Harassed by the pandemic and placed in the spotlight in the 2020 elections, the United States Postal Service now finds itself competing for its share of the vaccine.
© Joshua Bright for The New York Times
Postal workers should browse a patchwork of policies to determine whether they can stand a chance.
The postal service has endured tumultuous months amid a significant spike in online shopping, understaffing, government funding issues and an explosion of postal votes during a contentious election. Thousands of postal workers contracted the coronavirus and more than 150 died. Still, less than half of the states across the country – at least 22 – have started administering vaccines to postal workers, at least in some counties, even as they rapidly expand access to more groups of people, according to a survey. from the New York Times.
Postal workers are among several categories of essential workers that a committee of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommended that states prioritize as soon as possible. In a letter written to the Biden administration in January, Mark Dimondstein, the president of the American Postal Workers Union, noted that “several states have not followed this recommendation and have chosen to place postal workers lower in the order of those with early access to the vaccine. “
Postal workers may not have to wait long to be vaccinated. On Thursday, President Biden promised to bring cohesion to the national launch, guiding states to make all adults eligible by May 1 and announcing a series of initiatives to accelerate the pace of vaccinations.
Postal workers should browse a patchwork of policies to determine whether they can stand a chance. In Virginia, they can get the vaccine from private courier carriers. And Arkansas Governor Asa Hutchinson announced that postal workers in his state could receive the vaccine on Monday. However, they are still not eligible in Maine, Texas and Washington.
In a live video last month, Dimondstein lamented the lack of a collective government response on behalf of the Post.
“It’s chaos,” he said. “You have to find your own way.”
Last month alone, the vaccination rate in the U.S. increased by more than 50 percent, to an average of about 2.5 million vaccines per day on Saturday, compared to an average of about 1.6 million vaccines per day in February 13, according to a New York Times database. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said on Saturday that about 68.9 million people received at least one dose of the Covid-19 vaccine, including about 36.9 million people who were fully vaccinated.
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