Saving Seafood

MASSACHUSETTS: You Can’t Scallop Over Zoom: New Bedford Works to Vaccinate Seafood and Fishing Communities

April 14, 2021 — New Bedford is the country’s largest commercial shipping port and has the largest collection of seafood processing plants in the United States.

But these two accolades also create some unusual circumstances for the city when it comes to reaching and vaccinating those communities.

This past weekend, New Bedford held a vaccine clinic specifically geared towards those working in these industries. More are planned for this week.

Mayor Jon Mitchell said the city made a push with workers, as well as their employers.

“One of the big barriers to vaccine uptake, not just here in New Bedford but everywhere, is the fact that shift workers just have a harder time, for reasons that everyone can understand, getting away from work and going to a vaccine appointment,” Mitchell said. “If you’re a professional, if you’re a lawyer, a doctor, or an accountant, it’s no matter just to go break away from your work for an hour to go get your shot. But if you’re on a shift, and you are, like many shift workers, given two specififed periods of the day to take a break, you can’t readily get away to get a shot.”

Read the full story at WGBH

MASSACHUSETTS: ‘We’re helping make a difference’: New Bedford waterfront center administers 1,100 vaccines

April 13, 2021 — The new vaccination center on New Bedford’s waterfront vaccinated 1,100 people on Saturday, many of whom work in the fishing industry, according to Greater New Bedford Community Health Center leadership.

Noelle Kohles, chief nursing and clinical operations officer at the health center, said there were about 1,200 appointments on Saturday and that most belonged to workers from the fishing industry.

Cheryl Bartlett, CEO of the health center, said all the fish house businesses encouraged their workforce to sign up or signed them up directly through the health center.

The city’s stated focus for the new center is workers in the fishing industry, of which there are about 6,200, according to a 2019 report from the New Bedford Port Authority.

Read the full story at the New Bedford Standard-Times

As New Bedford lags behind Massachusetts, Sen. Markey visits city to push vaccines

April 7, 2021 — U.S. Sen. Ed Markey on Tuesday exhorted New Bedford residents to get immunized against COVID-19, as the city’s vaccination rate remains well below the statewide average.

Home from Washington due to the Senate recess, Markey stopped in New Bedford to tour a federally funded vaccination clinic at the McCoy Recreation Center in the West End. The clinic, which is targeting senior citizens, received an extra supply of 1,000 Johnson & Johnson doses this week on top of its usual allotment of 600 Moderna shots.

“New Bedford is a little bit below the state average, so the message to the residents of New Bedford is very clear: we want to get you vaccinated,” Markey said.

Data reviewed by Target 12 shows all four cities in Bristol County are lagging behind the statewide pace of inoculations.

While 35% of all Massachusetts residents were at least partly vaccinated as of April 1, only 21% of New Bedford residents have gotten at least one shot. The rates were also below average in Fall River (22%), Attleboro (25%) and Taunton (25%).

New Bedford Mayor Jon Mitchell said “deep-seated” challenges are driving the comparatively low level of vaccinations in his city. He cited a lack of access to technology in order to make appointments online, language barriers, and jobs with limited flexibility.

Read the full story at WPRI

MASSACHUSETTS: New Bedford to Open Vaccination Center for Seafood Workers

April 2, 2021 — New Bedford Mayor Jon Mitchell, joined by U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren, Congressman Bill Keating, and members of the New Bedford City Council and state legislative delegation, announced Wednesday that the City of New Bedford has established a waterfront vaccination center on Tichon Avenue to vaccinate essential seafood industry workers.

The site is located at the former Environmental Protection Agency Dewatering Facility on the waterfront, recently turned over to the New Bedford Port Authority by the EPA. It will launch in the coming weeks with additional vaccine supply and through a partnership with the Greater New Bedford Community Health Center.

The waterfront vaccination center will be operated as a partnership between the City and the Greater New Bedford Community Health Center which will staff the vaccination site. The Greater New Bedford Community Health Center recently received an award of nearly $4 million from the Health Resources and Services Administration as part of the American Rescue Plan to support its work, including direct receipt of vaccine, which makes possible the operation of this site.

Read the full story at WBSM

MASSACHUSETTS: Vaccine site for seafood workers to open next weekend in New Bedford

April 1, 2021 — Meat processing plants have experienced some of the worst COVID-19 outbreaks of any workplace in the country. Officials feared the same would be true of the New Bedford’s fish houses.

Last spring, Mayor Jon Mitchell’s administration passed an emergency order that set strict safety protocols for seafood companies and other manufacturers, threatening fines of $300 per day against companies that fail to provide PPE and enforce social distancing.

And on Wednesday, Senator Elizabeth Warren, the mayor and other public officials introduced plans for a new vaccine clinic targeting the workers who kept America’s most valuable fishing port operating during the pandemic.

“This center is about protecting our essential workers,” Warren said. “It is about treating our fishermen with respect. It is about treating our food workers with respect.”

Read the full story at The Public’s Radio

COVID-19 vaccines expected to boost foodservice, hospitality industries – but full recovery could be years away

January 7, 2021 — Restaurants are expected to be somewhat buoyed as more Americans receive COVID-19 vaccines, however, experts predict that 2021 will still be a rough year for the foodservice and hospitality industries.

Around 10 to 12 percent of United States restaurants – representing 65,000 to 80,000 eateries – will be forced to close down by February, Darren Tristano, the CEO of foodservice consulting and research firm FoodserviceResults, told SeafoodSource. But Tristano said many of those restaurants could reopen after COVID-19 vaccines are widely distributed.

Read the full story at Seafood Source