World California Teachers Get Small Victory As Newsom Announces They Can Get COVID Vaccine in March

California will begin setting aside COVID-19 vaccine doses for educators and child care workers on March 1, marking a significant step forward in the state's negotiations with teachers unions about how to safely reopen schools for in-person instruction amid the ongoing pandemic.

© FREDERIC J. BROWN/AFP via Getty Images California Governor Gavin Newsom said Friday teachers statewide will be able to begin receiving COVID-19 vaccines starting in March. In the photo above, students sit with their laptop computers at St. Joseph Catholic School in La Puente, California on November 16, 2020, where pre-kindergarten to Second Grade students in need of special services returned to the classroom for in-person instruction.

Starting next month, 10 percent of the first COVID-19 doses California receives will be set aside for educators and child care workers, Governor Gavin Newsom said Friday. While 35 of California's 58 counties were already making COVID-19 vaccines available to teachers, Newsom said this move would help teachers statewide gain access to vaccine appointments.

This is how Australia plans to keep the new Pfizer vaccine at -70C

Australia's first shipment of the Pfizer vaccine will be distributed in top secret by global logistics firm DHL once it touches down from Belgium next week. Thousands of doses of the long-awaited vaccine that must be stored below -70C will be warehoused in a top secret location in Sydney before being distributed to 200 cold storage facilities around the country, DHL has revealed.The ultra-cold temperature requirement makes transporting and storing it difficult.

Speaking at the Alameda County Board of Education Friday morning, Newsom attributed his announcement to the state's expected increase in vaccine supply.

"The reason we can do that more formally, even though we have allowed for it over the course of the last number of weeks, is the window of visibility into the future, with more vaccinations that we know are coming from the Biden administration," the Democratic governor said.

Vaccinating teachers has been one of the sticking points in the state's negotiations with educators about how and when to reopen schools. Earlier this month, the California Teachers Association said it was "critical" for the state's educators to gain access to COVID-19 vaccinations.

The needless clash between teachers’ unions and science is harming America’s kids

The evidence it clear: We can open schools safely now.Educators’ anxiety is based on reasonable concerns. Covid-19 is a serious illness. And schools are an indoor group setting with the potential to spread infection. But schools, it turns out, with a few basic safety measures, including masks and reasonable distancing, are not a high-risk venue for Covid-19 transmission. In fact, they appear to have far lower rates of the virus than their surrounding communities. Still, some education union leaders are beginning to lay the foundation for schools remaining shuttered into the 2021-22 school year.

Newsweek reached out to the California Teachers Union for comment and will update this article with any response.

This is a developing story and will be updated as more information becomes available.

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