Airport Voice
JANUARY 2021 NEWS AND VIEWS FROM NEW YORK'S AIRPORT COMMUNITY
AIRPORT WORKERS
SHOTS IN THE ARM
Personnel now eligible for the Covid vaccine
One of the first JFK airport workers to receive the Covid vaccine
Congratulations to CEO Neil Lott of Pacific Atlantic
Handling at JFK Airport who managed a quick
appointment to receive his 1st vaccine dose at the
August Martin High School vaccine center. Airport
workers are now in the priority 1b group of transit
workers eligible for the vaccine. This is one of the recently
opened facilities in the neighborhood where
many airport workers live. Hundreds of eligible people
waited in line for over an hour for their inoculation.
Department of Health workers were verifying
appointments and answering questions from those
who were in the queue.
More on location and appointments
inside this issue.
Airport workers eligible
Vaccine centers open
65 and older eligible
BY JEFF YAPALATER
Things in the aviation Covid vaccine
world are changing rapidly. In just over
a week’s time, airport workers are now
in the 1b group eligible for the vaccine,
the number of vaccine locations has blossomed,
and the CDC has not implemented
mandatory Covid testing or negative test
results for all arriving in the USA from
overseas. The fight against Covid-19 has
intensified.
The initial minimum age for a vaccine
was originally 74 plus years of age but
within days it was reduced to 65 and over.
These are all part of the current 1b group
which totals over 4 million NY state residents
now eligible now for the vaccine.
A new network of vaccination sites
will help supplement vaccine administration
efforts in hospitals for Group 1a
and allow for New Yorkers eligible under
group 1b to begin receiving the vaccine
at hundreds of new locations spring up
throughout NY over the next few weeks.
According to Governor Cuomo, to
further accelerate the vaccination rate
of priority health care workers, and begin
the vaccination of newly eligible New
Yorkers, New York has established a network
of distribution sites that will supplement
the work being done in hospitals to
prevent any one hospital from becoming
overburdened. This network includes
the five state-run sites, which opened last
week, as well as 15 more, which were announced
last week. This new network
will also utilize doctors' offices, Federally
Qualified Health Centers, county
health departments, ambulatory centers
and pharmacies to get doses in the arms
of eligible New Yorkers.
Continued on page 12
Vol. 5, No. 1 In you can't be there, we are here for you