The state health department reports that Florida leads the nation in the number of cases of infections from COVID-19 variants that have mutated. Teacher deaths from COVID-19 raise alarms as new school year begins. From 2001 to 2019, the death rate in Democratic counties decreased by 22 percent, according to a recent study; in Republican counties, it declined by only 11 percent. Theres no definitive number that records exactly how many teachers, administrators and school employees have died of Covid-19, though new reports of deaths seem to surface with increasing frequency. The total number of individuals who died after contracting Covid-19 despite vaccination is 750. Still, some officials and parents are pushing for a quicker return to in-person classes. Six of those teachers and staff members have died since Aug. 17, in just over 30 days. Cookies collect information about your preferences and your device and are used to make the site work as you expect it to, to understand how you interact with the site, and to show advertisements that are targeted to your interests. Lena Marcella Jackson, 61, died from COVID-19 July 25. These include teachers, maintenance workers, bus drivers, office assistants, custodians, and sports coaches. Losing a colleague to the virus encapsulates many of the safety concerns that Vasquez and her coworkers have been feeling in recent weeks. Theres also no evidence to suggest more teachers are dying than people in other professions. While I have only been here and known Mr. Rivers a short time, his passion for students and for education was immediately evident. Karla Hernandez-Mats, the president of the United Teacher of Dade, told NBC6 that it appears the teachers. "It's a tremendous loss," said a school official, referring to the death of longtime teacher Abe Coleman, 55, earlier . Please hug your loved ones tight today.. Ron DeSantis, who have banned them from requiring masks. Even when vaccines came around, these differences continued, Mauricio Santillana, an epidemiology expert at Northeastern University and a co-author of the study, told me. One school district in Florida has reported 17 employee deaths from COVID-19 since August as schools continue to battle the state and Gov. If you happen to live in certain states, your chances for living a long life are going to be much higher than if youre an American living in a different state, Woolf said. A further 123,796 people also died 21 days or more after having the Covid-19 vaccine, but its impossible to know the exact parameters for the other deaths. When you visit this site, it may store or retrieve information on your browser, mostly in the form of cookies. Of these 86.315 all died of other serious pre-existing conditions including dementia, chronic kidney disease, chronic pulmonary disease, chronic neurological disease, and . She leaves behind a husband, four children and three grandchildren. Experts say that education programs -- long devalued on and off many . The figures contained in the report were supposed to mislead the public into believing Covid-19 vaccination was fantastic at preventing death. 'The end of the beginning.' The survey, conducted in December, included responses from . DeSantis announced Tuesday that Florida will be expanding its vaccinations at CVS pharmacies to more than 150 locations. Colleges and universities worldwide were forced to introduce COVID-related restrictions and to transition to mainly distance (online) teaching and learning for Academic Year 2020/2021. There are subsequent and very serious [partisan] patterns with the Delta and Omicron waves, some of which can be explained by vaccination, Bill Hanage, a co-author of the paper and an epidemiologist at Harvard, told me in an email. In fact, recent studies have concluded that in-person classes arent significantly contributing to coronavirus spread an in-depth look at two US schools released last week found that there was no evidence of student-to-teacher or teacher-to-student transmission when proper precautions were taken. O'FALLON, Mo. Six members of a church in Florida, all of whom were unvaccinated, died of Covid-19 in less than two . The delta variant-driven COVID-19 surge made August one of the worst months of the entire pandemic. But by publishing those figures they accidentally revealed that 30,305 people had died within 21 days of having a Covid-19 vaccine in England between January 2nd and July 2nd 2021. Kevin Hubbard was a longtime Duval Schools locksmith. They were teachers and coaches. 