Education Secretary Miguel Cardona says he favors requiring teachers across the nation to be vaccinated against the CCP virus.
“I would favor the vaccine being required,” Cardona said during an Aug. 11 National Press Foundation event. “I wouldn’t have gotten the vaccine or had my children get it if I questioned whether or not it was safe.”
California Gov. Gavin Newsom announced earlier that day that school employees would have to be vaccinated by Oct. 15 or face weekly testing; Washington Mayor Muriel Bowser announced a similar mandate for teachers on Aug. 10. The city of Denver imposed a vaccine mandate on teachers on Aug. 2.
Cardona said he believes some people will be more likely to get vaccinated once the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) grants full approval for one or more of the COVID-19 vaccines.
“I was hoping the FDA stamp would happen already, but I respect that process and I understand they’re doing what they have to do to ensure safety and make sure that there’s confidence around it,” Cardona said.
The CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus, commonly known as the novel coronavirus, is the pathogen that causes COVID-19.
Authorities at the local, state, and federal levels are under increasing pressure to decide whether to impose vaccine and mask mandates on teachers, as schools are set to restart amid a resurgence of COVID-19, driven by the Delta variant.
The seven-day average of total patients hospitalized with COVID-19 grew to more than 59,000 from Aug. 1 to Aug. 9, the highest level since February, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The average number of daily vaccine doses administered declined overall from mid-April until early July, when the Delta variant became the most prevalent strain of the virus. More than 167 million Americans have been fully vaccinated as of Aug. 11, accounting for 50.3 percent of the U.S. population.
Nearly four in five U.S. counties recorded high transmission levels of COVID-19 as of Aug. 11, according to the CDC.
