Dr. Ala Stanford pushes to get School District of Philadelphia workers vaccinated against COVID-19
PHILADELPHIA - A high-profile doctor who founded a health group that has vaccinated widely in Philadelphia is working with city schools to ease vaccine hesitancy.
Dr. Ala Stanford, the founder of the Black Doctors COVID-19 Consortium, met with employees of the Philadelphia School District Thursday to answer their vaccine questions.
Stanford, whose organization continues to vaccinate residents at the sprawling Deliverance Church on West Lehigh Avenue, says the district needs "our bus drivers and we need the folks cleaning our schools. We need the cafeteria workers. We need our teachers, but we can’t have them put our children at risk."
Stanford was to meet with school workers in two sessions at noon and 2 p.m. Thursday.
The School District of Philadelphia has told its employees they must be fully vaccinated by the end of the month or they’ll be tested for COVID-19 twice a week.
Meanwhile, the three public schools have been shuttered temporarily due to a rise in COVID cases, including Richmond Elementary in Port Richmond, Emlen Elementary in East Mount Airy and Southwark Community School in South Philadelphia.
MORE HEADLINES:
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- Emlen Elementary School in East Mount Airy closes temporarily due to multiple COVID cases
- CDC: US blood donations show COVID-19 antibodies increased 4x after vaccine rollouts
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