Education
School unions offer mixed
reaction after court lifts ban
on city DOE vaccine mandate
BY ALEJANDRA O'CONNELLDOMENECH
Mayor Bill de Blasio’s vaccine
mandate for all Department of
Education employees can now
proceed after a federal panel lifted a temporary
ban on the order late Monday night.
The mandate, which would require all
150,000 DOE employees to get a COVID-19
vaccination, was originally scheduled to go
into effect Monday morning. But a federal
judge for the U.S. Court of Appeals in the
Second Circuit fi led a temporary injunction
against the order last Friday and referred
the case to a three-person panel for review.
The review was slatted for Wednesday
but in a surprise turn of events, the federal
panel issued its ruling Monday evening
granting New York City the authority to
go ahead as planned with the mandate.
Under the mandate, all DOE employees
had until midnight Sept. 27 to submit proof
of having received at least the fi rst dose of a
COVID-19 vaccine. After the panel ruling,
de Blasio moved back the deadline granting
staffers, including about 78,000 public
school teachers, until the end of day Friday,
Oct. 4 to upload proof of vaccination. Until
then, the City will follow its previous vaxand
test policy for all school staffers.
Although the majority of school staffers
are vaccinated, the DOE believes about
87% of all its employees have gotten at
least one dose of a COVID vaccine, some
REUTERS
school staffers and union representatives
worried the vaccine mandate would cause
a staffi ng shortage of about 10,000 people.
Some labor unions cheered the federal
panel’s ruling on Monday while also urging
City offi cials to use the next week to ensure
the city’s roughly 1,800 public schools have
enough vaccinated staff to serve students.
And even though City offi cials say 97%
of all public school teachers are at least
partially vaccinated, a recent survey from
the city´s teachers union, the United Federation
of Teachers, found that only a third of
educators believe their school could open
without disruption due to the potential
shortage of unvaccinated staff like school
aids and security guards, according to the
union’s president Michael Mulgrew.
“The city has a lot of work before it to
ensure that enough vaccinated staff will
be available by the new deadline,” said
Mulgrew in a statement. “We will be working
with our members to ensure, as far as
possible, that our schools can open safely
as the vaccinemandate is enforced.”
“If the city’s vaccination mandate had
gone into effect today, there would have been
too many schools and early childhood centers
unable to operate safely due to a citywide
staffi ng shortage,” said Mark Cannizzaro,
president of the Council of School Supervisors
and Administrators which represents
public school principals. “We urge the DOE
to use the additional time to quickly address
all schools with potential staffi ng concerns.”
HIGHER ED TODAY
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FAiyana Braswell was a college student
in Houston when COVID-19 reached
the U.S. in the spring of 2020. Aiyana, who
is Black, began working as an EMT, saying
she wanted to work on the front lines and
“advocate for people who look like me.”
“It was clear that the virus was hitting
certain communities, such as my own,
harder than some other communities,” Aiyana
says. “And I wanted to get involved.”
Fast forward 18 months later: Aiyana is
now a student at CUNY’s Graduate School
of Public Health and Health Policy (CUNY
SPH) pursuing an Advanced Certificate
in Public Health. She plans to eventually
complete a graduate degree in epidemiology.
“That’s why I wanted to pursue public
health,” she says, “because there’s a difference
in how you are treated based on your
economic status.”
It doesn’t surprise me that Aiyana’s
strong desire to make a difference brought
her to CUNY SPH, one of CUNY’s seven
graduate, professional and honors schools.
As the pandemic has reshaped our world,
the school has been particularly well positioned
to meet the fast-evolving challenges
of these times.
Health Equity Approach
Since its founding in 2016, CUNY SPH
has blossomed into an invaluable resource
for scholarly research and community engagement
at a time when New York — and
the world — has needed it most. Under the
leadership of Dean Ayman El-Mohandes,
a pediatrician with a deep commitment to
public service, the school has grown into
a formidable institution of advocacy for
the eradication of inequities in the public
health care system.
In just five years, the school has doubled
the size of its student body to a record
949 students registered this semester while
tripling its research funding to more than
$17 million for the current academic year.
This year, CUNY SPH and the NYC Department
of Health and Mental Hygiene
received a five-year, $3.3 million grant from
the National Institute of Mental Health to
help people living with HIV achieve viral
suppression. The school also received a
$500,000 grant to launch the Campaign for a
Food Secure CUNY, a new initiative to help
CUNY students combat food insecurity, a
problem that was growing in scope well before
it was exacerbated by the pandemic.
No doubt this is part of the reason why
CUNY SPH was recently ranked 16th of 123
graduate schools of public health across
the nation, as well as the top-ranked public
school of public health in the New York tristate
area, by U.S. News & World Report.
Local Focus, Global Reach
With the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic
in March 2020, the school became
a valuable source for expert perspectives
with its world-class faculty and staff routinely
quoted in the national and global
media. The school’s regular surveys of New
Yorkers’ opinions on all things COVID-related
were an important source of information
for health officials and policymakers.
The school’s Institute for Implementation
Science in Population Health (ISPH) monitored
the pandemic response and tracked
antibody test results among nearly 7,000 individuals
nationally, which helped schools
better prepare for remote or in-person
learning during the pandemic.
CUNY SPH’s research is created locally,
but its reach is global. The school published
an international study in Nature Medicine
gauging potential acceptance of a COVID
vaccine, which was one of the first to address
vaccine hesitancy. And through their
CONVINCE USA initiative, CUNY SPH has
promoted vaccine literacy and boost confidence
in life-saving COVID-19 vaccines.
Public Service Bent
This dedication to public service is reflected
in the articulated ambitions of the
students it attracts. Students such as Kevin
Chin, who, after working for nearly two
decades as an information technology consultant
in the health care industry, decided
to take a break from his high-pressure job.
He returned to New York in early 2020, just
as the pandemic hit, and the extra time off
gave him an opportunity to reflect.
After much soul-searching, Kevin enrolled
in CUNY SPH to pursue an MPH in
Health Policy and Management. “After I
complete my degree, I want to look for jobs
where I can help enact better health care
policies that improve everyone’s lives,” he
says. “Not just the lives of a few.”
It fills me with pride, hearing how these
students have been motivated by the important
role that CUNY SPH has played these
past 18 months. This pandemic is far from
over. But with each month, we grow more
optimistic as we look to build a more equitable
post-pandemic future, and New Yorkers
know that CUNY and its students are helping
to make that future a reality.
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SScchhnneeppss Meeddiiaa September 30, 2021 11