A vaccine may finally be surfacing as we reach month 10 of the COVID-19 pandemic and those in the transportation industry could be the first to receive it if supplies are limited.
It’s no secret that truck drivers and other workers in the trucking and freight industries have pulled their weight during the pandemic, but it’s important that the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) recognize it also, and are considering them as one of the four groups eligible for early vaccination.
The CDC looks to the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) for decisions on COVID-19 vaccinations, and the four groups ACIP is considering if vaccination supplies are limited include:
- Healthcare personnel
- Workers in essential and critical industries
- People at high risk for severe COVID-19 illness due to underlying medical conditions
- People 65 years and older
As defined by the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, workers in essential and critical industries include, “Workers supporting or enabling transportation and logistics functions, including truck drivers, bus drivers, dispatchers, maintenance and repair technicians, warehouse workers, third party logisticians, truck stop and rest area workers, driver training and education centers, Department of Motor Vehicle (DMV) workers, enrollment agents for federal transportation worker vetting programs, towing and recovery services, roadside assistance workers, intermodal transportation personnel, and workers that construct, maintain, rehabilitate, and inspect infrastructure, including those that require cross-jurisdiction travel.”
The declaration goes on to include, “Workers supporting the distribution of food, fuels, pharmaceuticals and medical material,” mass transit workers, workers supporting personal and commercial transportation services, transportation safety inspectors, and more.
Operation Warp Speed, the U.S. government’s Coronavirus vaccine program, has been going warp speed the past few weeks as they plan to distribute the first COVID-19 vaccines as early as Dec. 11.
At a press conference on Nov. 18, Operation Warp Speed officials said they expect about 40 million doses of vaccines to be available by the end of December.
“Our plan is to be able to ship vaccines to the immunization sites within 24 hours from the approval, so I would expect maybe on day two after the approval, on the 11th or on the 12th of December,” Operation Warp Speed lead advisor, Dr. Moncef Slaoui said during an interview with CNN.
According to Land Line Now, the Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association (OOIDA) has been working closely with the CDC to make sure truck drivers are one of the firsts to receive the COVID-19 vaccine. Doug Morris, OOIDA’s Director of Safety and Security Operations, told Land Line Now that truckers will most likely be included in phase two of a four-phase rollout, with high-risk healthcare workers and first responders being in phase one.
