Problems related to COVID forced government agencies and health care providers to consider allowing vaccines for foreign workers visiting the U.S. ports. Therefore, there were people who took the initiative and coordinated efforts to vaccinate crew members. This was published by Susan Huppert in The Maritime Executive.
Executive Director of the Houston International Seafarers’ Center Dana Blume has focused on this issue. She began working with government offices, but learned that some other groups of people require immediate vaccination besides seamen.
“It is a daunting task, a huge undertaking to get a seafarer vaccinated,” said Dana Blume. “You need to explain and coordinate with captains and agents and providers. It’s time. It’s money. It’s our mission. […] The Houston International Seafarers Center could have stepped away from the vaccine undertaking. It is complicated and takes many hours of emails, phone calls and perseverance. It keeps seafarers knowing we are still open and here for them.”
States are realizing the importance of key workers and the fact that seafarers are imperative to supply chains and the care of seafarers makes the supply chain stronger. Nowadays, more than eight thousand seafarers have been vaccinated since coordinate efforts began. It is all thanks to the united efforts of individuals who serve not for profit, but because it is their mission.