After medical staff seafarers, airline staff and truck drivers should all be top priority for vaccination as their jobs inherently involve them moving around potentially spreading the virus.
No. Mariners should be prioritized for vaccination nationwide from both federal and state vaccine supplies. This should not be left to states alone, especially inland states.
I have called my State vaccination hotline several times to leave recorded messages that I need vaccination because I am a frontline medical care provider. I get no response at all.
A medical team should meet every arriving US flag vessel to do on the spot vaccinations. No one should be allowed ashore without proof of vaccination.
Vaccinations should be done for all passengers at the airport beyond TSA screening. No one should be allowed past the gate onto the plane without proof of vaccination.
Respectfully disagree. A ‘medical personnel’ is, to me, someone that sick people go to see. Many sick people funnel past them in a period. Doctors, nurses, EMT, specialists and the janitors, technicians, security, administrators and any others that support them.
Mariners should get priority for several reasons (extracommunity travel and lack of access to timely medical care) but not as medical personnel - not unless you work on a hospital ship.
As Master, on a small vessel working in remote areas, crew come to me for treatment of their infections, rashes, and gashes. I sew them up and prescribe and administer medication, and tend them for days before I can get them off to a clinic. Usually with Satphone medical advice, but sometimes without it.
That’s a lot more an an EMT does. Most EMTs are trained merely stabilize and transport patients to a hospital within one hour. Frankly, I have had EMTs in the crew. Most of them are not very useful. I get nothing but a constant stream of “I’m not allowed to do that” out of them.
The difference between us and a medical facility is the folks who come to us for medical care are within our bubble. A clinic or hospital is open to everyone.
I could equally argue that, as my children come to me for treatment of their infections, rashes, and gashes, I should be considered a front line medical provider - and so should every parent in the world! Obviously that would pervert the rational for frontline medical providers getting priority. Such twisted logic should be put down as dangerous to public health as well as being shameless.
Your entire ship - not just you - should get priority vaccination because:
-
Real medical care could be days or weeks away. The general public does not suffer that danger.
-
Mariners are old, obese and smoke like chimneys. Those are some of the most dangerous co-morbidities.
-
Shipboard social distancing and isolation of the infected are ineffective and fail repeatedly.
Fact is, if someone on your ship comes down with COVID a lot of folks already have it. Everyone else will soon enough. I was recently on a ship that had a COVID outbreak. We went from patient zero to nearly a hundred positives in under a week. (Likely an undercount as we stopped testing the non-symptomatic for fear of running out of crew. For example, I was never symptomatic and so was not tested despite repeated long duration close contact with multiple shipmates who became highly symptomatic a day or two later.)
@tugsailor There are good reasons for mariners to get vaccinated before the general public. Having a Med-PIC endorsement just isn’t one of them.
I agree that all oncoming crew need to be vaccinated.
In close quarters if one has Covid soon all with have Covid regardless of the best precautions. Many crewmen are reckless idiots.
The poorly understood risk of some asymptomatic cases becoming “time bombs” for clotting issues is probably pertinent here too, that’s very much something that can be treated ashore with a lot of success but essentially not at all at sea.
At one point I took the EMT-B class back to back with a wilderness EMT class, and the transition from “get them to a hospital and they’ll likely be fine if you drive fast” to “you’re essentially providing pastoral care” for stroke etc. was sobering. I laughed at the EMT-B not being allowed to do anything, I feel like that was half the course material, “don’t try to be a paramedic”!
Law360 (February 5, 2021, 11:20 PM EST) – The widow of a deckhand who purportedly contracted a fatal case of COVID-19 from the captain of the ship he was working on has reached an undisclosed settlement with the ship owner, according to documents filed in Louisiana federal court.
After being advised of the settlement, U.S. District Judge Eldon Fallon on Thursday dismissed without prejudice a suit brought by Kathy Norwood accusing Rodi Marine LLC of causing the death of her husband Michael Norwood after he allegedly contracted the coronavirus from the captain, John Reed, resulting in Michael Norwood’s April death. Terms of the deal were not discussed in court papers.
An attorney for Rodi Marine, Kent Morrison, told Law360 by email Friday that “the parties reached an amicable resolution satisfactory to each party, the terms of which are confidential.”
Counsel for Norwood, Paul Sterbcow, provided a substantially similar statement to Law360.
The settlement effectively ends an opportunity for the federal courts to create legal precedent regarding coronavirus injuries and what a seaman can recover under the Jones Act, a federal law that regulates United States maritime commerce.
Norwood’s counsel had touted the case as “the first lawsuit claiming Jones Act negligence and unseaworthiness by vessel owners and operators related to COVID-19,” according to a statement issued in July.
The suit claims the vessel and its three-man crew was docked in Mobile, Alabama, undergoing modifications when the captain was sent by Rodi Marine to conduct business in New Orleans amid a coronavirus outbreak in the city. After the captain returned, he fell ill but remained on the boat, exposing Michael Norwood and another deckhand to the virus, according to the complaint.
About a week later, Michael Norwood developed symptoms, and he later died approximately four weeks after being exposed to the virus, the suit said.
