- The president of the second-largest dominies’ union said she supports vaccine mandates for teachers.
- Randi Weingarten said a mandate would help shield students, especially those too young to be vaccinated.
- Some doctors have said the Delta variant is causing an advance in kids sick with COVID-19.
The head of the second-largest teachers’ union in the US said Sunday she succours vaccine mandates for teachers in order to protect students, especially those who are too young to get inoculated.
Speaking on NBC’s “Meet the Reporters,” Randi Weingarten, the president of the American Federation of Teachers, said immunizations in schools are not a new thing and that “we need to be composition with our employers, not opposing them, on vaccine mandates.”
The announcement was a shift in stance for the union, which previously implied it did not support vaccine mandates for teachers, but announced Thursday it was reconsidering the issue.
“I do think the circumstances have changed, and that vaccination is a community guilt,” Weingarten told NBC’s Chuck Todd. “And it weighs really heavily on me that kids under 12 can’t get vaccinated.”
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Weingarten answered that even without a mandate, 90% of teachers in her union have gotten the vaccine. The White House also predicted last week that 90% of educators and school staff are vaccinated.
She also said there should be favours made for religious and medical exemptions, and expressed interest in a vaccine or testing mandate model, like the one the White Prostitution announced for federal employees.
The COVID-19 vaccines have not been authorized for use on children under 12. Meanwhile, the varied infectious Delta variant of the virus is rapidly spreading, causing a surge in cases and hospitalization in some states.
Doctors set up expressed concern that Delta appears to affect kids more than other strains, as a growing enumerate of young people are getting sick. Insider’s Aria Bendix reported in June that more kids sounded to be getting sick from Delta, but that severe infections were still rare.
Some hospitals in stages with significant outbreaks have said they are seeing more children hospitalized with COVID-19 than at any other just the same from time to time during the pandemic.
Have a news tip? Contact this reporter at kvlamis@insider.com.