With the release of the Covid Vaccine, California has rolled out a plan to administer the vaccine. However, postal workers aren't on the current or next phase for receiving vaccines. According to the plan, Phase 1A, the people who are supposed to be receiving the vaccine right now, consists of healthcare workers and long-term care residents. Phase 1B, the people who can get vaccinated if there are supplies for such, consists of people 65+ years of age and those who work in agriculture, food, education, children, and emergency services. Postal workers don't fall under either of those phases meaning that they aren't going to receive the vaccine for some time (the first two phases combined contain roughly ~15 million people).
Only about 22 out of the 50 states are administering shots to the postal workers, meaning less than half of them. According to the president of the American Postal Worker Union, Mark Dimondstein, they are being deprioritized in order to give the vaccine to others, even though they are also considered essential workers. However, there is hope as the rate of vaccination is increasing to over 50%; as of Saturday, there's an average of about 2.5 million shots a day compared to the 1.6 million average.
Questions:
- Apps like Amazon remind you to stay 6 feet away from the worker and often, the deliveries are just dropped off at the door; do you think that postal workers should be prioritized into Phase 1B since they're considered essential workers? Why or why not?
- How much do you think the vaccine will affect the postal system? Will it help aid it or will nothing change?
Sources:
I do think that postal workers should be prioritized and included in Phase 1B because they are included in the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's list of recommended essential workers to prioritize. While I understand that different states might feel that they have specialized needs that do not align with the CDC's recommendations, I do think that in the case of postal workers, who are very obviously essential workers, they deserve to be prioritized. While I'm unsure of the actual number of postal workers who have caught or have Covid this past year, I assume that the vaccine will help to prevent infections from occurring among the workers, which may allow the postal system to run smoother and more efficiently, as workers won't have to take sick leave.
ReplyDeleteI see no harm in putting postal workers on the priority list. The postal service is very important considering it's probably how most of us have gotten a good amount of our stuff for the past year, and still how lots of us get stuff. However I do think that while postal workers are essential, there are other essential workers like emergency services that are a little more essential. To my knowledge postal workers do have a lower risk, as most cases come from social interaction and not surface contact. I don't think the vaccine will make to mush a difference to the postal system initially, besides lower risk and make the workers safer. I would argue however that the postal system might take a little hit after the majority of the population is vaccinated as people won't need to use it as much.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Lauren that postal workers definitely deserve to be prioritized since they are essential workers, but I don't think it needs to be a priority that they get vaccinated. Of the "essential," jobs I'd say that being a postal worker is easily one of the safer jobs in terms of being exposed to the virus-- I mean, it's not like the postal service is suffering all that greatly when people are almost exclusively ordering things online. I think the vaccine will help the postal system run things smoother internally, not having to worry as much about safety protocols and preventing the workers themselves from getting sick. Of course, with the general population getting vaccinated as well there's less need to have EVERYTHING delivered, so it'll probably just return to the way things were before the pandemic.
ReplyDeleteI understand your point and this is one that I agree with the most. I think that they deserve and should be vaccinated since their job is going around to different areas to deliver packages which could potentially put them at higher risk for the virus. However, with companies that actively say to stay away from the postal workers and since they often just drop the package off at the door, I don't think there's too much to worry about.
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ReplyDeleteI strongly agree with Colin’s point of view that while postal workers should be prioritized, they are at much less of a risk than other essential jobs. At home delivery systems have been widely popularized during the pandemic specifically for the fact they provide a“touchless” service, that is, postal workers do not come into contact with the receivers. In addition, I feel like even before the pandemic, contact with postal workers was pretty minimal. However, I also understand that this is not always the case and therefore, in comparison to people who are allowed to work remotely, they should definitely have priority. In addition, postal services are critical in providing people with important documents and information, so it is necessary to keep postal worke
ReplyDeleteI believe that postal workers should be prioritized. Especially with the fear revolving around going outside or shopping in a public space, ordering online is the easiest method of getting the essentials. This means that more and more people will be needed for to deliver goods. The vaccine will make a huge difference because it will help with the containment of the virus as well as the safety of the workers. Masks and distancing doesn't guarantee safety and the vaccine will create a buffer for that. This should be a requirement for postal workers as the vaccine is more readily available now.
ReplyDeleteI agree, since the vaccine is proven to stop people from getting the virus (if everyone's still wearing a mask). In terms of protecting the worker, the vaccine would be extremely helpful as it helps them as they go house to house. However, it still doesn't stop them from being a carrier necessarily, meaning that the people they deliver to would still need to wear a mask and practice safety precautions.
DeletePostal workers should definitely be prioritized. I do agree with other perspectives that they may not be the highest priority but regardless, they do have customer-facing jobs and it not only puts them at ease but also the customers receiving packages that they have not been handled by someone who has contracted the virus. I do think things within the postal delivery service will just go back to normal once people get vaccinated.
ReplyDeleteI think that postal workers are definitely an "essential" part of our society, and it would be nice to prioritize them. The trouble is, there are so many groups that arguably deserve to be prioritized first -- the elderly, those with underlying conditions, teachers, healthcare workers, etc -- that at some point it makes no sense to keep prioritizing groups. After all, if a majority of people in a population are in the "prioritized" group, then really no one is prioritized, in a sense. While it feels nice to be able to say a certain group deserves the vaccine sooner rather than later, that necessarily means less supply for people in other industries. In addition, the new touchless system of delivery means postal workers are unlikely to spread the virus very much, eliminating most of the risk for community transmission. So I would say that for postal workers who aren't already covered for the vaccine based on their age or medical conditions, there is no need to prioritize them ahead of all the people in different jobs, many of whom deal with even more face-to-face contact everyday than postal workers do.
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