HAGÅTÑA (The Guam Daily Post) — For educator Joseph Chargualaf, getting the Covid-19 vaccine offered a sense of relief, especially as face-to-face learning has resumed at Guam Department of Education schools.
Educators fill out questionnaires before entering Guam Regional Medical City to receive the first dose of the Covid-19 vaccine on Saturday morning.
Photo by Haruo Simion/The Guam Daily Post
“I feel fortunate knowing that my body has more chances of fighting off the virus if I ever contract it,” said Chargualaf, who is one of hundreds of educators who have received the Covid-19 vaccine in the last few days.
“As a teacher, I was not comfortable stepping foot on campus to be with other people. After teleworking at my home and being with a small number of people, the idea of more people and interacting with different people worried me. Now, after being vaccinated and noticing the small numbers on campus, I am less worried. I appreciate that my students and colleagues are taking the safety measures seriously for everyone’s safety and well-being.”
There were 605 educators who were vaccinated at Guam Regional Medical City on Saturday, said Janela Carrera, Department of Public Health and Social Services spokeswoman. Vaccination for teachers also was held at Guam Memorial Hospital, which is where Chargualaf received his first dose.
While educators who spoke to The Guam Daily Post were generally relieved to be on the road to immunization, there were some like Chargualaf and Sanjay Sharma who had some concern about returning to face-to-face instruction last week before getting the two required doses of the vaccines.
Both the Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna vaccines require two doses to achieve the roughly 95% efficacy.
“I’d prefer that we got the vaccine first before resuming face-to-face (instruction) … to safeguard our teachers,” said Sharma, who is also vice president of the Guam Federation of Teachers.
“But we don’t control the vaccination schedule…that’s under the purview of the governor, who also has to take into account the priorities as well as the number of vaccines we are given.”
Guam has received its share of vaccines for the month of January, about 7,200 of the Pfizer-BioNTech and 7,800 of the Moderna vaccines. Gov. Lou Leon Guerrero had tasked Public Health with requesting an additional 40,000 vaccines, but as of early last week, that request hadn’t been approved.
The vaccination schedule for Guam, which is based on the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines, started with health care front-line workers in mid-December when the vaccines first arrived. Guam’s manamko’ who are 75 and older were next, followed by those ages 60 and older as well as the island’s front-line employees.
Educators are considered front-line employees.
“My parents, being elderly, I’m glad they were given priority,” Sharma stated. “This is the pandemic and I don’t want to downplay the pandemic, and I’m glad I don’t have any illness or Covid during this first week (of face-to-face instruction), so I’m holding out for the vaccine.”
Sharma, who is scheduled to get his first dose of the vaccine this coming week, said thus far, his face-to-face classes are fairly small.
He noted that while it’s not the ideal situation, he understands the role educators have, not just in teaching students, but in the economy.
“In order to get the economy up and running, we know parents need kids to get back to school so that they can get back to work,” he said. “So educators — I’m talking about teachers, school staff and administrators — play an important role in getting the economy rolling.”
Shift in perspective
GDOE officials, while working to get schools reopened, conducted a survey. Of the 2,000 or so educators who responded, only about one-third were willing to get vaccinated.
Sharma said that’s fairly representative of the community and about two-thirds of educators still had to decide whether to get vaccinated. He said he felt fairly confident in both the efficacy of the vaccines and the safety, which is why he scheduled to get himself vaccinated.
Among those who were hesitant to get the vaccine were Helena Juralbal, Okkodo High School librarian.
“I am glad I got the vaccine,” she said. “At first, when GDOE sent out the survey regarding if you would be interested on the vaccine, I said no. But with research on the efficacy on the vaccine, I changed my mind,” stated Juralbal, who went to GRMC.
