Teachers should be considered “essential workers” and thus among the first people to get COVID-19 vaccinations, according to the Contra Costa County Board of Supervisors, which this week formally asked Gov. Gavin Newsom and state health officials to give teachers priority for the vaccines.
Supervisor Diane Burgis noted the board is only making its stance clear, and has no power to give school workers vaccine priority.
She also stressed the county doesn’t have the authority to reopen schools — that is up to each individual district, and influenced by the health orders in each county.
“This is only us in our role of supporting school districts, supporting school boards, parents and teachers who decide when it’s time to reopen,” Burgis said.
Contra Costa leaders now become part of a growing trend among area lawmakers to implore state leaders to put teachers on the priority list for COVID-19 vaccines. Last week, a group convened by San Francisco Supervisor Hillary Ronen called on Newsom and public health officials to put teachers third in line, behind only health care workers and nursing home residents, to get the vaccine.
This comes as the first supplies of the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine arrive in the Bay Area this week. Contra Costa County got its first shipment of 9,715 doses Tuesday morning.
Cozy up to the teachers union if you want to stay in office. 3rd in line? Yeah, follow the science.
Actually, follow the money ….. for votes.
The entire BOS is an embarrassment. Time for all to resign.
Teachers – yes. Teachers Union personnel- NO.
So another example of the Board of Losers not planning ahead. They have known that the vaccine was coming for what … at least a few weeks … LONGER. But after the first ones have already shown up and been administered in our county, they ask for teachers to be considered for priority vaccination.
And the Board of Losers (BOL) does not control the reopening of schools .. yeah, they just influence it a whole lot.
The BOL will now use this as an argument of why schools should not be opened …
Shouldn’t the School Boards (our elected officials) be taking the lead on this?
The Board of Supervisors for Contra Costa county is a continual embarrassment, they shouldn’t be entrusted with any decisions, least of all public health.
Wait, now they’re essential? I though essential workers have been reporting in to their jobs since the beginning of this show… the teachers have been hiding at home behind their union. Now they want to go to the front of the line? I actually agree that they are essential, they should’ve been required to be teaching live from the first day. Kids have suffered a huge loss because of these scumbags…yes I said it. There are a handful of great ones, who deserve all of our respect and support, and they have been blocked from going back to the classroom by the union (scum), district boards (scum), school admin (scum) and their snowflake colleagues (scum). Don’t worry “educators” you’ll get your way and be back indoctrinating our kids behind closed doors in 2021 as your New World Order closes in on us and tramples more of our Liberty!!
Agreed – teachers have been hiding at home and teaching remotely – which means NO exposure to Covid19!!! Why are they now being considered “essential”? Plenty of universities are teaching remotely. It’s all a scam by the teachers union. Now they want to be in front? Exactly WHAT exposure have they had?
How about police – who have to deal with the unknowns every day in a face to face situation? And they don’t get the opportunity to “work remotely.@
Scam by the teachers union. Nope!!!!!!!!
I wonder if teachers get vaccinated will they still wear masks in the classroom ? I’m sure the union will be against this as this takes away one of the excuses for the teachers to going back to their on-site jobs.
Contra Costa leaders now become part of a growing trend among area lawmakers to implore state leaders to put teachers on the priority list for COVID-19 vaccines.
The people we elect to office are not leaders, they are our representatives.
If you want to follow leaders then you’d better find better people.
This fake pandemic has brought out the best and brightest idiots! They’re all soooo educated…
@ZZ – only idiots are the people who think it’s fake… gotta be a red hat.
@comm Actually I’m an Independent. Too bad you can’t see what’s really happening here. I feel sorry for those swept up in this damaging hysteria.
“gotta be a red hat” so unifying and a completely idiotic rhetoric…
According to the CDC:
“An outbreak is called an epidemic when there is a sudden increase in cases. As COVID-19 began spreading in Wuhan, China, it became an epidemic. Because the disease then spread across several countries and affected a large number of people, it was classified as a pandemic.”
In what way does COVID-19 not adhere to the definition of “pandemic” for you?
Great! The sooner the better. They deserve it. Then we can get the schools open again.
Why do they deserve it more than anyone else?
Teachers deserve it because their union has already paid the politicians to do their bidding. When you own the politicians, you can go to the head of the line.
Can you say “pandering”? The BOS are experts in the art.
