Healthy Filipino crew replaced with another healthy crew

Healthy Filipino crew replaced with another healthy crew
STEPAN KOTCHERGA February 16, 2021 http://www.maritimebulletin.net/2021/02/16/healthy-filipino-crew-replace...

Bulk carrier SILVER LADY arrived at Chornomorsk Ukraine on Feb 5, having 21 crew on board, most or all of them of Filipino nationality. The ship was berthed, on Feb 6 one crew was taken off the ship on a covid suspicion. Was he having high temperature?, running nose? – Ukrainian media didn’t specify, what this suspicion was about. Transport healthcare authority ran a test on all crew, 13 seamen were tested positive, all were asymptomatic, or in plain common sense language, they were healthy. There was no mentioning of any of them suffering from any covid or flu symptoms, mild or severe or whatever. Port authorities demanded from owner to change all the crew, a new crew arrived and replaced old one. The ship left Chornomorsk late Feb 13, bound for Rotterdam. Old crew understood to be placed under 2-week “quarantine”. The ship was disinfected, authorities said.

Comment: Seamen were PCR-tested – PCR is notoriously unreliable test, according even to official data like CDC or WHO. Asymptomatic or in other words, healthy men, don’t spread virus around – also according to official data. Filipino seafarer deployments, meanwhile, fell by 300,000, or 58%, in the past year, according to Lloyd’s. I’ve been predicting such an outcome for Filipino (and Asian in general) sea labor several times last year, and I was correct.
All I can say is – if you want your jobs to return and employment to grow, seamen, and if you want your business back and growing, crewing and managing agencies, you better start thinking yourselves, not delegate your judgment to media and authorities. Resist if you want your normal life back. If you want any life at all. Vaccination statistics are horrific, so anyone forcing you, seamen, into all-crew vaccinations in any country/port of call, is violating the law – you can’t be vaccinated without your informed consent.

Bulk carrier SILVER LADY, IMO 9279367, dwt 50329, built 2003, flag Malta, manager AIMS SHIPPING CORP, Greece.