| Teachers unions are resisting plans to return to in-person school; vaccinations in Israel are showing some promising early results. Tonight's Sentences was written by Gabby Birenbaum. | | | | | | | Schools and teachers battle in Chicago and across the US | | | | | | - The Chicago Teachers Union announced 71 percent of its members opposed a Chicago Public Schools plan to reopen some schools by February 1. CTU members say they will continue to work remotely, setting up a continued fight between teachers and city officials that is playing out in Chicago and across the country. [The Chicago Tribune / Katherine Rosenberg-Douglas and Bill Ruthhart]
- The vote underscores a number of growing tensions in education — where teachers fall in vaccine priority, how badly students are doing academically, and differing opinions over the safety of reopening school buildings as cases surge. [NPR / Laurel Wamsley]
- President Joe Biden has made it a goal to safely reopen K-12 schools. After meeting with American Federation of Teachers president Randi Weingarten, Biden said he was committed to making schools safe for both teachers and students through testing — a statement embraced by Weingarten, the CTU, and city officials. [The Chicago Sun-Times / Lynn Sweet, Nader Issa, and Fran Spielman]
- While critiques of teachers unions have mounted, Biden, who has long cast himself as a friend of labor, made it clear he understood teachers' viewpoint. "The teachers I know want to work," he said. "They just want to work in a safe environment." [The Washington Post / Valerie Strauss]
- School reopening fights have become a sticking point in many liberal cities and suburbs, with teachers demanding positive-test rates fall before returning to the classroom. [The New York Times / Tracey Tully]
- Much of the opposition to teachers unions has come from beleaguered parents, who argue transmission rates from schools are low. Teachers, on the other hand, point to doctors who have said current case rates mean reopening is ill advised. [USA Today / Erin Richards]
- The battles over schools touch on many issues important to the left and how they can conflict, including trusting in science, supporting unions, enacting better child care policy, improving education, and protecting mental health. [The New York Times / Amelia Nierenberg and Adam Pasick]
| | | Israeli vaccine results show effectiveness, but cases are rising | | - Israel has vaccinated the highest percentage of its citizens of any country in the world, and the results thus far have been encouraging. Just 63 of the 428,000 Israelis who have received both doses of the Pfizer vaccine contracted the coronavirus one week post-inoculation. [The New York Times / Isabel Kershner]
- Of those that did get sick, none were hospitalized or had a fever over 101 degrees Fahrenheit, indicating the vaccine may also make Covid-19 cases less severe — though the sample size is small. [The Times of Israel / Nathan Jeffay]
- Despite the mass vaccination drive, Israel is still hovering at about 7,000 cases per day, a decrease from the 9,000 the country was seeing last week. Officials have imposed a third lockdown and will shut down its only international airport. [The Wall Street Journal / Felicia Schwartz and Dov Lieber]
- Experts believe mutations in the virus are to blame for continued high case counts. [The Jerusalem Post / Maayan Jaffe-Hoffman]
- While Israel's vaccination campaign has been highly successful, they have enforced vaccine inequity along the border wall with the Palestinian Authority. Israel says it is not responsible for vaccinating Palestinians who live in the West Bank and Gaza. [The Times of Israel / Jacob Magid]
- United Nations experts have called Israel's policy "unacceptable", with Palestinians and allies abroad decrying the disparities the country's health ministers are enforcing. [CNN / Sam Kiley]
| | | | | | | Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell said he will stop holding up the Senate organizing resolution after getting commitments from two Democratic senators that they would protect the filibuster. | | | [Vox / Li Zhou] - In a series of racial equity executive orders Biden signed Tuesday, he ended the Department of Justice's use of private prisons. [The Hill / Morgan Chalfant and Marty Johnson]
- Coronavirus cases are surging in New York's prisons and jails, but incarcerated people have not been included in the state's vaccination distribution plans. [The New York Times / Troy Closson]
- Vanessa Bryant shared a moving letter from one of daughter Gigi's best friends on the one-year anniversary of the helicopter accident that took the life of her husband, basketball legend Kobe Bryant, Gigi, and seven others. [People / Jason Duaine Hahn]
| | | | | "My support of Donald Trump has never wavered since the time I met him, and it never will. Never ever, ever." | | | | | | | | | | | One year after the first Today, Explained episode on the coronavirus, Vox's Julia Belluz explains what we got right, what we got wrong, and what comes next. [Spotify / Sean Rameswaram] | | | | | | | | |  | This email was sent to edwardlorilla1986.paxforex@blogger.com. Manage your email preferences, or unsubscribe to stop receiving all emails from Vox. If you value Vox's unique explanatory journalism, support our work with a one-time or recurring contribution. Vox Media, 1201 Connecticut Ave. NW, Washington, DC 20036.
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