, and it is unclear howmanyofthemwouldbe included on the high-priority list.

Public health experts disagree on where teachers shouldfall, withsomesaying that in-person education is crucial and others noting that teachers generally have better protections and pay than many other essential workers, such as those in meatpacking plants and day cares.

Many teachers have not been in their classrooms sinceMarch, either because their districtshave notphysically reopened, or because they have a medical waiver exempting them.

Groups that represent teachers, for the most part, are eager to see their members fast-tracked for vaccines. Lastmonth, more than 10 educational organizations, including the

nation’s twolargest teachers’ unions, wrote to the CDC asking that school employees be considered a priority group.

“Our students need to come back to school safely,” theywrote.“Educatorswant to welcome them back, and no one should have to risk their health to make this a reality.”

Teachers in districts that have already opened classrooms, like Houston and Miami, shouldbeprioritized for shots, said RandiWeingarten, president of theAmericanFederation ofTeachers, which includes some of the country’s largest local chapters.

“Let’s have an alignment here of the schools that are reopening for in-person learning and availability of vaccine,” she said. As more teachers are vaccinated, she added,“webelievethatmore and more schools can open in person.”

Teacher health concerns and union political power haveplayedasignificant role in states and cities that have notyetopenedtheir schools, including Los Angeles and Chicago, the nation’s largest districts afterNew York. In California, where teachers’ unions hold great sway, state and local health rules will not allowthe Los AngelesUnifiedSchoolDistrict to reopen classrooms until the rates of known cases drop significantly, regardless of the vaccine.

AustinBeutner, thesuperintendent, saidhewouldlike to use the district’s extensive testing infrastructure to systematically vaccinate teachers, school nurses and others. But he does not expect a return to pre-pandemic conditions — dozens of childrenin classroomsfive days a week, without social distancing or masks — until the end of 2021.

“Ifwewereable toprovide those who work in a school with a vaccine tomorrow, great. They themselves are protected. But they could also be a silent spreader,” he said, referring to the fact that ithasnotyetbeendetermined if vaccinated people canstill carryandspreadthe coronavirus. And students are unlikely to receive shots before the fall because pediatric trialshaveonlyrecently begun.

In Chicago, the teachers’ union is fighting a plan to begin returning some students to schools early next year. “Obviously, if school is continuing remote, there’s less urgency around the vaccination,” said the Chicago Teachers Union’s president, Jesse Sharkey.

Asked if he could imagine schools opening before fall 2021, Sharkey said yes, but he suggested it would have more to do with controlling the spread of the virus than vaccinating teachers. “With mitigation strategies in place, and with a reasonably lowlevel of community spread, I do think that we could get to open schools,” he said.