TAMARAC, FLA. (WSVN) - As access to the COVID-19 vaccine continues to expand, pharmacies in South Florida are set to start offering shots to teachers.
President Joe Biden on Tuesday issued a directive deeming all teachers, school staff and child care workers as essential workers and should be vaccinated.
The State of Florida is currently offering vaccines to teachers 50 years old or older. However, CVS Pharmacy is working with the Federal Retail Pharmacy Program, which follows federal guidelines allowing day care workers, preschool teachers and educators in elementary, middle and high schools to be vaccinated with no age limit.
“Let me be clear, we can reopen schools if the right steps are taken even before employees are vaccinated, but time and again, we’ve heard from educators and parents that have anxieties about that,” Biden said, “so as yet another move to help accelerate the safe reopening of schools, let’s treat in-person learning like an essential service that it is. That means getting essential workers that provide service — educators, school staff, child care workers — get them vaccinated immediately. They’re essential workers.”
With the Johnson & Johnson vaccine on the way, all teachers are expected to receive shots from CVS Pharmacy. The move comes as officials are trying to reopen all schools and safely protect those who are risking their lives to do their jobs.
“We want every educator, school staff member and child care worker to receive at least one shot by the end of the month of March,” Biden said. “To make this happen, starting next week and for the month of March, we’ll be using our federal pharmacy program to prioritize the vaccination of pre-K through 12 educators and staff and child care workers.”
With so many students still homeschooled in Miami-Dade and Broward counties, the hope is to get these students back in the classroom.
Broward County Public Schools Superintendent Robert Runcie said on March 5, the district will begin scheduling appointments for the vaccine in a partnership with the Florida Department of Health.
Albert Stellmach, a music teacher at Dr. Henry Perrine Academy of the Arts in Palmetto Bay, stood in line on Wednesday to receive his first dose of the vaccine. He said he has high blood pressure and is obese, so receiving the vaccine is imperative.
“I’ve been waiting a long time because, right now, I’m only virtual,” he said. “I’m staying at home, and I’m one of those teachers that’s considered critical to stay home. This would change my life and to be able to come into school, and I hate Zooming.”
The new directive gives teachers and staff the chance to teach without fear of contracting the virus.
“My thoughts are that it’s a great thing that President Biden has acknowledged, and I wish it would have been sooner,” Broward Teachers Union President Ana Fusco said. “Our educators here in the state of Florida — and definitely in Broward County — have been back at campuses since schools opened in August.”
“This news has hit our schools in a very rapid way,” United Teachers of Dade President Karla Hernandez-Mats said. “We’re seeing slots being filled very quickly, and our teachers are excited that President Biden has provided this opportunity for them.”
The move is also a relief to parents who fear sending their children to a high-risk environment.
“Some of our schools have hundreds and hundreds of students on campus,” Fusco said. “To know that our teachers can be vaccinated, that they’re going to feel safer, and I know that our parents have a concern that if the teachers are vaccinated, they’re going to feel safer for their students to be able to come back on campus, so they won’t possibly bring COVID into their homes to their loved ones.”
For more information on CVS’ vaccination program, click here to be redirected to their website.
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