Crucially, that number doesnt account for whether an employee was exposed to the virus at school or in some other setting. PCR test notorious for producing false positives, Perfect 10: Charlie Coyle leads surging Bruins past Rangers, Three-goal second period lifts Sabres over Lightning, UK Science Minister Says ChatGPT Could Play A Role In Government. Jessie Cortez, 43, died Aug. 31, according to the Florida Education Association (FEA). Lena Marcella Jackson, 61, died from COVID-19 July 25. Shell played college football at Jacksonville University and spent several years in the Canadian Football League. She does care about her students. Although we still cant say these decisions led to higher death rates, the association alone is jarring. may have been by accident. Six of those teachers and staff members have died since Aug. 17, in just over 30 days. You can find out more and change our default settings with Cookies Settings. You can find anti-vaxxers in every corner of the country. Theres also no evidence to suggest more teachers are dying than people in other professions. The Republican Party is unquestionably complicit in the premature deaths of many of its own supporters, a phenomenon that may be without precedent in the history of both American democracy and virology. 03 Mar 2023 21:43:25 Heaven gained an all-star. Just as Florida has historically served as a testing ground for the gutting of public education, so too is it serving as a testing ground for the homicidal back-to-work and back-to-school policies of the Republicans and Democrats, who are both promoting a herd immunity policy among Florida educators, parents, students and the broader working class. Some 15 million people died during the first two years of the COVID-19 pandemic, new figures from the World Health Organization (WHO) suggest. We know that as of April 2022, about 318,000 people had died from COVID because they were unvaccinated, according to research from Brown University. The American Federation of Teachers, one of the nations largest teachers unions, estimates more than 530 of their members died of the virus last year. Arlington Middle Principal Shawn Platts sent a message to students and families. China's official count 0 2.5 million . 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. Although they can't show it. But one of the more extensive efforts to track educator deaths from Covid-19 comes from a memorial run by the trade publication Education Week. The teachers union said it's not clear if. She was like her grandmother. She was angry that she wasnt given an option to continue working remotely, despite being the primary caregiver for a mother with lung cancer. But that estimate has changedand even likely grownover time. One school district in Florida has reported 17 employee deaths from COVID-19 since August as schools continue to battle the state and Gov. 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. Cases of the coronavirus have spiked in Florida in recent weeks, spurred on by the highly contagious delta variant. Hare, who is 43, said she knows how seriously the couple took the pandemic, but it still cost her coworkers husband his life. Vasquez said she recognizes the difficult choices that school officials have to make. But given how events have unfolded in her district after the death of three educators, submitting her resignation letter wont be hard. Still, some officials and parents are pushing for a quicker return to in-person classes. Recently, a teacher at another school in Vasquezs district a woman she worked with for four years in a previous job died of complications from Covid-19. All three taught in elementary school, and were unvaccinated, said the Broward Teachers' Union.. The syndrome can also affect individuals with mild cases. That's about 2.7 . 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%. For the latest on COVID-19, readers are encouraged to use online resources from the CDC, WHO and local public health departments. Talk about teachers and pupils who wanted to wear masks & got suspended? The county has now recorded at least 42,482 confirmed cases and 689 deaths. If the issue is indeed systemic, that doesnt bode well for the future. In Florida, 53 officers have died from COVID-19. Having said that, it doesnt mean were not worried sick about it,' Gwynn said during a Sept. 3 interview. 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. Health outcomes have been diverging at the state level since the 90s, Steven Woolf, an epidemiologist at Virginia Commonwealth University, told me. 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. Ron DeSantis, who have banned them from requiring. "And then the sense of anxiety that our governor's interfering with the safety protocols and wanting to block the mask mandate because they know it's an extra layer of protection. Of these 86.315 all died of other serious pre-existing conditions including dementia, chronic kidney disease, chronic pulmonary disease, chronic neurological disease, and heart disease. He was employed by St. Johns County School Transportation as a bus driver. But to understand why Republicans have died at higher rates, you cant look at vaccine status alone. But he knows that the current situation is testing teacher morale. 2023 Cable News Network. #TrojanPride pic.twitter.com/0GKMv7yuva. 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. From 2001 to 2019, the death rate in Democratic counties decreased by 22 percent, according to a recent study; in Republican counties, it declined by only 11 percent. A A MIAMI-DADE COUNTY, Fla. / NBC6 Fifteen staffers of the Miami-Dade County Public Schools District have died from COVID-19 in the past 10 days, officials said. Unfortunately, we dont have the data to do so. The. "But a mask mandate? Johnny Louis/Getty Images 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. Karla Hernandez-Mats, the president of the United Teacher of Dade, told NBC6 that it appears the teachers. 