The delta variant-driven COVID-19 surge made August one of the worst months of the entire pandemic. But by far the single group of adults most likely to be unvaccinated is Republicans: 37 percent of Republicans are still unvaccinated or only partially vaccinated, compared with 9 percent of Democrats. The two were mother and. Nearly 3,500 sea lions in Peru have recently died of H5N1 avian influenza, five times as many as previously reported, the government announced Thursday amid growing concern about the virus. In places with strong teachers unions, educators have more power. Since the first death attributable to COVID-19 was reported in the United States on Feb. 29, 2020, an estimated 612,973 Americans have died and as . In states such as Texas and Georgia, theres not much teachers can do about situations in which they feel unsafe besides resigning. Florida in August changed its rules for determining whether someone died of COVID-19, moving that responsibility from public medical examiners to the doctors who treated the patients. hide caption. The figures contained in the report were supposed to mislead the public into believing Covid-19 vaccination was fantastic at preventing death. Since August 10, when the first schools opened, there have been 1,235 confirmed classroom closings and quarantines across the state. Nicole Hollis was a third-grade teacher at River City Science Academy Mandarin when she died from COVID-19 Aug. 14, according to her family. He has won praise from conservatives across the nation for his rejection of lockdowns and measures like vaccine passports, positioning DeSantis for a possible 2024 presidential run if former President Donald Trump chooses not to mount a bid. 24 educators and family members have died of COVID-19 as of Monday. Receive news updates and information on the fight against the unsafe reopening of schools. But the date parameters used in their report January 2nd 2021 to July 2nd 2021- include a huge swathe of deaths that were suffered during the second alleged wave of Covid-19 in January 2021, when barely anybody was vaccinated. 03 Mar 2023 21:43:25 Obviously, nothing about being a Republican makes someone inherently anti-vaccine. Taken all together, the list below paints a stunning portrait of the tragic toll the COVID-19 delta variant has taken on educators in Northeast Florida and Southeast Georgia. The teachers union said it's not clear if. The deaths so far are enough to worry educators and school staff in some districts. But Walensky also said the parts of the country where the CDC is monitoring surges have not implemented CDC guidance on masking children and vaccines. Among the 13 were. 04 Mar 2023 20:04:11 According to the latest statistics, there. The dark winter is here and Americans see no end. Gotreaux said she was on the fence about it until she heard that the superintendent and some board members at a school board meeting refused a request to put on a mask in honor of one of the fallen teachers. The University of South Florida shocked faculty members with its recent decision to close its College of Education, which has a large undergraduate population, and retain only a graduate program. The 13 employees of Miami-Dade school district have died of COVID-19. Ron DeSantis barring schools from requiring that students wear face coverings and leaving that decision to their parents. One school district in Florida has reported 17 employee deaths from COVID-19 since August as schools continue to battle the state and Gov. One of the educators that lost their life to COVID-19 was Abe Coleman, 55, a teacher for . TALLAHASSEE Florida reached another grim Covid milestone amid the Delta surge: Since August, the number of Covid-related child deaths in the state has more than doubled. More than 82,000 cases have been reported in K-12 schools, a number that has doubled since the beginning of 2021. Each classroom is equipped with an air purifier as well. Two teachers and a teaching assistant in Florida's Broward County died from COVID-19 within a span of 24 hours, the Broward Teachers Union said Thursday. DeSantis Expands Monoclonal Antibody Treatments Amid COVID-19 Spike, Florida's Governor Says School Leaders' Salary May Be Withheld If They Require Masks, An 8th-Grader Finally Returns To School In Person, Hoping It Lasts. Such numbers are of no concern to Runcie and Carvalho, who report that they are planning intensive summer school sessions to allow students to make up for the school days they missed over the past year, and they expect to open fully in the fall of 2021. Fourteen of the 15 states with the lowest vaccination rates voted for Donald Trump in 2020. Nationally, there were more than 750,000 new Covid infections in children from Aug. 5 to Sept. 2, according to the American Academy of Pediatrics. The death of Patrick Key, an elementary school teacher in Powder Springs, Ga., who lost a monthlong battle with Covid-19 on Christmas morning, intensified pressure to halt in-person learning in. Over the course of one week, Broward County three educators two teachers and one teaching assistant are reported to. If you know an educator from Northeast Florida or Southeast Georgia who is not listed who you want remembered, please email us at news@actionnewsjax.com. While new cases and deaths continue to mount, Florida school superintendents have been ruminating in the press about how they would have liked to reopen schools earlier. He also coached middle school soccer and football. Larry King (born Lawrence Harvey Zeiger; [1] November 19, 1933 - January 23, 2021) was an American television and radio host, whose awards included 2 Peabodys, an Emmy and 10 Cable ACE Awards. At least 25 states, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico