Since taking office in her first television interview, Vice President Kamala Harris emphasized the importance of vaccinating educators. “Teachers should be a priority,” said Harris on Wednesday. “They must be able to teach in a safe place … Therefore, teachers must be a priority along with other frontline workers.”
Harris called on states to put educators on the front lines. Getting schools to reopen as quickly as possible has become a significant focus of President Biden’s new administration.
“The issue here is not just about statistics – it is about our children, it is about their parents,” said Harris. “It’s about the fact that every day our children miss essential and critical days in their educational development.”
Dr. Anthony Fauci agreed with the idea that teachers should be disadvantaged on the priority vaccine list. Still, he considered it “impractical” to insist that all teachers receive the vaccine before opening schools.
“You want to strive to get as much as you can as quickly as possible,” the country’s top pandemic doctor told CBS News. “But you don’t essentially want to have anyone at school until all the teachers are vaccinated.”
