I'm STILL confused about the vaccine priorities and may well be being dim. I thought the reason the most vulnerable people (elderly, NHS etc) were prioritised was because they stood the most risk of needing hospital assistance and potentially dying if they contracted the virus (elderly and vulnerable because of their underlying biology and NHS because of the sheer number of infected contacts that could worsen any infection). Obviously some healthy younger people can also suffer badly and need hospitals, but on a population level that is less likely, though obviously tragic and to be avoided if at all possible. Though if the most vulnerable cohort is protected they will be more likely to have treatment available if they do have the misfortune of needing it.
But as I understand, the vaccine doesn't stop you from passing on the virus, though you wouldn't yourself become ill (or ill enough to need hospitalising). But you could potentially spread the virus asymptomatically. So vaccinated people (at the moment at least) still need to self isolate if they are a close contact of a positive person, as they could pass the virus to someone else, still need to wear masks etc etc. In which case, it wouldn't necessarily confer herd immunity at all. The vaccine protects you, but you being vaccinated doesn't protect anyone else. Not sure if the vaccine would prevent "long covid" as I thought that could occur in asymptomatic infections as well as symptomatic people, and it seems the vaccine prevents the latter but not necessarily the former.
I may have that all wrong, and it does seem odd that this vaccine is the only one I've heard of that doesn't give at least some sort of herd immunity, but it does seem to tally with what the government are saying... That the restrictions will apply to you even if you are vaccinated as you could still spread the virus to others.
But if I am right, I can't see why vaccinating teachers (without any particular vulnerabilities due to their age or health that would otherwise get them "on the list") would be of particular benefit to society. Though it would be good for the teachers themselves, obviously, and given the shit they have, that is only a good thing, so I'm not opposed to it at all. But if a child, for example tested positive, and the teacher is a close contact, the teacher would still have to self isolate, which would still be disruptive to the school. Or if the teacher was a contact of someone out of school, they would have to self isolate so their class wouldn't have a teacher. That (vaccinated) teacher could still pass the virus onto a vulnerable relative and so on. The teacher probably wouldn't become seriously ill and so need time off, but as self isolation will still be needed, I still don't see how general teacher vaccination would help keep schools running.