Speaker 1: Welcome to Prognosis. I'm Laura Carlson. It's day three and
Speaker 1: thirty one since coronavirus was declared a global pandemic. Today's
Speaker 1: main story in Chicago, after a heated negotiation, public officials
Speaker 1: and teachers unions are getting close to an agreement about
Speaker 1: whether and when to return to in person school. But
Speaker 1: Chicago's fight is one that's playing out in cities all
Speaker 1: over the country. But first, here's what happened in virus
Speaker 1: News today. Early data suggests the Oxford Astra Zeneca vaccine
Speaker 1: is only effective against mild and moderate disease caused by
Speaker 1: the South African strain of coronavirus. Astra said in a
Speaker 1: statement that there isn't enough information yet to say whether
Speaker 1: it's effective at preventing severe COVID nineteen cases, hospitalizations, and deaths.
Speaker 1: The company said work was already under way to adapt
Speaker 1: the vaccine to deal specifically with the South African variant,
Speaker 1: and that a new version could be available by the fall.
Speaker 1: South Africa, where over of new cases are the more
Speaker 1: contagious strain first identified there, will temporarily halt the rollout
Speaker 1: of the astro vaccine. The country plans to accelerate its
Speaker 1: supply of shots from Johnson and Johnson and Fiser Dr
Speaker 1: Anthony Fauci warned Americans not to delay their second dose
Speaker 1: of the coronavirus vaccine. That came after other health experts
Speaker 1: suggested recently there may be a benefit to pushing more
Speaker 1: people to get a first shot and delaying follow ups.
Speaker 1: Fauci said the scientific data it's strongly to the benefit
Speaker 1: of following the recommended timetable for the two doses, and
Speaker 1: that US vaccine supply should improve in February and March
Speaker 1: as the manufacturing capability escalates. Finally, President Joe Biden's that
Speaker 1: it's unlikely the US will reach herd immunity for the
Speaker 1: coronavirus before the end of the summer. Herd immunity means
Speaker 1: enough people become resistant to the disease that it spread
Speaker 1: becomes unlikely. In the US, logistical delays and vaccine shortages
Speaker 1: have meant only a small fraction of the population has
Speaker 1: received shots since two different vaccines became available in December.
Speaker 1: Biden spoken an interview with CBS News that aired on
Speaker 1: Sunday and Now for Today's main story. This weekend, Chicago
Speaker 1: public schools reached at tentative agreement with its teachers to
Speaker 1: resume in person learning later this week. The deal isn't final,
Speaker 1: and it's the latest in a series of tents back
Speaker 1: and forth between the city schools and its teachers unions.
Speaker 1: The bitter fight in Chicago echoes other big cities. I
Speaker 1: spoke to Chicago based reporter Truthi Singh, who explained that
Speaker 1: tensions have escalated coast to coast between unions fearing the
Speaker 1: spread of COVID nineteen and local officials under pressure to
Speaker 1: get teachers back into the classroom. As school districts across
Speaker 1: the US face the very difficult decision about whether and
Speaker 1: how to bring students back to in person teaching, schools
Speaker 1: in Chicago have been facing a particularly difficult path. Can
Speaker 1: you give us maybe just a brief lay of the
Speaker 1: land in terms of what's been going on in the city.
Speaker 1: It has been a long year, and uh, a lot
Speaker 1: of kids have not been in person school since about March,
Speaker 1: so it's about ten eleven months. And now there are people,
Speaker 1: whether it's parents or district officials or others starting to question,
Speaker 1: you know, when do we go back to school. So
Speaker 1: one of the concerns has come from or many of
Speaker 1: the concerns have come from the teachers. They've brought questions
Speaker 1: up regarding vaccinations, They've brought questions up regarding work from
Speaker 1: home arrangements for those who are either at risk themselves
Speaker 1: or may have a family member that may be at
Speaker 1: risk if they are exposed to COVID nineteen. So over
Speaker 1: several months, Chicago Public Schools in the Chicago Teachers Union
Speaker 1: has been negotiating on how to bring teachers, staff and
Speaker 1: students back into the classroom. I think both sides have
Speaker 1: said that they want in person learning, but how to
Speaker 1: do it and how to do it safely is the question. Now.
