Coronavirus in Massachusetts (Boston, Lowell, Lynn: houses, school, live)

[charolastra00]

Originally Posted by LexWest

There’s a Bus Driver Shortage in the Commonwealth (Seriously)!

https://www.boston.com/news/schools/...p_featurestack

Desperate times call for desperate measures, I suppose.

If you have your CDL, why wouldn't you jump ship and work a higher paying trucking job? Even local trucking and delivery pays much better per hour for year round work and there's huge demand for those drivers.


The people left to drive schoolbuses are retirees looking for a second act, parents looking for jobs with good hours for their kids, and people with a lot of flexibility around their other jobs or gigs. COVID meant that a lot of the older drivers retired, and now younger kids can't ride on the bus with their parent (which used to be the case) so childcare becomes an issue and we've lost other drivers that way. Split shift for part time, seasonal work is not all that appealing compared to other jobs one might be able to do with the same skillset.



My town has a bunch of new drivers in training now, but they won't be ready until late Oct/early Nov. So for now, they have the rest of the drivers doing back to back runs. They'll be fully staffed at that point, but they had to bump up pay significantly, offer benefits, and offer a $1000+ signing bonus to do it.

[FlurryCat]

Originally Posted by Urban Peasant

A lot of folks here including in this forum make that argument that vaccine passports do not stand for American principles of freedom but what do we know how the Founding Fathers would have felt about a vaccine mandate. Washington, Adams and Jefferson did not have to face a virus like this. They could have just as well declared a vaccine mandate legitimate because it was not mandated by the King but by individuals elected to represent and protect the people. I mean think about it, getting the vaccine could be as American as arming oneself in the time of necessity, only this time arming oneself with an antivirus rather than a firearm. Americans were long taught to swear to protect each other so I don't see how different mandating that every loyal and patriotic citizen and resident get a vaccine is any different. I actually think this mandate is somewhat rightist, not leftist.

https://www.loc.gov/rr/scitech/GW&sm...oculation.html

George Washington's military genius is undisputed. Yet American independence must be partially attributed to a strategy for which history has given the infamous general little credit: his controversial medical actions. Traditionally, the Battle of Saratoga is credited with tipping the revolutionary scales. Yet the health of the Continental regulars involved in battle was a product of the ambitious initiative Washington began earlier that year at Morristown, close on the heels of the victorious Battle of Princeton. Among the Continental regulars in the American Revolution, 90 percent of deaths were caused by disease, and Variola the small pox virus was the most vicious of them all. (Gabriel and Metz 1992, 107)
On the 6th of January 1777, George Washington wrote to Dr. William Shippen Jr., ordering him to inoculate all of the forces that came through Philadelphia. He explained that: "Necessity not only authorizes but seems to require the measure, for should the disorder infect the Army . . . we should have more to dread from it, than from the Sword of the Enemy." The urgency was real. Troops were scarce and encampments had turned into nomadic hospitals of festering disease, deterring further recruitment. Both Benedict Arnold and Benjamin Franklin, after surveying the havoc wreaked by Variola in the Canadian campaign, expressed fears that the virus would be the army's ultimate downfall. (Fenn 2001, 69)

[GeoffD]

Originally Posted by justyouraveragetenant

Anyone for vaccine passports are not only far to the left they do not stand for American principles of freedom. It's something out of a dystopian movie. Democrats were far more conservative in the 1960's but now they are nothing like they were during that era. The country has gone more to the left.

So you refuse to get a drivers license, too? I’ll bet that goes well.

[justyouraveragetenant]

Originally Posted by GeoffD

So you refuse to get a drivers license, too? I’ll bet that goes well.

That is not medical coercion. What I do medically is between me and my doctor.

[htfdcolt]

Originally Posted by justyouraveragetenant

That is not medical coercion. What I do medically is between me and my doctor.

And I bet your doctor would tell you to go get vaxxed, and not be a walking biological weapon.

[GeoffD]

Originally Posted by justyouraveragetenant

That is not medical coercion. What I do medically is between me and my doctor.

So you refused to take the eye exam?

[htfdcolt]

Originally Posted by GeoffD

So you refused to take the eye exam?

You get the prize for best post of the morning. Yeah, how DARE the government monitor my ocular health? And every 4 years no less! And to tell ME that I need glasses. The gall! The invasion of privacy!

[mdovell]

With the CDL comment that is true because number of years ago I was trying to become a bus driver it would have been just something small and yeah if you're going to be a bus driver you can make a lot more being a truck driver. If you had considered dealing with students in elementary schools that don't have the vaccine vs being alone for hours on end making much more money yeah that's a heck of a lot better. Remember long ago that Wildcat strike and Boston? Mayor Menino I think just gave them all T passes so in urban areas school buses really aren't that big of a factor if you already have public transit.

Regardless for what we think about what the vaccines there has to be some standards of Health in order to ensure safety. Ppes are nothing new you can talk to people and construction and in the trades they need them in order to be safe. I'd encourage anybody to take a simple ServSafe class and they show you everything that goes on with food. Remember that Chipotle Grill issue years ago? They had to go with every single ingredient on the supply chain to find out where the contamination was.
Anything in terms of what they call NVC. That is nuclear and biological and chemical has to have precautions to ensure that there is containment.

Outside of a type of a job that might be a protected class I would argue there's a reasonable expectation that people should be able to see and hear at their jobs. I'm all for supporting those with disabilities but there are some cases where having all the senses mean that you're more efficient. If you take your car to a death mechanic they might not be able to hear something that can easily be detected by somebody that can hear.

I'm now starting to hear the Roe versus Wade Mantra of my body my choice with the vaccine. I'm sorry but this isn't the case. You can't catch pregnancy from someone else and you certainly can't catch an abortion from somebody else.

With the coronavirus has also done is its rolled globalization back but technology didn't roll back with it which is why we can still do things and this is leading to more of a divide.

[msRB311]

Being a truck driver is much more of a commitment than being a school bus driver or even an MBTA bus driver. I'm sure I dont need to tell you that truck drivers are on the roads for days, even weeks so I can see why someone wouldnt want that job even if the pay is good.

[charolastra00]

There are tons of trucking jobs that have you in your bed every night, like the people who get stuff from distribution points to stores. Pay per hour is probably roughly the same as a school bus driver, but you're working full time plus overtime pay, and many of these jobs give benefits and generous signing bonuses. And you're not working 4 hours in a split shift that make it challenging to take on another job.