Fauci, teachers unions at odds over reopening schools

Fauci told ABC News host George Stephanopoulos that despite the rising cases of the omicron variant, he believes reopening schools for in-person learning is the right call given widespread vaccinations among teachers and the negative effects on students of not attending in-person.

“When we’ve done the balance so many times over the last year about the deleterious effects of keeping children out of in physical presence in the school, and it’s very clear that there are some really serious effects about that,” said Fauci…

On Friday, the American Federation of Teachers in Massachusetts released a statement questioning the safety of returning to in-person learning.

Beth Kontos, the president of the federation, said, “Massachusetts public school students and their families have struggled with the uncertainty and anxiety of the COVID pandemic for two years. They have the right to know that after the holiday break they are returning to safe schools. Given the ever-increasing infection rate and the virulent behavior of the current COVID strain, we know they will not.”