Teachers Say School Isn't Safe—So They're Calling in Sick
It’s proving awfully hard to determine if, how and when to open schools for in-person learning in the pandemic era. Doing so would be a lot harder still if schools open up but there’s no one there to teach the kids. That’s the situation developing in some U.S. school districts, as teachers object to working in environments they say are unsafe for students—and for themselves.
As my colleague Katie Reilly reports, worried teachers are staging or threatening strikes or sick-outs in districts nationwide, most notably and most recently in the J.O. Combs Unified School District in San Tan Valley, Ariz. where the district’s governing board voted last week to reopen classes as of two days ago. The superintendent cited “tremendous feedback from families in the district who expressed a strong need for their children to return to the classroom.”
Maybe, but the feedback from the district's teachers was just as tremendous: more than 100 out of 600 educators and other staffers have called in sick so far, refusing to work until conditions can be proven safe. For now, that's impossible. Pinal County, where the district is located, has failed to meet one of Arizona’s three benchmarks necessary for schools to reopen safely—it has successfully gone two weeks with a decline in cases and without the hospitalization rate exceeding 10% of all cases, but has failed to go two consecutive weeks with a positivity rate below 7%.
That makes the schools no-go zones for plenty of teachers, who say that the district provided each of them with only one bottle of disinfectant, a rag and a pair of gloves to keep their classrooms safe. “There’s a perception that we don’t want to teach, and that’s not the case at all,” Tiffanie Carlson, a social studies teacher at Combs High School and vice president of the Combs Education Association, told Reilly. “We want our kids back in the classroom, but we want them back when it’s safe for them to be there.”
Arizona is not alone in facing teacher pushback. Detroit teachers plan a vote this week over a possible systemwide strike, and a growing number of teachers in Little Rock, Ark. have said they will refuse to teach if in-person classes begin as scheduled on Aug. 24. With more than 13,500 school districts scattered across the U.S.’ 50 states and the District of Columbia, educator resistance will inevitably be local and uneven. But some teachers are lobbying for coast-to-coast mobilization.
“I’d like to see nationwide action, whether it’s a walkout or sickout in solidarity to say, ‘It’s not safe to return and we will not be sacrificed,'” Rebecca Garelli, an organizer for Arizona Educators United and National Educators United, told Reilly.
The outlook for such unified protest is uncertain for the moment. But the stakes—the health and lives of students and teachers—couldn’t be clearer.
More than 22.1 million people around the world had been sickened by COVID-19 as of 9 AM eastern time today, and more than 780,000 people have died.
Here is every country with over 300,000 confirmed cases:
Officials in Venezuela are declaring that some citizens who have come into contact with the virus are “bioterrorists,” the New York Timesreports; authorities are even arresting some Venezuelans returning home from other Latin American countries with major outbreaks and detaining them for weeks or months with little food or water, detainees say. The savage treatment is a desperate bid by the country’s leaders to stop the virus and preserve political power, experts say. Venezuela has reported relatively low official virus numbers—about 35,000 cases and nearly 300 deaths, compared to nearby Brazil’s 3.4 million cases and nearly 110,000 deaths—but the real figures are believed to be much higher.
Australian officials announced today that, if a COVID-19 vaccine being developed by pharmaceutical giant AstraZeneca and the University of Oxford is approved, citizens will receive it for free. “The Oxford vaccine is one of the most advanced and promising in [the] world, and under this deal we have secured early access for every Australian,” Prime Minister Scott Morrison said in a statement. The vaccine is currently in Phase III clinical trials.
Meanwhile, in a broadcast from the Vatican earlier today, Pope Francis called for universal access to a successful vaccine. “How sad it would be if, for the COVID-19 vaccine, priority were to be given to the richest,” he said.
The Situation in the U.S.
The U.S. had recorded more than 5.4 million coronavirus cases as of 9 AM eastern time today. More than 171,000 people have died. Here's where daily cases have risen or fallen over the last 14 days, shown in confirmed cases per 100,000 residents:
On August 18, there were 44,091 new cases and 1,324 new deaths confirmed in the U.S. Here's how the country as a whole is currently trending:
As wildfires rage in California, firefighters are gathering in remote, crowded camps to fight them—and crossing their fingers that the coronavirus doesn’t follow them there, Kaiser Health News reports. After all, smoke pollutants could make firefighters more likely to contract the virus as well as exacerbate their symptoms. Moreover, if an outbreak occurs, it could sideline firefighters right as wildfire season gets underway. Camps have adopted new health precautions, but people in high-risk areas are concerned nonetheless.
Federal health officials unexpectedly hit the brakes today on blood plasma as a COVID-19 treatment, the New York Timesreports. Those officials, including National Institutes of Health Director Dr. Francis Collins and National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases Director Dr. Anthony Fauci, say the evidence supporting the treatment just isn’t strong enough for them to give it the green light.
New York City has hit its lowest rate yet for positive coronavirus tests: 0.24%. “This should be a clarion call to all of us to double down and go further, because the more we can do to beat back this virus, the more we can bring back this city,” said mayor Bill de Blasio while announcing the figure at a news conference today.
In a study published today by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), researchers found that in 23 states, the cumulative incidence of lab-confirmed COVID-19 was 3.5 times higher among American Indian and Alaska Native people compared to that of white Americans—even though these groups account for less than 1% of the U.S. population. Persisting racial inequities, which contribute to a higher reliance on shared transportation, less access to running water and other factors that make people more susceptible to the disease, are all factors, the authors say.
All numbers unless otherwise specified are from the Johns Hopkins University Center for Systems Science and Engineering, and are accurate as of August 19, 1 AM eastern time. To see larger, interactive versions of these maps and charts, click here.
WHAT ELSE YOU SHOULD KNOW
Air Travel Spreads Coronavirus—But Maybe Not How You Think
Ultra-low fares are enticing domestic air travelers to take the risk and board a plane—but even if passengers don’t get sick on planes, flying can still pose a risk to big-picture public health, my colleague Alex Fitzpatrick reports. “Travelers can unknowingly bring the virus from hotspots to areas where it’s more under control, potentially sparking a new outbreak,” he writes. Read more here.
What Concerts Are Like During the Pandemic
In early August, Taiwan held a concert with 10,000 people—the largest event of its kind anywhere in the world since social distancing began. TIME reporter Kat Moon explains what it was like to be at singer Eric Chou’s sold-out show, where everyone wore facial coverings—and one lucky contest-winner even took home a mask signed by the star. Read more here.
The Show Must Not Go On
Russia’s Mariinsky Ballet has been back in action for the past three weeks, and so have its fans—masked, gloved and socially-distanced. But the ballet has halted performances, classes and rehearsals after an outbreak among the dancers, the New York Times reports. The news is saddening to lovers of the arts and out-of-work performers, who hoped Mariinsky’s careful measures would be evidence that artists can be kept safe. Read more here.
The Disappointments of the U.S. Response
What’s the most frustrating part of the pandemic right now? The Huffington Post’s Kelsey Borresen asked infectious disease experts and heard an earful: subpar mask-wearing, attacks on experts and the sad fact that many people seem simply not to care. Read more here.
— Mandy Oaklander
Thanks for reading. We hope you find the Coronavirus Brief newsletter to be a helpful tool to navigate this very complex situation, and welcome feedback at coronavirus.brief@time.com.
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Today's newsletter was written by Jeffrey Kluger and Mandy Oaklander; it was edited by Alex Fitzpatrick.
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