Push to have education workers vaccinated is underway during COVID-19 pandemic

BY PAUL JUNOR

There has been much attention directed to vaccines that are currently being used to fight the COVID-19 virus. According to the Government of Canada’s website (canada.ca), there are specific clinical trial phases that potential vaccines have to undergo, before they become available to the public.

Steps are underway to fast-track their development and to decrease the time between trial phases by:

• Using trial processes that test multiple vaccines at the same time
• Running trials at the same time rather than doing them individually, which reduce the number of trials and steps needed
• Numbering how long it takes to collect and assess the data launching trials in areas affected the most by the pandemic (highest number of cases and severe illness)
• Increasing collaboration, which means that manufacturers are able to speed up development without compromising safety and effectiveness (how well it works)

There was an open letter from OSSTF Toronto to: TDSB Director and Chair, Toronto’s Chief Medical Officer and Ontario’s Minister of Health on Thursday, March 25^th, 2021, which laid out four urgent concerns on behalf of education workers.

The first one states, “We call on the Provincial Government and Toronto Public Health to ensure that all education workers currently working in-person be considered High Risk and begin with those workers in congregated special education sites and classrooms, so that they are eligible to receive their first vaccine at the beginning of Phase 2.”

The provincial government has indicated that they would be eligible to receive it at the beginning of March. On Tuesday, March 23^rd, 2021 the Dufferin-Peel Catholic District School Board (DPCDSB) passed seven motions at its board meeting which culminated with the Chair of the Board writing a letter to the Premier of Ontario, “Requesting a change to the provincial framework to allow educators to get vaccinated as soon as possible,” (www3dpcdsb.org).

The letter was sent to the Premier of Ontario, Doug Ford on Wednesday, March 24^th, 2021. The letter was titled, “Prioritization of COVID-19 Vaccines for DPCDSB in Peel Region Schools.” It states that based on motions which were approved by the Board of Trustees they are requesting vaccinations for education workers as quickly as possible. The letter identifies some of the prevailing factors as:

• The Region of Peel is one of the hardest hit areas in the province for COVID-19 and COVID-19 virus transmission in the community continues to have significant impact on Peel Region schools
• The Region of Peel remains in a provincially designated Grey-Zone lockdown
• Peel Public Health has confirmed that COVID-19 cases of variants of concern (VOC) have been identified in our schools in Peel region; these new strains of COVID-19 are known to spread faster

Approximately 42% of DPCDSB schools have experienced at least one positive case of COVID-19 since returning to in-person learning in February. The letter concludes, “Expedited vaccination for our education workers is necessary to take action, break the chains of transmission and save lives.”