Teachers Unions Not Done With Shakedowns; Suddenly Won’t ‘Trust Science’
Not surprisingly, many teachers unions don't agree that three feet is actually all that's needed for safe social-distancing. Forget that three feet is now what the CDC is recommending for students.
Instead, the American Federation of Teachers (AFT) told the Biden administration Tuesday that it's "not convinced" that anything less than six feet will keep everyone out of harm's way, especially in schools with poor resources and poor ventilation.
The AFT, the nation's second-largest teachers union, expressed its concerns in a letter written in response to the top health agencies in the world reconfiguring safety guidelines for schools.
"On Friday, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reduced its recommendation for social distancing within schools to prevent the spread of COVID-19 from six feet to three feet, citing studies of limited virus transmission and similar recommendations from the World Health Organization and the American Academy of Pediatrics," CBS News reported.
But for whatever reason, teachers unions are holding out and holding onto guidelines set a year ago.
"These updated recommendations provide the evidence-based roadmap to help schools reopen safely, and remain open, for in-person instruction," CDC Director Rochelle Walensky said in a statement last week.
Despite all that, teachers union remain skittish.
"We are not convinced that the evidence supports changing physical distancing requirements at this time," AFT president Randi Weingarten wrote in a letter obtained by CBS. "Our concern is that the cited studies do not identify the baseline mitigation strategies needed to support 3 feet of physical distancing."
Weingarten went on to express strong doubts about the CDC's latest recommendations.
"hey were not conducted in our nation's highest-density and least-resourced schools, which have poor ventilation, crowding and other structural challenges," she wrote.
That's not all.
"The teachers union also posed several questions about the practicality of the Biden administration recommendations, including whether teachers must 'remain in one spot at the front of the room the entire day' in order to abide by adult social distancing recommendations and whether social distancing recommendations apply to school buses, too," CBS reported.