Post Office Workers Walk Out for Lack of Protective Gear

By on March 27, 2020 9:49 pm in Coronavirus, Downtown Brooklyn, Health

We have it on good authority – our mail carrier, who was here yesterday – that there may be no mail delivery for several days, because the Postal Service has failed to deliver sufficient protective gear – gloves and masks – to workers at the main Brooklyn post office (photo; By Beyond My Ken – Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=25016206).

Can you blame them? We hope they get the needed supplies soon.

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  • CassieVonMontague

    So where should I go to mail something?

  • KXrVrii1

    Wait, let me check the rules: “Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night stays these couriers from the swift completion of their appointed round.”

    Checks out, nothing about pandemics, hope you guys get some gear!

  • Rick

    A lot of people get their prescriptions by mail these days. Not all mail can wait.

    And the only masks they’d find available are masks that would give them virtually no protection. The gloves really wouldn’t either, as the gloves would quickly be contaminated.

  • CassieVonMontague
  • AEB

    It would be a matter of at least doing what could be done under the circumstances, at minimum providing the perception of care-taking.

    As for the notice, above, I don’t think it was sent after confirming BH mail delivery status. Unfortunately.

  • KXrVrii1

    The original WHI guidance on masks in increasingly being questioned. Look at the Asian countries where mask use was already common, and I think now is mandatory in some cases.

    This NYT piece discusses it more: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/17/opinion/coronavirus-face-masks.html

    On hands, I think Purell works about as well as gloves. Keep in mind postal workers are out and about all day, touching hundreds of doors and boxes, probably occasionally sneezing or coughing while handling stuff, all without easy access to a place to wash their hands…

  • Andrew Porter

    Any box with the protective mail slot. The carriers aren’t the ones who pick up the mail.

  • Still Here

    We’ve had no mail for two days

  • Jorale-man

    Yes, I’ve had no mail in 3 days now. And there are subscriptions that usually arrive late in the week, so it’s not just a case of it being a slow stretch.

  • Cranberry Beret

    How long have you had informed delivery? Whenever I type in my address to sign up, it says not available in my location. I just assumed none of 11201 was set up yet.

  • ldny

    I’ve had Informed Delivery for several years and I’m also 11201.

  • redlola

    masks work if they are n95 or n99 respirators. surgical masks are a waste unless a person is sick already. in that case, they protect the rest of us.

  • CassieVonMontague

    I’ve had it for a year. I’ve since forgot my password, and whenever I try to change it to put in a stop mail request, the site says the service is unavailable, so i think it’s kaput. I still get the emails though.

  • KXrVrii1

    That was the conventional wisdom, but it is increasingly being questioned. No one is saying the lower level masks are perfect, but it is a statistics game, n60 equivalent homemade mask is better than nothing.

    I would bet that once the supply problems in the US are resolved, there will be a lot more recommendations for everyone to wear masks.

    And keep in mind that symptomatic patients ARE told to wear masks, to protect the rest of us. But what about the potentially larger number of asymptomatic people? Don’t you want them wearing masks? Simple solution, everyone should wear masks.

  • redlola

    i believe i said the surgical masks protect others from sick ppl.

  • KXrVrii1

    Yes, on that I agree; but you also said they are otherwise a waste, which I disagree with.

  • AEB

    Received mail today! I’m at Hicks and Middagh. Don’t know if it was delivered by the usual carrier, but there it was.

  • judy s

    Has anyone tried to go down to the Cadman Plaza post office to get their mail? We know there is a pick-up window in the post office, but does anyone know if it is open and working?

  • AEB

    Or go to the post office and use its lobby mailing options.

  • Cranberry Beret

    Yes, our usual carrier is back, with mask. (They’ve been wearing gloves ever since the anthrax attacks after 9/11.) Hope they all stay safe!

  • Cranberry Beret

    Interesting

  • Cranberry Beret

    Thanks. Looks like I’ll have to sort out with the PO why they can’t add my address.

    Are you in a large apartment building or small building/house? My carrier has previously told me that our local PO sorts mail differently for the large buildings.

  • ldny

    46 unit co-op

  • Andrew Porter

    Article in the New York Times, “You’ve Got Mail. Will You Get the Coronavirus?” concludes, “For the delivery workers…the situation is potentially riskier. ‘I would be more worried about the mail sorters and mail carriers, who are exposed to many more pieces of mail,’ said Doctor James Lloyd-Smith.”

    Here, available for all (no paywall now):

    https://tinyurl.com/va7yn3j

  • KXrVrii1

    FYI, you appear to have downvoted your own post…