Covid Vaccination

[ReadyDale]

I'm sure the teachers' unions will still find reason to oppose returning 

That's totally out of order!

Please note, I said "Teachers' Unions", NOT the teachers themselves, who are doing a brilliant job under extreme circumstances

[groom]

I'm sure the teachers' unions will still find reason to oppose returning 

That's totally out of order!

Please note, I said "Teachers' Unions", NOT the teachers themselves, who are doing a brilliant job under extreme circumstances

Teaching Unions, including those who make the decisions, are made up of teachers or ex teachers, they have the safety of staff and pupils in mind, they don't tell them to refuse to go into school just for the sake of it.

[LizzieL]

No doubt it is possible to make a compelling case for several professions to be a priority case for receiving the vaccine but the order, which seems to have been adopted by all four UK nations, has been decided by the JVCI, an independent body.
Here, in Wales, the "roll out" of the vaccine has been slow and it seems we have the lowest rate of administering it in the UK. Our First Minister, Mark Drakeford, made a statement saying that the vaccination programme was "not a sprint". Mmmmm ..... I have no argument with that because it is a marathon, but one which must be run at the rate of a sprint throughout its entirety.
Yesterday in Cardiff and Vale Health Board nineteen people failed to attend for their vaccinations. Whilst I appreciate some may have a valid reason for this, I am sure some certainly will not. I don't know how much this is being replicated across the UK but I hope it is not widespread.
 

As I read the BBC report, the Education secretary was advocating teachers should be given priority after the first wave, i.e groups 1 - 4 and get ahead of the 65 -  69 year olds and the clinically vulnerable through certain medical conditions.   

"The government is aiming to offer vaccinations to around 15 million people in the UK - the over-70s, older care home residents and staff, front-line healthcare workers and the clinically extremely vulnerable - by mid-February in the first wave of immunisations.

But Mr Williamson told MPs he believed school staff were the "top priority" for the next phase of the vaccine rollout."

[ReadyDale]

I'm sure the teachers' unions will still find reason to oppose returning 

That's totally out of order!

Please note, I said "Teachers' Unions", NOT the teachers themselves, who are doing a brilliant job under extreme circumstances

Teaching Unions, including those who make the decisions, are made up of teachers or ex teachers, they have the safety of staff and pupils in mind, they don't tell them to refuse to go into school just for the sake of it.

Maybe so, but in my dealings with them through work and how they portray themselves in the media, they seem to have a "Can't Do" attitude.
Similarly, many of the teachers my work brings me in to contact with do not have the best of opinions of their union's bosses.
But I appreciate different people have different opinions.

[Gan Yam]

If the Government's plan for vaccination is ambitious at 13 million doses, (2 million per week) by mid Feb, in order to vaccinate all over 70s, then it surely needs to be even more ambitious after February.  In order to get everyone vaccinated by autumn or even the additional 20 million, in the plan, over 50 and under 70 by spring,  will it not have to increase its vaccination programme to 4 million per week? They have decided that 12 weeks can be left between first and second doses in order to maximise the number of first doses given, but that can only ever "buy" the initial twelve week gap, then in order to keep everything on track and achieve "herd" immunity (80% vaccinated) by autumn, there will surely need be the 2 million vaccines per week for the first timers, in addition to those receiving the follow up dose!

[Greensleeves]

Quote from ReadyDale regarding teachers:

"....Maybe so, but in my dealings with them through work and how they portray themselves in the media, they seem to have a "Can't Do" attitude."

I think this is outrageous and I am shocked that anyone would post something like this, which is both rude and dismissive of the huge debt of gratitude we owe teachers,  who have struggled to keep schools open for the past year, many of whom have died or become seriously ill with covid.

To use the phrase "how they portray themselves in the media" shows the most blatant  ignorance of how the media works.  The teachers are not responsible for how the media portrays them.  Generally speaking, we  are  all at the mercy of how the media wants to portray us.  We saw a similar situation at the start of the pandemic, when the media ran lurid stories about nurses partying on empty wards, implying that covid wasn't really as bad as it was made out to be. But  as soon as people - including medical staff - started dying in their hundreds, then thousands, we were urged to rush out and applaud their courage.

Please can we stop this divisive nonsense.  It is unnecessary.  To get through this dreadful time, we all need to be respectful of each other, and not be led by the nose by powerful groups with their own agendas.

[Mike in Cumbria]

Maybe so, but in my dealings with them through work and how they portray themselves in the media, they seem to have a "Can't Do" attitude.

Remember the first rule of holes - when you find yourself in one - stop digging!

[ReadyDale]

OK. Once again I must stress I was talking about the union leaders NOT, repeat NOT, the rank and file teachers who have performed incredibly (above and beyond doesn't even begin to cover it).

To Answer Greensleeves comment about the media, I would 100% agree and I am basing my opinions on what the union leaders THEMSELVES say, not on what words the media put in their mouths, and as previously said, in conjunction with my dealings with teaching unions via my work.

[Maiden Stone]

Please can we stop this divisive nonsense.  It is unnecessary.  To get through this dreadful time, we all need to be respectful of each other, and not be led by the nose by powerful groups with their own agendas.

I just wanted to highlight this.