Why don’t they prioritise teachers for the COVID vaccine?

[BlackbirdsSinging]

First of all I should point out I completely agree with the groups that have been prioritised for the autumn COVID vaccine. Of course they all need it first.

I was wondering why they don’t also prioritise teachers given how hard schools were hit last autumn. I know they originally said children didn’t get or pass on COVID but I thought that was debunked.

Perhaps teachers could be in a second group after those groups already listed are vaccinated.

Does anyone know?

I should add I am a TA and also have 4 kids in school so I have seen the difficulties COVID causes staff in schools and then the add on effect that staff absences cause to pupils (especially GCSE/A level years) and parents.

Because the order of priority is around making sure hospitals aren’t overwhelmed and that there are staff well enough to work in them.

There are an awful lot of NHS staff and vulnerable people to get through before appointments are available for teachers I’m afraid. Even household members of CEV are well down the list.

www.gov.uk/government/publications/covid-19-vaccines-for-autumn-2022-jcvi-advice-15-august-2022/jcvi-statement-on-the-covid-19-booster-vaccination-programme-for-autumn-2022-update-15-august-2022

For the same reason that they didn’t prioritise them the previous times. The priority groups are based on who are the most vulnerable and most likely to get more sick if they catch it. It’s about managing the impact on the health service. . If you start going down the road of who’s the most likely to catch it, or which industry is going to suffer the most, it would be never ending.

NHS staff aren’t prioritised either. Haven’t been since the 3rd jab. That’s one of the reason why we’ve had so many staffing issues in the nhs this year

On the basis the vaccines primarily reduce severity of covid rather than stopping people catching it. So vaxxin less vulnerable teachers earlier won’t really make any difference to any resulting staffing issues.

It's based on who is most likely to die or need hospital treatment

Who is to say teachers are more important than other jobs? You'd have a right nightmare prioritising people based on jobs.

It's simpler to do it by birth date. That is an exact science. You get into all sorts of shenanigans defining who is and isn't a teacher. TAs? Swimming teachers? Music or sports teachers who come into schools for a day every week? Volunteers in schools?

All our vaccine centres were contacting schools and Police to notify them where there were surplus stocks and booked them in to save waste.

This. How ridiculous to just pick teachers.

It's done on priority of who is most likely to become more I'll and need hospital treatment. Even nhs staff aren't prioritised for the boosters iirr.

I teach and I'm CV. Covid put me in hospital due to complications the first time; second time I had anti viral infusion which helped. Both times most likely caught at school.

Whilst almost all our staff caught covid and many were u well with it, no one else required hospital treatment.

However, I don't think I should have an earlier vaccine just because of where I work for the boosters. It needs to be on a needs basis.

If staff catch it and are ill they will take time off sick. Like they would for any other illness.

Is it January 2021 again?

These arguments are kind of defunct. The argument for vaccinating school staff was to improve continuity of education provision during the pandemic.

Some countries chose to do this. Ours didn't. It's not going to change now