Faced with 20,000 dead, care homes seek shield from lawsuits

LIKE MEDICARE AND PHARMACARE WE NEED PUBLICLY FUNDED ASSISTED LIVING CARE

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A patient is loaded into the back of an ambulance by emergency medical workers outside Cobble Hill Health Center, Friday, April 17, 2020, in the Brooklyn borough of New York. The despair wrought on nursing homes by the coronavirus was laid bare Friday in a state survey identifying numerous New York facilities where multiple patients have died. Nineteen of the state's nursing homes have each had at least 20 deaths linked to the pandemic. Cobble Hill Health Center was listed as having 55 deaths. (AP Photo/John Minchillo)

NEW YORK (AP) — Faced with 20,000 coronavirus deaths and counting, the nation’s nursing homes are pushing back against a potential flood of lawsuits with a sweeping lobbying effort to get states to grant them emergency protection from claims of inadequate care.

At least 15 states have enacted laws or governors’ orders that explicitly or apparently provide nursing homes and long-term care facilities some protection from lawsuits arising from the crisis. And in the case of New York, which leads the nation in deaths in such facilities, a lobbying group wrote the first draft of a measure that apparently makes it the only state with specific protection from both civil lawsuits and criminal prosecution.

Now the industry is forging ahead with a campaign to get other states on board with a simple argument: This was an unprecedented crisis and nursing homes should not be liable for events beyond their control, such as shortages of protective equipment and testing, shifting directives from authorities, and sicknesses that have decimated staffs.

“As our care providers make these difficult decisions, they need to know they will not be prosecuted or persecuted,” read a letter sent this month from several major hospital and nursing home groups to their next big goal, California, where Gov. Gavin Newsom has yet to make a decision. Other states in their sights include Florida, Pennsylvania and Missouri.

Watchdogs, patient advocates and lawyers argue that immunity orders are misguided. At a time when the crisis is laying bare such chronic industry problems as staffing shortages and poor infection control, they say legal liability is the last safety net to keep facilities accountable.

In this April 8, 2020 file photo, health care workers carry personal belongs of a patient to a waiting ambulance as the Magnolia Rehabilitation and Nursing Center in Riverside, Calif., is evacuated to a waiting ambulance.

They also contend nursing homes are taking advantage of the crisis to protect their bottom lines. Almost 70% of the nation’s more than 15,000 nursing homes are run by for-profit companies, and hundreds have been bought and sold in recent years by private-equity firms.

“What you’re really looking at is an industry that always wanted immunity and now has the opportunity to ask for it under the cloak of saying, ‘Let’s protect our heroes,’” said Mike Dark, an attorney for California Advocates for Nursing Home Reform.

“This has very little to do with the hard work being done by health care providers,” he said, “and everything to do with protecting the financial interests of these big operators.”

Nowhere have the industry’s efforts played out more starkly than in New York, which has about a fifth of the nation’s known nursing home and long-term care deaths and has had at least seven facilities with outbreaks of 40 deaths or more, including one home in Manhattan that reported 98.

New York’s immunity law signed by Democratic Gov. Andrew Cuomo was drafted by the Greater New York Hospital Association, an influential lobbying group for both hospitals and nursing homes that donated more than $1 million to the state Democratic Party in 2018 and has pumped more than $7 million into lobbying over the past three years.

While the law covering both hospital and nursing care workers doesn’t cover intentional misconduct, gross negligence and other such acts, it makes clear those exceptions don’t include “decisions resulting from a resource or staffing shortage.”

Cuomo’s administration said the measure was a necessary part of getting the state’s entire health care apparatus to work together to respond to the crisis.

“It was a decision made on the merits to help ensure we had every available resource to save lives,” said Rich Azzopardi, a senior advisor to Cuomo. “Suggesting any other motivation is simply grotesque.”

Nationally, the lobbying effort is being led by the American Health Care Association, which represents nearly all of the nation’s nursing homes and has spent $23 million on lobbying efforts in the past six years.

Other states that have emergency immunity measures are Alabama, Arizona, Connecticut, Georgia, Illinois, Kentucky, Massachusetts; Michigan, Mississippi, New Jersey, Nevada, Rhode Island, Vermont and Wisconsin.

Their provisions vary but largely apply to injuries, deaths and care decisions, sometimes even to property damage. But there are limitations: Most make exceptions for gross negligence and willful misconduct, and they generally apply only during the emergency.

