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Updated August 6

The Biden administration Thursday stepped up efforts to get more students vaccinated as the school year begins, with the National PTA, pediatricians and sports organizations to reach reluctant families.

The effort includes incorporating vaccines into physical exams for school athletes, featuring pediatricians at back-to-school events and supplying schools with resources to host pop-up vaccine clinics, including sample text messages and letters. Saturday will kick off a 鈥渨eek of action鈥� devoted to promoting the vaccine, with Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona visiting a vaccine clinic in Topeka, Kansas, along with training sessions for parents, teachers and student organizations on how to promote vaccines.

鈥淚 remember last year. We were reopening schools and we didn鈥檛 have the science. We didn鈥檛 have the experience. We didn鈥檛 have the lessons learned,鈥� Cardona said Wednesday in remarks after visiting a summer enrichment program at Graceland Park-O’Donnell Heights Elementary Middle School in Baltimore. 鈥淚f you haven鈥檛 gotten vaccinated yet, do it now. This is our number one line of defense.鈥�

On Thursday, Cardona聽聽that he’ll also be monitoring how “politics are getting in the way” and whether some families aren’t sending their children to school because they feel it’s not safe without mask requirements. 聽“To me those are adult actions preventing students to their right of public education.”

That message comes as less than 40 percent of the nation鈥檚 12- to 15-year-olds have been vaccinated, . And the rate among 16- and 17-year-olds is less than half. Vaccination rates are higher among white children than Black children. The administration, however, is not only facing resistance from some parents toward the vaccine, but is also seeing growing backlash against mask mandates, with some districts at odds with governors over the issue.

The dissent was clear last week during a virtual town hall for parents where Aaliyah Samuel, a deputy assistant secretary at the U.S. Department of Education and experts from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention attempted to answer parents鈥� questions about the vaccine.

Participants began flooding the chat field with critical comments about the vaccine, remote learning and masks. Others shot back with links to studies on vaccine and mask effectiveness.

In all caps, one person wrote: 鈥淗esitancy comes from the lies and lack of information. Those that have been vaccinated are the ones that are getting infected yet again, creating new variants such as Delta strain.鈥�

Another responded: 鈥淭rump paid for the vaccine and took it.鈥�

Samuel eventually jumped in and shut down the chat function.

鈥淭his is not a place for negative comments to attack individuals. It is a place to share information,鈥� she said. 鈥淎nd if you don鈥檛 believe in the information, that鈥檚 your choice, but we鈥檙e sharing the best of the information that we have.鈥�

Thursday鈥檚 White House announcement didn鈥檛 mention the role of the teachers unions in getting more students vaccinated. American Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten has been on her own this week to encourage parents to send their children to school this fall, while also advocating for a universal mask mandate.

In comments on SiriusXM POTUS鈥檚 鈥淟aura Coates Show鈥� this week, Weingarten called vaccines 鈥渢he big game changer.鈥澛燱hile restating her position that vaccine issues should be negotiated with local affiliates, she said on聽 that she is now more open to mandates for teachers.

“We want to persuade the holdouts,” she said. “But we’re looking at all the alternatives.”

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