Turn, turn, turn

The gates are open

TO EVERYTHING there is a season, and today is the season for getting a shot in the arm. The president of the United States sorta federalized the covid vaccine roll-out the other day by proclaiming that all adults in the country are now shot-eligible. Before, this was a state matter. But if the feds are going to provide the medication, they can open the gates.

Besides, even before the end of May, the vaccines are plentiful. Who would have thought that in January? Every day this newspaper produces extra pages of covid-19 related graphics at the end of the A section. And we’ve been interested in how Arkansas has only recently fallen out of the Top 10 of states with the virus, per capita.

Even as the number of new cases in this state falls through the floor. We can only infer that the numbers are falling in most of the other states, too. Bravo!

“For months I’ve been telling Americans to get vaccinated when it’s your turn,” President Biden said Monday. “Well, it’s your turn now.”

The country is averaging 3.2 million vaccines a day. More than half of all adults have received at least one dose. Things are going swimmingly.

Now the controversial part: Teachers should be required to get vaccinated across the country. Unless they have a medical reason against it. (And there are medical reasons. Part of the benefit of herd immunity to to protect those who can’t be immunized.)

As soon as teachers are vaccinated, the schools can reopen completely. May is just around the corner, so the goal should be to have all schools open, on schedule, come the fall semester.

And the covid-19 vaccination shot should be a requirement for employment for teachers—once again, making exceptions for medical reasons.

There are other professions that must be prioritized too, but none more than educators. Students who have fallen behind because of virtual schooling might not be able to make up the lost time. That is, they might have fallen behind for the rest of their lives. This cannot continue.

Technology has improved to the point in which snow days are a thing of the past. But anecdotal evidence shows that many kids aren’t learning as much at home with iffy Internet access. And after the test scores come in from this spring’s standardized tests, we’d wager the evidence will be more than anecdotal. (Arkansas students took their tests this past week or so. Some of us are more than a little interested in those scores.)

Other professions that should get priority include dock workers. We have a friend who flew over San Francisco Bay the other day and noted the number of container ships parked in the water. The word is that dock workers won’t work until they get vaccinated. So move them up in line, too.

Let’s get this done. And give ourselves a fun, crowd-packed, fire-working, baseball-watching family picnic of a Fourth of July.