Bus Runs Canceled As Sick Calls Soar

Bus drivers and transportation workers have some of teh highest occupational risks for CoViD-19, far in excess of teachers. Buses kept rolling throughout this pandemic because buses are essential, while schools closed because they are, in the judgment of the educators, not essential. Yet, teachers have special clinics while bus drivers are left to fend for themselves in a system where no vaccines have been unavailable for a week and a half.

Seems to me that humans operating public transportation, exposed to whatever is in the air, breath or body of mostly strangers should be in the highest priority for getting vaccinated, all of them, now. I have taken many New Haven buses and know how close the quarters are, how the routes do stop and start, and how many personalties and physical conditions the drivers must contend with.

Bus drivers are essential workers. So are people who work at grocery stores, gas stations, public utilities, and a wide range of other jobs. Given the finite, albeit growing, supply of vaccines the question is how to most effectively get them in people's arms. Pretty much everyone can verify their age. In contrast, many workers do not have IDs that verify that their jobs are essential.

One possibility is to operate pop-up vaccination sites at bus garages and other employment centers to facilitate eligible people getting their shots.

These drivers do have a right to be upset about the mismanagement of the pandemic by the Trump administration, and the changes to the vaccine plan by Gov. Lamont, these drivers should be in the front of the line to the get the vaccine, but the only people hurt by this sickout were the people that rely on the buses to get around. Don't get me wrong though, these drivers are different from most other frontline essential workers that have also been required to work throughout the pandemic in that these drivers are paid over $30 per hour! They can afford to take a day off without pay to "stick it to the man" but they forced many of the riders to also take an unpaid day off and in doing so their paychecks may come up short at the end of the week, if they even still have a job. Hope they don't have any kids to feed... I'm an avid user of CTtransit and a transit nerd, I was out there on Monday... there were hardly any buses running. Interestingly, the State probably saved money when those buses were left sitting without drivers. Oh well. There is a right way of going about things and this isn't it. Protest in front of the Governor's mansion, in front of the state house, on the green, file lawsuits against the state/gov like one other group recently did... don't inflict economic pain on your community.

this idea brought about by the pandemic of "essential workers" is a joke. anyone who goes to work each day is essential to their own survival in this world and the survival of the families they support and the people they may serve each day. if it's one thing we've learned in the last year is all work and business is interrelated. wear your mask as needed, social distance as needed and get in line like everyone else and get the vaccine.

As an essential State worker I completely understand how the bus drivers feel. Gov. Lamont screwed us and all other essential workers in the state when he decided to change who would be getting the vaccine. He's mad at us because we wouldn't give up our raises in July. We've been working in some unhealthy conditions since this whole thing started. Now the teachers and other school workers move to the front of the line and were told to fend for ourselves. Looks like Lamont is going to be a 1 term governor.

Kevin; Lamont's argument for an age based system makes sense. Except that he is not implementing a pure age-based system. Fifty five year old bus drivers cannot get a shot because those vaccines are going into 30 year old teachers like my niece, or perhaps being hoarded by organizations like Fair haven Health. A week and a half after the opening to 55 and over, YNHH and CVS still show no appointments available at all.

CT Transit should be given a pop up clinic at their home base locations for all their drivers, as should the grocery store workers and big box store workers like Walmart and Target that many people buy their groceries at, and bank in-branch employees. They work 3 feet or less away from thousands of customers everyday, they CAN'T work remotely like the school staff can (daycare and early childcare workers exempted from that thought,) and they were open to the public when everything else was shut down at the beginning of the pandemic because they ARE essential. When CT gets the next shipment of vaccines they should allocate some of it to the pop up clinics for the above. The grocery/big box stores are easy to do because most of them have the set up for flu clinics with their pharmacies and they have their list of employees to verify their status. The CT transit workers need a pop up clinic so they can verify their workers. Bank and credit union workers who work in the branches (like tellers) should be able to have their company give a eligible employee list to the pharmacy nearest to the branch that is holding vaccine clinics. Supposedly vaccine production has been ramped up and CT should be getting a surge in doses, so the bottleneck on appointments should be opening up soon.

1644, Lamont's decision to make younger teachers and day care staff eligible was obviously motivated, in part, by politics. But I do think there was a plausible economic argument as well. A substantial number of parents have been unable to go to work because of the school closures. Hopefully, this issue will quickly become moot as the vaccine supply ramps up.

Perhaps, some one heard me whining, because there are finally some vaccination appointments available on the YNHH website (although still none on CVS).