Updated 1:33 p.m.
Teachers in Massachusetts will become eligible for COVID-19 vaccination beginning March 11, Gov. Charlie Baker announced Wednesday, a major shift in his innoculation plan spurred by President Joe Biden's move to prioritize teachers.
Baker said moving teachers up the state's vaccination list is meant to adhere to federal vaccination eligibility plans Biden has authorized. Baker said all 170 vaccine sites that are open to all eligible Massachusetts residents will welcome teachers, childcare workers and school staff starting next Thursday.
"We do want to make sure that there's not a lot of confusion between federal eligibility standards and state eligibility standards, so we will follow suit with the feds to be consistent," Baker said.
Massachusetts Teachers Association President Merrie Najimy said Baker's decision was a win for organized teachers.
"The educators, through their unions, really elevated this to the top of the state's attention, and it was the combination of everybody that finally forced Baker to get with the program," Najimy said.
Baker said he was disappointed with the slow rollout of federal vaccine supplies, even after pledges from manufacturers and federal officials to ramp up production. The governor said he expects it to take about one month from the date a new group becomes eligible for most individuals to be able to book an appointment.
"We obviously need a lot more doses, a lot sooner than the current guidelines that have been applied to us by the feds if we're truly going to make our way through this group as quickly as possible," Baker said.
President Joe Biden on Tuesday announced that by the end of May there will be enough vaccine to innoculate all Americans, and called for states to authorize teacher vaccinations by the end of March. In the process, biden and moved teachers ahead in line at federal pharmacy sites.
Senate President Karen Spilka, breaking from Baker, called on him to set aside a percentage of vaccine doses for teachers. Teachers unions had balked at Baker's plans to return to full time in-person learning before vaccines were available to educators under 65 years old.
By Wednesday morning, CVS pharmacies, part of the federal and state efforts to distribute the vaccines, had already begun to allow teachers under 65 years old to book vaccine appointments.
Baker made the announcement at Gloucester's West Parish Elementary School, which has operated fully in-school learning the last 101 days.
Baker's K-12 commissioner Jeffrey Riley has put in place a plan to return most elementary schools to in-class learning five days a week by the beginning of April. The plan met with resistance from teachers unions who called for vaccinations before returning to school buildings.
For weeks teachers have insisted they shouldn't return to classrooms in person until they have access to vaccines.
"What this took was an entire village, from unionized educators to administrators, elected officials, leadership from the State House, to finally get Gov. Baker on board. And President Biden made it actually possible," MTA chief Najimy said.
Baker said he made the move to avoid confusion with federal guidelines but that he doesn't want the 400,000 newly-eligible teachers to harm the goal of vaccinating older and sicker residents.
"I don't see how we can choose to take vaccines away from people who are over the age of 65 and significantly at risk of hospitalization and death from COVID, or people who have two comorbidities, many of which have already been proven time and time again to be terribly dangerous when it comes to COVID, and not include them going forward in the process," Baker said.
Najimy said Baker should work with teachers unions to develop plans for vaccinations outside the state's web-based appointment system "if he doesn't want to continue to take heat" on the issue.
Biden's plan would allow teachers to be vaccinated at national pharmacy chains.
