Originally Posted by
Boggie Dog
I think the states with ports hosting cruise ships are eager to have the revenue from that resource back and will support getting jabs in the arms of ships crew. Now that vaccination sites are having difficulty finding enough arms to jab there will be motivation to find more 'volunteers' to vaccinate. Ships want to get back to work as do the crews. I think vaccinating crews is going to happen in order to expedite the return of cruising.
I agree but do ponder about resident obligation with vaccines purchased with federal funding vs nonresident (transit) visas at this time. Crew C-1/D visas are nonresident
https://travel.state.gov/content/tra...mber-visa.html and they're technically not working within the US mostly on ships flagged in foreign countries. Canada and Bermuda residents can
bypass the Crewmember Visa. On the other hand, if the cruise industry restarts sailing from US ports this summer, being saddled with a COVID positive ship is still a health risk given current vaccination rates and drain on financial resources. FL's vaccination rate is currently just shy of
30% fully vaccinated,
43% with one dose and have used
74% of their current supply There's currently nonresident entry restrictions from Schengen, UK, India
https://www.nafsa.org/regulatory-inf...isas-and-entry within the last 14 days. Perhaps cruise lines will work around that by bringing in crew via transatlantic + transpacific, anchor for a week in international waters, or getting a different type of visa. If they are aiming for June & July, they'd still need at least a 2-3 week lead time with J&J putting crew members in FL by mid May, 5+ week lead with Johnson & Johnson, 6+ week lead with Moderna.
FL just lifted their proof of residency requirement
https://www.nbcmiami.com/news/local/...sites/2440826/ CA doesn't require residency but AK, WA, NJ, NY currently do
https://www.kff.org/other/state-indi...2:%22asc%22%7D State residency is also an impediment for migrant workers and undocumented workers
https://www.politico.com/news/2021/0...ination-476804 Some of these are truly essential workers who have been hard hit by COVID and perhaps counties/states haven't started running clinics to get vaccines to workplaces.
If states actively promote trade or tourism by opening up vaccines to non-residents, I hope they also set up easily reachable clinics/programs for cargo transport operators who have been shipping things all over the world and not really able to leave their ship or hotel rooms
https://www.seattletimes.com/nation-...-stuck-at-sea/. I'd really like TP shipments to continue.