Lucy On News Today : Breaking News, Live Updates & Top Stories | Vimarsana

How do you weigh the safety of teachers who have had every opportunity to be vaccinated and most of them have, thank goodness, with the well-being of children? >> well, let me just be clear. this issue is much less about teachers as it is about our entire communities. there's a whole bunch of people who are still concerned that omicron or the virus is spreading and that these masks -- i have a kn94, that these masks have helped to stop transmission. you have in an elementary school kids -- you know, you can't really social distance in an elementary school. so the question really becomes have t...

Know, that it is impeding learning, socialization to have them. as an asthmatic, i labor in breathing all the time. so, you know, the issue really became how do you balance -- and lucy said this. how do you balance the risks? and that's why the vaccination issues like in massachusetts, the more vaccinations we can get -- not just the availability of vaccination but the more vaccinations, the better. the bottom line is we all want an off ramp for masks. the question of when for us is just will the scientists weigh in and give us the metrics as to when. >> so, dr. mcbride, certainly there has be...

In terms of the basis for it. he said that vaccinations are up in new jersey, that the numbers, community spread is really low now, and the spread in schools is really low. >> yeah. >> so, you know, what we asked for in november, and i'm glad you have lucy on as well, is a metric that was based in science so that we could ultimately have an off ramp for masks. no one wants masks in schools, not teachers, not students. but, you know, it is time in this covid pandemic to actually do a little bit of planning based upon science as opposed to just announcement by announcement. >> we have two years ...

Basis, they said if there's 80 percent vaccination rates then those schools can lift the mandates. so the question -- remember, lucy is a doctor. i am not a doctor. i listen to the doctors in terms of what we should do, but the bottom line is at the same exact time that this is going on you have lots of parents who are still afraid. you have lots of people who are still afraid because we've just gone through omicron. that's why i think it is important to have a science-based metric that people can plan for it. that's what it seems like governor murphy has done. i think that's what governor hoc...

Frustration with a lot of parents, randi. if you waited for every person who is still nervous about covid, and many rightly are, if you waited for the vaccination rates to get where teachers or other groups want them to be, you will be waiting forever because the vaccination rate is never going to get -- with these kids it is so low right now. especially with younger children. you will never get to a place where you could say we've met the threshold, you could have kids in masks forever. isn't that the right approach dr. mcbride talks about, if you feel you need to wear a mask for yourself, do...