There's a disturbing investigative report in USA Today that in addition to the COVID-19 infections at several meat and poultry processing plants, the spread of the virus may be reaching further into that industry -- and into the so-called heartland -- than previously thought. The plants themselves, with their close-quarters work environment, are becoming local epicenters for the virus:
"More than 150 of America’s largest meat processing plants operate in counties where the rate of coronavirus infection is already among the nation’s highest, based on the media outlets’ analysis of slaughterhouse locations and county-level COVID-19 infection rates.
These facilities represent more than 1 in 3 of the nation’s biggest beef, pork and poultry processing plants. Rates of infection around these plants are higher than those of 75% of other U.S. counties, the analysis found." [snip]
'Initially our concern was long-term care facilities,' said Gary Anthone, Nebraska's chief medical officer, in a Facebook Live video Sunday. 'If there's one thing that might keep me up at night, it's the meat processing plants and the manufacturing plants.'" (our emphasis)The article notes that workers in the meat and poultry processing industries are more frequently prone to illnesses, and less likely to call in sick for fear of losing their jobs. Social distancing and keeping personal hand hygiene safe are very difficult in the work environment they find themselves in. With that in mind in the middle of a pandemic, you'd think regulators would tighten up safety restrictions, but this is the virus-friendly Trump regime we're talking about, so think again:
"But rather than increase safety and oversight, the U.S. Department of Agriculture relaxed it in the midst of the pandemic. Just this month, the agency allowed 15 poultry plants to exceed federal limits on how many birds workers can process in a minute.The waivers to existing food safety regulations that are being issued by the Trump regime are startling, given the outbreaks of the coronavirus at multiple plants. As with the relaxation of public safety guidelines by Trumpist governors to please Dear Leader, it shouldn't surprise anyone that the Trump regime is putting the short term profits of food conglomerates over the wellbeing of the public.
That’s more than in any previous month in the waiver program’s history. Several worker protection agencies have found that increasing line speeds causes more injuries.
And it could lead to more infections, the United Food and Commercial Workers International Union said in a statement: 'These waivers guarantee that workers are more crowded along a meatpacking line and more workers are put at risk of either catching or spreading the virus.'” (our emphasis)
