Honor essential workers with vaccines | Commentary
In the wake of the deadliest foreign war this country has ever known, America’s World War II veterans returned to a heroes’ welcome. In recognition of their selfless sacrifice, a grateful country passed the GI Bill, an unprecedented package of education and housing benefits that gave returning GIs a hand up and helped fuel the greatest economic expansion in U.S. history.
That was 75 years ago. Today, our existential battle is with the novel coronavirus, and our essential workers — from nurses to police officers, teachers, grocery store workers, and farmworkers — are our modern-day GIs. With the number of U.S. dead from the coronavirus certain to surpass those killed in World War II within the month, our essential workers continue to brave infection and death while the rest of us shelter at home in health and comfort.
The heroes of the pandemic have earned our admiration. They have also more than earned their place at the head of the line as we begin to distribute the COVID-19 vaccine and make our way toward the light at the end of the long, dark pandemic tunnel.
But Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has turned his back on the state’s essential workers and chosen a very different path for vaccine distribution in the Sunshine State. Gov. DeSantis declared that he is breaking with the CDC’s expert guidance, which calls for the expansion of vaccination efforts to both essential workers and those over 65 years of age. Instead, DeSantis is strictly limiting the distribution to Florida’s 4.5 million seniors, and excluding essential workers. In the governor’s words, “We are not going to put young, healthy workers ahead of our elderly vulnerable population.”
To be fair, the governor’s strategy is not devoid of logic. It is simply the wrong logic. Yes, seniors are particularly vulnerable to die if infected, and so should be among the first to receive the vaccine. But the idea of only vaccinating Florida’s seniors at this stage smacks more of political calculus than of public health policy.
While vaccinating the elderly is necessary, it is not sufficient, and should not be at the expense of our essential workers — including the state’s roughly 100,000 farmworkers — who are still getting sick and dying as they keep our economy up and running.
We have come to this conclusion from the front lines of the pandemic. The reasons are clear:
Reducing hospitalization and mortality rates: Farmworkers are uniquely vulnerable to infection due to their exceptionally crowded living and working conditions, which make social distancing and quarantining impossible. Studies have shown that the prevalence of COVID-19 for agricultural workers has been nearly triple that for workers in all other industries. Their grinding poverty and lack of access to adequate health care even in good times mean that they suffer from a far higher incidence of the pre-existing conditions that cause COVID’s worst outcomes, resulting in a higher rate of hospitalization and death.
Slowing the spread of the virus: Not all people are equal when it comes to spreading the virus. Many of Florida’s seniors are able to shelter at home to avoid contracting COVID-19, and to quarantine if they do. Farmworkers, on the other hand, must continue to go to work to keep food on our tables, at jobs that expose them to hundreds of co-workers without adequate social distancing or masking. Moreover, their poverty and lack of paid sick leave mean that they cannot afford to miss work when sick, exposing their co-workers in a vicious cycle of sickness and transmission. Given the early data suggesting that vaccination may decrease transmission of the virus, prioritizing farmworkers may enhance the impact of the limited vaccine.
Ensuring an equitable distribution: Our teachers’ extraordinary creativity and and bravery during the pandemic have made them heroes not just to our children, but to us all. The same goes for food industry workers — from slaughterhouses and fields to grocery stores and restaurants — who, at great risk, have never stopped working so that the rest of us can continue to eat. We have all benefited from their selflessness; it is high time they benefit from ours. When you consider the fact that many essential workers — including the vast majority of farmworkers — are also people of color, and that the burden of COVID infection and death has been disproportionately borne by those communities, the question must be asked: At what point do we recognize this fact and extend an urgent lifeline?
Including Florida’s essential workers in the next phase of the vaccine distribution just makes sense, scientifically and ethically. It will help keep the health system open, it may slow the spread of the virus, and it’s simply the right thing to do for the heroes of the pandemic.
Greg Asbed is a co-founder of the Coalition of Immokalee Workers, a farmworker-based human rights organization. Dan Palazuelos is the director for community health systems at Partners In Health, a practicing physician at the Brigham and Women’s Hospital, and an assistant professor at Harvard Medical School.
