If 90,000 teachers and other school workers in San Diego County have been notified that they are eligible for COVID-19 vaccinations, why did only 23,000 sign up for their shots?
This is the question that education officials ask themselves, and the answers are not easy to determine.
The Voluntary Employee Benefit Association, or VEBA, is the agency tasked with ensuring that every person in the education sector who wants a coronavirus vaccine gets one. A few weeks ago, VEBA notified teaching staff members serving Grade K-12 that they could report, but the response was at best lukewarm.
“We know for sure that people would go to their medical providers,” said Laura Josh of VEBA. She added that educators also go to the local pharmacies to use their vaccinations. “So if you see the VEBA vaccination number, then it’s the people who went through our actual portal, but we have no visibility or consolidated reporting for people who went through channels.”
Martha Garcia, who teaches Transition Nursery School at Las Palmas Elementary in National City, told NBC7 that she went to a local clinic after learning she could choose which vaccine she wanted while on a VEBA-designated terrain must go. get whatever vaccine they offered.
Garcia said she and her husband wanted the Moderna vaccine so they did not register via the VEBA website.
Garcia said teachers are ‘ready and willing’ to get the vaccine, doubting the numbers released by VEBA are a true reflection of how many teachers have been vaccinated.
“There is no accurate way to detect if a K-12 education worker has been vaccinated with another provider,” Bob Mueller said. The task is to handle the COVID-19 response from the San Diego County Office of Education.
Mueller said it is possible that some educators do not want the vaccine, but his biggest concern is to make sure every education worker wants it.
San Diego County has set aside thousands of doses for educators, but if vaccines are not used, a provincial representative said, it will be redistributed to those who qualify.