Educators interested in receiving COVID-19 vaccination are eligible to do so now at pharmacies participating in the Federal Retail Pharmacy Program for COVID-19. Use vaccinefinder.org to find locations and make an appointment.
KEY POINTS
ELIGIBLE NOW: Educators and school personnel in K-12 schools now have priority access to the COVID-19 vaccine in all US states through the federal retail pharmacy program.
WHERE: Vaccines are available through the following pharmacies:
Hy-Vee, Inc.
CVS Pharmacy, Inc.
Walmart, Inc.
Health Mart Pharmacies
HOW: Use vaccinefinder.org to locate pharmacies and schedule an appointment.
WHY NOW: Missouri NEA members are part of the largest union in the state representing educators. As part of a national organization, Missouri NEA gives Missouri educators the unique ability to advocate at the federal, state, and local levels with a meaningful voice. No other organization representing teachers and education support personnel in Missouri has federal, state, and local advocacy expertise.
Federal and State Advocacy Accelerated Vaccine Distribution to Educators by Months
Missouri NEA gives Missouri educators the unique ability to advocate at the federal, state, and local levels with a meaningful voice. No other organization representing teachers and education support personnel in Missouri has federal, state, and local advocacy expertise. As soon as the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines were approved by the Food and Drug Administration in mid-December, together with our fellow NEA educators across the nation we began to advocate for vaccine eligibility for all educators.
NATIONAL ADVOCACY
As soon as the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines were approved by the Food and Drug Administration in mid-December, NEA immediately called on the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and individual states to prioritize the 5 million teachers, instructional support personnel, aides, food service and custodial workers, and principals who work in the nation's public schools.
The reason was clear and compelling: Public schools play an outsized role not only in a child's education, health, and safety, but also in the nation's economy, and vaccinating educators would expedite the return of in-person learning nationwide. Districts have been under intense pressure from many lawmakers to reopen their school doors, despite little or no progress on staff vaccinations and inadequate resources to fund mitigation efforts.
Last week, NEA sent a letter to the National Governors Association once again urging governors across the country to prioritize teachers to receive the COVID-19 vaccine.
MISSOURI ADVOCACY
In February, Dr. Randal Williams, Director of the Department of Health and Senior Services predicted educators would receive vaccination as late as May with, “No plan to move teachers to front of vaccine line.” With districts increasingly expanding in-person instruction waiting until May for vaccination was unacceptable. Missouri NEA Pres. Phil Murray took action writing Gov. Parson, "Educators, students, and parents have done their part; our schools have been open since the beginning of the school year using hybrid or virtual instruction to support students while keeping them safe. Now, it is time for our state leaders to do their part by prioritizing the vaccination of teachers, school support personnel, and district staff."
Missouri educators join President Murray with over 2,000 educators signing on to the Missouri NEA letter demanding accelerated vaccine access. After only eight days of letters and comments from educators Governor Parson’s administration announced an accelerated timeline for vaccine eligibility moving up educator access by more than 30 days. 