Donald Trump makes me sick—that’s what we should be hearing between coughs from workers at protein processing plants that Trump ordered reopened, coronavirus be damned. On top of outbreaks at Smithfield Foods in Sioux Falls, Demkota Beef in Aberdeen, and Dakota Provisions in Huron, the Department of Health now reports coronavirus tearing into the workforces at the Jack Links jerky plant in Alpena and the National Food Corporation egg processing facility in Plankinton:
At today’s coronavirus briefing, officials said they had identified 40 positive cases at the Jack Link’s plant in Alpena, in Jerauld County. Alpena has a population of 285.
State Epidemiologist Josh Clayton says they are increasing testing in Jerauld and surrounding counties where the workforce comes from.
Clayton also said the National Foods plant in Plankinton in Aurora County also had cases but would not say how many. He said the numbers did not yet meet their criteria for public reporting.
He said the department had sent a team to the plant to assist them with their prevention measures.
Plankinton has a population of 742 [Todd Epp, “S.D. Dept. of Health Watching Two More Food Processing Plants for Coronavirus Cases,” KELO Radio, 2020.05.22].
Alpena and Plankinton are not, of course, New York. They are much smaller, with much less local health care capacity for serious illnesses (16 beds in Wessington Springs; then you’re off to Huron or Mitchell). The outbreaks at these rural meatpacking plants reflect concerns that the pandemic poses significant risk to rural areas that lazy observers might assume are safe from the disease.
Those rural workers are getting sick because Trump has sidelined OSHA:
OSHA has increasingly taken a hands-off approach to the meatpacking industry and has not enforced the COVID-19 guidelines set first in March and then again in April by the CDC, said [National Employment Law Project health and safety director Debbie] Berkowitz, who has also worked as the health and safety director for the national AFL-CIO. The failure by OSHA to require rather than suggest safety measures for workers in the American meatpacking industry has created a situation where an illness such as COVID-19 can easily spread within the plants and to the public beyond, she said.
…As recent as 2016, the federal Occupational Health and Safety Administration was drafting a rule that would have required employers to take steps to reduce the potential for airborne infections to spread, said Dr. Melissa Perry, an occupational health researcher with George Washington University. That effort was killed in 2017 and hasn’t been revisited since [Bart Pfankuch and Nick Lowrey, “Regulatory Gaps and Missed Opportunities Allowed COVID-19 to Spread Freely in U.S. Meatpacking Plants,” South Dakota News Watch, 2020.04.29].
But hey, as long as we get our jerky and eggs, who cares? We have to grind some rural bones to make our bread.
While South Dakotans work at COVID factories and go to Sabbath COVID services as ordered by Dear Leader, the Dear Leader himself hasn’t bothered to visit a meatpacking plant or partake of communion at any church. “Do as I say, not as I do,” is the motto of Dear Leader, who is socially distancing on one of his golf resorts where he gets to charge taxpayers for all the security he requires as part of the perqs of the Presidency. It’s as if he is encouraging his cult to commit suicide, while He, the Chosen One, gets to live the good life, while socially distancing.
Shouldn’t the consensus be drumpf wants everyone to die who isn’t rich and doesn’t vote for him?
Isn’t he getting that message across through gomers like Noem, red state guvs and wingnuts in both houses of congress?
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/second-stylist-same-missouri-hair-salon-tests-positive-nearly-140-n1214036
Second hairdresser tests positive. Did these people have the right to know if they were in danger?
I wonder who is the 21st century Sinclair Lewis writing our The Jungle? It’s not eastern Europeans being used up and cast aside this time. It’s brown people, but same setting.
Essential workers, my arse. Slave labor that rivals the South pre Civil War.
“The hair salon SmartCuts reopened its doors in Wilkesboro, North Carolina, on Memorial Day weekend after a long closure due to the coronavirus.
But not every customer was welcome to hop in a chair like old times.
A sign posted on the shop window explained: “Due to the number of Tyson employees who have tested positive for Covid19, and given the close contact experienced during our services, we are unable to serve Tyson employees. We sincerely apologize for this decision, and we ask for your understanding.”
Of course, this is not about a bunch of white guys wanting their locks trimmed, nope, these are brownies and blackies. Debbo, this “The Jungle” Upton Sinclair, does need a recharge. The brownies and blackies can give their lives for a pork chop but can’t get their hair chopped because…well, you know.
The three amigos will bow down for their king.Photo op runs home Rounds is out there for a while. The half dusty says he conservative , and I am the Pope.These three spend like drunken fools at a wedding savings has gone out the window.Their will be another stimulus as the first one is not paying for anything.With consumers in trouble our three rich congress people have not taken a pay cut If I am wrong please correct me.These three take their marching orders from the beast, and are afraid to confront him.