North American Meat Institute | Dec 23, 2020
Meat and poultry workers are less likely to get Covid-19 than the rest of the population. Yes, you read that right.
A new analysis of independent data for the full month of November show that reported new COVID-19 infection rates amongst meat and poultry workers were more than 8 times lower than rates in the general population.
According to data from the Food and Environment Reporting Network, the meat and poultry sector was reported to have an average of 5.57 new cases per 100,000 workers per day in November. Infection rates amongst meat and poultry workers have declined steeply in the last six months, while surging across the United States.
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New analysis of independent data for the full month of November show that reported new COVID-19 infection rates amongst meat and poultry workers were more than eight times lower than rates in the general population.
According to data from the Food and Environment Reporting Network (data), the meat and poultry sector was reported to have an average of 5.57 new cases per 100,000 workers per day in November. Infection rates amongst meat and poultry workers have declined steeply in the last six months, while surging across the United States.
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On the morning of Sept. 15, 2018, 40 farmworkers at Riggs Brothers Farm stood up out of bed into water. Hurricane Florence made landfall in eastern North Carolina the night before, and they were waiting out the storm in their labor camp in Jones County. They scrambled to grab their belongings and waded out the door into waist-high water before spending hours calling 911 and farmworker advocates. Their boss, farm owner Randy Riggs, never showed up.
To rescue them, attorneys and the U.S. Department of Labor had to intervene. When someone finally opened the door, water rushed in even higher, said one worker, Romero, who asked to use an alias to protect his identity because he fears retaliation from his employers. The refrigerator and appliances started floating.
Dive Brief:
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention voted to recommend that frontline essential workers, as well as people age 75 and older, be next in line to receive the coronavirus vaccine. The recommendations were made by the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices on Sunday, which voted in favor 13-1.
ACIP voted that the roughly 30 million Americans that fall into the frontline essential workers group, including those in food production and manufacturing, should be in Phase 1b. Then all other essential workers, such as those in foodservice and construction, should be in Phase 1c. If CDC Director Robert Redfield accepts the recommendation, then these groups will likely be able to get the vaccine after healthcare workers and nursing home residents, who are now being vaccinated.
Photo: RiverNorthPhotography/iStockphoto
Karen Perry Stillerman, senior analyst, Food and Environment | December 21, 2020, 2:40 pm EDT This post is a part of a series on
Tyson Foods is the nation’s largest (and world’s second largest) meat and poultry producer. It operates 110 processing plants with 121,000 employees in the United States and boasted $42 billion in revenue in 2019, putting the publicly traded, Arkansas-based company at #79 in the Fortune 500. As it seeks to maintain meat industry dominance, Tyson is counting on many of us to put its products which include Jimmy Dean breakfast sausage and Hillshire Farm hams, as well as the ubiquitous Tyson chicken on our holiday tables.