Fauci will support vaccinating teachers against coronavirus before the new school year

Dr. Fauci

 

Fauci says he will support vaccinating teachers against coronavirus before the new school year.

Dr. Anthony Fauci said Monday he would support vaccine mandates for teachers ahead of the new school year.

States have banned vaccines in seven states, and Texas and Florida have banned masks in schools.

The country's top infectious disease expert says he believes teachers in the United States should be tasked with receiving the COVID-19 vaccine before the new school year begins.

In an appearance on MSNBC on Monday, Dr. Anthony Fauci said teachers must receive vaccinations needed to prevent outbreaks in schools.

Dr. Fauci said he would support any local government that puts these mandates in place.

His comments come as mandates for employer-based vaccines are becoming more common across the country, despite facing some notable opposition.

"I'm going to harass people about this, but I think we should," Fauci said in response to a question about whether teachers should be tasked with receiving the vaccine.

I mean, we're in an awkward position right now. We've had 615,000 deaths, and we're now on a massive increase as we head into the fall, into the school season. This is a severe business.

Randy Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers (AFT) - the second-largest teachers' union - said her organization would support employers on these types of mandates.

The AFT previously voted to oppose these types of measures in October 2020.

"Out of personal awareness, I think we need to work with our employers, not oppose vaccine mandates," she said during an appearance on NBC's Meet the Press on Sunday.

"And so I said last week that I would like to combine my leadership, and this week we will reconsider and reconsider our policy that we passed in October voluntarily, and the best way to do that is to do it voluntarily."

While the pandemic disrupted the 2019-20 school year, and last year was held remotely in some areas of the country, nearly all schools across America will return to in-person learning this fall.

Back to personal learning as America once again loses control of the Covid situation.

The diverse 'delta' outbreak in India has caused an average of more than 100,000 new cases to pass per day for the first time since February.

Over the past two weeks, the average daily cases have risen from 63,361 on July 27 to 124,470 on August 9 - an increase of 96 percent in cases.

New cases are primarily concentrated in areas with low vaccination rates. However, health experts still recommend that a vaccine is the safest and most effective way to prevent complications related to COVID-19.

Currently, 58.8 percent of Americans have received at least one dose of the COVID-19 vaccine, and about half of the population is fully vaccinated.

Many children are not yet eligible to receive the vaccine, although only Americans 12 years of age or older can get the vaccine now.

Experts like Fauci believe that requiring teachers and staff to receive the vaccine can prevent the spread of Covid.

"You wish people would see why it's so important to vaccinate people," Fauci said.