On Tuesday’s broadcast of CNN’s “Situation Room,” White House Senior Adviser for COVID Response Andy Slavitt wouldn’t say whether President Joe Biden’s new goal of administering at least one vaccine shot to every educator will move up Biden’s timeline to return kids to school five days a week.
Host Wolf Blitzer asked, “I thought it was also significant that President Biden also announced the new goal to get every educator, childcare worker at least one coronavirus shot by the end of this month. Will he also then be moving up his timeline for getting kids back into school five days a week?”
Slavitt responded, “Well, his goal is to get kids back to school safely, as early as possible, and permanently. And the CDC has helped a great deal with guidelines that help schools figure out what it takes to open. And while the CDC has said teachers aren’t required to be vaccinated for the schools to open in-person, the president made the decision that we can use this new capability we have, the new vaccines from Johnson & Johnson, the accelerated manufacturing from Pfizer and Moderna, to say, let’s make it a priority to get our kids back to school by getting our educators and staff and bus drivers and daycare workers, let’s get them vaccinated, let’s do it in the next few weeks, let’s pull together as a country and do that.”
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