In this March 24, 2020, file photo, Kaye Knighton, 86, receives a visit from his daughter-law Darla Knighton at the Creekside Senior Living, in Bountiful, Utah. (AP Photo/Rick Bowmer, File)

Toby Edelman of the Center for Medicare Advocacy is troubled that homes are getting legal protections while family members aren’t being allowed to visit and routine government inspections have been scaled back.

“Nobody is looking at what’s happening,” she said, adding that immunity declarations could make even gross or willful negligence suits harder since homes could argue any deficiencies were somehow tied to the pandemic.

“Everything can’t be blamed on COVID-19. Other things can happen that are terrible,” she said. “Just to say we’re in this pandemic so anything goes, that seems too far.”

Among the situations for which lawyers say nursing homes should be held to account: Homes that flouted federal guidelines to screen workers, cut off visitations and end group activities; those that failed to inform residents and relatives of an outbreak; those that disregarded test results; and homes like one in California, where at least a dozen employees did not show up for work for two straight days, prompting residents to be evacuated.

“Just because you have a pandemic doesn’t mean you give a pass on people exercising common sense,” said Dr. Roderick Edmond, an Atlanta lawyer representing families suing over COVID-19 deaths in an assisted-living facility.

“If you take the power of suing away from the families, then anything goes,” said Stella Kazantzas whose husband died in a Massachusetts nursing home with the same owners as the home hit by the nation’s first such outbreak near Seattle, which killed 43 people.

“They already knew in Washington how quickly this would spread,” she said. “They should have taken extreme measures, sensible measures. And they were not taken.”

While the federal government has yet to release numbers on how the coronavirus has ravaged the industry, The Associated Press has been keeping its own tally based on state health departments and media reports, finding 20,058 deaths in nursing homes and long-term care facilities nationwide.

In this April 8, 2020 file photo, a patient at the Magnolia Rehabilitation and Nursing Center in Riverside, Calif., is evacuated to a waiting ambulance.All the new immunity laws notwithstanding, there is a potential wave of lawsuits coming. Illinois lawyer Steven Levin said he’s received dozens of calls from people considering suing homes over the outbreak. Florida lawyer Michael Brevda said his firm gets 10 to 20 calls a day. And a lawyer in Massachusetts said he’s gotten maybe 70 from families with relatives at homes struck by the virus.

“We’re getting inundated,” said David Hoey, whose practice near Boston has been suing homes for 25 years. “They’re grieving and they’re confused. … ‘My loved one just died from COVID. What can I do?’”

American Health Care Association CEO Mark Parkinson said the notion of lawyers gearing up for lawsuits in the “middle of a battle to save the elderly” is “pathetic” and doesn’t consider the hardships nursing home workers have endured.

“The second-guessing of people after a tragedy, if those people did the best that they could under the circumstances, is just wrong,” said Jim Cobb, the New Orleans attorney who successfully defended nursing home owners charged in the deaths of 35 residents who drowned in Hurricane Katrina.

“There’s a lot to be said for someone acting in good faith in the face of a natural disaster and state of emergency, and they should have criminal immunity

QUARANTINE 
With testing, Iceland claims major success against COVID-19

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In this photo taken on Wednesday, April 29, 2020, people gather at a restaurant in Reykjavik after the country recorded days of zero new cases of COVID-19. High schools, dentists and hair salons are about to reopen in Iceland, which has managed to get a grip on the coronavirus through the world’s most extensive regime of testing. By identifying infected people even when they had no symptoms, the tiny North Atlantic nation managed to identify and isolate cases where many bigger countries have struggled. (AP Photo/Egill Bjarnason)
HVAMMSTANGI, Iceland (AP) — Winter storms isolated the northern village of Hvammstangi from the rest of Iceland. Then spring brought the coronavirus, isolating villagers from each other. Now, as summer approaches, residents hope life is getting back to some kind of normal.

High schools, hair salons, dentists and other businesses across Iceland are reopening Monday after six weeks of lockdown, after this North Atlantic nation managed to tame its coronavirus outbreak.

Iceland has confirmed 1,799 cases of the virus, but just 10 people have died. The number of new COVID-19 cases each day has fallen from 106 at the peak of the outbreak to single digits — even, on some days, zero.

“I didn’t expect the recovery to be this fast,” said Iceland’s chief epidemiologist, Thorolfur Gudnason.

Iceland’s success is partly testament to its tiny population — just 360,000 people. But it also reflects decisive action by authorities, who used a rigorous policy of testing and tracking to find and isolate infected people, even when they had no symptoms.

That has helped Iceland weather the pandemic without resorting to the near-total social and economic shutdowns enforced in many other European countries. Infected people and their contacts were quarantined, but the rest of the population was not forced to stay inside, only to be careful.

