The Director of the CDC says schools can safely reopen even if teachers are not vaccinated for Covid

[jcgoldie]

22. Yes they do

I do sympathize with teachers who feel safer teaching remotely, but I teach in a large diverse high school in Illinois and we have been open since October under a "hybrid" plan. Students who want to attend remotely can do so and that's about 1/3... of the other 2/3 half attend MW and the other half TuTh... thus on any given day your class that would have had 30 kids sitting next to each other has at most 10 spread out. They wear masks without exception and maintain social distancing. There is hand sanitizer in every doorway and they use it when they enter and wipe their desks with disposable wipes. There is no lunch in the cafeteria where it would be difficult to police, so the classes start earlier and are done by 12:30 so they can take sack lunches home with them. If school officials are doing their jobs it is possible to get kids to follow the rules. There have been a few teachers who have tested positive over the months and stayed home in quarantine, but I do not think the percentage is higher than the spread of the disease in the community as a whole.

I'm not trying to minimize the seriousness of anything here or to undercut the position of some teachers' unions, but it is important to realize that school opening can be done relatively safely as much as going to the super market or other essential activities. It has been much safer than I would have imagined it could be 6 months ago.