Sometimes the solution is right in front of you. The state is looking for ways to relieve the stay-at-home burden they have placed on us. They want to know what might happen if they let people get back to work.
Bath Iron Works employees have been working since the beginning of the pandemic. The employees have had to work. Only recently have they started wearing face masks. In all that time there have been two cases of COVID-19, and one of the people is back at work. The workforce represents a good cross-section in age and they work out in the open and in offices. Plus it is a large workforce, so more prone to rapid spread of the virus. But that has not happened.
If you look at COVID-19 hot spots, they are in highly populated areas, and Maine is not highly populated. Our medical facilities have not been stressed by number of cases and is reflective of the experience of BIW.
To me, that sends a signal to our state Center for Disease Control and Prevention and governor that we should reduce the restrictions on our workforce sooner rather than later. We have a perfect experiment right in front of us. Our concentration should be on the vulnerable, such as nursing homes, diabetics and those with lung problems. That is a limited portion of the population.
Let us get back to work. BIW has shown us it can be done.
William Truesdell
Bath
Copy the Story LinkSend questions/comments to the editors.
Success. Please wait for the page to reload. If the page does not reload within 5 seconds, please refresh the page.
Enter your email and password to access comments.
Hi, to comment on stories you must . This profile is in addition to your subscription and website login.
Already have a commenting profile? .
Invalid username/password.
Please check your email to confirm and complete your registration.
Only subscribers are eligible to post comments. Please subscribe or login first for digital access. Here’s why.
Use the form below to reset your password. When you've submitted your account email, we will send an email with a reset code.