Vaccinate the teachers

Children absolutely cannot be vaccinated. The drugs are not licensed for use on children. There will need to be a proper trial done before children can be vaccinated. It will be a very long time before children can be vaccinated.

Current stats say teachers are no more likely to get the virus than any other key worker and, unless they are in one of the top 5 priority groups, are no more at risk of hospitalisation or dying than the he rest. I think the vaccine authority is considering ALL key workers for inclusion in the next vaccine cohort but no doubt the teaching unions will hold the government to ransom over this in order to get children back to school, which I agree is vital

Our local secondary schools had whole year groups off on isolation/covid and one was considering closing so many students were off. Vaccinating teachers will not keep schools open and running without interruption. I agree that teachers should be vaccinated but so should the Police, Bus drivers who take people to work/school, bin men who worked throughout emptying your bins, supermarket cashiers/workers who keep food moving, the list goes on. Each vaccine taken by a younger person means those vulnerable/older adults will have to go without at a time when the death rate is high. On the vaccine leaflet it states that 1 in 10 vulnerable/older adults will die from Covid. It is a very difficult choice.

I know that growstuff but the government make unpalatable decisions every day. It’s a difficult choice, vaccinate key workers and older people might die, vaccinate older people, and younger people might die.

Basically though, by vaccinating key workers you keep key institutions operating. For example, when I was in hospital, 40% of staff were absent because they were ill or self isolating. It’s difficult for a hospital to carry on working normally with a 40% reduction in staff, especially as there were over 500 Covid patients in the hospital. So for example, there was no cleaning done at the weekends because there were insufficient staff. Cleaning seems to me to be key in the middle of a pandemic.

but vaccinate the children as well what now with no trial results?

Isn't it all to do with taking the pressure off the NHS, particularly hospitals?
If by mid February things are looking better in that direction, (thanks to current lockdown), I guess the dilemma is do they open schools or ease restrictions to help the ecomomy? My preference would be for the former, but my earlier point was that they need to get teachers vaccinated in advance of this possibility rather than lose more valuable time. Yes, I am impatient by nature, but also I believe we should be prepared and ready well ahead.

Vaccinate teachers by all means if you want to open schools again, but vaccinate the children as well. They are not extempt from the new varieties,

It would make more sense to keep them all off school, until everyone is vaccinated and then let them all repeat the school year from March last year until whenever the vaccination programme ends.

GagaJo

Unfortunately, healthy young people mostly do not see teaching as an attractive option (and that was before the pandemic). Of course, there ARE young teachers but they are by no means the majority of the workforce.

If that's true, teachers will already be in one of the priority groups for vaccination.

GagaJo

National Education Union (Jan 19th)

Data finally released by Department for Education (DfE) show shocking figures on the impact of coronavirus on the school workforce. The data shows that there are much higher COVID rates of infection amongst teachers and other school staff than for the general population. This finding is in contradiction to the reassurances regularly given by the Department and by Public Health England, including by Dr Jenny Harries giving evidence to the Education Select Committee this morning.

That's one of the reasons schools have been closed for most face-to-face teaching. Teachers are much safer without any pupils.

You are ignoring the fact that vaccinating teachers would not stop transmission.

Community transmission has to be brought down and test and trace needs to start working efficiently - then schools will be much safer environments.

If key workers were to be prioritised (and who's a key worker anyway?) many lives (possibly thousands) would be lost.

Good post Gaga

Yes blueflinders that’s my point. All key workers should have been vaccinated first. They cannot hide away, they are out there in the hospitals and surgeries, in the schools, in the shops, working as carers, in the care homes, on the streets, delivering our post and parcels. These key workers should have been the first vaccinated.

National Education Union (Jan 19th)

Data finally released by Department for Education (DfE) show shocking figures on the impact of coronavirus on the school workforce. The data shows that there are much higher COVID rates of infection amongst teachers and other school staff than for the general population. This finding is in contradiction to the reassurances regularly given by the Department and by Public Health England, including by Dr Jenny Harries giving evidence to the Education Select Committee this morning.

Unfortunately, healthy young people mostly do not see teaching as an attractive option (and that was before the pandemic). Of course, there ARE young teachers but they are by no means the majority of the workforce.

