This article is part of the guide The EdSurge Podcast. President Biden has made reopening K-12 schools as one of his top priorities for the first 100 days of his administration, or by the end of April. With COVID-19 vaccinations rolling out across the country, thereâs hope that that will happen. But there is also a sense of added urgency. New strains of the coronavirus are emerging, and vaccine distributions and administrations have run into hiccups. âWe are in a race right now between vaccine distribution and these variants becoming more common,â says Asaf Bitton, a physician, public health researcher, and executive director of Ariadne Labs, a joint center for health systems innovation.