WASHINGTON — Amtrak will revert to its original COVID-19 vaccination policy, which allows testing as an alternative to vaccination, in light of a court ruling halting a federal executive order blocking enforcement of a vaccination mandate.
As a result, the passenger railroad does not anticipate that it will need to make any service reductions in January, CEO Bill Flynn said in a memo to employees. As recently as a Congressional hearing last week, Amtrak President Stephen Gardner said the company was expecting to reduce some operations [see “Amtrak sticks to employee vaccine mandate …,” Trains News Wire, Dec. 9, 2021].
Flynn’s memo said the testing alternative will be available “on an interim basis … while the Executive Order is not being enforced.” It also says that those who have received exceptions to the vaccination mandate will be able to continue working as long as they submit a negative COVID-19 test weekly, or more frequently as required. Previously, those who received exceptions to the policy were to be placed on unpaid leave [see “Amtrak extends vaccination deadline …,” News Wire, Oct. 28, 2021].
Employees required to submit testing who fail to do so will be initially be placed on a leave of absence and could face termination.
Flynn’s memo says 95.7% of employees are either in full compliance with the vaccination mandate or have received an accommodation, and 97.3% have received at least one shot. “Currently, fewer than 500 active Amtrak employees are not in compliance with the company mandate,” Flynn writes. “This is remarkable progress — and we anticipate that between now and Jan. 4, we will get even closer to a 100% vaccination rate, which remains our goal and our policy.”
Flynn writes that company “will continue to update its vaccine policy as needed and follow the latest health and safety guidance. We believe these most recent changes are both appropriate and prudent, given the recent court decision and the continuing and evolving pandemic.”
As far as my thoughts, Covid was a virus released by the Chinese with US funds from the CDC and the WH chief medical wiz research Institution he was head of.
Again, we should be thankful those Amtrak employees will not be losing their jobs this Christmas.
Hope they have a contingency plan for the numbers that will be out sick in January when Omicron peaks. We are still 99%+ Delta, but Omicron is here and just getting started. Rt for Delta is ~3. Cases double every 3 day. Unvaxxed 100% vulnerable, vaxxed, 75% vulnerable, vaxxed and boosted, 30% vulnerable. Might be milder in those with some immunity, but out sick is out sick.
In respect to President Reagan’s winning retort in the 1980 election debate which helped to decimate President Carter’s re-election, “there you goes again,” is once again applicable today in relation to how Amtrak’s Board Chair, CEO, and President persistently mishandled the COVID-19 crisis. Certainly, this fiasco could have been appropriately analyzed-and exposed-by management expert, Peter Drucker, in the Harvard Business Review.
Given today’s standards, is turning the switch off/on several times already since 2020 whether to operate long distance trains on a daily schedule another example of careless decision-making by inexperienced folks at the top of leadership who can be easily faulted for personalizing the Peter’s Principle?
Or, is Amtrak’s leadership smugly maneuvering at a time of national distraction through another self-developed surreptitious effort to derail the long distance passenger train network which has historically been incessantly berated and attacked by Amtrak itself, as evidenced by posits: cutting number of revenue cars in a train’s consist off season and than complaining about increasing revenue losses for those trains; creatively destroying dining services to just a disgusting meal in a box and restricting even that concept to only sleeper passengers; lacking credibility to competently negotiate with the Class 1 freight railroads, Amtrak’s pliant leadership has merely approached the glaring issue of extensively delayed trains by further extending schedules and depot dwell times; refreshment/refurbishment of long distance equipment the last priority for Amtrak, as has been any plans to replace the aged equipment.
Apparently, President Lincoln’s admonition of fooling people only once does not apply for Congress to its request for information from Amtrak; to provide Congress the ability to rely upon such input and data to make correct decisions. Despite certain members of Amtrak’s corporate management strutting like roosters over their alleged political astuteness and ability to apply metrics to define and calculate every situation, in reality, they cannot carry the water required to be credible on “the Hill.”
Charles – Here we are on a railfan forum, and so far three of the right-wing lovers of the rail have wished you dead. This stuff is hilarious, and I’m as guilty as anyone of contributing to the noise (well, not anyone – I hope we all live to argue eternally.) It’s hilarious because I think the greatest comedy is right on the edge of tragedy, and we are there.
