Cruise crew vaccinations
 

In some of the longer threads, people have expressed concerns about how/where crew would get vaccinated. Apparently, Florida has already begun vaccinating cruise ship crew:
https://www.seatrade-cruise.com/port...uise-ship-crew

That’s great and certainly hits the staff and crew that stayed with the ships and maybe some others. I’m more interested in those who were sent home country like the Philippines and Indonesia which provide a significant number of wait and service staff. Nonetheless it is a step in the right direction, one that needs to be made. Bravo!

Port Canaveral Home Ports for Disney, NCL & Carnival https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Port_C...ort_Canaveral? I wonder who is footing the vaccine bill and how much has been allocated.

Port workers are already be eligible but we're also moving into the phase where getting the vaccine to job sites is prudent. Hopefully they'll offer clinics after shift hours so people can go home to rest.

Also a challenge since some are going through their own nth waves. Philippines hopefully seems to be trending down. Indonesia might be at a plateau.

Indonesia did just approve Sinopharm https://www.reuters.com/world/asia-p...se-2021-04-30/ It seems a little unique in that it's meant for corporate purchase and distribution.

Considering there are reports of Florida throwing away unused vaccine, this is a great use.

There was this article on CNN a couple of weeks ago questioning the efficiency of the Chinese vaccines. https://www.cnn.com/2021/04/12/china...hnk/index.html Other than an initially weak “that’s not true” from the Chinese government I haven’t seen any follow on.

If anyone is waiting until the lowly crew is vaccinated with a western vaccine, it may be years before cruising resumes if ever. By the time enough vaccines are made, revaccinations will probably be required by those who've already had one or two.

At any rate, the Chinese vaccines may not prevent one from getting COVID (hence low efficacy), but apparently is apparently very good from allowing the infection to be anything other than a very mild case (prevents hospitalisations and severe cases)..

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/...9-vaccine.html

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/artic...ize-up-sinovac

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.

They'd have to go to Indonesia and the Philippines (albeit many are loitering there already) to pick up crew, hope there isn't a plague ship and get them to the U.S. and get them vaccinated. Not easy, I wager,on many many fronts. Or are you assuming will Florida et al send its vaccine allotment to Jakarta and Manila?

Or do you mean U.S.-flagged (and crewed) cruise ships? That, I can perhaps see. Numbers of vaccines required are very low (and in numbers required being less than that required for a couple of huge cruise ships?).

I mean any cruise ship operating out of U.S. ports. The mechanics of any vaccination program for crew will take work to figure out and implement.

Devil, as the proverb goes, is in the details. Lots of political considerations, legal ramifications, and other loads of other issues. Don;t be in a hurry to give cruise lines any money! I very fortunately was not able to 2 years ago.

No question a vaccination program for ships crew will take work to implement but I don't believe the details can't be figured out. I don't approach difficult issues with a 'that's too hard' frame of mind.

I'd go on a cruise now if one was available.

I suspect that the cruise operators are the ones who would foot the bill. i cannot imagine that the total cost of vaccinating a crew would not amount to much more than what a large cruise ship rakes in for alcohol sales in a single day at sea :o

They'd have to acquire the vaccine and most likely have to bring it to the crewing countries, who may requisition it if import and usage is approved.