Coronavirus In Minnesota: 'We Are A Necessity': Flight Attendant Raises Awareness For Airline Workers Putting Themselves At Risk
MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) -- Airline travel is down dramatically, but employees are still going to work, putting themselves at risk.
Hazel Garrett can't get more than a few sentences out without unleashing an ugly cough. She's shown symptoms of COVID-19 and now has a bacterial infection.
"My lungs are just kind of getting hit from both sides," Garrett said. "I'm still weeks from getting over this, based on how my lungs look, but I'm not severe enough to go to the hospital."
She thinks her work as a flight attendant put her in the virus' path.
"We were still walking through the aisles. People were coughing, I was sitting next to people," she said.
The illness might not come as a surprise, considering the close quarters of an airplane.
Garrett doesn't work for American Airlines, but the union representing AA flight attendants, the Association of Professional Flight Attendants, says 100 of its members have been diagnosed with coronavirus.
Julie Hedrick, the national president of the APFA, said in a statement, "APFA has been pushing the Company since January to be proactive in their approach to COVID-19 and the associated dangers. We have consistently advocated for Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) for all of our Flight Attendants to be available on every aircraft, for social distancing between passengers and crew jump seats, for thermal scanning in the airports, and to receive immediate notification of Flight Attendants who have tested positive for the virus. Flight Attendants are aviation's first responders who are transporting medical personnel and supplies into COVID-19 hotspots, and they need to be treated and protected as such."
Hedrick also said leisure and non-essential flights put flight attendants at risk, and doesn't help contain the virus.
Garrett doesn't want the people in her profession to be overlooked.
"Airline workers are essential," she said. "We are needed. We are a necessity. They're first responders in the air."
When asking American Airlines if any of its flight attendants have tested positive, the company sent the following statement: "We are in close contact with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and public health officials and are coordinating with them on any required health and safety related measures. We continue to look at all the ways we can care for and protect our team during this stressful time."
In Garrett's eyes, attitudes towards travel have already changed since the early days of the pandemic. She hopes people will be more cautious in the future.