Want to help teachers? Get them the vaccine

Read the entire op-ed by E4E Co-CEOs and Co-Founders Evan Stone and Sydney Morris on the New York Daily News.

With the FDA set to give final approval for Pfizer’s COVID vaccine, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is recommending that health-care workers and nursing home residents receive the first doses. Even with this recommendation, the order of who gets vaccinated will be determined by individual states.

Gov. Cuomo recently announced that New York teachers will be in the second phase of vaccine distribution along with first responders, public health and other frontline workers, and people at particularly high risk. This is a promising first step.

Like doctors and nurses, teachers are caregivers. They look after more than 55 million school-aged children every day — helping them learn and keeping them safe. And as parents everywhere know all too well by now, schools play a critical role in a functioning society. When more teachers are protected against COVID-19, more schools can reopen, more students can attend in person, and more parents can go back to work. Vaccinating teachers may be one of the most important steps we can take for our children, our families and our economy.

To read the complete op-ed, visit the New York Daily News.