Senator Moran Pleased by Educator Vaccination Efforts

State Senator Susan Moran

HYANNIS – Plymouth/Barnstable State Senator Susan Moran (D-Falmouth) said she was pleased by recent efforts to get educators and school staff vaccinated across the Cape Cod and Islands region and state at large.

K-12 educators, childcare workers and K-12 school staff will be eligible to schedule their COVID-19 vaccination appointments beginning on March 11, according to Governor Charlie Baker. 

This group includes about 400,000 individuals across the Commonwealth.

She said that for Massachusetts public schools to transition back to in-person classes and reopen in accordance with a mandate from the state’s Education Commissioner Jeff Riley, it was vital for educators to receive vaccination.

“There was never going to be a way to successfully move our schools back to full-time in-person education without protecting the safety of our educators,” said Moran in a statement.

“I am immensely pleased to see that the governor is finally responding to the Legislature’s calls to action on this issue. I am also grateful for the unwavering advocacy of my colleagues, the teachers’ unions, and other local activists, without which we would still be waiting for a response.”

Moran has been involved in a number of efforts to urge Baker to provide vaccination appointments for teachers, including joining a letter from legislators calling for the 72,000 public school teachers across the state to receive the one-shot Johnson & Johnson vaccine. 

Moran said that she hopes vaccination efforts can leverage upcoming April school vacation in order to get educators efficiently vaccinated, if they are to utilize the Pfizer or Moderna two-dose vaccines.

“Because we do have, depending on the vaccine, a period of time between the first and second vaccine [dose] that has to be accommodated,” said Moran. 

The governor has considered having specific days at vaccination sites dedicated to vaccinating educators and school staff — an initiative that Moran hopes to see implemented sooner rather than later in order to take advantage of the school vacation.