Unsafe Schools at any speed --call on UFT and DOE to issue 10 foot poles to vaxed school employees

There's the old joke: 

Guy1: What are those round marks on your forehead?  Guy1: From the ten foot poles. 

The origin of the phrase not to touch people with a ten foot pole comes from previous plagues. 

If I were still working, my unvaxed colleagues would have round marks on their foreheads. Imagine you are in the staff room and one of these characters walks in to eat lunch.

I call on the UFT and de Blasio to issue ten foot poles to all vaccinated school employees. There certainly should be one in every staff room. Or just use that window opening pole.

UFT President Michael Mulgrew is working to get religious and medical exemptions from the city's COVID vaccine mandate. He should be working on getting at least as many safety precautions in the schools as there were last year when COVID was at a lower rate in NYC than it is now but instead, Mulgrew is doing his best to placate an intractable loud minority of anti-vax mandate UFTers, many of whom are anti-union. Mulgrew is part of the bipartisan consensus among Democrats and Republicans to open full in-person learning no matter what is happening with the Delta variant. How many UFT members are we talking about who aren't vaccinated?.... James Eterno, ICEUFT blog

My religion is the cult of the cat. If I were still working that's my excuse. If I were working and I knew colleagues who refused to get vaxed I'd stay so far away from them I'd need binoculars to see them. Or just walk around with a 10 foot pole.

We just might have beaten the coming Delta school-based deluge IF all teachers and eligible students had been vaccinated. But they haven't been, so here goes more lock downs. 

James has been covering the UFT capitulation to the anti-vaxers at the ICE blog. You've got to read some of the comments to see why covid test cases are rising.

HAPPY LABOR DAY FROM EDUWONKETTE TO ALL BUT UFT LEADERSHIP

We love Eduwonkette who we helped get started with her blog over 15 years ago which became one of the hottest education blogs in the nation.

My tweet in response has gotten some play:

 

In Rockaway, Breezy Point (11697), which is supposedly over 90% vaxed, despite being 80% Trump territory, has a 15% testing rate, possibly the highest in the city. How is that possible? A friend from Breezy told me that there is a massive amount of children with Covid. I get that about children under 12. Far Rock Zip 11691 has one of the lowest vax rates in the city -- 39% --- and also has high infection rates -- that has been throughout the epidemic -- with loads who have died. 

 

James followed up with a slam at the so-called "choice" people -- do they refuse to show their drivers license when they fly?

ANTI-VAX MANDATE LEADER GETS UFT ATTENTION BY PROMOTING LEAVING THE UNION; WHAT DOES PRO-VAX MAJORITY HAVE TO DO TO GET UFT TO PUSH FOR SAFE IN-PERSON SCHOOLS AND A REAL REMOTE OPTION?

http://iceuftblog.blogspot.com/2021/09/anti-vax-mandate-leader-gets-uft.html