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. In any case, the long-term decline of health in red states indicates that there is an ongoing problem at a high level in Republican-led places, and that something has gone awry. Insider spoke with a Florida math teacher about teaching in COVID-19 hotspot Broward County. One school district in Florida has reported 17 employee deaths from COVID-19 since August as schools continue to battle the state and Gov. A family of Duval County Schools employees world was rocked in late July after a mother was hospitalized and her husband and son both died from COVID-19, according to the FEA, citing reporting from the Times-Union. It is the first time in two months since the delta variant-fueled wave started June 18 that weekly cases have . Did you encounter any technical issues? Dax Gonzalez, division director of governmental relations for the Texas Association of School Boards, said that local school trustees are balancing the competing needs of their communities, administrators and teachers. Jason Robertson had two goals and one assist, Joe Pavelski had a goal and an assist, and the host Dallas Stars beat the Colorado Avalanche , Charlie Coyle collected a goal and an assist to fuel the streaking Boston Bruins to a 4-2 victory over the visiting New York Rangers on , Buffalos Tage Thompson and Jeff Skinner had a power-play goal and an assist apiece to lead the host Sabres to a 5-3 win over the , The Telegraph is reporting that, ChatGPT could play a role in the workings of government, the new science minister has said., Copyright 2023 [your]NEWS Media Group, Inc | Send comments, questions or complaints to: [emailprotected] | Site by KO | Beta v3.01, Copyright 2023 [your]NEWS Media Group, Inc, Send comments, questions orcomplaints to: [emailprotected], To install [your]NEWS on your phone , tap and select Add to Home Screen. Since August 10, when the first schools opened, there have been 1,235 confirmed classroom closings and quarantines across the state. At first, Vasquez, who is 49, said she was willing to give the arrangement a try. 'The end of the beginning.' A week before school began, three elementary school educators died of COVID-19 complications. Follow-up research published in The Lancet Regional HealthAmericas in October looked at deaths from April 2021 to March 2022 and found a 26 percent higher death rate in areas where voters leaned Republican. It feels scary to go to your job and not know if you could catch this deadly virus and potentially bring it back home to family members who are already vulnerable, he said. The McCall family was not vaccinated, citing fear of the vaccine. Losing a colleague to the virus encapsulates many of the safety concerns that Vasquez and her coworkers have been feeling in recent weeks. He was employed with the St. Johns County Sheriffs Office, serving most recently as the Youth Resource Deputy at St. Augustine High School. As information about the coronavirus pandemic rapidly changes, PEOPLE is committed to providing the most recent data in our coverage. On top of all that, theyre seeing colleagues getting sick and even dying of Covid-19 and worry they or their loved ones could be next. Among new persons tested, more than 21 percent were found positive for the virus. In fact, recent studies have concluded that in-person classes arent significantly contributing to coronavirus spread an in-depth look at two US schools released last week found that there was no evidence of student-to-teacher or teacher-to-student transmission when proper precautions were taken. Theres pressure from state leaders, too. Thirteen school districts have rejected DeSantis rule against requiring face coverings in schools including five in GOP-leaning counties and a Florida judge recently ruled that the governor overstepped his authority in attempting to prohibit schools from implementing mandatory mask policies, though an appeals court on Friday reinstated DeSantis ban. 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. Breaking down the cost of vaccine hesitancy would be simple if we could draw a causal relationship between Republican leaders anti-vaccine messaging and the adoption of those ideas by Americans, and then from those ideas to deaths due to non-vaccination. 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. Two teachers and a teaching assistant in Florida's Broward County died from COVID-19 within a span of 24 hours, the Broward Teachers Union said Thursday. Our deepest condolences are going out to the family and friends of former Ribault Trojans head coach Lin Shell. Never miss a story sign up for PEOPLE's free daily newsletter to stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer, from juicy celebrity news to compelling human interest stories. Mobeen Rathore, Wolfsons chief of pediatric infectious disease and immunology, said more children are being admitted to intensive care units and getting intubated. 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). 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. Democrats are not without fault, though. They were pastors and custodians. His spokesperson, Christina Pushaw, instead pointed to a statewide decrease in pediatric hospitalizations over the past two weeks. There have been a total of 10 pediatric deaths due to COVID-19 in the state. Eva Marie Uzcategui/Bloomberg/Getty Images Santa Rosa County teacher Jeff . Many schools struggle to reopen for in-person learning. There's no definitive number that records exactly how many teachers, administrators and school employees have died of Covid-19, though new reports of deaths seem to surface with. 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. 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. Our entire school community is deeply saddened by this unexpected loss, and we send our condolences to his family.. But in that delicate balancing act, she said, she feels that the concerns of teachers arent given the same consideration. If you happen to live in certain states, your chances for living a long life are going to be much higher than if youre an American living in a different state, Woolf said. Teachers in at least five states have died from COVID-19 since the fall semester started, The Washington Post reported Thursday . Larry King (born Lawrence Harvey Zeiger; [1] November 19, 1933 - January 23, 2021) was an American television and radio host, whose awards included 2 Peabodys, an Emmy and 10 Cable ACE Awards. STAY UPDATED:Download the Action News Jax app for live updates on breaking stories. Your effort and contribution in providing this feedback is much More than 82,000 cases have been reported in K-12 schools, a number that has doubled since the beginning of 2021. No country has a perfect COVID-vaccination rate, even this far into the pandemic, but America's record is particularly dismal.