The Bitter Fight Over What's Safe For Schools

News today. Early data suggests the Oxford Astra Zeneca vaccine is only effective against mild and moderate disease caused by the South African strain of coronavirus. Astra said in a statement that there isn't enough information yet to say whether it's effective at preventing severe COVID nineteen cases, hospitalizations, and deaths.

The company said work was already under way to adapt the vaccine to deal specifically with the South African variant, and that a new version could be available by the fall. South Africa, where over of new cases are the more contagious strain first identified there, will temporarily halt the rollout of the astro vaccine. The country plans to accelerate its supply of shots from Johnson and Johnson and Fiser Dr Anthony Fauci warned Americans not to delay their second dose

of the coronavirus vaccine. That came after other health experts suggested recently there may be a benefit to pushing more people to get a first shot and delaying follow ups. Fauci said the scientific data it's strongly to the benefit of following the recommended timetable for the two doses, and that US vaccine supply should improve in February and March as the manufacturing capability escalates. Finally, President Joe Biden's that it's unlikely the US will reach herd immunity for the

coronavirus before the end of the summer. Herd immunity means enough people become resistant to the disease that it spread becomes unlikely. In the US, logistical delays and vaccine shortages have meant only a small fraction of the population has received shots since two different vaccines became available in December. Biden spoken an interview with CBS News that aired on

Sunday and Now for Today's main story. This weekend, Chicago public schools reached at tentative agreement with its teachers to resume in person learning later this week. The deal isn't final, and it's the latest in a series of tents back and forth between the city schools and its teachers unions.

The bitter fight in Chicago echoes other big cities. I spoke to Chicago based reporter Truthi Singh, who explained that tensions have escalated coast to coast between unions fearing the spread of COVID nineteen and local officials under pressure to get teachers back into the classroom. As school districts across the US face the very difficult decision about whether and how to bring students back to in person teaching, schools

in Chicago have been facing a particularly difficult path. Can you give us maybe just a brief lay of the land in terms of what's been going on in the city. It has been a long year, and uh, a lot of kids have not been in person school since about March, so it's about ten eleven months. And now there are people, whether it's parents or district officials or others starting to question, you know, when do we go back to school. So one of the concerns has come from or many of

the concerns have come from the teachers. They've brought questions up regarding vaccinations, They've brought questions up regarding work from home arrangements for those who are either at risk themselves or may have a family member that may be at risk if they are exposed to COVID nineteen. So over several months, Chicago Public Schools in the Chicago Teachers Union has been negotiating on how to bring teachers, staff and

students back into the classroom. I think both sides have said that they want in person learning, but how to do it and how to do it safely is the question. Now. Over the last month or so, things have become a little bit more tense as there was initially a mark on the calendar for preschool and special education kids to come back in early January UM, and then there was a date for the kindergarten through eighth grade students to

come back as well. You know, a lot of there's a lot of concern about that and those deadlines you know, that were set by the city. I think the teachers were just not ready for those and you know, when it comes to discussing the timeline of bringing students back into the classroom, and of course teachers as well would have been some of the key issues that say, the teachers Union and the city have been wrestling over when

it comes to how essentially do we make classrooms safe. Well, the two sides have been going over for ariety of issues,

including ventilation. There are safety committees that have been set up at at the school level now, um there are questions about sanitation ppe and also some of the issues that were remaining towards the end of negotiations over the last few weeks have been things like vaccinations as well as the accommodations for teachers and staff who may be at risk themselves or may have family members at risk.