have made some or all teachers eligible for a coronavirus vaccine as of February 1, Education Week reports. He was well known for his success in helping children learn in every setting, and we were all very much looking forward to his leadership over our PRIDE program this year. According to data from the American Association of Pediatrics, cases in children are generally mild. Various unions have compiled their own statistics. Follow-up research published in The Lancet Regional HealthAmericas in October looked at deaths from April 2021 to March 2022 and found a 26 percent higher death rate in areas where voters leaned Republican. When decisions are made about the lives of teachers, teachers need to be involved in those discussions, he said. In New York alone, 75 Department of Education employees died from COVID-19, including 31 teachers. Christopher Terrazas, who teaches English and language arts to sixth graders in the same San Antonio school district, considers teaching his true calling and cares deeply about his students. In Florida, 53 officers have died from COVID-19. A week before school began, three elementary school educators died of COVID-19 complications. Heaven gained an all-star. She said kids age 12 and older are eligible for treatments such as the Covid-19 vaccine and monoclonal antibody therapy, which DeSantis has pitched for weeks. Teachers aged 40 and up, meanwhile, were most likely to have left due to a health condition that put them at heightened COVID-19 risk. By using this website, you accept the terms of our Visitor Agreement and Privacy Policy, and understand your options regarding Ad Choices. Whether to teach K-12 students virtually, in-person or through a combination of the two is an issue that has divided people in many of the nations largest school districts. Among new persons tested, more than 21 percent were found positive for the virus. As Republican-led states pushed back on lockdowns, the impact on population death rates was observed within weeks, Woolf said. All Rights Reserved. Amanda Winkle is the digital content manager for Action News Jax. Teachers are next in line for the Covid vaccine. Its a pretty tragic thing to be happening in our country right now.. To help better protect everyone at elementary schools, where most students remain ineligible to receive a COVID vaccine, the district is using federal funding to install desk shields "to help protect our K-5 elementary students, who often work in close proximity to each other," they said in an Oct. 11 post on Facebook. There have been a total of 10 pediatric deaths due to COVID-19 in the state. 5. (The other is Georgia.). Polk County Public Schools say a dozen employees have died from the coronavirus since school began on Aug. 10, according to multiple outlets. Her passing came two days after her mother's death from the same disease. By Samuel Stebbins, 24/7 Wall St. - Tampa. Our entire school community is deeply saddened by this unexpected loss, and we send our condolences to his family.. It is a bruising statistic that we need to absolutely internalize," Miami-Dade school Superintendent Alberto M. Carvalho told NPR's Here & Now. So far, 433 Polk County school employees and 3,434 students have tested positive for COVID since the school year began, according to the district's coronavirus dashboard. So many large districts are here in the state of Florida and weve demonstrated that we can open, we can do it safely, and we continue with in-person learning, thats a good model for the rest of the country.. "It's a tremendous loss," said a school official, referring to the death of longtime teacher Abe Coleman, 55, earlier . Its certainly not a lack of empathy, Gonzalez said, of the decisions that school leaders are making. In any case, the long-term decline of health in red states indicates that there is an ongoing problem at a high level in Republican-led places, and that something has gone awry. Colleges and universities worldwide were forced to introduce COVID-related restrictions and to transition to mainly distance (online) teaching and learning for Academic Year 2020/2021. Her brother, Charles, said that no one knows where she contracted the virus, but her school had resumed in-person learning under the dictates of Floridas Republican Governor Ron DeSantis and it is entirely possible she contracted the virus at work. Learn about careers at Cox Media Group. Unfortunately, we dont have the data to do so. Over 21,000 students and staff have had to quarantine. And how teachers feel about their situations and the recourse they have varies widely from district to district and region to region. Just as Florida has historically served as a testing ground for the gutting of public education, so too is it serving as a testing ground for the homicidal back-to-work and back-to-school policies of the Republicans and Democrats, who are both promoting a herd immunity policy among Florida educators, parents, students and the broader working class. Philadelphias plan to return on February 22 could also face uncertainty if the teachers union isnt on board. I dont feel like people have compassion towards that or if they truly understand that that is what we do.. This means that in-school transmission of coronavirus will continue to occur even if teachers are vaccinated, making schools significant vectors for the spread of more infectious and lethal variants of the virus throughout Florida communities. And then the deaths that were reported.". The county has now recorded at least 42,482 confirmed cases and 689 deaths. Zuckerman is far from the first Florida educator to die as a result of contracting coronavirus. A likely explanation, the authors write, could be that in the post-vaccine