hide caption. And there is no mask mandate, so not all children are wearing masks, Gayle said. Ron DeSantis, the Broward County School Board voted 8-1 Tuesday to make wearing masks in all district schools and facilities mandatory for students, staff, and visitors, member station WLRN reported. So long as America remains locked in a poisonous partisan battle in which science is wrongly dismissed as being associated with the left, the death toll will only rise. Two teachers and one teaching assistant died this week from complications of Covid-19, rattling a school district in southern Florida only days before students are scheduled to return to. Vasquez said she recognizes the difficult choices that school officials have to make. Schools in Broward County are expected to reopen for the new academic year on Wednesday. About a third of Americansmore than a hundred million peoplehave yet to get their initial shots. The list includes support staff and retirees as well as teachers. (And others) to go for his herd immunity approach? The total number of individuals who died after contracting Covid-19 despite vaccination is 750. DeSantis has threatened to withhold pay from superintendents and board members who buck an executive order banning mask mandates in schools. He also coached middle school soccer and football. Catherine Shuman, 38, died Aug. 11 after a battle with COVID-19 according to her family. A recent study found that from October 2020 to February 2021, the death rate in Republican-leaning counties was up to three times higher than that of Democratic-leaning counties, likely because of differences in masking and social distancing. Last Friday, Carol Zuckerman, a 56-year-old teacher who taught at a school in Broward County, Florida, died while battling COVID-19. 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. 10:43 AM EST, Wed February 3, 2021. Teachers are next in line for the Covid vaccine. And the close association between Republican vaccine hesitancy and higher death rates has been documented. But whats most concerning is the revelation that the number of people who died within 21 days of having a Covid-19 vaccine (30,305) in the first 6 months of 2021 was 691% / 8x greater than the number of people who allegedly died of Covid-19 within a period of 18 months (3,832). If a significant number of students elect to be in the classroom in a given district, in-person teaching staff will be needed to support them. But after vaccines became available, that gap widened dramatically to 10.4 percentage points, again with a higher Republican excess-death rate. This station is part of Cox Media Group Television. But the wildly disproportionate presence of Republicans among the unvaccinated reveals an ugly and counterintuitive aspect of the GOP campaign against vaccination: At every turn, top figures in the party have directly endangered their own constituents. Trump disparaged vaccines while president, even after orchestrating Operation Warp Speed. Dozens offreedom of information requestswere made to Public Health England (PHE); now known as the UK Health Security AGency (UKHSA) during this period requesting to know how many people have died within 28 days of having a Covid-19 vaccine, but each and every time PHE claimed they did not hold the information requested. The deaths so far are enough to worry educators and school staff in some districts. If the issue is indeed systemic, that doesnt bode well for the future. Shirley Duggan, 77, died of COVID-19 Aug. 15, according to the Brantley County School District. 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. She was the best thing to happen to our family! 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. It's just a covering.". Watch on. Two months after China ended "zero Covid," rough estimates suggest that between 1 and 1.5 million people died far more than the official count. COVIDs high Republican death rates are not an isolated phenomenon but a continuation of this trend. Ron DeSantis, who have banned them from requiring masks. 2 Days Into The School Year, A Florida District Asked 440 Students To Quarantine, Florida Gov. It would have also spared many children myocarditis. Teacher Elizabeth DeSantis, wearing a mask and face shield, helps a first grader during reading class at Stark Elementary School in September 2020 in Stamford, Connecticut. On the scale of national registration for both parties, Wallace said, were talking about relatively small numbers and differences in deaths when you look at excess-death rates alone. School counselor Jennifer Susko is one of hundreds of Cobb County teachers and staff who protested over Covid-19 safety concerns during a school board meeting on January 21, 2021. They were teachers and coaches. Cases of COVID-19, fueled by the highly contagious delta variant, have spread quickly through schools. 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. Learn about careers at Cox Media Group. While the 17 child deaths may seem low compared to the older adults, the increase of six deaths in August is an inevitable result of more kids becoming infected, according to officials at the Wolfson Childrens Hospital in Jacksonville. To qualify for state funding, every school district in Texas is required to offer an in-person learning option unless the state makes an exception due to high coronavirus spread. Coronavirus cases in San Antonio were relatively low at the time, and teachers had been assured that schools would go fully online again if infections got out of hand, she said. JACKSONVILLE, Fla. - Two beloved teachers at Jacksonville's Trinity Christian Academy have died from complications due to COVID-19, a school spokesman confirmed. While I have only been here and known Mr. Rivers a short time, his passion for students and for education was immediately evident. Jackson previously worked for Florida School for the Deaf and Blind for 15 years before joining St. Johns County School District where she had worked for the past decade. A student arrives for the first day of classes on Aug. 23 at a public school in Miami Lakes, Fla. Obviously, nothing about being a Republican makes someone inherently anti-vaccine. DeSantis has withheld funding from two school districts that violated his order, but Carvalho said that Miami-Dade had not yet lost any money. 5. 