Teachers and cops are next in line for shot
But only those 50 and older
Classroom teachers, firefighters and police officers age 50 and older will be among the next round of people eligible for the COVID-19 vaccine.
Gov. Ron DeSantis announced Tuesday that while seniors remain the priority, teachers and first responders will be the next groups eligible at four vaccination sites planned by the Federal Emergency Management Agency.
The announcement comes as teachers across the state clamor for protection from the coronavirus. They have resisted returning to school buildings — despite pressure from the state — until they feel safe.
Many parents also have balked at sending their children back until more teachers
are vaccinated.
Whether the expanded criteria will move large numbers to return is debatable, although both teachers and administrators lauded the move.
Teachers, if younger than 65, will not be eligible at other vaccination sites, including pharmacies at Publix, Walmart and CVS. And FEMA will operate only four sites in Florida, including one in Miami.
About 18,000 teachers in South Florida fall between ages 50 and 64, and they would not be eligible anywhere in South Florida except FEMA’s site in Miami.
DeSantis did not state a date for the change, but he suggested it could happen soon. “Our goal is to do that as more vaccine becomes available,” he said.
The FEMA sites could open as early as next week, each dispensing 2,000 doses per week. They will be at Miami Dade Community College North Campus, at Valencia College West Campus in Orlando, at Tampa Greyhound Track and at Gateway Mall in Jacksonville.
A number of public officials across the state have implored the governor to extend the vaccines to younger age groups. Among them was Broward County Mayor Steve Geller, who wrote DeSantis last week asking that people 55 and older, all teachers and more first responders have access to Florida’s next vaccine rollout.
The Broward teacher’s union lauded the decision to protect teachers so they can get back into the classroom.
“It was a great move,” said Anna Fusco, the teacher’s union president. “They are afraid to be back without a vaccine.”
Broward has about 5,040 teachers age 50 to 64 who would qualify. Miami-Dade has 8,478 in that age group and Palm Beach County 4,514.
“We know there are teachers out there that still have health issues and serious concerns that we continue to try to address, and there’s real fears out there,” said Broward Superintendent Robert Runcie said. “This should go a long way to addressing a significant portion of that population who are still having concerns and unease about returning back for face-toface, in-person instruction for our classrooms.”
Runcie added, though, that the vaccine is not necessary to make schools safe, provided schools are taking precautions.
Broward school officials hope a vaccine for teachers could persuade more parents to send their kids back to school. Runcie said about 40% of students are now at school, with the rest learning at home.
“The vaccine is absolutely key to addressing fears and concerns on the parent/ guardian side as well as the teacher side,” Runcie said. “If we’re able to do that, the beneficiaries of that will be our students, who are caught in the middle of this far too often.”
Parents had mixed feelings.
Plantation parent Nathalie Lynch-Walsh said the vaccine could persuade her to send her kids back to school.
“I’m not worried about my kids getting sick. I’m more worried about them killing their teachers,” Lynch-Walsh said.
But Cooper City parent Monique Perez said vaccinating older teachers isn’t enough for her to send her five children back.
“There are teachers under 50 who have auto-immune conditions,” she said. “In my case, I’m not just worried about my kids bringing [COVID-19] home to me. My kids have health issues also.”
She said she’ll likely wait until herd immunity is achieved before she’s comfortable sending her kids back to school.
Susie Siegel, of Boca Raton, has two children — a kindergartener and a first grader — who have been in school since August. Although she’s pleased that teachers could get their turn soon, she doesn’t think the plan goes far enough.
”I think any teacher should be vaccinated at the exact same time, in my opinion. I know 50 is more vulnerable than someone who is 30, but they’re all exposed at the same level. They are all with children every single day. I get it, 50 is more at risk than 30, but all educators should fall under the same category.”
Like the poor across America and much of the world, poor Texans are getting hammered by climate change.
The state’s prevailing social Darwinism was expressed most succinctly by the mayor of Colorado City, who accused his constituents — trapped in near-subzero temperatures and complaining about lack of heat, electricity and drinkable water — of being the “lazy” products of a “socialist government,” adding that he was “sick and tired of people looking for a damn handout” and predicting “only the strong will survive and the weak will perish.”
Texas has the third-highest number of billionaires in America, most of them oil tycoons.
Last week, the laissez-faire state energy market delivered a bonanza to oil and gas producers that managed to keep production going during the freeze. It was “like hitting the jackpot,” boasted Roland Burns, the president of Comstock Resources Inc. on an earnings call. Jerry Jones, the billionaire owner of the Dallas Cowboys, holds a majority of Comstock’s shares.
But most other Texans were marooned. Some did perish.
The Electric Reliability Council of Texas, which manages the flow of electric power, exempted affluent downtowns from outages — leaving the thriving parts of Austin, Dallas and Houston brightly lit while pushing less affluent precincts into the dark and cold.
