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--:-- John Bickley: Welcome to Morning Wire, I'm John Bickley.
--:-- Georgia Howe: And I'm Georgia Howe. It's Monday, January 10th.
--:-- John Bickley: With ongoing controversy over schools, COVID policies, and a record-breaking labor shortage, schools nationwide are struggling to find teachers. What's causing the significant deficit of teachers, and how are schools scrambling to fill the void?
--:-- Georgia Howe: New research on the impact of the COVID era on pregnancy found that babies born during the pandemic scored worse on social and motor skills. We'll discuss the study's findings and what can be done to reverse the trend.
--:-- John Bickley: And the standoff between the world's number one men's tennis player and the government of Australia over his vaccination status has come to a head. The government has canceled the visa of Novak Djokovic because he's unvaccinated. And now the courts are weighing in. We'll discuss how the situation unfolded and the tennis star's status in Australia.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Thanks for waking up with Morning Wire. Stay tuned. We have the news you need to know.
--:-- John Bickley: As businesses continue to feel the effects of a record-breaking labor shortage, schools nationwide are struggling to find teachers and other essential workers. Here with more on how the shortage is impacting students and how school districts are responding is Daily Wire's Cabot Phillips.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: So Cabot, how bad has this situation gotten?
--:-- Cabot Phillips: Well, bad enough that schools in 11 states, including California, Illinois, and New York, have had to temporarily shut their doors because they can't find enough teachers and other staff to keep things running. San Francisco, for example, had more teacher resignations in a two-week span last semester than they'd ever had in an entire year, in two weeks. In one San Antonio school, there were so few teachers available that hundreds of students spent hours last week just sitting together in an auditorium during the day. And in one Virginia district, counselors and other administrators are being used as substitute teachers throughout the week.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: Now, the problem had already been bad enough coming into the new year, but with the less deadly but highly contagious Omicron variant spreading, even more schools are starting to feel the effect as record-breaking numbers of teachers are calling out sick, and there's no one to fill in behind them. And according to multiple studies, there doesn't really seem to be an end in sight for this. The National Educators Association reported that one in three teachers are considering quitting or retiring earlier than expected this year. So this could just be the start.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: And it's also worth noting, it's not just teachers in short supply. Yeah. Tell us about that. Where else are we seeing shortages like this? It'd probably be easier to point out where there aren't shortages. I mean, right now, in addition to the teacher shortage, school districts around the country are struggling to find bus drivers, nurses, and teachers aides. Substitute teachers are in such short supply that many districts are running substitute teacher sign-up drives with increased pay, signing bonuses, and looser educational requirements. On that note, many districts are no longer requiring subs to have a college degree. There's also a huge shortage of cafeteria workers, with one survey showing that 90% of school districts need extra help in the cafeteria. And even when they do find workers, remember they still struggling to get food because of supply chain shortages.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: There also a bus driver shortage prompting the Department of Education to announce a joint agreement with the Department of Transportation that will now allow states to loosen requirements for school bus drivers as long as they can pass the driving portion of the commercial license test. So the shortage is really being felt in every area of education.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: Yeah, it sounds like it. Tell us about the causes with teachers. Why is this happening now? So there are a few main reasons. First, a lot of teachers just feel like there are better options and other industries. There are currently 11 million job openings nationwide. So there's never been a better time to quit your job if you aren't happy. And a lot of teachers nationwide are not happy in their current role. Many reported feeling stressed, overworked and underpaid. And that was even before the pandemic hit. And now they say the job has gotten even harder.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: There are also just fewer people going into education to start with. Since 2016, there's been a pronounced dip in the number of college freshmen who are majoring in education. That number now sits around 4%, which is the lowest rate on record. And that means there's a smaller pool of qualified teachers to choose from.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: Yeah, it makes sense. Yeah, but COVID is definitely playing a role now. For example, since the lockdowns, industries that rely primarily on females for their workforce, especially nursing and teaching, have taken a hit as many women were the ones forced to stay home and offer childcare when schools closed. And even though schools have opened back up, the data has shown that many women in those industries have been slow to enter back into the workforce.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: So what's being done to combat the shortage? The main step so far has been to increase pay to try and lure new workers and keep existing ones. In New Mexico, for example, where there are over a thousand open teaching spots, the state has requested a quarter billion dollars in funds to raise teacher salaries by 7%. While elsewhere, schools in California are offering a $6,000 signing bonus for new teachers. And more broadly, the Department of Education has stepped in, and they're urging states now to request more federal COVID funding to put towards hiring and training new teachers.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: Well, there's already been massive controversy surrounding schools, and this shortage is only heightening the situation. Exactly. Cabot, thanks for the reporting.
