Official praises plan to vaccinate teachers
NORRISTOWN >> Montgomery County officials welcomed Gov. Tom Wolf’s announcement this week that the state is setting aside its allotment of the one-dose Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccine for teachers and other school employees.
“Well, it’s certainly good news for our schools and the way this program will run is that it will be set up at the Montgomery County Intermediate Unit for Montgomery County schools. The Pennsylvania National Guard as well as a staffing agency will be providing the individuals to actually run the site and then of course they will receive the Johnson & Johnson vaccine,” county Commissioners’ Chairwoman Dr. Valerie Arkoosh explained at a news briefing on Wednesday.
“It’s just terrific news for our schools. We all know how challenging the school situation has been,” Arkoosh added.
“It’s just terrific news for our schools. We all know how challenging the school situation has been.”
- Montgomery County Commissioner Dr. Valerie Arkoosh
As part of the priority to safely and quickly get more students back in the classroom, Wolf and the state COVID-19 Vaccine Task Force announced on Wednesday that the state will use the Johnson & Johnson singledose COVID-19 vaccine for people working in schools.
The Food and Drug Administration and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention last weekend authorized the Johnson & Johnson vaccine for emergency use. Pennsylvania will receive 94,600 doses this week, according to a news release issued by Wolf. All of those doses will be earmarked for school employees, both at public and private schools.
Wolf said the state will partner with the 28 regional intermediate units to establish vaccine sites.
Each intermediate unit region will have at least one vaccination location with most locations starting vaccinations between March 10 and 13, Wolf said. Eligible school staff will receive information about vaccine locations and registration instructions. The vaccine is voluntary.
Officials said the vaccination of educators is separate and will not interfere with the state’s ongoing Phase 1A vaccine rollout, which currently includes anyone age 65 and older, long-term care facility residents, health care workers and those age 16-64 with certain underlying medical conditions.
“It should not conflict at all. The good news about this is this is additional doses of vaccine into our county,” Arkoosh explained.
“The county has already been vaccinating teachers and educational support personnel that were in the 1A category because of their age or because of an underlying condition and these additional J & J doses, which will be administered in a separate location from the county’s mass vaccination sites, will broaden the teachers that are eligible for vaccination and bring additional doses into the county. So it’s good news all-around,” Arkoosh added.
Arkoosh believes it’s appropriate to prioritize teachers for the Johnson & Johnson vaccine, explaining she was “very unhappy when the teachers and other workers in the 1B category got pushed so far behind so
many others” when the state expanded the vaccine eligibility criteria for Phase 1A several weeks ago.
“And the teachers in particular are so critical for so many parents to be able to get back to work and they need to be able to get their kids back in school. So, it’s important for our parents and most importantly, it’s important for the kids. Some kids are doing OK with remote learning but many others are not, particularly the youngest students,” Arkoosh said.
“So, it is so exciting to hope that they will be able to soon get most, if not all, of our youngest students back into classrooms and
do it in a way that the teachers and support staff are safe and we can get back to something a little closer to normal. I couldn’t be happier about this,” Arkoosh added.
Wolf said the initial priority is vaccinating school staff that have regular and sustained in-person contact with students during the regular school day, including teachers and staff providing pre-k and elementary instruction, special education, English learners and associated support because younger children are more susceptible to learning loss and their families are more likely to have childcare challenges.
Arkoosh said the state’s plan to vaccinate teachers is a welcome addition to the support that the Montgomery County Office of Public Health has already been providing to schools.
“This support includes weekly meetings with school superintendents, an assigned Office of Public Health staff person to work with each school’s pandemic coordinator, immediate contact tracing of positive cases, setting up antigen testing of teachers and certain educational support staff in those schools that want it, and priority vaccination of 1A eligible educational staff,” Arkoosh explained.