SC senators vote to move teachers to Phase 1A of vaccine distribution
South Carolina senators Tuesday unanimously voted to move teachers and school support staff to Phase 1A of the COVID-19 vaccine line in an effort to get students in class all five days a week.
The proposal, pushed by Republican Senate Majority Leader Shane Massey, a potential 2022 gubernatorial candidate from Edgefield County, would put teachers in Phase 1A and get students in the classroom by the Monday after a school district’s spring break.
Changes made on the Senate floor also were meant to avoid delaying or canceling existing vaccine appointments. However, it means students would get six weeks of five-day in person instruction, rather than the two months Massey originally sought.
Massey conceded not all teachers may get the vaccine, “but it puts them into a higher priority category than they are right now. I think that’s a victory,” he said. “We’ve got a firm date for children to go back to school, five days in person. That’s a victory. ”
“If we can get kids in front of their teachers five days a week for six weeks, teachers can make up a lot of what’s been lost,” Massey added.
Massey said senators will probably not attach the teacher vaccination plan to the $208 million vaccine relief bill and allow both pieces of legislation to stand alone.
Of South Carolina’s 1,266 public schools, only 646 are offering face-to-face instruction, according to the S.C. Department of Education. An additional 589 are offering a hybrid model of in-person and online instruction and 31 schools are still only holding class virtually.
The joint resolution requires agreement from the S.C. House before teachers are moved up in the overall line to be vaccinated.
Nick Davidson, the state health department’s director of community health services, said the agency estimates Phase 1A to be completed by early spring. By adding roughly 70,000 teachers and staff, Davidson said that phase would be extended for about two weeks.
State epidemiologist Linda Bell told lawmakers changing the vaccine order wouldn’t lead to a reduction in the number of doses the state receives from the federal government. The government allocates vaccines to states based on population.
“Jurisdictions have flexibility in how they could use the allocation given to them,” Bell told senators last week.
“I’m a very strong vaccine advocate. Whatever decision is made, DHEC will do all that we can with the planning, operations and logistics to make sure it happens,” Bell said.
The state’s Department of Health and Environmental Control did not push back on the potential change.
But Gov. Henry McMaster said he has been against moving teachers up after he announced that South Carolinians 65 years and older could start making vaccine appointments this week.
“Seniors are getting vaccinated in greater numbers each day,” McMaster tweeted shortly after the vote. “Breaking faith by slowing down, disrupting, cancelling, or delaying any senior’s vaccination shot is a bad idea with deadly consequences. I cannot — and will not — allow their lives to be jeopardized.”
He has argued schools are a safe environment if people in schools wear masks, socially distance themselves and wash their hands frequently. Having students in school five days a week has been seen as a key to fully reopening the economy. Also a recent study by MUSC found schools have not been places where COVID-19 has spread.
Currently 1.3 million South Carolinians are eligible for a vaccine. That does not include teachers and support staff.
The state receives 72,600 first doses of the COVID-19 vaccine each week. About 71,000 of the 122,000 teachers and staff in the state are willing to take the vaccine, according to a statewide survey of teachers and staff. Senators also included the more than 20,000 day care workers to be moved up to Phase 1A.
State senators said Tuesday they did not want to bump seniors down the line, especially those with existing appointments.
But senators defeated an amendment pushed by state Sen. Tom Davis, R-Beaufort, who pushed for the state set up a vaccination week for teachers between March 15 and March 22. This would give time for school districts to set up the necessary logistics for teacher inoculations.
The approach was meant to prevent those with existing appointments from losing their appointments. Davis said a second dose for teachers would come in April, meaning in-person instruction wouldn’t take place until the end of April.
“I want to mitigate the impact this will have on seniors who have played by the rules,” Davis said.
Senators argued there should be enough supply to serve both school personnel and seniors.
“There’s no reason why when we’re only talking about 70,000 to 76,000 shots ... they can’t do this statewide,” said state Sen. Margie Bright Matthews, D-Colleton. “It’s just a matter of getting a system together, coordinating the shots and getting them disseminated equally to all of the districts in South Carolina.”
This story was originally published February 9, 2021 at 6:35 PM.