4,115 people have been hospitalized or died with Covid-19 despite being fully vaccinated. Then the notices about Covid-19 cases at the school started coming in, including two in his own classroom. The district has an online portal that tracks COVID-19 cases among its employees and staff, and it is continuing to urge all of those who are eligible to get vaccinated. Carvalho said that while the district is blocked by law from requiring employees to be vaccinated against COVID-19 or even asking whether they are vaccinated, he is urging people to get the shot. Its a pretty tragic thing to be happening in our country right now.. DeSantis has threatened to withhold pay from superintendents and board members who buck an executive order banning mask mandates in schools. Polk County Public Schools say a dozen employees have died from the coronavirus since school began on Aug. 10, according to multiple outlets. The two were mother and. But after vaccines became available, that gap widened dramatically to 10.4 percentage points, again with a higher Republican excess-death rate. by Justine Coleman - 09/10/20 3:33 PM ET. Nationally, there were more than 750,000 new Covid infections in children from Aug. 5 to Sept. 2, according to the American Academy of Pediatrics. Widely known football player and Jacksonville coach Wagner Linzel Lin Shell Jr., 39, died July 30. Were it not for the health benefits, Aime Gotreaux says she would have already resigned from her job as a special education teacher in Kennesaw, Georgia. Ever since her school district announced a return to in-person classes last October, the 26-year-old has been frustrated by the decisions made by local and state leaders. Our entire school community is deeply saddened by this unexpected loss, and we send our condolences to his family.. Johnson Middle School teacher Elizabeth Toro died this week of COVID-19. Democrats are not without fault, though. The culture around social distancing and other safety protocols seemed to ease up over time, with no one strictly enforcing the rules, he said. yourNEWS is a hyper-local social news and advertising platform. Reuters Fact Check. PEOPLE has partnered with GoFundMe to raise money for the COVID-19 Relief Fund, a GoFundMe.org fundraiser to support everything from frontline responders to families in need, as well as organizations helping communities. Learn about careers at Cox Media Group. But for Gotreaux her and other colleagues, it was the straw that broke the camels back.. 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She loved going to church and spending time with her five sons, 11 grandchildren and several great-grandchildren. Two teachers and a teaching assistant in Florida's Broward County died from COVID-19 within a span of 24 hours, the Broward Teachers Union said Thursday. [2] Over his career, he hosted over 50,000 interviews. One school district in Florida has reported 17 employee deaths from COVID-19 since August as schools continue to battle the state and Gov. Such numbers are of no concern to Runcie and Carvalho, who report that they are planning intensive summer school sessions to allow students to make up for the school days they missed over the past year, and they expect to open fully in the fall of 2021. The deaths also pose a political threat to Gov. The two married teachers in Grand Prairie, Texas, who died holding hands. Mobeen Rathore, Wolfsons chief of pediatric infectious disease and immunology, said more children are being admitted to intensive care units and getting intubated. Fusco said 48-year-old Pinewood Elementary teacher and union steward Janice Wright, 49-year-old Dillard Elementary teacher Katina Jones and 49-year-old teaching assistant Yolonda Hudson-Williams, also of Dillard Elementary, were the educators who lost their lives to COVID-19 this past week. William Billy Poyner, 46, died July 26 after a valiant battle with COVID-19, his obituary said. 24 educators and family members have died of COVID-19 as of Monday. Other factors could explain the higher death rate in Republican-leaning placesmore poverty, less education, worse socioeconomic conditionsthough Woolf said he isnt convinced that those factors arent related to bad state health policy too. 04 Mar 2023 20:04:11 He was well known for his success in helping children learn in every setting, and we were all very much looking forward to his leadership over our PRIDE program this year. Zuckermans brother Charles told reporters that his sister was known for her fearless independence: She was a very active person who had a lot of friends. Ron DeSantis barring schools from requiring that students wear face coverings and leaving that decision to their parents. According to the president of United Teachers of Dade, Karla Hernandez-Mats, all of those who died were African American and unvaccinated. Estella Henry, 35, was a Duval County School bus monitor. Johnny Louis/Getty Images This Weekend, per HHS Data, Florida Reports Rise in COVID-19 Hospitalizations Among Children, Florida Gov. Her sister described Harrington to Action News Jax as the kindest person shes ever known. But by far the single group of adults most likely to be unvaccinated is Republicans: 37 percent of Republicans are still unvaccinated or only partially vaccinated, compared with 9 percent of Democrats. A fleet of Broward County School Buses are parked in a lot on July 21, 2020, in Pembroke Pines, Fla. Three county