Efforts to prioritize L.A. County school staff for COVID-19 immunization took a step forward Monday with the announcement that the first vaccination site based at a Los Angeles school will open this week. Those eligible for immunization will be school district staff age 65 and older and district employees currently working at coronavirus testing and vaccination sites, “consistent with current public health rules,” said L.A. schools Supt. Although school nurses of any age, and people 65 and older — whether or not they are school employees — have been eligible to receive vaccines elsewhere, the effort at Roybal is the first within L.A. Unified to target school employees. “K-12 schools have shown that we have the skill to open schools now,” said Head of School Mark McKee. Parents are sharply divided over the issue, while unions representing school employees point to gaps in the research around school safety and the deadly toll the pandemic has taken on low-income minority communities.

Source: Los Angeles Times February 15, 2021 17:48 UTC