WASHINGTON – Vice President Kamala Harris on Wednesday stressed that teachers should be given preference for Covid-19 vaccinations, but would not say whether she believes it should be the shots to reopen schools.
In her first one-on-one networking interview since her tenure, Savannah Guthrie, a Harris show anchor, was asked if she could reassure teachers that it was safe for them to go back to school, even if they were not vaccinated. not.
“Teachers need to be a priority,” Harris said. Teachers are critical to the development of our children. They need to be able to teach in a safe place and expand the thinking and opportunities of our children. So teachers should be a priority along with other frontline workers. ‘
Harris said less than half of the countries now prioritize teachers receiving the vaccine.
Guthrie noted that the Centers for Disease Control & Prevention has provided guidance that teachers do not need to be vaccinated to go back to school.
Harris again asked if it was safe for them to return to the classroom without being vaccinated, and that states should decide whether they could introduce safe measures, such as social distance. She stressed that the key to ensuring these measures were put in place was Congress approving another Covid-19 relief package.
“They need to be a priority,” Harris said of teachers being vaccinated.
States are grappling with the situation as infectious disease experts say schools are not a major source of Covid-19 distribution, and that many teachers’ unions are opposed to it.
The CDC has also issued guidelines saying that the reopening of schools should be linked to the infection rate in communities. According to the measure, Guthrie said that as many as 90 percent of the schools may not be able to reopen.
When asked, Harris would not say whether it was a mistake for the CDC to make the recommendation, but only said that it was merely a recommendation “on how to reopen safely once they are closed, how to stay open when they have been opened. ‘
The vice president also reiterated President Joe Biden’s statement Tuesday night in a CNN town hall that his government’s goal is to have as many K-8 schools reopened within the first 100 days of his presidency so students can class five days a week. attend.
‘The issue here is not just about statistics; it’s about our children, but about their parents, ‘Harris said. “It’s about our children missing important, critical days in their educational development every day.”
“Every day in a child’s life is very long,” she continues, “and therefore together we must do everything in our power to reopen our schools as quickly as possible, as safely as possible.”
