Freight Pilots Flying Covid-19 vaccines can’t get vaccinated

Roger Rapoport, senior editor, Flight Safety Information and Shem Malmquist co-author of Grounded: How to solve the aviation crisis, Lexographic Press.

In what may be the biggest humanitarian event of its kind since the Berlin Airlift, 8,100 UPS and FedEx pilots emergency delivering of Pfizer, Moderna and Johnson and Johnson vaccines have been lauded as heroes on the world stage. Television crews routinely cover their arrival on the evening news.

In recent weeks Hong Kong airport ground crews have been unloading 585,000 doses of the Pfizer vaccine flown in by American pilots. While Hong Kong domiciled pilots are being immunized, most of their American counterparts have been waiting since December to receive top priority essential worker status nationwide from the Centers for Disease Control. 

They have good reason to be worried. Today the Covid-19 rate for pilots at these two freight carriers is more than a third higher than the general public. By the end of February, 963 Fed Ex and UPS pilots had tested positive for the virus and one Fed Ex pilot has died from Covid-19.

Captain Robert Travis, president of the Independent Pilots Association, is worried about the vaccination delays for UPS crews. Noting that 13 percent of the freight company’s pilots have tested positive for Covid-19 he says: 

“Ironically for the last few months UPS pilots have been proudly flying lifesaving Covid-19 vaccines onboard their aircraft. Yet those same pilots do not have a priority for receiving the vaccine.” 

The International Air Transport Association’s Alexander Juniac fears lack of immunization could potentially hurt delivery of vaccines requiring “the equivalent of 8,000 747 freighter aircraft for global distribution.” Making this happen depends on having a “qualified workforce in place.”

The IPA’s Brian Gaudet shares his concern: “At any given time UPS has had up to 70 pilots in quarantine.” Five UPS pilots have been hospitalized in Hong Kong for testing positive and three others have been held in the Asia World-Expo center where they are near seriously ill patients. In addition one spent time in both.”

Eager to avoid flight crew detention, the Airline Pilots Association President Joe DePete, has asked Fed Ex, UPS Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg and Congressional leaders to temporarily suspend Hong Kong overnights for these freight pilots.

He points out that: “Flight crews members who test positive for COVID-19 are mandated to government-selected hospitals. Currently, Hong Kong is placing asymptomatic pilots in the AsiaWorld-Expo center with hundreds of patients in cubicle-style rooms and communal bathrooms.

“Two pilots who ultimately were found to be negative for COVID-19 were hospitalized and required to submit to blood draws and chest x-rays.” 

“Those pilots who may have been exposed to COVID-19 have been required to remain in a government quarantine facility or camp for up to 14 days. Despite assurances in November that new procedures were in place to limit exposure of layover crews to these camps, a FedEx pilot recently spent at least six days in such a facility.”

“To get out,” says the IPA’s Gaudet, “the pilots have to develop enough antibodies to prove they aren’t infected any more. This problem could have been mitigated if our pilots were put at the top of the essential worker priority list in December.” 

“To avoid being sent to mass quarantine facilities some pilots exposed to Covid-19 positive crew have been evacuated by charter to more hospitable Anchorage,” says a FedEx pilots union official.       

Another solution has been offered by Rep. Troy Nehls (R-TX) who wants the American government to quickly evacuate pilots testing positive in Hong Kong.

FedEx pilots have experienced similar difficulties in other countries. One pilot testing negative for Covid-19 was detained in an Australian hospital because his CPAP machine violated local virus restrictions.

A related concern is the well being of FAA workers at more than 250 facilities who have been infected by Covid-19. In many instances control towers at major airports such as Las Vegas, Denver, Chicago Midway, New York’s Kennedy and LaGuardia have had ground stops or temporary closures. To date 6,873 Transportation Security Agency staff have been infected by the pandemic and there have also been significant Covid-19 clusters at three FedEx Ground centers in California.

All of this has contributed to the industry’s full court press at the Centers for Disease Control. Immunizing pilots flying the vaccine would seem like an easy sell for airline lobbyists who have scored over $70 billion in Congressional grants, loans and loan guarantees.

Vaccine distribution was delegated to the states by the Trump administration last year. Currently the CDC recommends, but cannot mandate, when pilots receive their vaccinations. That means the ability of pilots to get one of the three approved vaccines depends on their Governors, counties and public health departments. Although some states have elevated pilots to essential worker status, pilots have discovered the vaccine may be temporarily unavailable. Their travel schedules can also play havoc with scheduling immunizations.

Roger Rapoport is a co-author of Grounded: How To Solve the Aviation Crisis (Lexographic Press and Angle of Attack . Rapoport is the producer of the award winning feature film Pilot Error.