Make that left-wing. My bad,
Mr Fuller you missed some..sociopath, adulterer, misogynist, sexual predator, draft dodger the list endless read his nieces book it describes the entire dysfunctional family history. As usual Mr. Landey your rabid republicanism has clouded your judgement the vaccine policy is not meant to infringe on peoples rights but to prevent our private for profit medical system from being overwhelmed it does not have the facilities or staffing to handle an epidemic this would cut into the CEO & stockholders profits. Once the covid deniers are infected they run to the ER to get admitted thus limiting beds to others who need them accident victims, heart attacks, strokes etc. If you think this is all a gov”t conspiracy & you become infected stay home & die!
Amen, Mr. Riley.
Ditto Mr. Riley, you stated the obvious much better than I could have!
I’ll third an “Amen” to what Galen Riley posted. Just this morning there was a segment on NPR citing the anger in Colorado of people being told to cancel elective but important surgeries (read knee and hip replacements) because hospitals are overwhelmed by an influx of unvaccinated Covid sufferers seeking care.
While I agree with how you have characterized King Trump, Mr. Landey I believe has stated he is no longer a Republican and has always been guided by libertarian principles. Although I usually do not agree with him, he usually makes his case rather calmly.
Well spoken Galen!! Hit the nail on the head!!
Hmm, just curious how many accident victims, heart attacks, strokes etc. can also be attributed to supposedly poor lifestyle choices? Funny how fast the “health care is a basic human right” crowd have changed their tune.
@Charles Landey, I think honest people can disagree as to whether Biden is worse than Buchanan : )
@Jack Fuller, “Ten percent for the Big Guy.”
If I had Trump’s money there would be more steam in this country, but he chose to take a lot of arrows to make the economy great for everybody while certainly diminishing his own fortune.
The real story of Covid is yet to be told. Meanwhile, we should all be thankful that more of the people who operate the trains we love will be able to enjoy this season without the stress of impending job loss, or being forced to take what they consider a dangerous vaccine.
Merry Christmas!
@Patrick Evans. Actually Trump family fortunes increased and he avoided prosecution for his suspected lying about his assets and other lawsuits.
Hundreds of millions of people have taken the various vaccines and real world experience as well as clinical trials have demonstrated that adverse effects are miniscual compared to the benefits. Albeit with the frequent mutations, aka evolution of the virus, benefits are lessoning but still far outweigh the demonstrated risks. Additionally if more of the world was vaccinated, mutations would slow down.
@Charles Landey Your comment about the current administration is an opinion. So I’ll offer one: the previous administration, “… the corrupt, incompetent, senile, totalitarian socialist administration of Pence and Trump, the worst Vice President and the worst President of the last century and a half.” And the only administration to actively support an armed insurrection against this country. Which is Treason.
How naive can one be? You need to pin the “treason” tag on the donkey. And, is not stuffing ballot boxes with phony votes the same thing?
As I said, the last century and a half. Andrew Jackson, Andrew Johnson, Franklin Pierce and James Buchanan were all worse than Biden. Within the last century and a half, Woodrow Wilson was co-equal in evil to Biden. What do all of these have in common? Democrats, all of them.
I realise this is a Newswire forum but Mr. Erben you have strayed so now I will too. Would you care to back up your claim of the Democrats “stuffing ballot boxes with phony votes”? Watch/listen to Fox Noise much?
Good. Hospitals (formerly solid for vaccine mandates) are going in the same direction. I’m 100% pro-vaxx but I have a huge problem with the mandates.
COVID is a terrible illness, but there is something in the United States that is sicker still: the corrupt, incompetent, senile, totalitarian socialist administration of Kamala Harris and Joey Biden, the worst Vice President and the worst President of the last century and a half.
Note: before anyone reminds me this is a railfan forum, the topic of this article is COVID vaccination mandate. So I’m on topic. You don’t have to agree with my post, you don’t have to like it — but plz. don’t tell me it’s not to the point of today’s article.