Vaccines away for foreign seafarers helping to keep supply chains moving in Hamilton’s port
In pre-pandemic times, pastor Dan Phannenhour would routinely drive crew members from ships docked at Hamilton's port to a restaurant or a mall to load up on gifts and souvenirs to take home to places like India, the Philippines, and Ukraine.
But these are unusual times, and the crew members - known as seafarers in the shipping industry - are mostly stuck on board. And Phannenhour is delivering not only fridge magnets, SIM cards and Doritos to them, but also Pfizer and Moderna.
Phannenhour is chaplain at the Mission to Seafarers in Hamilton, one of 190 chapters of the charity that helps commercial sailors at 220 ports around the world.
He has teamed up with two Hamilton doctors and a nurse to offer COVID-19 vaccines weekly to eligible and willing seafarers on board while in port.
The program is just two weeks old, with 16 seafarers receiving vaccine doses so far.
It is in keeping with the mandate of the 60-year-old Hamilton mission chapter to help crews who are often away from home for five months or more, doing laborious and potentially dangerous work, but the ripple effect is broader.
It's a global effort, all of the missions in the world are trying to provide vaccines for seafarers because they are key workers in the global economy, and we want to do our part to help," said Phannenhour.
The pandemic has slowed international transport that makes an efficient global supply chain possible. Last month, the International Chamber of Shipping warned of a global transport system collapse" if maritime and other transport workers didn't receive vaccination priority.
More than 60 container ships carrying billions of dollars worth of consumer goods were recently bogged down at shipping terminals in Southern California.
The health and well-being of seafarers is essential to the fluidity of our supply chains and movement through our ports," said Larissa Fenn, spokesperson with the Hamilton-Oshawa Port Authority (HOPA), in an email to The Spectator. We're grateful for the role the mission plays as a critical part of the port community."
Hamilton's port is the busiest of any on Canada's side of the Great Lakes, with about 700 vessels docking each year, hauling 10 million tonnes of cargo valued at $3 billion. About 25 per cent of all ships arrive from overseas.
Vaccination will protect seafarers when they are once again permitted shore leave to visit cities.
They live in social isolation on board, so the bigger problem for them is us: we might be the vectors of the virus to them," said Jason Zuidema, executive director of the North American Maritime Ministry Association, based in Montreal.
Last summer, Phannenhour had been frustrated in his efforts to help provide vaccination access for seafarers. He tried to arrange appointments for crew members so he could drive them to a Hamilton pharmacy, but was frustrated by delays and unreturned calls.
And then, in August, The Spectator reported on a program where local doctors Kerry Beal and Joe Oliver were doing vaccinations out and about in the lower city in their own mobile inoculation unit.
When Zuidema heard of that initiative, he suggested to Phannenhour this might be the way to go at the port.
Beal and Oliver agreed to help, along with a nurse from Good Shepherd in Hamilton.
Beal, the lead physician for the Shelter Health Network, has treated patients in the clinic at the men's centre at Mission Services at Barton Street East and James Street North for 13 years.
It fits in nicely with what we otherwise do: you sometimes have extra doses at the end of the day you are trying to find homes for," said Beal. A couple of guys need a shot (on a ship), and we can scoot down there, although it's a major production to get there, for safety reasons."
It's up to Phannenhour to arrange for the vaccine visits through agents who represent the ships that come to port, and then he drives one or more members of the team down. He will know in advance how many crew on board are seeking a first or second dose.
Beal said it took some getting used to, climbing the steep gangways onto ships while holding the slippery ropes.
But our nurse, who has a terrible fear of heights, still scrambled like a monkey up the gangway to the bridge."
Phannenhour said one member of a Filipino crew had previously received two doses back home of the Chinese-manufactured Sinovac vaccine, but was worried it provided poor protection and welcomed a Pfizer booster.
Another sailor, a third officer from Ukraine, managed to receive approval for shore leave, but was turned away from entering a Hamilton bar because he had proof of only one dose of a vaccine.
When he returned to the ship, the Hamilton team gave him a second dose.
In addition to the vaccine program, Phannenhour continues to help seafarers in any way possible, since most of them still can't leave their ship.
He said over the course of last year he put $60,000 on his credit card from buying goods for crew members that he delivered to ships in his weathered mission van.
Items included an unwieldy elliptical trainer exercise machine.
I jammed it in the van and they hauled it up the gangway."
They always pay him back on the spot, he said, in U.S. cash or Euros, and always chip in extra, which helps pay mission expenses.
One night I carried 40 pounds of chocolate bars on board. They have this thing for chocolate."
Jon Wells is a Hamilton-based reporter and feature writer for The Spectator. Reach him via email: jwells@thespec.com