Early Childhood Educators Should Be One of The First Groups to Get The COVID-19 Vaccine

The COVID-19 Pandemic is currently a paradox. On one hand, we are currently in the worse of the Pandemic with record numbers of cases, hospitalizations, and deaths. On the other hand, there is also multiple vaccines that appear to be effective and will soon be available to the public. The vaccines will not all be available instantly to the entire population which means we will need to prioritize who gets the vaccine first.

Obviously, the first people to get the vaccine should be people at the highest risk such as people 65 years and older, people with preexisting conditions, and people who care for the highest risk populations like nursing home workers, nurses, and doctors.

After those priority groups, early childhood educators should be next in line. Early childhood educators have in many cases been open since the start of the pandemic helping care for and educate the children of essential workers.

While there is some evidence that young children don’t spread the COVID-19 as much as older children, caring for and educating young children can not be done remotely the way it can be done with older students. In addition, working with other adults in the classroom and commuting often via public transportation also puts early educators at extra risk. Because of these risk factors and the essential role early childhood educators and childcare givers play in allowing so many other aspects of the world to function, they should be in the next group of people to get the vaccine after the highest risk groups.

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