{"id":80884,"date":"2021-03-16T14:55:33","date_gmt":"2021-03-16T14:55:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/radiofree.asia\/?guid=da90a86f1f9230a35d7fda63d78f43d5"},"modified":"2021-03-16T14:55:33","modified_gmt":"2021-03-16T14:55:33","slug":"many-agricultural-workers-still-cant-get-covid-vaccine-as-growing-season-begins","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/2021\/03\/16\/many-agricultural-workers-still-cant-get-covid-vaccine-as-growing-season-begins\/","title":{"rendered":"Many Agricultural Workers Still Can\u2019t Get COVID Vaccine as Growing Season Begins"},"content":{"rendered":"\"Farmworkers<\/a>

A key group of essential workers in New York State are strangely still unable to get vaccinated: farmworkers.<\/p>\n

As of March 10<\/a>, anyone 60 years and older can sign up for the vaccine in the Empire State. Grocery, restaurant, delivery workers and other \u201cpublic-facing<\/a>\u201d employees in various nodes of the food industry have been eligible since late February.<\/p>\n

But farmworkers — including those milking cows, feeding chickens and picking tomatoes in close quarters inside greenhouses — are still not among those who may sign up for vaccination. Laura-Anne Minkoff-Zern, an associate professor of food studies and nutrition at Syracuse University, argues that this is nonsensical. \u201cThere\u2019s really no job that could be more essential than farm workers,\u201d Minkoff-Zern told <\/a>Syracuse.com<\/em><\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

Exclusion from vaccine eligibility is just the latest in what New York farmworkers, many of whom are migrants, say is emblematic of how they\u2019ve been treated throughout — but also long before — the pandemic.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re called \u2018essential workers,\u2019 but they don\u2019t actually take us into account,\u201d dairy worker Luis Jim\u00e9nez told Truthout<\/em>, speaking in Spanish. Jim\u00e9nez is a co-founder of the worker-led organization of undocumented dairy workers, Alianza Agr\u00edcola<\/a>. He says it\u2019s a hopeful sign that people over 60 years old now qualify for the vaccine. But it doesn\u2019t do anything to help Jim\u00e9nez, or New York dairy workers in general, whom he estimates are between 40 and 50, on average.<\/p>\n

Some farmworkers may technically qualify now on account of certain health conditions<\/a> unrelated to employment type, like diabetes or high body mass index (BMI). But many farmworkers \u201cdon\u2019t know they have a problem with blood sugar, high blood pressure and other conditions,\u201d he said, since many workers have not had access to a medical screening because they have no health insurance or no access to an affordable doctor\u2019s visit. The health disparity is particularly stark at some farms in Upstate New York, where workers may live far from a medical clinic and have no access to transportation.<\/p>\n

Jim\u00e9nez says although he and other dairy workers do not have direct contact with the public every day, they are required to work in close quarters with others when receiving shipments, dealing with chemicals and milking and caring for the cows. The tendency of workers to be housed together on-site poses additional risks, as social distancing in motel rooms and bunkhouses is all but impossible. And workers he organizes with say their bosses don\u2019t have a protocol in the case of an outbreak. \u201cWe should know the plan on the ranch if someone gets sick, but it\u2019s not clear,\u201d Jim\u00e9nez said.<\/p>\n

And although cases are falling in many places across the U.S., the virus appears to still be on the rise among agricultural workers in particular. Since Documented <\/em><\/a> reported that farmworkers had been removed from Phase 1B vaccine eligibility in New York on March 2, COVID-19 cases among farmworkers rose from 496,000 to 541,000, as of March 15, according to Purdue University\u2019s Food and Agriculture Vulnerability Index<\/a>. Over that same time period, agricultural workers testing positive for COVID-19 in New York State rose from an estimated 3,000 to 10,000<\/a> — signaling that as many as one-quarter of agricultural workers<\/a> in the state may have gotten sick.<\/p>\n