era, those leaders chose policies and conveyed public-health messages that made their constituents more likely to die. He leaves behind a wife, son and two daughters, according to his obituary. Of these 86.315 all died of other serious pre-existing conditions including dementia, chronic kidney disease, chronic pulmonary disease, chronic neurological disease, and . The weekly number of new cases related to public and private K-12 schools over the past two months has ranged from 2,191 to 4,854. One school district in Florida has reported 17 employee deaths from COVID-19 since August as schools continue to battle the state and Gov. If the issue is indeed systemic, that doesnt bode well for the future. Woolfs work suggests that over the decades, state policy decisions on health issues such as Medicaid, gun legislation, tobacco taxes, and, indeed, vaccines have likely had a stronger impact on state health trajectories than other factors. Students in neighbouring Orlando, Florida, have their temperatures checked Three teachers in Florida's second-largest school district have died from Covid-19 within two days of each. But when Covid-19 cases began rising sharply around December, that didnt happen. Ron DeSantis ahead of his 2022 reelection bid. "The outcome, the consequence is the death of individuals, and that's just not acceptable.". Marks wife, Sherry, was also hospitalized but recovered. Karla Hernandez-Mats, the president of the United Teacher of Dade, told NBC6 that it appears the teachers. A further 123,796 people also died 21 days or more after having the Covid-19 vaccine, but its impossible to know the exact parameters for the other deaths. Polk County School Board member Lynn Wilson called it "a terrible tragedy" in an interview with WESH2 News. Health outcomes have been diverging at the state level since the 90s, Steven Woolf, an epidemiologist at Virginia Commonwealth University, told me. Our monetization model empowers Citizen Journalists to report the news in local and national markets. At least seven of the 17 kids who have died were patients at Wolfson. Fusco said she is currently "torn" over talks of mandating vaccinations, although she said she may change her mind once the Food & Drug Administration fully authorizes the vaccines. The state now has seen 17 deaths, and American Academy of Pediatrics Florida President Lisa Gwynn said many of them may have had underlying medical conditions when they became infected.. The right-wing media have leaned even harder into vaccine skepticism. Whats most concerning about all of this is that partisan disparities in death rates were also apparent before COVID. 10:43 AM EST, Wed February 3, 2021. She was uncomfortable with the high coronavirus case numbers in the county, coupled with a lack of testing for employees and students. That said, weve had teachers, coaches, principals, and superintendents get ill on a pretty regular basis and die, Brown said. Schools in Broward County are expected to reopen for the new academic year on Wednesday. For more information or to donate, click here. According to the Florida Education Association (FEA), 40 active educators have died from COVID-19 in the state since DeSantis ordered that schools reopen on July 6, 2020. According to official NHS data which can be viewed here, from March 2020 up to the 25th of August 2021; a period of 18 months, 90,147 Covid deaths within 28 days of a positive test have been recorded in England hospitals. The Biden administrations COVID blunders are no doubt to blame for some of the nations deaths. DeSantis administration did not answer questions about the increase in deaths. 2 Days Into The School Year, A Florida District Asked 440 Students To Quarantine, Florida Gov. Less than a week before schools are set to reopen in Florida's Broward County, local union officials say three educators have died of complications from the coronavirus. At first, Vasquez, who is 49, said she was willing to give the arrangement a try. Superintendents are doing the best they can, but theyre dealing with a lose-lose situation, he said. Fusco said 48-year-old Pinewood Elementary teacher and union steward Janice Wright, 49-year-old Dillard Elementary teacher Katina Jones and 49-year-old teaching assistant Yolonda Hudson-Williams, also of Dillard Elementary, were the educators who lost their lives to COVID-19 this past week. (AP) Teachers in at least three states have died after bouts with the . "And then the sense of anxiety that our governor's interfering with the safety protocols and wanting to block the mask mandate because they know it's an extra layer of protection. She will be remembered as an enthusiastic team player who made learning science fun for her students, family members said in her obituary. Shirley Duggan (Brantley County School District). The first grade teacher in El Paso who once went viral for teaching students to be kind. But after months of trying to conceal the data, the Office for National Statistics published a report which contained figures on deaths by vaccination status. (And others) to go for his herd immunity approach? But given how events have unfolded in her district after the death of three educators, submitting her resignation letter wont be hard. Though some teachers fear being back in classrooms while the virus is still raging in their communities, other leaders argue that the educational toll on students and the stress on families are more urgent concerns. Its us, the teachers and staff trying to stay alive, versus them, the board members who refuse to acknowledge what were going through and the board members who refuse to work in the office, she said. But for Gotreaux her and other colleagues, it was the straw that broke the camels back..