And in terms of these timelines that you you referenced earlier, what has been the latest in terms of when Chicago have wanted some students back in the classroom, what are the new timelines. Well, so, initially the district as well as Chicago Mayor Lory Lightfoot, had said they wanted preschool and special education children to come back and about mid January, and then a few weeks after that they were asking

for kindergarten through eighth grade students to come back. The teachers would also be coming back under that previous plan on a rolling basis now under the current tentative agreement that the Chicago Public Schools and the Chicago Teachers Union have come at just over the weekend UM. The tentative agreement outlines of framework where the earliest of the students, which would be preschool and the special education kids, would be coming back as early as this Thursday, But high

school is still an unknown right now. The district has said they want to try to bring as many kids back into school in person as possible, but right now they haven't sort of laid out what the timeline and what the return for in person for high school students and teachers is going to look like. And I also want to mention that this is an option that UM the District is offering to parents, and not everybody has

chosen to come back in person. Even through eighth grade, about sixty seven thousand students have indicated that they will come back in person of that preschool through eighth grade and special needs UM category. But that's out of a

pool of about two hundred and seven thousand or so. Now, you know, there are a lot of moving parts in terms of bringing students back at whatever age, and it certainly might be the case that teachers don't necessarily feel that their classrooms are safe to come back for them to teach in what happens if a teacher says, I'm

unwilling to come back to do in person teaching. So that has been actually a point of contention over the last several weeks because when the earliest groups of teachers were being asked to come back, there were still negotiations going on between the Chicago Public Schools and the Chicago Teachers Union, and there were a certain number of teachers who said, I am going to continue to work remotely as the union had voted to do, and not go

into the school building. Some teacher is even chose to work outside of their school building up to highlight some of the concerns that they have. There was a certain number of teachers given those actions that were considered absent without leave, and some of those teachers were locked out of the technology that's needed to teach remotely within the

school system. That has actually been a point of contention between the district and the union, and so the union has said, we will continue to work remotely until we have an agreement and the district and the mayor. As recently as Friday had said that if teachers who were required to come back today under the most recent deadline, because there's been several deadlines, if they did not show up,

then they would be locked out. But then this tentative agreement arrived over the weekend and that has been put to the side for right now. As the US vaccine distribution rollout pick up speed, a lot of people have mentioned perhaps the need for teachers to be closer to the front of the line, that um, they need to receive their vaccines in order to be safe in the classroom.

Does this agreement or have has there been any discussion about the ability for Chicago teachers to receive vaccines in order to get back to get back to the classroom.

The teachers are in one B, which is the phase that includes essential workers and those who are sixty five and over, at least here in Illinois, I know from state to state it differs a little bit, but they are in the essential worker category and they are asking the district to set aside and allocate a certain number so that teachers can be prioritized on a rolling basis.

There's been a lot of back and forth about this, but where things stand right now is that under the tentative agreement, there would be about fifteen hundred first doses allocated per week to CPS, the Chicago Public Schools. You know, we're recording this on Monday, February eighth, and today is a day that a lot of decisions may be made about the future of in person learning and the tentative agreements between the teachers Union and the city in Chicago.

What are some of the decisions that may be made today, Well, this has been an ongoing process for months. The two sides, the Chicago Public Schools and the Teachers Union, have been negotiating for months and now over the last few weeks, in the last few days, there have been ongoing negotiations and you know, certainly we saw updates throughout the weekend.

Right now, where things stand is that the Chicago Teachers Union is reviewing and assessing the most recent tentative agreement tentative proposal that the city has put forth, and they're going to assess it with their governing body, which is called the House of Delegates and their rank and file members. So we're all waiting to see what the latest update might be. It could be an time. That was Shruthie

Sank and that's it for our show today. For coverage of the outbreak from one D and twenty bureaus around the world, visit bloomberg dot com slash Coronavirus and if you like the show, please leave us a review and a rating on Apple Podcasts or Spotify. It's the best way to help more listeners find our global reporting. The Prognosis Daily Edition is produced by Toph for foreheads Magnus Henrickson and me Laura Carlson. Today's main story was reported

by Shruthi Sank. Original music by Leo Cedrin. Our editors are Rick Shine and Francesco Levi. Francesco Levi is Bloomberg's head of podcasts. Thanks for listening.