what was the holdup on negotiations? reporter: this all began or the vote was inspired because the teachers union bottom line didn t feel that the school district had provided adequate enough resources to come back to the classroom safely. they felt things were lacking in categories like contact tracing, being able to provide quality masks for people. i mentioned the testing aspect and because we were seeing record levels of covid-19 among students, staff, and in the surrounding chicago community in recent weeks. so that s what sort of began this standoff, if you want to call it that. and again, chicago public schools was who cancelled class because they said we can t send children to school not knowing if our teachers are actually going to be there. and so they then began to whittle away and it will be interesting to see the details what got them over the finish line. because another aspect of the testing they wanted was they wanted everyone who needed them to have access to at-hom
coming to the fore. how important is the testing aspect in this battle? testing is going to be really important for the foreseeable future, because people want to know their status. they want to know, is it safe for me to be around other people? is it safe for me to go to this event? and as we get more of the pfizer antiviral, we want people to be tested very promptly so they can be linked to treatment. testing will be something that s with us for some time. hopefully we expand it and include other things like influenza and mono and rsv so we can take this momentum for home testing and transform the way infectious diseases are diagnosed. doctor, you spent some time over the weekend at a hospital. what have you seen there? what we re seeing is that hospitals have a lot more covid patients than they did just three weeks ago. however, they re of a different caliber. we see a lot of incidental infections. in the past, everybody that was there, that was covid postwas
i think this is a demonstration that feels very confident in this mandate, they hate the word mandate, they like to call it a requirement, it is a vaccine requirement, and with testing added to it, with their trying to do and attempting to have done for weeks and weeks, is making sure that they are fighting against republican talking points, as they put it, about it being a mandate and forcing people to get the vaccine when there is a testing aspect, but getting testing is not as easy as the administration wants it to be, they have a lot of work to do there. plan b, i don t know if it has been shared with any of us reporting lies, but one of the things that the administration has done or proven to do, even in the campaign, they make a decision and they go full steam ahead and that has continued
0 a situation where republicans can control but don t keep it on the impeachment strategy. think you both for joining us on the last word, that is tonight s last word, the 11th hour starts right now. good evening once again, day 3 42 of the biden administration, tonight, as the variant drives a winter covid surgeon every quarter of this nation and frustration levels growing, right along with the number of cases, the cdc is out with brand-new guidance for anyone infected by the virus, no shortening the recommended time for isolation, from 10 days with people with covid-19, to five days if asymptomatic, followed by five days where you bask if you re around other people. the latest data shows the new cases are averaging more than 200,000 per day, and the new york times says reports from 14 states indicates the current covid surge is worse the last winters. earlier this evening, anthony fauci explained the thinking behind the new cdc recommendations. if so many people simultaneously
more about is this a good or bad law in those 13 intervening years. teachers and teachers unions have increasingly become to be seen as the opponents of education reform as opposed to those who would be asked to help with education reform. and the second thing is there s now a market for education reformers and everything from private-based charter schools to these testing services that actually creates an economic interest for many to retain at least the testing aspect of the current no child left behind system. so how do you push back against that, no matter what you may be able to say about class sizes and opportunity? you know i m a sixth grade teacher. we are just sick to death of all the gimmicks. some people are making billions and billions of dollars in the testing industry and the for-profit charter school industry. we are actually serious about getting things better for kids and that s why there s an opportunity here.