It’s darkly hilarious that schools are, according to the teacher’s unions, not essential when it comes to in-person instruction, but suddenly essential in terms of vaccine priority. What’s the common factor – oh yeah, insuring zero-risk for teachers and screw everybody else: kids, families, elderly people who are most at risk, etc.
But setting hypocrisy aside… You can make a decent case that high school teachers should be relatively high on the priority list. But elementary kids are like 50% less likely to contract and transmit the virus. So it doesn’t make sense to lump them all in the same category.
Right. Not to mention adults are more likely to get and spread the virus than elementary school kids and probably middle school too. Teachers are not in the highest exposure risk category.
Really, it makes more sense to me to focus on reducing mortality first: over 65 first, after the health care workers and LTCF residents. But I get the argument that we should try to slow and stop transmission by going first to essential workers in public-contact roles. Either way teachers are not high on the list as such. Elderly teachers, like elderly people in general, should be high priority, but not because they are teachers.
I am a high school physics teacher! I am strongly opposed distance learning. I am ready to report to work any day. I am not afraid of Covid, it is a global scam that’s making a lot of people rich. I am AFRAID of the VACCINE! Please, I don’t want it ever! Respect my choice not to take it! I’ll sign any affidavit that I will not seek medical treatment if I catch Covid.
I totally support you S.A!
It should be your choice.. thank you for being a teacher and also for having a voice of reason
The point isn’t even that they think they should be vaccinated with healthcare workers, it is rather that they would want to put themselves in front of elderly and medically vulnerable people. To prop up children as a piece of collateral for bargaining should signal and immediate termination of all people involved. You DO NOT DO THAT. That is what abusers do.
As long as the teachers that get it are back in school or have a set return date in the near future. If you’re working from home it would be ridiculous to give it to them before everyone who is working out of them home has gotten it.
As WC Resident posted under the county covid report everyone that has died is over sixty years old. However submitting to Blackmail tactics if teachers got the vaccine schools would have to open immediately. As someone over eighty I would go for that along with reopening sports for children.
It seems that the logical order to go in would be hospital/clinic workers first. First responders (Fire/Police/Paramedic/EMTS) second. Essential workers like grocery store/mass transit third. Teachers/staff at schools that have re-opened for in school learning fourth. People with compromised immune systems/conditions that put them at greater risk fourth. Anyone over 60 5th. I don’t really see a reason for teachers who have not gone back to in person learning to get them any sooner than anyone else.
The Board of Supervisors, and all politicians in this state should be the last to receive the vaccine. It’s only fair, and is better than term-limits.
Sure, but let’s make some demands of our own, shall we? Just tell the teachers unions that as soon as you are vaccinated, you are deemed fit to return to your job with no further requirements/excuses/delays from that point forward. If you refuse to get vaccinated you are fit to return or released from your job.
I know teachers who are willing to work in the classroom with masks and social distancing, They do not want this vaccine ahead of others. It hasn’t been out long enough to know the long term results. They shouldn’t be forced against their will. And the teachers I know I working harder than ever to make this distance learning work.
That should say are working harder than ever.
The top 50 occupations most at risk for contracting Covid-19 in order:
1) Dental Hygienists, 2) Dental Assistant, 3) Dentist, 4) Orderlies (Patient Care Assistants), 5) Doctors, 7) RN Nurses … 10) LV Nurses,.. 20) Flight Attendants …26) Paramedic/ EMTs…31) Bus Drivers, …33) Kindergarten Teachers.. 36) Figher Fighters …40) Correctional Officers… 48) Teacher’s Assistants… 49) PreSchool Teachers, 50) Elementary School Teachers
Teaching is a pretty safe occupation to prioritize for COVID-19 vaccines if you want to “follow the science” and look at statistics. I guess the Dental and Medical Industry doesn’t have strong lobbyist like the California Teachers Association does?
Source, “The 50 Most Dangerous Jobs for Contracting COVID-19” by Gabrielle Olya October 6, 2020
you’re joking, right???
The teachers refused to consider themselves essential when asked to continue teaching in person, but now want to be considered essential to put themselves first in line for the vaccine!
The one thing the pandemic has revealed is the hypocrisy of the teachers and their union. It’s me first, the kids come later!
Sure…get the shot report to classroom in 3 days and start teaching the kids in the classrooms
Q: Who’s at the top of the list dying in the most numbers?
A: Seniors in care facilities.
Start there.
Stop it – you know that common sense isn’t allowed here. It supposed to be political.
🤬🤬🤬