--:-- John Bickley: Anytime. That's Daily Wire's Cabot Phillips.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Coming up, how the pandemic may be impacting children's development. You can get this show and all of the content you love wherever you are, all on the Daily Wire app. Even if you're not a Daily Wire member, you'll be first to know what's trending with mobile notifications for the latest news, and you'll get content from all your favorite Daily Wire shows.
--:-- Georgia Howe: A new study published by the Journal of the American Medical Association shows the effects of pregnancy during the pandemic on babies, and the findings have generated a lot of attention. So, Georgia, you've been following this story. Tell us about this study?
--:-- Georgia Howe: So researchers at Columbia University discovered that babies born during the first year of the COVID pandemic received lower scores on developmental screening tests of motor and social skills at six months of age. The study included 255 infants born at hospitals in New York between March and December of 2020. The data came from questionnaires given to parents by their children's doctors in order to look at the development of their baby. That data was then compared to babies born at the same hospitals before the pandemic.
--:-- Georgia Howe: The researchers found that babies whose moms were pregnant during the pandemic had moderately lower scores in those motor and social skills, but not in other areas like communication and problem solving. And an interesting part of the study is that it included moms who got COVID during their pregnancy and moms who didn't. Now shockingly it showed no difference between those two groups. So this led researchers to hypothesize that it might be maternal stress of the pandemic rather than the virus itself.
--:-- Georgia Howe: And that might have been the common factor that was affecting these kids development. Got it. The lead investigator of this study, Dr. Danny Dimutrio, said that they were, quote, surprised to find absolutely no signal suggesting that exposure to COVID while in utero was linked to neurodevelopmental deficits. So it really appears to have more to do with stress about COVID than COVID itself.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Now, the report also noted that the researchers didn't actually measure the mother's stress level during their pregnancies, but they relied on previous research that found that stress early in pregnancy can impact socioemotional functions in babies more so than stress that happens later in pregnancies. And this study seemed to be consistent with that because the babies whose first trimester of pregnancy corresponded with the height of the pandemic showed the lowest scores in neurodevelopment.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Now, that said, the report also said that other things could have impacted these babies, like less time spent with friends and warped interactions with stressed out people who were taking care of them. So parents are probably listening to this and feeling, you know, a little concerned. Should they be worried? Well, the report stressed that these weren't huge differences. They were just really little changes. And I guess the major takeaway here is if you're pregnant, please don't stress out.
--:-- Georgia Howe: I have to imagine this cohort of babies will be the subject of a lot more research, especially as we study the long-term impact of the pandemic. Right. I think it's just the beginning for these kids.
--:-- John Bickley: Georgia, thanks for the reporting.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Enjoyed it.
--:-- John Bickley: That was, well, my co-host, Georgia Howe.
--:-- John Bickley: The world's number one men's tennis player, Novak Djokovic, found himself detained in a quarantine hotel in Australia, waiting to find out if he would be deported after his visa was canceled by the Australian government. The reason for cancellation? He was unvaccinated. The situation has become worldwide news with even the president of Serbia getting involved. Here to tell us more is Daily Wire sports reporter Joe Morgan.
--:-- Joe Morgan: So, Joe, big hearing today on Djokovic's status in Australia. Before we get to that, tell us how we got here.
--:-- Joe Morgan: Yeah, so Djokovic, who we should note won the Australian Open nine times, announced last Tuesday that he'd been granted a medical exemption to play in the 2022 Australian Open. His participation, it's been in question for months as Djokovic has refused to divulge his vaccination status and has also been somewhat vocal on his thoughts regarding the vaccine. As we know, Australia has been through a year of severe lockdowns and COVID restrictions, some of the harshest in the world, really. And all players, staff and spectators must be fully vaccinated in order to attend the Australian Open.
--:-- Joe Morgan: Tennis Australia announced the exemption last Tuesday, saying it had been granted following a, and I am quoting here, rigorous review process involving two separate independent panels of medical experts. One of those panels actually came from the more liberal Victorian government Department of Health. So the Victorian government approved the medical exemption to the COVID-19 vaccine. So he should have been good to go, right?
