Teachers lose confidence in Sask's pandemic plan, want priority access to vaccines

After being denied priority access to COVID-19 vaccines, the Saskatchewan Teachers' Federation says its confidence in the government's pandemic plan is low. 

Now the organization has put in several requests to the government that asks for a plan to address new virus variants in schools and to implement group testing for teachers and staff. That would allow health officials to test a group of people with one test. 

"It feels like negligence and just taking risks with employees' lives, so we're pushing — now that we have the ability to do batch testing — let's get on it," president of STF Patrick Maze said. 

"We want better statistics and to use data as opposed to conjecture and guessing to 'You're probably OK, and you should still go to school.'"

Since mid-January, the STF has asked the government of Saskatchewan to add teachers and school staff to its vaccination priority list. 

It wasn't until Tuesday they received the definitive answer along with the rest of the public — it's not going to happen. 

"When I finally heard the news, it was disappointing," Maze said. 

Maze says the government is relaying mixed messages to the education sector. On one hand, they're asking schools to remain open, but on the other hand students and faculty are confined to classrooms that don't allow for social distancing. 

"It seems so ironic in some situations. Business owners are getting fined for not following social distancing rules, and the government on the other hand is allowing for no social distancing to occur in schools," Maze said. 

Concerns of growing fatigue

With both in-class and online learning, teachers are being asked to do more, which is resulting in fatigue among staff, Maze said. 

"Sick leave is on the rise, and teachers in many situations just don't feel safe," Maze said.

He says an announcement of priority access for a vaccine would have gone a lot way to recognize the work teachers are doing.

"We would love the government to alter their decision going forward."

Minister of Health Paul Merriman said the province's vaccine plan favours the speed of delivery. 

"When we start micro-targeting groups, it can slow things down, and we wanted to make sure we were dealing with where the virus was attacking people and putting the pressure on the health-care system," Merriman said Wednesday.

Under Phase 1 of the province's vaccine distribution plan, the province needs to administer about 380,000 doses to about 190,000 people. Merriman said the province has administered about 12 per cent of those doses so far. 

The province is expecting another 25,000 doses in February, with even more shipments scheduled to arrive in March. 

"We're very concerned they're going to arrive at once, and we don't want them sitting on shelves. The easiest way, the fastest way is to make sure we're doing it by age groups."

Who's next in line for the vaccine?

On Tuesday, the Saskatchewan government revealed who will be next in line to receive doses of the COVID-19 vaccine in Phase 2 of its delivery plan scheduled to begin sometime between April to June.  

Those on the list include group homes for persons with intellectual disabilities, emergency shelters and people with underlying health conditions that are clinically extremely vulnerable — like organ transplant recipients and people with specific cancers.

In the spring, the government will prioritize access to vaccines by age over a person's occupation. Those in their 60s will be called up first, followed by people in their 50s, then 40s, then 30s. People between the ages of 16-29 will be the last to get the vaccine.

The provincial government says its plan is built on age, as it's the number one risk factor for severe outcomes, hospitalizations and deaths related to COVID-19. 

"What we've seen is where the attack of COVID-19 is in our seniors. It's 60 and above," Merriman said. "That's where we've seen the most people get sick from COVID, and where we've seen the most fatalities. So we have to focus on those."

Of the province's 346 deaths, 88 per cent of them were people aged 60 or older, according to government data. 

Read Saskatchewan's immunization plan in full:

Concerns of government switching its vaccination plan

On Wednesday, physicians took to Twitter to express their concerns that the province's vaccination plan revealed on Tuesday differs from the one presented to physicians a few weeks ago. 

But Merriman said they was no other version. 

"It was a planning document," Merriman said. 

CBC reached out to several physicians, but they declined to comment for the story. 

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