“The untimely death of decedent, Michael Norwood, was caused by the negligence of defendants by and through their employee Captain John Reed who, despite traveling to a location on ‘lock down’ and well known to be a ‘hotspot’ for COVID-19, took no steps to protect himself and others and took no steps in response to developing COVID-19 symptoms, instead opting to remain aboard the vessel in Mobile, Alabama for at least three days while symptomatic and exposing his fellow crew members to COVID-19,” the suit said.
Norwood had also alleged that Rodi Marine failed to provide her husband with a safe workplace and failed to implement safety measures to guard against COVID-19 or otherwise train its crew on mitigation efforts.
Norwood is represented by Paul M. Sterbcow and Beth E. Abramson of Lewis Kullman Sterbcow & Abramson LLC.
Rodi Marine is represented by Thomas Kent Morrison, Colin B. Cambre and Taylor M. Bologna of Phelps Dunbar LLP.
The case is Norwood v. Rodi Marine LLC et al., case number 2:20-cv-01404, in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana.
–Editing by Daniel King.
Law360 (February 8, 2021, 5:02 PM EST) – Celebrity Cruises urged a Florida federal court Monday to toss a proposed class suit lodged by a New York couple who say they caught COVID-19 onboard, arguing the couple cannot prove they were infected on the ship and cannot collect damages on claims for future health problems they might have stemming from the illness.
Celebrity said Fred and Marlene Kantrow do not allege in their suit when they first began to experience symptoms of COVID-19 and said they could have been exposed while traveling from New York to South America to board the Celebrity Eclipse.
“In other words, the Kantrows do not allege a factual basis for the premise that they were not exposed to COVID-19 while traveling to South America to meet the ship, but were instead exposed only after they boarded the ship,” the cruise line said.
The claims for future physical injuries caused by contracting COVID-19 should be dismissed because “there is no factual, medical or scientific basis” for them, the cruise line added.
The Kantrows allege they contracted COVID-19 in March aboard the Celebrity Eclipse after the cruise line concealed the truth about the health of guests on board and continued to hold events, including an elbow-to-elbow salute to health care workers battling the disease. The Florida federal judge overseeing the case has dismissed the suit twice before but gave them one last chance to replead their claims.
The couple claim in their suit, filed in May, that among the roughly 2,500 passengers and 750 crew members they sailed with aboard the Celebrity Eclipse, at least 45 individuals tested positive for the coronavirus, and at least two died.
They boarded the ship on March 1, expecting to spend two weeks sailing from Argentina to Chile before heading home.
Chilean officials refused to allow non-Chilean passengers to disembark at their would-be final destination, the couple said. The passengers ultimately remained aboard the Eclipse until March 30, when it reached San Diego. By the time they set foot on solid ground stateside, the World Health Organization had identified the novel coronavirus as a pandemic.
The Kantrows say that as early as March 2, the day after the cruise commenced, someone on board began displaying “symptoms consistent with a positive COVID-19 diagnosis.”
Despite signs that someone might be infected on board, the Kantrows said, nothing changed on the ship. Diners ate from buffets, and dancing and other social programming went on as originally planned. The Kantrows say the company told the passengers as late as March 28 that “all guests onboard remain healthy and happy.”
They claim that Celebrity knew or should have known weeks before they set sail that such a voyage would be ill-advised in light of rapidly changing guidance on managing the “explosive contagiousness” of the virus.
The Kantrows are represented by Jason R. Margulies, Michael A. Winkleman, Jacqueline Garcell and L. Alex Perez of Lipcon Margulies Alsina & Winkleman PA.
Celebrity is represented by Scott D. Ponce, Alex M. Gonzalez and Sanford L. Bohrer of Holland & Knight LLP, and Jerry D. Hamilton, Evan S. Gutwein and Annalisa Gutierrez of Hamilton Miller & Birthisel LLP.
The case is Kantrow et al. v. Celebrity Cruises Inc., case number 1:20-cv-21997, in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida.
–Additional reporting by Emilie Ruscoe. Editing by Regan Estes.
Vaccine clause when?
In the UK lots of people were lobbying for offshore workers to be exempted from hotel quarantines, then yesterday they announced it was offshore workers who brought the new Brazilian variant of Covid into the UK.
Some advice on how to avoid Covid-19 on board ships:
And for on board testing:
https://www.gard.no/web/updates/content/31340701/testing-for-covid-19-onboard-
As of yesterday, Washington state has specifically named fishing boat crews as eligible to receive C19 vaccine immediately. Alaska is vaccinating everyone living or working in state over age 16. Good news for Alaskan fishing industry.
Iceland has just reopened to travelers who can prove that they are fully vaccinated.
Proof of vaccination for foreign travel is on its way to becoming the new normal.
The next sticking point with crews and C19 is this: based on CDC guidelines, even if you do get the vaccine, doctors are recommending you still quarantine before sailing. They don’t have enough data yet about whether the vaccine protects your body against symptomatic infection but still renders you infectious to others, or whether the vaccine is effective against all variants of the virus.
This is controversial. A lot of mariners want done with quarantines. But I’m also surprised by the number of mariners, not all of them older, who are militant about maintaining strict C19 precautions.