Mexico pushes teachers' vaccinations in effort to reopen schools

By James Blears

This decision has been taken by Mexico`s President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, who says teachers will be given the single dose Cansino Vaccine, to boost return to school, as the educational year in Mexico ends in July.  Deputy Health Minister and Covid Tsar Hugo Lopez Gatell says three million teachers will be vaccinated in the coming month.  Starting next week, teachers in the States of Tamaulipas, Nayarit, Coahuila, Veracruz and Chiapas will be vaccinated.  The Ministry of Education says children will attend school on alternate days to keep class sizes down and distancing at a maximum. 

With scant testing in Mexico, the Government estimates that more than two million people have been infected, while 320,000 have died, but simultaneously acknowledges that the real number is much higher.  More than 13 million elderly people have already received the first vaccination of various types.  But with a population in excess of 126 million, there`s still a very long way to go. 

Thousands of more affluent families are going on vaccination vacations to the neighboring United States to visit relatives, but primarily to get inoculated in a desperate attempt to save their lives, as back home they might have to wait months before being eligible.