President Biden said his administration will issue a guidance this week on how schools can safely reopen as frustrations boil over between teachers, their unions, parents, as well as state and local governments on how to educate children amid the coronavirus pandemic.
“Our CDC commissioner is going to be coming out with science-based judgment, within I think as early as Wednesday as to lay out what the minimum requirements are,” Biden told CBS News in an interview airing Sunday before the Super Bowl.
The promise of guidelines from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention comes after the White House pledged last week that its COVID-19 response sent mixed messages on whether teachers needed to be vaccinated in order to return to the classroom. The jabs issue has become a prickly topic for states, such as California, and cities, including Chicago, negotiating with teachers unions on how they can reopen their schools.
CDC Director Rochelle Walensky indicated last week during one of the administration’s official coronavirus briefings that it was possible for teachers to recommence in-person instruction without all of them first getting their COVID-19 shots. When pressed on Walensky’s comments, White House press secretary Jen Psaki said Walensky had spoken “in her personal capacity” because “final guidance” on school reopenings was coming from the CDC.
During the CBS interview, Biden suggested that the guidelines would include fewer people in classrooms and “reworked” ventilation systems. He had signaled on Inauguration Day that he wanted schools reopened within his first 100 days in office.
Biden also equivocated on earlier statements he’s made regarding when a coronavirus vaccine would become readily available to the public. Blaming the situation he inherited from former President Donald Trump, which he described as being “even more dire than we thought,” he said the country “can’t wait” until the end of 2021 to reach herd immunity. That’s the current projection for when 75% of the population will be inoculated against the virus if 1.3 million doses are administered a day.
“Yes.=, I think, because we’ve already done it,” Biden said of asking manufacturers to pick up the pace on vaccine production. “But the idea that this can be done and we can get to herd immunity much before the end of next — this summer, is very difficult.”
