CA Mandates Vaccination, Testing For Educators: Readers Weigh In

CALIFORNIA — In recent weeks, Californians have seen an increasing amount of vaccination and testing policies at both local and statewide levels. On Wednesday, California became the first state to require proof of vaccination or weekly testing for its 320,000 teachers and school employees.

The major push to increase vaccination rates comes as K-12 students return from summer break. The state also continues to weather a surge in delta variant cases, which has pushed the state's positivity rate up to 6.6 percent. For comparison, the state's positivity rate was hovering around 1 percent in late June.

As the delta variant festers, hospitalizations have also doubled in California, rising from 2,543 patients on July 23 to 6,692 patients Friday. In that same time frame, the number of patients intensive care units rose from 582 to 1,524.

"We think this is the right thing to do, and we think this is a sustainable way to keeping our schools open and to address the No. 1 anxiety that parents like myself have for young children," Gov. Gavin Newsom said on Wednesday. "And that is knowing that the schools are doing everything in their power to keep our kids safe, to keep our kids healthy."

California's requirement for all K-12 staff to either become vaccinated or submit to weekly testing came on the heels of similar policies, such as an order for all health care workers and hospital visitors.

In a recent non-scientific survey, which drew 3,167 respondents, we asked Patch readers whether they thought the vaccination and testing requirement for school staff was warranted — 66.8 percent said "yes," 31 percent answered "no," and just 1.8 percent said they were unsure.

The survey, which appeared in questionnaire form this week on Patch, is meant not to be a scientific poll but only to give a broad idea of public sentiment.

All of the most recent vaccine and testing orders stop short of requiring vaccination, as the Food and Drug Administration has yet to formally approve COVID-19 vaccines.

We asked readers whether they thought teachers and school staff should be required to become inoculated after the FDA approves the coronavirus vaccines in use: 64.1 percent said "yes," 32.9 percent said "no," and 3 percent said they were unsure.

Among respondents, 51.3 percent said they did not have children attending a K-12 school, while 48.7 percent said they did. And 77.3 percent of participants in the survey said they had been vaccinated, while 22.7 percent said they were unvaccinated.

We asked readers to share their thoughts on California's most recent vaccination policy:

Safe learning is essential for kids and personnel and kids who can be vaccinated should be vaccinated.

Make non-vaccinated teachers get tested every day, not week. And if it's a voluntary decision (not on legitimate medical reasons) then the teacher should pay for the testing.

'm not sure how teachers can refuse the vaccine if they are truly invested in working with children. As a retired teacher, I cannot imagine taking a risk of passing this illness to a child. Unless a teacher cannot be vaccinated for medical reasons, it really should be a requirement.

Problem is, until everyone (including children) can get vaccinated, it does no good. Adults are still getting it despite the vaccine. It won't go away until they are able to vaccinate everyone.

This should be extended to post-secondary educators as well. I teach at community college. Also get rid of the exemption allowing for religious or ethical reasons. This is a public health crises.

Believe they should be tested twice a week, not once. They can infect others within a week.

My body, my choice.

I'm looking forward to getting all children under 12, including my own son, vaccinated once it becomes available.

No one should mandate a vaccine that has not been FDA approved. It’s wrong.

Why aren’t we looking at natural immunity for people who have had Covid?

I think everyone should be vaccinated to stop the spread, keep people safe, keep businesses open and prevent more variants.