--:-- Joe Morgan: Yeah, he should have been, and we all thought he was, but when he arrived in Australia after an eight-hour standoff with the authorities, he was told Thursday that he would not be allowed into the country. Djokovic's medical exemption from the COVID vaccine was a reason for the standoff with the announcement that, and I am quoting again, failed to provide appropriate evidence to meet the entry requirements to Australia, and his visa was canceled.
--:-- Joe Morgan: The ABF can confirm that Mr Djokovic failed to provide appropriate evidence to meet the entry requirements to Australia, and visa has been subsequently canceled. Basically, the exemption allows him to play in the tournament, but does not grant him access to Australia. That decision lies with the federal government which determined that the reason for the exemption wasn good enough for them.
--:-- Joe Morgan: And what was his reason for the exemption? Well Novak tested positive for COVID in 2020 and it came out over the weekend that he also tested positive recently and that would be in December 2021. So within just the last few weeks.
--:-- Joe Morgan: Correct. And this was the reason he was granted a medical exemption from the vaccine. And this case has gotten some serious attention, including political attention. Yeah, it has. The reaction in his home country of Serbia was intense. There was some serious outrage there, and the Serbian president even spoke out, calling his treatment, quote, harassment. The president also said he'd use all diplomatic avenues available to help him.
--:-- Joe Morgan: Djokovic's mother and father also spoke out, with his mother saying he'd been kept as a, quote, prisoner and ripping into his accommodations. They are keeping him as a prisoner. It's just not fair. It's not human. Terrible accommodation. It's just some small immigration hotel, if it's a hotel at all, with some box, it's so dirty and the food is so terrible.
--:-- Joe Morgan: And obviously Djokovic's lawyers challenged the ruling and we're waiting for the courts to come back into session. And so that brings us to now. So what exactly is his status now? In a move that surprised a lot of people who've seen how strict the Australian government has been regarding COVID and vaccinations, the court is letting Djokovic play. So we'll get to see him defend his 2021 Australian Open title. It's got to be the most high-profile case of its kind really to date. No doubt.
--:-- Joe Morgan: And it's really highlighted the vaccination issue as it's playing out in the sports world. Yeah, it is. And it's a massive issue impacting sports in a number of different ways.
--:-- Joe Morgan: Well, Joe, thanks for walking us through all that. And we'll see when or if things ever return to normal for sports. I certainly hope they do soon. Yeah, let's hope so.
--:-- John Bickley: That was Daily Wire sports reporter Joe Morgan.
--:-- John Bickley: Other stories we're tracking this week. Citigroup is preparing to fire its unvaccinated employees. The first major Wall Street bank to impose such a mandate, Citigroup told its workers they must get the shot by January 14th or be placed on unpaid leave and fired at the end of the month.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Progressive Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor has come under heavy criticism for promoting, quote, COVID misinformation. While hearing arguments against the OSHA employer vaccine mandate, Sotomayor falsely claimed that around 100,000 children were in serious condition and, quote, many of them were on ventilators. The actual number hospitalized is around 3,500.
--:-- John Bickley: And in his first year in office, President Biden has had fewer news conferences than any of his five immediate predecessors at the same point in their presidencies. He has also participated in fewer media interviews.
--:-- Georgia Howe: And the Afghan baby who was handed to U.S. soldiers over a barricade during the evacuation of Kabul has been reunited with his family. The child, then two months old, was separated from family during the chaos on August 19th and was taken in by a 29-year-old taxi driver in Kabul.
--:-- John Bickley: On Saturday, the child was reunited with his grandfather and other relatives.
--:-- Georgia Howe: And happy 40th birthday to Kate Middleton, the Duchess of Cambridge.
--:-- John Bickley: If you liked this episode and are interested in hearing more, subscribe to Morning Wire on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you're listening, and give us a five-star review. That's all the time we've got this morning. Thanks for waking up with us. We'll be back tomorrow with the news you need to know.
--:-- Georgia Howe: If you liked this podcast, get the Morning Wire newsletter delivered straight to your inbox when you join at dailywire.com slash subscribe. Use code morningwire to try a Reader's Pass membership and get your first month for only 99 cents.
