Teachers who refuse vaccination

Zvi Mowshowitz writes,

It’s mind boggling that 40% of teachers in NYC schools remain unvaccinated. This is the group charged with ‘educating’ our children? Union can’t allow teachers in classrooms until they’ve been vaccinated, then almost half of them refuse to get vaccinated. We’ve made a huge mistake.

I’m surprised that Trump has so much support among teachers. After all, my friends all assure me that it’s Trump supporters who refuse to get vaccinated.

Sorry. I shouldn’t do snark posts, but this one got away from me.

23 thoughts on “Teachers who refuse vaccination

  1. While anything that hurts public education is fine with me, I don’t get what the big deal is. COVID simply isn’t a meaningful threat to children, and more or less all adults who work in the schools can get vaccinated to protect themselves.

    But… what about (insert 1 in 1,000 odd ball case here)? We don’t change the setup of society for 1 in 1,000 people with special needs. If you’re a teacher who is immunocompromised, maybe YOUR class can be taught remotely by zoom (or maybe you should find a new line of work). The other 999 are going back to business as usual.

    • “… I don’t get what the big deal is.”

      The big deal is that meaningfulness to children has nothing to do with this. It has nothing to do with science, and everything to do with politics. It has everything to do with setting up another political action block as a ‘special needs’ case that gives protected status to .001% while the .999% get back to business as usual.

      And btw, that .001% doesn’t include the children.

    • <i We don’t change the setup of society for 1 in 1,000 people with special needs.

      Seems to be the plan in the current year.

      The Biden Handler Team has taken the adage to heart: “Don’t let a crisis go to waste.”

  2. The professions — physicians & nurses, professors & teachers, clergy, attorneys & judges, police — normally enjoy status and prestige because of their missions. The pandemic has tested the commitments of individuals (and organizations) in the professions. The results have been sadly uneven; and lopsidedly bad in some institutions.

  3. Sometimes a little mild snarking is irresistible.

    On another subject, could you comment on Gramm & Savings contention in the 8/2 WSJ that the Fed’s reverse-repos shrink the money supply? It has gotten serious pushback in the letters section of today’s WSJ. But if true, it would seem to explain a lot.

  4. There are reasons other than politics that a teacher might not want to get vaccinated — children are by far less vulnerable to Covid than any other age group. But I can think of only one reason the union would insist all teachers be vaccinated, and that is to purge the schools of right-leaning teachers who might resist CRT.

    • This is a good possibility. I feel badly for that teacher, whoever they might be.

    • If there are really 40% of teachers unvaccinated in New York City, I don’t think we’re talking about right-leaning teachers.

      • Trump won 62.7% of the vote in Staten Island, which is where all the white teachers and cops live.

        • OK, but my understanding is that the 40% was for New York City, not just Staten Island.

          • Sure. What I’m saying is that a disproportionate number of the cities mid-tier public workers (teachers, cops, firefighters, etc) are from guido island.

        • This comment not up to your usual standards, asdf. There is no way 40%, or anywhere near that, of NYC public school are right-leaning or Trump supporters. The system has a large percentage of black teachers, however, and blacks, for whatever reason, disproportionately distrust the vaccine.

          BTW, there are about 8 million people in NYC. Staten Island has less than 500k. It is a relatively tiny part of the City.

    • I don’t think the unions are insisting that all teachers be vaccinated. They are insisting that all teachers (and students) be vaccinated *before schools can be re-opened*. Since unions represent teachers, they will probably simultaneously defend individual teachers’ right to not be vaccinated. Solve for the equilibrium.

      Unions have made it pretty clear that their ideal end-state is one where teachers teach from home while receiving the same pre-pandemic salaries with no reductions in staff.

      • No, their ideal is that they receive their full salaries, full stop, no mention about doing any teaching.

  5. More and more are becoming aware of how bad an institution and how much damage has been caused by the Teach Union

  6. Did anyone dig into the details to find out if it’s 40% of teachers, or 40% of DOE workers? Can imagine this distinction mattering.

    For comparison, our workplace is roughly 65% vaccinated, and the non-vaccinated people fall into three groups: Avowedly Republican, Black, or pregnant/wannabe pregnant. That’s really it, out of roughly 250 total people, every unvaccinated person is in one of those categories. I’m going to guess that the NYC statistic is that high because both samples (teachers and DOE workers) are largely black. Just curious if it’s really mostly teachers as opposed to office workers or janitors- that would be some kind of hypocrisy. If true, you just have to let them get sick and move on. If they opted out last year because there was no vaccine, and try to opt out this year because they don’t want the vaccine, I have to think parents in every borough will completely melt down.

    • Only anecdotal but a lot depends on the local culture, work and personal. I’m Federal and in my work campus of about 900, I’m the only person that isn’t vaccinated. And I know that for a fact as my friend has to track the status for everyone in the building. That said, if we actually had a single black person or avowed Republicans working here, I’m with you on the count being higher.

  7. My wife and I are vaccinated – but I don’t blame anyone for not getting it. The risk of a bad outcome with the virus is pretty low, overall, for most people younger than about 60 with no co-morbidity. There is a not unreasonable possibility that the shot is worse than the disease – the second shot left me feeling awful for 24 hours, not something one would expect from a thoroughly debugged therapy. The whole subject is deeply politicized. There are no universal arbiters of truth and fact, least of all the CDC or Fauci, both of whom have had their credibility shot.

    My initial concern 18 months ago has been replaced with a severe skepticism of when the government is going to leave us alone to make our own choices according to our own circumstances.

    Are vaccine shots mandatory for illegal immigrants in holding cells?

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