ARCHBALD, Pa. — The offices for the Northeastern Educational Intermediate Unit or NEIU 19 will soon become a vaccination clinic.
"We focus on education. We never dreamed in a million years we'd actually be a site for immunizations," said executive director Bob McTiernan has been working with state officials since Sunday to prepare vaccines for teachers in the 20 school districts the NEIU serves.
Gov. Tom Wolf is directing intermediate units across the state to help administer Johnson & Johnson shots for educators.
Intermediate units are state agencies that provide education services to school districts and coordinate with the Pennsylvania Department of Education.
The NEIU in Archbald plans to give out more than 5,000 shots.
"We think we're well placed with our square footage and the layout of our rooms to administer up to 400 to 500 vaccines per day," McTiernan said.
McTiernan thinks they should have vaccines for every teacher who wants one by the end of this month. Then, he says, school districts will be able to focus on bringing students back to school for in-person learning.
"The CDC and the governor today have been clear that vaccinations aren't necessarily required to get back to school, but certainly, everyone looks at this situation from their own seat, so removing the possibility of infection to a high degree, I think, alleviates an awful lot of fear, and takes one part of the argument off the table."
Since the Johnson & Johnson vaccines set aside for teachers only require one dose, McTiernan is optimistic that school districts in our area could be opening up as early as late March or early April.
"I think school leaders now, in the conversations we've been on in the last few days, they're starting to prepare to get the kids back full-time."