3 ms·

It's strange that meat processing facilities in the US have been hard-hit by Covid-19. These are places that have strict hygine standards during normal times,

It's strange that meat processing facilities in the US have been hard-hit by Covid-19. These are places that have strict hygine standards during normal times, with employees wearing gloves and face masks as a matter of course. So you'd think they wouldn't be somewhere that diseases would spread easily. This has also not been a significant issue in other countries hit by Covid-19, that I'm aware of. What is it about the USA's meat processors that have made them vunerable?

igravious 7y ago
Ireland & Canada too, probably elsewhere: https://www.just-food.com/news/coronavirus-live-news-covid-19-and-the-global-food-sector-monday-4-may-free-to-read_id143295.aspx https://www.just-food.com/news/coronavirus-live-news-covid-1...
nine_zeros 7y ago
> This has also not been a significant issue in other countries hit by Covid-19, that I'm aware of. What is it about the USA's meat processors that have made them vunerable? We still underestimate how amazingly contagious this disease is.
z3ugma 7y ago
You would certainly expect that these places should have strict hygiene standards, but investigative journalists have found time and time again that slaughterhouses in the USA are filthy places where human and animal disease alike are concentrated by the time pressure to go faster, to make meat cheaper and cheaper. Fast Food Nation (https://www.litcharts.com/lit/fast-food-nation/chapter-9-what-s-in-the-meat https://www.litcharts.com/lit/fast-food-nation/chapter-9-wha...) profiled this in the early aughts. Countless other investigative journalists have tried, even against the "ag-gag" laws we have in farming states, to uncover even more in recent times: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/may/02/meat-plant-workers-us-coronavirus-war https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/may/02/meat-plant-wor... https://www.thestar.com/news/insight/2010/05/14/probing_the_link_between_slaughterhouses_and_violent_crime.html https://www.thestar.com/news/insight/2010/05/14/probing_the_... The consolidation of the meat industry has given them extraordinary lobbying power. They now have broad authority to regulate themselves: https://www.newsweek.com/trump-administrations-new-hog-slaughterhouse-rules-may-risk-more-contamination-food-safety-1459922?fbclid=IwAR13lxfSA9I_9WtJWlaJWfCoOBPTyKTpzxv_fpi6Z1_sIt3jWxxsyKHB5BQ https://www.newsweek.com/trump-administrations-new-hog-slaug...
SketchySeaBeast 7y ago
Alberta's two largest current outbreaks are in meat processing facilities. I believe it requires extremely close quarters for long hours.
makomk 7y ago
It's not necessarily being spread within the plants themselves - I've seen claims that due to poor pay etc, a lot of the work is done by immigrants crammed multiple people to a room in shared housing, and we know from Singapore that's a really effective way of creating a major coronavirus outbreak.

igravious 7y ago

Ireland & Canada too, probably elsewhere: https://www.just-food.com/news/coronavirus-live-news-covid-19-and-the-global-food-sector-monday-4-may-free-to-read_id143295.aspx https://www.just-food.com/news/coronavirus-live-news-covid-1...

nine_zeros 7y ago

> This has also not been a significant issue in other countries hit by Covid-19, that I'm aware of. What is it about the USA's meat processors that have made them vunerable? We still underestimate how amazingly contagious this disease is.

z3ugma 7y ago

You would certainly expect that these places should have strict hygiene standards, but investigative journalists have found time and time again that slaughterhouses in the USA are filthy places where human and animal disease alike are concentrated by the time pressure to go faster, to make meat cheaper and cheaper. Fast Food Nation (https://www.litcharts.com/lit/fast-food-nation/chapter-9-what-s-in-the-meat https://www.litcharts.com/lit/fast-food-nation/chapter-9-wha...) profiled this in the early aughts. Countless other investigative journalists have tried, even against the "ag-gag" laws we have in farming states, to uncover even more in recent times: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/may/02/meat-plant-workers-us-coronavirus-war https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/may/02/meat-plant-wor... https://www.thestar.com/news/insight/2010/05/14/probing_the_link_between_slaughterhouses_and_violent_crime.html https://www.thestar.com/news/insight/2010/05/14/probing_the_... The consolidation of the meat industry has given them extraordinary lobbying power. They now have broad authority to regulate themselves: https://www.newsweek.com/trump-administrations-new-hog-slaughterhouse-rules-may-risk-more-contamination-food-safety-1459922?fbclid=IwAR13lxfSA9I_9WtJWlaJWfCoOBPTyKTpzxv_fpi6Z1_sIt3jWxxsyKHB5BQ https://www.newsweek.com/trump-administrations-new-hog-slaug...

SketchySeaBeast 7y ago

Alberta's two largest current outbreaks are in meat processing facilities. I believe it requires extremely close quarters for long hours.

makomk 7y ago

It's not necessarily being spread within the plants themselves - I've seen claims that due to poor pay etc, a lot of the work is done by immigrants crammed multiple people to a room in shared housing, and we know from Singapore that's a really effective way of creating a major coronavirus outbreak.