I know that I seem pretty obsessed regarding this nasty microbe but it is an event that is impacting our collective lives like nothing that I have seen in my lifetime. I want to balance my own fear and obsession with as many pretty pictures of birds and flowers as I can so keep sending them in if you've got them.
But I wanted to make one point this morning. One of the things I watch for in the news is the underlying stupidity and racism that occasionally bubbles out in our country and specifically the heartland of late.
A scientist and epidemiologist wrote yesterday that deep cleaning the meatpacking plants is not going to solve the covid 19 infection problem because the virus is already in the air systems in these plants and will be pretty much impossible to eradicate. I am trying to find the article again and will post the citation when I locate it. But as of today, plants are not even required to shut down when the pathogen is found in their facilities and many companies are refusing to publicly disclose data on worker illness and mortality.
I have heard governors in at least two states where the plants are located say that they have no idea why the workers are getting sick and if they even got sick at the plants, they have no idea what "those people" are doing when not at work, with the language and cultural differences, they live so close together, etc.. This is irrespective of the fact that the workers are working at extremely close proximity in freezing cold water and often the most basic of sanitation items are lacking.
This type of thinking seems very lazy and dishonest to me and needs to be challenged. These workers are neither stupid or suicidal and I would be very surprised if their illness and deaths were a result of their own actions outside these plants. These are not animals, they are in fact human beings, just like the rest of us.
3 comments:
Seems simple to me. If the meat supply is disrupted a big signal goes out to the public that things are really bad. This will not help Trump's reelection. Thus, meat packing is a critical national security priority and the deaths of workers are a glorious patriotic sacrifice for the dear leader.
These owners are turning a blind eye simply because of money. Nor can they face their own prejudice: they think their employees are dirty foreigners. I don't know where this kind of thinking comes from, these people are supposedly "christians" and they are the children of immigrants themselves. It reminds me of those coal mine-owners who don't see miners as people deserving of safety and healthful conditions, and react to criticism as if they had nothing to do with those conditions, just the helpless owner...
Sounds just like the “wet markets” in China our “superior” leader is trying to place the blame on...
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