Many Texans inhabit substandard homes lacking proper insulation. The very poor occupy trailers or tents, or camp out in their cars. Lower-income communities also are located close to refineries and other industrial sites that release added pollutants when they shut down or restart.
In Texas, for-profit energy companies have no incentive to prepare for extreme weather or maintain spare capacity. Even when they’re able to handle surges in demand, prices go through the roof and poorer households are hit hard. If they can’t pay, they’re cut off.
Rich Texans take spikes in energy prices in stride.
If the electric grid goes down, private generators kick in. In a pinch — as last week — they check into hotels or leave
town. As millions of his constituents remained without power and heat, Sen. Ted Cruz flew to Cancun, Mexico, for a family vacation. Their Houston home was “FREEZING,” as his wife put it.
Climate change, COVID-19 and jobs are together splitting Americans by class more profoundly than Americans are split by politics. The white working class is taking as much of a beating as most Black and Latino people.
Yet the white working class has been seduced by conservative Republicans and Trump cultists, of which Texas has an abundance, into believing that what’s good for Black and Latino people is bad for them, and that whites are, or should be, on the winning side of the social Darwinian contest.
White grievance helps keep Republicans in power, protecting their rich patrons from a majority that might otherwise
join together to demand what they need, such as heat, water and reliable energy.
Lower-income Texans — white as well as Black and Latino — are taking it on the chin in many other ways. Texas is one of the few states that hasn’t expanded Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act, leaving the share of Texans without health insurance twice the national average — the largest uninsured population of any state. Texas has double the national average of children in poverty and a higher rate of unemployment than the nation’s average.
And although Texans have suffered multiple natural disasters stemming from climate change, Texas Republicans are dead set against a Green New Deal that would help reduce the horrific impacts.
Last week, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott went on Fox News to proclaim, absurdly, that
what happened to his state “shows how the Green New Deal would be a deadly deal for the United States of America.” Abbott blamed the power failure on the fact that “wind and solar got shut down.”
Rubbish. The loss of power from frozen coal-fired and natural gas plants was six times larger than the dent caused by frozen wind turbines. Texans froze because deregulation and a profit-driven free market created an electric grid utterly unprepared for climate change.
In Texas, tycoons are the only winners from climate change. Everyone else is losing badly. Adapting to extreme weather is necessary, but it’s no substitute for cutting emissions, which Texas is loath to do. Not even the Lone Star State should protect the freedom to freeze.
Tooth decay is the most common chronic childhood disease. It’s five times more common than asthma and 20 times more common than diabetes among children.
Tooth pain affects every aspect of a child’s life, from their ability to speak and eat to how well they can sleep and learn. Imagine trying to focus on schoolwork when you’re in pain and likely aren’t sleeping or eating properly. It’s not surprising that kids with tooth pain are four times more likely to have a low GPA.
Oral health is essential to a child’s overall health and long-term well-being, confidence and success. Yet too many families in Florida face challenges in accessing dental care and maintaining good routine oral care.
This is an ongoing problem that has only gotten worse amid the pandemic, as families experience major shifts in their employment, routines and stress levels. A poll by the American Dental Association found that since the start of the pandemic, more than 50% of dentists saw an increase in patients with chipped or cracked teeth due to clenching and grinding; 30% of dentists saw an increase in gum disease; and more than 25% saw an increase in cavities.
February is Children’s Dental Health Month, a timely reminder that we need to invest in solutions that will ensure every child has the opportunity for good oral health. We cannot afford to wait any longer to bring care and relief to our underserved communities.
Recognizing that there are barriers to care, particularly for those who live in rural or underserved areas or those who are disabled or medically compromised, the Florida Dental Association is urging funding for two key initiatives that can be implemented to get immediate care to those in need. For a nominal investment of $773,000, the Florida Legislature can finish what it started in 2019 with the passage of the dental student loan program and Donated Dental Services program.
The dental student loan repayment program will help dentists practice in public health programs and serve low-income patients in designated rural and underserved areas. Florida’s Donated Dental Services program, which connects volunteer dentists with vulnerable patients, including children who are disabled or medically compromised, provides comprehensive dental services — at no cost — in dentists’ offices with support from volunteer dental labs to provide supplies like crowns and dental implants.
We know the dental care needs of children and adults in underserved communities can be extensive and have far-reaching impacts on their overall health and well-being.
By helping connect dentists to where they are needed, we can make a lasting impact on people’s lives and futures. And we can do it now.
These are just two examples of the solutions the Florida Dental Association is championing through our comprehensive Florida’s Action for Dental Health initiative to improve the oral health and overall health of all Floridians.
There are more than 14,000 licensed dentists in Florida, along with more than 30,000 dental team members, who are ready and willing to provide care to those in need today.
We have the workforce.
Now, we need our elected leaders to recognize that dental care is essential and invest in solutions to ensure that every child in Florida has good oral health. We can’t afford to wait.