Speaker 1: Over the last month or so, things have become a
Speaker 1: little bit more tense as there was initially a mark
Speaker 1: on the calendar for preschool and special education kids to
Speaker 1: come back in early January UM, and then there was
Speaker 1: a date for the kindergarten through eighth grade students to
Speaker 1: come back as well. You know, a lot of there's
Speaker 1: a lot of concern about that and those deadlines you know,
Speaker 1: that were set by the city. I think the teachers
Speaker 1: were just not ready for those and you know, when
Speaker 1: it comes to discussing the timeline of bringing students back
Speaker 1: into the classroom, and of course teachers as well would
Speaker 1: have been some of the key issues that say, the
Speaker 1: teachers Union and the city have been wrestling over when
Speaker 1: it comes to how essentially do we make classrooms safe. Well,
Speaker 1: the two sides have been going over for ariety of issues,
Speaker 1: including ventilation. There are safety committees that have been set
Speaker 1: up at at the school level now, um there are
Speaker 1: questions about sanitation ppe and also some of the issues
Speaker 1: that were remaining towards the end of negotiations over the
Speaker 1: last few weeks have been things like vaccinations as well
Speaker 1: as the accommodations for teachers and staff who may be
Speaker 1: at risk themselves or may have family members at risk.
Speaker 1: And in terms of these timelines that you you referenced earlier,
Speaker 1: what has been the latest in terms of when Chicago
Speaker 1: have wanted some students back in the classroom, what are
Speaker 1: the new timelines. Well, so, initially the district as well
Speaker 1: as Chicago Mayor Lory Lightfoot, had said they wanted preschool
Speaker 1: and special education children to come back and about mid January,
Speaker 1: and then a few weeks after that they were asking
Speaker 1: for kindergarten through eighth grade students to come back. The
Speaker 1: teachers would also be coming back under that previous plan
Speaker 1: on a rolling basis now under the current tentative agreement
Speaker 1: that the Chicago Public Schools and the Chicago Teachers Union
Speaker 1: have come at just over the weekend UM. The tentative
Speaker 1: agreement outlines of framework where the earliest of the students,
Speaker 1: which would be preschool and the special education kids, would
Speaker 1: be coming back as early as this Thursday, But high
Speaker 1: school is still an unknown right now. The district has
Speaker 1: said they want to try to bring as many kids
Speaker 1: back into school in person as possible, but right now
Speaker 1: they haven't sort of laid out what the timeline and
Speaker 1: what the return for in person for high school students
Speaker 1: and teachers is going to look like. And I also
Speaker 1: want to mention that this is an option that UM
Speaker 1: the District is offering to parents, and not everybody has
Speaker 1: chosen to come back in person. Even through eighth grade,
Speaker 1: about sixty seven thousand students have indicated that they will
Speaker 1: come back in person of that preschool through eighth grade
Speaker 1: and special needs UM category. But that's out of a
Speaker 1: pool of about two hundred and seven thousand or so. Now,
Speaker 1: you know, there are a lot of moving parts in
Speaker 1: terms of bringing students back at whatever age, and it
Speaker 1: certainly might be the case that teachers don't necessarily feel
Speaker 1: that their classrooms are safe to come back for them
Speaker 1: to teach in what happens if a teacher says, I'm
Speaker 1: unwilling to come back to do in person teaching. So
Speaker 1: that has been actually a point of contention over the
Speaker 1: last several weeks because when the earliest groups of teachers
Speaker 1: were being asked to come back, there were still negotiations
Speaker 1: going on between the Chicago Public Schools and the Chicago
Speaker 1: Teachers Union, and there were a certain number of teachers
Speaker 1: who said, I am going to continue to work remotely
Speaker 1: as the union had voted to do, and not go
