Fauci Says Task Force Not Tracking Teacher Covid Deaths, But Stands By CDC Guidelines to Reopen Schools, Prioritize Teacher Vaccinations

Dr. Anthony Fauci revealed that the Covid-19 task force is not tracking the deaths of teachers who have died from the coronavirus, when asked about his support for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s guidelines for reopening schools.

During a Wednesday press briefing with the White House Covid-19 task force, Mediaite’s Tommy Christopher asked Fauci if they have gathered any data on how many teachers have died from or have been hospitalized because of coronavirus-related illnesses.

“Have you done modeling for how many will die or be hospitalized under the various reopening scenarios?” Christopher pressed.

Fauci said he did not have that information, noting that he’s unsure if it’s even readily available.

CDC head Dr. Rochelle Walensky then added that most school instructional workers or support staff infected with Covid-19 also had been exposed to the virus outside of the schools and in their communities.

Christopher later asked the specialists about the push to vaccinate teachers, noting that President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris have publicly come out in support of prioritizing educators, despite others pointing out that it may be impossible to vaccinate all teachers before reopening schools.

Fauci claimed that it would be impractical to demand all teachers be vaccinated before reopening schools, but added that experts “feel strongly that we should try as best as we possibly can to vaccinate teachers, and they should be as a high priority within the area of essential personnel.”

“Even though we don’t feel that every teacher needs to be vaccinated before you can open a school, that doesn’t take away from the fact that we strongly support the vaccination of teachers,” Fauci added.

“When you see infections in the school setting, personnel or students, that it is really reflective of what is going on in the community, not a very special situation of a particular super-spreading type of situation in a school,” he continued, clarifying Walensky’s prior comments.

Watch above, via the White House.