Good morning. Can teachers be vaccinated quickly? And can most schools safely reopen now? Yes and yes. |
 | | A student logged into virtual classes from his home in Edinburg, Texas, this month.Verónica G. Cárdenas for The New York Times |
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How to get students back in school |
There are two obvious ways to reopen schools. One is to take precautions like mask wearing that minimize the risk of outbreaks inside school buildings. The other is to vaccinate the country’s teachers as quickly as possible. |
Both strategies now appear to be feasible — and yet neither is happening in many places. |
Today’s newsletter looks at how American children can quickly and safely get back to school. |
There are enough vaccine doses |
The country now has enough vaccine doses to move teachers to the front of the line without substantially delaying vaccinations for everyone else. |
Nationwide, about 6.5 million people work inside a K-12 school. It’s a substantially smaller group than the 21 million health care workers, many of whom were in the first group of Americans to become eligible for vaccines. |
As a point of reference, Moderna and Pfizer have delivered an average of more than one million new doses to the federal government every day this month. That daily number is on track to exceed three million next month. Immediately vaccinating every school employee would push back everybody else’s vaccine by a few days at most. |
A few states have already prioritized teachers, with Kentucky apparently the furthest along, according to Education Week. It has finished administering the first dose to the bulk of K-12 staff who want one. “This is going to help us safely get our kids back in school faster than just about any other state,” Gov. Andy Beshear said, “and it’s going to allow us to do it without risking the health of those that come in to serve those children.” |
 | | Students testing themselves for Covid-19 in a Boston classroom last month.Allison Dinner/Reuters |
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Schools have reopened safely |
Even before teachers are fully vaccinated — a process which can take more than a month after the first shot — many schools have shown how to reopen. |
It involves “masking, social distancing, hand-washing, adequate ventilation and contact tracing,” as Susan Dominus wrote (in a fascinating Times Magazine story on how Rhode Island mostly kept its schools open). It also involves setting up virtual alternatives for some students and staff members who want them. When schools have followed this approach, it has typically worked, according to research by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and others. |
In one of the most rigorous studies, a group at Tulane University looked at hospitalizations (a more reliable measure than positive tests) before and after school reopenings. The results suggest that at least 75 percent of U.S. communities now have Covid well enough under control to reopen schools without sparking new outbreaks, including many places where schools remain closed. |
The evidence is murkier for places with the worst current outbreaks, like much of the Carolinas. And some schools do seem to have reopened unsafely, including a Georgia district that is the subject of a new C.D.C. case study. |
Still, Douglas Harris, the Tulane economist who runs the research group, told me, “All the studies are suggesting we can do this, if we put our minds to it.” He added: “We can’t do school the old way, but we can do better than this.” |
Like Kentucky, Oregon has made it a priority to vaccinate teachers. But some teachers unions there have expressed skepticism about reopening even after teachers are vaccinated, as my colleague Shawn Hubler has written. |
 | | President Biden held a memorial at the White House yesterday.Doug Mills/The New York Times |
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- The Supreme Court rejected Donald Trump’s bid to shield his financial records, forcing his accountants to hand them over to New York prosecutors. (Here’s what’s next.)
- Merrick Garland told senators that the Capitol riot investigation would be his first priority as attorney general. He appears headed for an easy confirmation, five years after Republicans blocked his Supreme Court nomination.
- A Senate hearing today about the Capitol riot will feature testimony by the top two security officials who were there. Here’s what to watch for.
- Also today, Neera Tanden — Biden’s nominee to head the Office of Management and Budget — is facing her confirmation hearing. Her chances are dimming.
- Biden announced changes to the Paycheck Protection Program to help small and struggling companies.
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 | | A family in Killeen, Texas, cleaning up storm damage.Tamir Kalifa for The New York Times |
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 | | Drafts of the cartoonist Julien Berjeaut’s drawings and the cover of “A Cowboy in High Cotton.”Andrea Mantovani for The New York Times |
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A Morning read: After seven decades, Lucky Luke — a classic Franco-Belgian comic — is adding a Black hero. |
Lives Lived: A Harvard-trained lawyer, Ahmed Zaki Yamani was a longtime oil minister in Saudi Arabia and the architect of the Arab world’s drive to control its own energy resources in the 1970s. Yamani died at 90. |
 | | Chicago Cubs pitchers warmed up in Mesa, Ariz. yesterday.Jae C. Hong/Associated Press |
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Baseball’s latest trend: Lose now |
Spring training has begun, and Major League Baseball is suffering from a strange affliction: Some high-profile teams are not trying to win. The Boston Red Sox, Chicago Cubs, Cleveland Indians, Colorado Rockies and Pittsburgh Pirates have all jettisoned top players in recent trades, receiving only a modest return. |
It’s deeply frustrating to fans. “Can you file a complaint on behalf of all Rockies fans with the Better Business Bureau against Rockies management because this is just totally horrific?” one recently wrote to The Denver Post. |
What’s going on? Baseball teams are businesses, and winning isn’t always the best route to profit. The teams receive substantial income from merchandise sales, television contracts and more. And the pandemic has crushed the form of revenue that depends most on performance — people buying tickets. |
In response, several teams have chosen to reduce payroll. Their executives promise fans it’s part of a plan to add exciting young players later. “The teardown idea — some call it tanking — isn’t new,” The Times’s Tyler Kepner told us. “But it’s definitely more widespread now.” |
As Tyler points out, many players are also frustrated, believing owners are behaving like a cartel that holds down salaries. The bargaining agreement expires after this season, and the next round of negotiations could be rocky. |
 | | Grant Cornett |
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Barack Obama and Bruce Springsteen are hosting a podcast together. On “Renegades: Born in the USA,” they talk about fatherhood, race and more. |
The Morning now includes a bonus game from the team that creates Spelling Bee and the Crossword. The current game is The Big Picture, which challenges you to figure out what word or phrase the image is meant to convey. You’ll find the answer in the P.S. section below. Enjoy! |
The pangram from yesterday’s Spelling Bee was dormitory. Here is today’s puzzle — or you can play online. |
Thanks for spending part of your morning with The Times. See you tomorrow. — David |
P.S. The Times announced its team to cover the Biden White House, including two new reporters on the beat: Zolan Kanno-Youngs and Jim Tankersley. |
P.P.S. The solution to The Big Picture is “long time, no see.” |
Today’s episode of “The Daily” is the first of two about Covid in New York nursing homes. On the latest “Sway,” a dog racer’s lessons on resilience. |
Claire Moses, Amelia Nierenberg, Ian Prasad Philbrick, Tom Wright-Piersanti and Sanam Yar contributed to The Morning. You can reach the team at themorning@nytimes.com. |
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