Speaker 1: into the school building. Some teacher is even chose to
Speaker 1: work outside of their school building up to highlight some
Speaker 1: of the concerns that they have. There was a certain
Speaker 1: number of teachers given those actions that were considered absent
Speaker 1: without leave, and some of those teachers were locked out
Speaker 1: of the technology that's needed to teach remotely within the
Speaker 1: school system. That has actually been a point of contention
Speaker 1: between the district and the union, and so the union
Speaker 1: has said, we will continue to work remotely until we
Speaker 1: have an agreement and the district and the mayor. As
Speaker 1: recently as Friday had said that if teachers who were
Speaker 1: required to come back today under the most recent deadline,
Speaker 1: because there's been several deadlines, if they did not show up,
Speaker 1: then they would be locked out. But then this tentative
Speaker 1: agreement arrived over the weekend and that has been put
Speaker 1: to the side for right now. As the US vaccine
Speaker 1: distribution rollout pick up speed, a lot of people have
Speaker 1: mentioned perhaps the need for teachers to be closer to
Speaker 1: the front of the line, that um, they need to
Speaker 1: receive their vaccines in order to be safe in the classroom.
Speaker 1: Does this agreement or have has there been any discussion
Speaker 1: about the ability for Chicago teachers to receive vaccines in
Speaker 1: order to get back to get back to the classroom.
Speaker 1: The teachers are in one B, which is the phase
Speaker 1: that includes essential workers and those who are sixty five
Speaker 1: and over, at least here in Illinois, I know from
Speaker 1: state to state it differs a little bit, but they
Speaker 1: are in the essential worker category and they are asking
Speaker 1: the district to set aside and allocate a certain number
Speaker 1: so that teachers can be prioritized on a rolling basis.
Speaker 1: There's been a lot of back and forth about this,
Speaker 1: but where things stand right now is that under the
Speaker 1: tentative agreement, there would be about fifteen hundred first doses
Speaker 1: allocated per week to CPS, the Chicago Public Schools. You know,
Speaker 1: we're recording this on Monday, February eighth, and today is
Speaker 1: a day that a lot of decisions may be made
Speaker 1: about the future of in person learning and the tentative
Speaker 1: agreements between the teachers Union and the city in Chicago.
Speaker 1: What are some of the decisions that may be made today, Well,
Speaker 1: this has been an ongoing process for months. The two sides,
Speaker 1: the Chicago Public Schools and the Teachers Union, have been
Speaker 1: negotiating for months and now over the last few weeks,
Speaker 1: in the last few days, there have been ongoing negotiations
Speaker 1: and you know, certainly we saw updates throughout the weekend.
Speaker 1: Right now, where things stand is that the Chicago Teachers
Speaker 1: Union is reviewing and assessing the most recent tentative agreement
Speaker 1: tentative proposal that the city has put forth, and they're
Speaker 1: going to assess it with their governing body, which is
Speaker 1: called the House of Delegates and their rank and file members.
Speaker 1: So we're all waiting to see what the latest update
Speaker 1: might be. It could be an time. That was Shruthie
Speaker 1: Sank and that's it for our show today. For coverage
Speaker 1: of the outbreak from one D and twenty bureaus around
Speaker 1: the world, visit bloomberg dot com slash Coronavirus and if
Speaker 1: you like the show, please leave us a review and
Speaker 1: a rating on Apple Podcasts or Spotify. It's the best
Speaker 1: way to help more listeners find our global reporting. The
Speaker 1: Prognosis Daily Edition is produced by Toph for foreheads Magnus
Speaker 1: Henrickson and me Laura Carlson. Today's main story was reported
Speaker 1: by Shruthi Sank. Original music by Leo Cedrin. Our editors
Speaker 1: are Rick Shine and Francesco Levi. Francesco Levi is Bloomberg's
Speaker 1: head of podcasts. Thanks for listening.