Updated on January 25, 2021 at 11:29 am
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The 51-year-old farmworker from Oxnard, California, has the same questions about the coronavirus vaccine as many other people, but she is anxious to get it for one simple reason.
When she and her coworkers move through the fields picking strawberries, they cannot put enough distance between themselves to be safe.
“In reality we are not keeping the six feet that are being ordered for safety steps since the lines in the fields are a lot closer in proximity to each other,” she said in Spanish, relayed through a translator. “We cannot keep it.”
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(TNS) José Padilla spent the last few months calling on California to prioritize vaccinating its farmworkers, who have to go to the field nearly every day and often can t practice social distancing.
Last month, he and other advocates for farmworkers got a win when California listed essential workers such as farmworkers, teachers and grocery store clerks to be vaccinated right after those in the healthcare industry.
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