I agree with GranAT.
I recently spoke to someone who works in a private hospital where they are currently supporting the NHS and therefore have been given priority to the vaccine despite not actually having any patients to treat. Young healthy Admin staff who would not deal with patients anyway have received the vaccine and yet the police are not even mentioned in the top 6 priority groups and they are still required to go out daily and face the rule breakers and risk infection. They should have been prioritised along with the NHS. Every conceivable group is stepping forward now and saying they should be priority vaccinated and yet without the police we would be facing a lawless society - which is already happening with the illegal parties happening, yet the police are expected to risk their lives without the protection of the Covid vaccine in arresting these idiots!

Unfortunately vaccinating teachers will not solve schools being partially closed. They were closed to prevent community transmission, so can only reopen safely when the community rates are down. It makes more sense to vaccinate police officers, supermarket staff etc who can't work from home. I say this as a teacher who is CEV.

All key workers should have been vaccinated before anyone else in my opinion. I totally agree with your post Lucca.

I might sound mean, but as a 71 year old asthmatic, I really want my jab. My friend, the same age and health problems died last week from Covid. My DD and her DP are both teachers and had Covid in December. Both their schools have had the vast majority of the staff positive.

Teacheranne

Even if teachers were vaccinated in the next batch, after the first four categories in mid Feb potentially, they will need to have the second jab three weeks later and still wait for another three weeks for maximum immunity - that would take us to April anyway.

And despite what we are being told, not everyone in category 1 has been vaccinated yet, it’s still a bit of a post code lottery.

There are 9 (not 4) categories who have been promised vaccination in this phase. A number of school staff will be in those categories anyway.

Even if teachers were vaccinated in the next batch, after the first four categories in mid Feb potentially, they will need to have the second jab three weeks later and still wait for another three weeks for maximum immunity - that would take us to April anyway.

And despite what we are being told, not everyone in category 1 has been vaccinated yet, it’s still a bit of a post code lottery.

I would love to see all teachers, TA’s and early years workers, including childminders, being vaccinated early on in the next phase. From my point of view as a 61 year old childminder whose husband works as my assistant and whose children all work in education in one way or another it would be fantastic. It might appear to be selfish as all our family work in schools or with young children, but my youngest dd (23) has had COVID, caught from her school at the end of November and now has long COVID. My sil is shielding so cannot work at present, although that does mean that he should get vaccinated first out of our family. I have a lot of friends who work as childminders and in education in general and they are all very concerned about catching it or have already had it, some of them quite severely. This latest variant does not discriminate about how badly it infects people and I can understand why all critical, especially those who are public facing, are asking to be vaccinated as a matter of priority.
Indeed even one of my little ones has had it, caught from her keyworker father with her keyworker mother then catching a few days later.

Gwyneth said ‘I have no confidence that teaching unions actually care for children’s education or the welfare of staff, they are only interested in politicising the situation.’

This is a vile accusation. Teaching unions have been promoting measures to allow children to return to school since the first lockdown. They have suggested things which would lower the risk of spread, protect the health of children, school workers and families, and allow for a long term return to full time education in school for all children. That the government has chosen to ignore them and instead got us all into a lockdown-release-lockdown cycle is is hardly the fault of the unions.

Yes teachers need the vaccination but that won’t stop pupils spreading it to vulnerable family members. As do all the key workers. Then there’s the seldom mentioned low paid warehouse workers etc who have to work in cramped conditions where social distancing is impossible. We all need those people as we now rely on getting our stuff over the internet.
The bottom line is we all need the jab ASAP ! I’m glad I’m not responsible for having to decide the priority lis. ?

ALAN I agree with you. IMO there should be no prioritising of groups other than those at most risk clinically and front-line health and social care workers. Otherwise, the whole thing descends into a playground squabble.

Of course teachers' unions want to protect their members - that's their role. However, it's also irrelevant. As others have said, the main issue with having schools open is that pupils infect each other and then take infection home to families. Community transmission needs to be much lower before schools should reopen.

It would make sense to see Easter as a realistic target and then to plan and prioritise. Possibly early years and exam years should attend with others attending on a rota basis. This is what headteachers were suggesting before last Summer, but the government insisted that everybody should attend, with the inevitable consequences.