VACCINE DISTRIBUTION BUILDS BRIGHT SPOTS

The Maritime Ministries, which assist seafarers, have moved beyond providing sailors with knitted caps and the like; they are organising vaccines for mariners on vessels calling at their ports. This is a big deal and one worth celebrating.

With the pandemic apparently with us for longer than we had thought only a few months ago (thanks to a resurgence fuelled by “The Delta Variant”)- my hope is that ports will continue to assist the Ministries (along with local health providers and others) in keeping that supply of vaccines, almost always the one-dose J and J (colloquially known as “one and done”), coming to seafarers.

The logistics of vaccine distribution in the port setting is not without challenges; often, the berths are not readily accessible from city centres. And, then there are the usually short berth times for vessels- though recent patterns (especially for inbound container ships) have kept them alongside for a little longer.

While the port authorities may not be bringing the actual arm-jabs to the visiting mariners, they nonetheless provide the “infrastructure” for expeditiously allowing healthcare providers access to the vessels, or arranging transportation from vessels to vaccine centres.

Closer to home, ports can also play a role in efforts to make sure that local workers are getting vaccines and staying protected, as best as possible, from whatever variants are lurking. Delays and slowdowns earlier in the year, notably in Q1 and Q2, were attributed, at least partly, to shortages of workers who were quarantining, or worse actually out of action due to COVID-19 infections.

Outreach and positive spin are positive by-products of such efforts as ports have been battered, mainly unfairly and unjustifiably, for many real but also some imagined disruptions in supply chains.

Ports where seafarers and shore-side workers have been aided ought to be trumpeting these activities, particularly in the new environment where cargo shipping , and many activities touching it, are no longer in the media shadows.