As schools across the country prepare to open back up for the new school year despite a recent uptick in coronavirus cases, MSNBC “Morning Joe” host Joe Scarborough is urging President Joe Biden to tell teachers they have to be vaccinated to return.
Scarborough acknowledged it is a “tough choice” but argued making kids stay home last year was “absolutely devastating” for the children, especially the “truly disadvantaged.”
“[M]ika, he does need to make the tough choice right now. Joe Biden needs to make the tough choice right now. And he needs to start in his own political backyard, and he needs to tell the teachers’ union that he’s going to require every public health care person to get it but also … every public school teacher needs to be vaccinated,” Scarborough outlined. “If you remember last year, they kept saying we can’t go back to school. Earlier this year — we can’t go back to school until we’re all vaccinated. That’s all we heard. Right? OK. Well, we have the vaccinations now. Starting to hear some rumblings … maybe we can’t go back to school this fall because it’s not — no. No. No. No. That’s not an option. That’s not an option. Our kids stayed home last year, and the results were absolutely devastating, even more devastating for the truly disadvantaged.”
He continued, “We have the vaccines, and the President of the United States needs to say, ‘If you are a public school teacher or you teach at a public university, as a condition of your job you have to get vaccinated. We are not closing schools this fall. Children will not be staying at home this fall looking at Zoom classes. They’re going to be in because their teachers are going to be vaccinated.’ That’s where Joe Biden needs to start. He needs to start there today.”
Follow Trent Baker on Twitter @MagnifiTrent
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