The Register Citizen (Torrington, CT)
School staff calls out sick after vaccine
About 21% of New Milford Public School personnel were absent Monday, officials said
NEW MILFORD — More than one-fifth of New Milford Public Schools staff was absent Monday, which a district official said was likely due to a second dose of the COVID-19 vaccine administered over the weekend.
In an email Tuesday night, school Superintendent Alisha DiCorpo wrote that 98 district staff members were absent from school on Monday, or roughly 21 percent of district staff. She said she could not discuss the particulars of any one person’s absence due to privacy concerns.
“I suspect a significant portion of the absences stemmed from the after-effects of the administration of the COVID vaccine to a large number of [New Milford schools’] staff members on April 3,” she wrote.
At Saturday’s clinic, the town administered 500 second doses of Moderna vaccine to those who received a first dose four
weeks ago, which means the doses were administered “almost exclusively [to] teachers,” according to Health Director Lisa Morrissey.
“The vast majority of them for that 500 block were teachers,” she said Wednesday.
Morrissey said the teacher absences Monday would be “consistent with some of the things we saw before,” referencing at least two requests from organizations who wanted to move their staff’s weekday appointments to the weekend after absenteeism following first dose appointments.
It is possible that side effects following a second dose “may be more intense than the ones you experienced after your first shot,” the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention states on its website. Symptoms can include fever, nausea, headache, chills, and tiredness.
While it is unclear whether the second vaccine dose is to blame, the New Milford teaching staff would not be alone. Teacher absences have been seen across the state following the administration of the second dose.
The majority of Darien schools were closed Monday due to “teacher illness,” although the district would not say whether it was related to the vaccine, Hearst Connecticut Media Group reported this week.
Manchester schools also experienced a staff shortage of staff after a weekend vaccine clinic, according to reports from the Associated Press.
DiCorpo said she was grateful they were able to find “some substitute coverage” and keep the doors open Monday for students. She noted that “staff” extends beyond classroom teachers, suggesting the 21 percent absenteeism did not entirely affect classroom settings.
When asked whether they received teacher requests for a remote workday Monday, DiCorpo said their practice has “only been to grant employee remote work assignment requests in cases where a particular employee is subject to a mandatory quarantine order, so in this case, remote work was not provided.”