Dr. Anthony S. Fauci, addressing more than 6,000 American teachers in a video meeting, said Thursday evening that students need to return to the classroom for the country to begin recovering.
“We are not going to get back to normal until we get the children back in school, for the good of the children, the good of the parents, and the good of the community,” he said.
Attending a meeting convened by the two national teachers unions, Dr. Fauci brought with him the message of the Biden administration: that all K-8 schools should aim to reopen within the next 100 days. He said they can expect support from Washington in the form of a new stimulus package to fund sanitation upgrades and other safety measures.
As of last month, about one-third of American school districts were operating entirely remotely, and Dr. Fauci acknowledged that “mitigating factors” may make the 100-day goal difficult to achieve in some places.
Fielding questions submitted by educators, he did not hesitate to acknowledge potential dangers.
He discussed the emergence of new variants of the coronavirus that appear more contagious and more resistant to vaccines. And he said that while he expected vaccines to prevent inoculated teachers from passing the virus onto their loved ones, there was not yet concrete evidence that would be the case.
As Dr. Fauci spoke, educators at the meeting posted comments — many reflecting frustration and anxiety. They complained that many states had not prioritized teachers for vaccination and said students were not able to effectively stay masked throughout the school day.
NEW YORK TIMES
Washington hospital system offered vaccine to wealthy donors
A Washington hospital system apologized after The Seattle Times reported that it had offered vaccines to wealthy donors while others went without the coveted shots.
Overlake Medical Center & Clinics sent an e-mail to about 110 donors who gave more than $10,000 to the hospital system, telling them they could register for open appointments “by invite” only.
The report drew a rebuke from Governor Jay Inslee, who said during a news conference on Tuesday that the practice was “simply unacceptable.”
Overlake’s president and chief executive, J. Michael Marsh, apologized in a statement, adding that even those donors would have been required to show that they were eligible for the vaccine under state guidelines.
“We recognize we made a mistake by including a subset of our donors and by not adopting a broader outreach strategy to fill these appointments, and we apologize,” Mr. Marsh said.
The hospital’s conduct mirrors that of other facilities that have made news for prioritizing wealthy donors over the rest of the population. A Florida nursing home and assisted-living facility called MorseLife Health System came under investigation after The Washington Post and The New York Post reported that it had prioritized its donors as well.
Another, Baptist Health in Miami, invited a donor to get a shot. The recipient said she believed she was offered a vaccine because she had donated and volunteered for the hospital.
And in Jefferson City, widespread confusion led some Missouri lawmakers to scramble for shots that were not intended for them. Group texts among House members and employees said vaccines were available at an area hotel, but the shots were meant for the state’s public safety and transportation employees.
NEW YORK TIMES
Tyler Perry talks about vaccine safety in BET special
With the pandemic exposing racial disparities in the United States — Black people have died of COVID-19 at nearly three times the rate of white people, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention — health officials have been working to promote vaccinations in Black communities, and to combat doubt.
So doctors in Atlanta turned to Tyler Perry — a popular and prolific actor, director and studio head — to spread the word to Black audiences that the vaccine was harmless. He agreed to interview the experts, turning it into a TV special that aired Thursday night on BET. On the show, he peppered doctors from Grady Health System with questions about the safety of the vaccine, how it was developed, how it was tested, and how it works.
At the end of the interview, with his sleeve pulled up, Perry got the jab as cameras rolled.
Perry is one of the most powerful people in the entertainment industry. He built his fortune portraying the character of Madea, a tart-tongued and irreverent matriarch, onstage and onscreen, before retiring her in 2019 to concentrate on other projects, which include running his 330-acre studios in Georgia.
Skepticism about the COVID-19 vaccine among Black people has been deeply concerning to health officials. A recent study by the Kaiser Family Foundation found that one in three Black people was hesitant about the vaccine. A recent CNN analysis found that Black and Latino Americans were getting the vaccine at significantly lower rates than white people — rates attributed to, among other factors, lack of access to health care for many Black people, but also to an entrenched mistrust about the medical establishment.
On the BET special, Perry spoke of episodes in history that have led to a lack of faith in the medical establishment and the government, among them the Tuskegee Syphilis Study, in which doctors allowed syphilis to progress in Black men by withholding treatment from them, and the case of Henrietta Lacks, a Black woman who died of cervical cancer in 1951, whose cells were used in research without her knowledge or consent.
“We as Black people have healthy hesitation when it comes to vaccinations and so on and so forth, and even disease,” he said.
Perry said he didn’t want people getting vaccinated just because he had. “What I want to do is give you the information, the facts,” he said. “There’s a lot of misinformation out there.”
NEW YORK TIMES
Columbia students demanding discounted spring tuition
More than 1,100 undergraduate and graduate students at Columbia University have pledged to withhold their tuition for the spring semester to demand a discount for what they see as a lost spring term.
While some universities have brought students back to campus, Columbia has mostly offered online instruction for students and allowed only a sliver of them to live on campus or attend in-person classes.
In response, students are asking the university to reduce their total costs — including tuition, fees, and room and board — by at least 10 percent, following suit of several schools including Georgetown University, Princeton University, and Williams College. Columbia College, the university’s undergraduate school, can cost more than $80,000 a year for students not receiving financial aid.
Strike organizers said that both graduate and undergraduate students were participating; the university has more than 31,000 students.
“It’s a reasonable demand,” said Matthew Gamero, 19, a sophomore who is one of the strike organizers. “This is about the university providing an education of its worth, and to have it online is certainly not what we’re paying for.”
“This is a moment when an active reappraisal of the status quo is understandable, and we expect nothing less from our students,” the university said in a statement. “Their voices are heard by Columbia’s leadership, and their views on strengthening the University are welcomed.”
NEW YORK TIMES