ICYMI: Gottheimer and Malinowski are wrong on teacher vaccinations
Josh Gottheimer and Tom Malinowski are on the wrong side of science and reality with their pipe dream to vaccinate all teachers before schools can return to in-person instruction.
Their proposed move would not only push more vulnerable New Jersey residents to the back of the vaccine line, it needlessly puts New Jersey students’ educations and mental health further at risk.
REMINDER: The CDC has found that schools are safe to reopen and said teachers don’t need vaccines to open schools – but listening to the CDC would require Gottheimer and Malinowski to betray their teachers union donors who spent tens of thousands of dollars to get them into office.
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Now is not the time to prioritize teachers for vaccines
Star-Ledger Editorial Board
February 11, 2021
President Biden has said he wants schools to reopen by mid-April, and his call for all teachers to be admitted to the front of the line for vaccinations, as they are in 18 states – but not New Jersey – has a compelling public purpose.
The longer the pandemic keeps kids out of classrooms, the greater the blow to our economy from learning loss. It’s hurting kids emotionally, too. Oversight of virtual schooling prevents parents from working, and some families can’t afford decent internet connections.
In New Jersey, more than 200 districts remain fully remote, and given the standoffs with local unions over returning to the classroom, Reps. Tom Malinowski and Josh Gottheimer’s push to vaccinate all teachers is understandable.
Our concern, though, is that there’s also compelling reason to protect daycare workers who don’t have the union and political clout that teachers do, but are just as vulnerable and essential. And while we’re at it, what about NJ Transit bus drivers, exposed to hundreds of people each day? Or grocery workers?
This game could go on and on. Which is why, at this early stage, we still think it makes the most sense to prioritize people based on their age or vulnerability, like a teacher with a heart condition. Let’s wait until more people are vaccinated, before we prioritize all teachers.
This one is not an easy call. We did prioritize frontline health care workers and first responders, to ensure we’d have enough essential workers to care for the sick, and some see teachers in much the same way – as essential to guiding struggling kids back to school.
But consider how this might play out, in practice. If the goal is to get schools open quickly, we’d have to vaccinate all teachers, along with any other support staff, right away. And the moment we pull the trigger on that, we are cutting out more vulnerable people who are actually risking death.
Millions are competing for doses right now, and only about 9 percent of our population is vaccinated. Why should a healthy 29-year-old teacher get in line in front of a 70-year-old with pulmonary disease?
So far, just 35 percent of our vaccines have gone to those 65 and older, even though they account for nearly 80 percent of COVID deaths. Even older people who can isolate at home are just one health crisis away from having to seek treatment and risk exposure.
The average age of teachers is about 43, which doesn’t put most in the highest risk category, though some do have medical conditions that make them more susceptible – and, for that reason, are already eligible to be vaccinated.
People frustrated by the eligibility of smokers argue that teachers who choose not to smoke are more deserving. Smokers are prioritized because they are more likely to be hospitalized. If hospitals get overwhelmed with COVID patients, we all suffer, if we have to get cancer treatment or have heart attacks or strokes and need those beds.
And if we base vaccine priority on how much control someone has over their unhealthy habits, where does it end? Is a 29-year-old teacher more deserving than an over-eater with Type 2 diabetes, for which obesity is a risk factor?
These are not easy questions, and teachers have good reason to be anxious, with variant strains of the virus on the rise. Will there come a time when teachers should get access, even if they are healthy and young? Absolutely. When we get more doses, teachers should be a priority occupation, as should grocery workers and daycare workers. A lot of people may belong on that list.
A recent study of occupations found those most at risk of dying of COVID are line cooks and farm workers, followed by bus drivers, truck drivers and janitors, among others. But at this early stage, to save the most lives, we have a moral duty to vaccinate those at greatest medical risk, first – including the most vulnerable teachers.