Report: COVID-19 Infections and Deaths Among Meatpacking Workers Nearly Three Times Higher Than Prev

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The Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Crisis, chaired by Rep. James E. Clyburn, released a staff memorandum highlighting evidence that the number of coronavirus infections and deaths at meatpacking plants across the country is significantly higher than previously reported, and that many meatpacking company executives, when faced with staggeringly high numbers of infections among their workers, prioritized profits and production over worker safety, continuing to employ practices that led to crowded facilities in which the virus spread easily.

Newly obtained documents from five of the largest meatpacking conglomerates, which represent over 80 percent of the market for beef and over 60 percent of the market for pork in the United States—JBS USA Food Company (JBS), Tyson Foods, Inc. (Tyson), Smithfield Foods (Smithfield), Cargill Meat Solutions Corporation (Cargill), and National Beef Packing Company, LLC (National Beef)—reveal that during the first year of the pandemic, at least 59,000 employees of these five meatpacking companies contracted the coronavirus—almost triple the 22,700 infections previously estimated for these companies—while at least 269 of these companies’ employees died.

The coronavirus pandemic exacerbated the already hazardous working conditions within some of the nation’s meatpacking plants, forcing workers to risk their personal health and safety—and that of their families and communities—as they worked in crowded conditions to try to keep America fed. The Select Subcommittee launched its investigation in February 2021 to understand the impact of the coronavirus pandemic on workers in the meatpacking industry.

The Select Subcommittee found:







https://www.hstoday.us/subject-matter-areas/pandemic-biohazard/report-covid-19-infections-and-deaths-among-meatpacking-workers-nearly-three-times-higher-than-previously-reported/