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. She had worked as a teacher with the St. Johns County School District for the past 15 years as a pre-K teacher at Timberland Creek Elementary School in St. Augustine, according to her obituary. Other factors could explain the higher death rate in Republican-leaning placesmore poverty, less education, worse socioeconomic conditionsthough Woolf said he isnt convinced that those factors arent related to bad state health policy too. Pushaw noted an Aug. 27 White House briefing that included comments by CDC Director Rochelle Walensky, who said nationwide hospitalization rates for children are on par with previous surges. The district called each death "a devastating blow" to the community in a statement obtained by NBC News. Marks wife, Sherry, was also hospitalized but recovered. COVID-19 vaccine Get the latest information from the CDC. You can find out more and change our default settings with Cookies Settings. "This sad statistic underscores the impact of misinformation and disinformation efforts through some vocal entities, who quite frankly profess anything but scientific reality," Carvalho said. As you can see above, 14,265 people died within 21 days of having the first dose of a Covid-19 vaccine, and 4,388 people died within 21 days of having the first dose of a Covid-19 vaccine whose death allegedly involved Covid-19. According to his Facebook, Hubbard was a Marine Corps vet and served as a praise and worship leader at his church. Widely known football player and Jacksonville coach Wagner Linzel Lin Shell Jr., 39, died July 30. But the data does reveal that the Covid-19 vaccinated accounted for 70% of all deaths excluding COVID in the first six months of 2021. Though he said he doesn't believe a mask policy is enforceable, he does think a virtual learning option would have been helpful, "and we couldn't do that either.". by Justine Coleman - 09/10/20 3:33 PM ET. The first grade teacher in El Paso who once went viral for teaching students to be kind. According to data published Friday by the Florida Department of Health, 74% of Broward County's population of 12-year-olds and older has been fully vaccinated well above the overall total for the state, which stands at 65%. all COVID-vaccine mandates illegal in their state, vaccine uptake accounted for 10 percent of the total. Misinformation #10: One in five people get long COVID The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention claims that 20% of COVID infections can . 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. 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. Ron DeSantis (R) and Broward County's school board, which has opted to defy the. Across the U.S., the American Federation of Teachers lists 210 union members who have died. It is the first time in two months since the delta variant-fueled wave started June 18 that weekly cases have . Were it not for the health benefits, Aime Gotreaux says she would have already resigned from her job as a special education teacher in Kennesaw, Georgia. Some 15 million people died during the first two years of the COVID-19 pandemic, new figures from the World Health Organization (WHO) suggest. In districts around the country, several teachers who spoke to CNN reported being at their wits end: constantly being asked to do more with less while feeling like their anxieties arent being heard. On his prime-time Fox News show, Tucker Carlson has regularly questioned the safety of vaccines, inviting guests who have called for the shots to be withdrawn from the market.. 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. 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. Britt died July 26, Mark died just four days later. Shell played college football at Jacksonville University and spent several years in the Canadian Football League. In the excess death study, researchers dealt only with rates of excess death, not actual death-toll numbers. By using this website, you accept the terms of our Visitor Agreement and Privacy Policy, and understand your options regarding Ad Choices. Still, educators there are finding ways to make their voices heard. Since the beginning of the pandemic, there have been over 220,000 confirmed pediatric cases of COVID-19 in Florida, and nearly 8,000 emergency room admissions. Alabama Teachers Against Covid-19 protest the reopening of schools in Montgomery, Alabama, on July 23, 2020. Florida pastor urges public to get vaccine after 6 church members die of Covid within 10 days. She had a bit of a gypsy soul. 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. Despite the jump in deaths, the rate of kids testing positive for Covid-19 for the first time is about the same as last winter before the current Delta surge. But to understand why Republicans have died at higher rates, you cant look at vaccine status alone. At least 378 active teachers have died from Covid-19 since the beginning of the pandemic, . This Weekend, per HHS Data, Florida Reports Rise in COVID-19 Hospitalizations Among Children, Florida Gov. Her sister described Harrington to Action News Jax as the kindest person shes ever known. 2023 Cable News Network. 1/23. At least 13 employees of the Miami-Dade County Public Schools have died from complications of COVID-19 since Aug. 16, according to district officials. Areport published by the ONSon September 13th 2021 misled the public into believing the majority of Covid-19 deaths were occurring among the unvaccinated population. While both say they will continue insisting on a mask mandate, they report that social distancing rules will be relaxed to allow as many students as possible to come back to classrooms. 24 educators and family members have died of COVID-19 as of Monday. RT @MollyJongFast: How many people died of wokeness because millions of people have died of COVID . Many Republicansin fact, most of themhave gotten their first two shots. Some educators died just before the school year started. She leaves behind a husband, four children and three grandchildren. Lena Marcella Jackson, 61, died from COVID-19 July 25. Eva Marie Uzcategui/Bloomberg/Getty Images, has withheld funding from two school districts. 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. Some of the information in this story may have changed after publication. But that estimate has changedand even likely grownover time. 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. 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. Karla Hernandez-Mats, the president of the United Teacher of Dade, told NBC6 that it appears the teachers. In places with strong teachers unions, educators have more power. The University of California, Davis's teacher education program staved off a planned suspension due only to widespread outcry. Bobby Rivers, assistant principal at Arlington Middle School, died on Aug. 10. The survey, conducted in December, included responses from . Based on Public Health Scotland data seen in the following chart it would seem the top pre-existing condition of those whove died with a positive test result for Covid-19 has been dementia, followed by heart disease and chronic respiratory disease. 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. Sadly, reports published by the UK Government since then, reveal that things only got worse. Only Texas has lost more officers to COVID-19 than Florida, with 151 of its 160 line-of-duty deaths due to the coronavirus. Florida accounted for one in five infections nationwide over the summer, which stretched an already strapped nursing workforce and jammed hospitals to the point where some facilities used office boardrooms as overflow wards. When decisions are made about the lives of teachers, teachers need to be involved in those discussions, he said. William Billy Poyner, 46, died July 26 after a valiant battle with COVID-19, his obituary said. Cree Hare, an elementary school counselor in the Georgia district where three educators recently died, has been working in person since October. Individual vaccine skepticism cannot be traced back to a single source, and even if it could, we dont know exactly who is unvaccinated and what their political affiliations are. Theres pressure from state leaders, too. Superintendents are doing the best they can, but theyre dealing with a lose-lose situation, he said. 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.