educators have died of complications from the coronavirus. The 13 employees of Miami-Dade school district have died of COVID-19. The Texas school district where Vasquez works has been conducting in-person classes since September. The American Federation of Teachers, one of the nations largest teachers unions, estimates more than 530 of their members died of the virus last year. You're not injecting anything in your body. Garcia. Alabama Teachers Against Covid-19 protest the reopening of schools in Montgomery, Alabama, on July 23, 2020. Overall, excess deaths represent a small share of deaths. The start of the new school. Cree Hare, an elementary school counselor in the Georgia district where three educators recently died, has been working in person since October. But to acknowledge how many Republicans didnt have to die would mean giving credence to scientific and medical expertise. JACKSONVILLE, Fla. - Two beloved teachers at Jacksonville's Trinity Christian Academy have died from complications due to COVID-19, a school spokesman confirmed. The deaths were all. Education Sep 9, 2020 5:30 PM EST. Shell played college football at Jacksonville University and spent several years in the Canadian Football League. Therefore 30,305 people died within 21 days of having the Covid-19 vaccine in England during the first 6 months of 2021. As schools in Florida's Broward County prepare to reopen, area educators are mourning the loss of three teachers who died from COVID-19 within a 24-hour period Two educators in the same Georgia school district died within hours from Covid-19, What is the magic number for them? Gotreaux said. Chicagos planned return to in-person classes was pushed back a day after the school district and teachers union failed to reach an agreement. Following her passing, Hollis husband shared the following post on Facebook: We are heartbroken. Health outcomes have been diverging at the state level since the 90s, Steven Woolf, an epidemiologist at Virginia Commonwealth University, told me. Cases of COVID-19, fueled by the highly contagious delta variant, have spread quickly through schools. And then the deaths that were reported.". Here are their names and stories: Korey Harrington, 47, was an ESE middle school teacher at Pine Island Academy in St. Johns County. When youre responsible for the education of 5.4 million children across the state, there are sometimes going to be decisions that not everyones happy with.. #TrojanPride pic.twitter.com/0GKMv7yuva. Supporters of the Chicago Teachers Union prepare for a car caravan on January 30. She had worked as a teacher with the St. Johns County School District for the past 15 years as a pre-K teacher at Timberland Creek Elementary School in St. Augustine, according to her obituary. 12 March 2021 Last Friday, Carol Zuckerman, a 56-year-old teacher who taught at a school in Broward County, Florida, died while battling COVID-19. She had a bit of a gypsy soul. Over 21,000 students and staff have had to quarantine. The weekly number of new cases related to public and private K-12 schools over the past two months has ranged from 2,191 to 4,854. The Republican Party is unquestionably complicit in the premature deaths of many of its own supporters, a phenomenon that may be without precedent in the history of both American democracy and virology. The list includes support staff and retirees as well as teachers. Teachers aged 40 and up, meanwhile, were most likely to have left due to a health condition that put them at heightened COVID-19 risk. Shortly before he died, Hubbard shared that he had recently tested positive for the virus on social media. But the date parameters used in their report January 2nd 2021 to July 2nd 2021- include a huge swathe of deaths that were suffered during the second alleged wave of Covid-19 in January 2021, when barely anybody was vaccinated. Taken all together, the list below paints a stunning portrait of the tragic toll the COVID-19 delta variant has taken on educators in Northeast Florida and Southeast Georgia. Three teachers in Broward County, Fla. died of COVID-19 within 24 hours this week, the head of the teacher's union clarified Friday. Teacher unions flex their power in Covid school reopening chaos. In the excess death study, researchers dealt only with rates of excess death, not actual death-toll numbers. DeSantis Expands Monoclonal Antibody Treatments Amid COVID-19 Spike, Florida's Governor Says School Leaders' Salary May Be Withheld If They Require Masks, An 8th-Grader Finally Returns To School In Person, Hoping It Lasts. Opinion: Too many parents and decision makers treat teachers like they don't matter. When we compare individuals who are of the same age, who live in the same county in the same month of the pandemic, there are differences correlated with your political-party affiliation that emerge after vaccines are available, Jacob Wallace, an assistant professor of public health at Yale who co-authored the paper, told me.