A volcanic island nudging the Arctic Circle, Iceland may be remote, but it is far from isolated. Its Keflavik Airport is a trans-Atlantic hub, and Icelanders are enthusiastic travelers. As in several other European countries, some of the first cases of the virus here were brought back from ski resorts in the Alps, including the Austrian village of Ischgl.

Early vigilance was key to Iceland’s success. The country confirmed its first case of the virus on Feb. 28, and declared Ischgl a high-risk zone on March 5, two days before authorities there confirmed the first case.

Gudnason said Iceland had been updating and testing its response to a global pandemic since 2004. Hospitals had been testing people arriving from abroad for a month before the first confirmed case, and a media campaign urged hand washing and social distancing.

“Each institution involved in the response knew its role from the start,” he said.

Iceland quarantined everyone returning from virus hotspots and began test-and-trace measures to locate and isolate every case. Bigger countries such as Britain took the same approach, at first. But the U.K. abandoned test-and-trace in March as the number of cases overwhelmed the country’s testing capacity. More than a month later and with almost 30,000 Britons dead, the U.K. is scrambling to resume testing and tracing as part of its route out of national lockdown.

Iceland’s testing capacity was helped by the presence of Reykjavik-based biopharmaceutical company deCODE Genetics, which early in the outbreak teamed up with health authorities to ramp up public testing.

Over six weeks, Iceland managed to test almost 50,000 people, more than 13 percent of the population, the biggest chunk of any country in the world.

DeCODE did not test people already feeling sick or in quarantine, who were tested in hospitals. The company used its facilities to test a cross-section of the population, and identified scores of new cases, including people with mild or no symptoms.

Kari Stefansson, deCODE’s ebullient CEO, said the approach showed that “with the use of modern science, even an epidemic like this one can be contained.”

Iceland’s testing yielded new leads for scientists about how the virus behaves. Early results suggested 0.6 percent of the population were “silent carriers” of the disease with no symptoms or only a mild cough and runny nose.

Preliminary research suggests one-third of those who tested positive at deCODE infected someone around them, providing evidence that silent carriers do transmit the disease but much less than symptomatic patients.

In a random sample of 848 children under the age of 10 none of them tested positive, which guided Icelandic authorities’ decision to keep schools open for children under 16.

Alongside the testing, civil defense authorities set up a Contact Tracing Team, including police officers and university students, which used legwork and phone calls to identify people who had come into contact with infected individuals. A mobile phone tracing app was up and running a few weeks later.

Gudnason said the approach’s success is shown by the fact that about 60% of people who tested positive were already in quarantine after being contacted by the tracing team.

Altogether, 19,000 people were ordered into two-week quarantine. Everyone else carried on with a semblance of normality. Primary schools remained open, and some cafes and restaurants kept operating, following social distancing rules: no more than 20 people gathered at once and everyone 2 meters (6.5 feet) apart.

Starting Monday, gatherings of up to 50 will be permitted, high schools and colleges can resume classes and all businesses except bars, gyms and swimming pools can reopen.

The entire country, however, must self-isolate from the rest of the world for the time being. Everyone arriving from abroad faces a 14-day quarantine.

That means a bleak economic outlook for a country that depends on tourism. On Road Number One, the “Ring Road” looping through Iceland’s coastal towns and villages, the Associated Press passed empty vista points and few cars.

“Business can only go up from here,” said Margrét Guðjónsdóttir, 28, working alone at the roadstop in Hvammstangi.

The village, population 600, was hit badly early on. The town ended up having 26 confirmed cases of the virus, and was put under lockdown for a week while the transmission was being mapped out.

The local grocery store created “shifts” for customers so they could shop while socially isolating. In an April snowstorm, local search and rescue volunteers used their super-jeeps to drive hospital staff to and from work and shuttled warm meals to elderly residents around town.

“Making each other’s lockdown a little more pleasant became people’s mission,” Guðjónsdóttir said. “It really showed me the benefit of living in a small community.”

Virus fear turns deportees into pariahs at home in Guatemala

By SONIA PÉREZ D  5/4/2020

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Deported Guatemalan Vanessa Diaz, 28, looks toward her family as she picks up the food they brought her, at the site where Guatemalans returned from the U.S. are being held in quarantine for two weeks near the airport in Guatemala City, Friday, April 17, 2020. After Diaz was free to go home after testing negative for COVID-19, her mother heard rumors that neighbors were organizing to keep her from reaching her home in the northern province of Petén, and she doesn’t dare venture out. The mother has filed a complaint with police, because she’s afraid neighbors might yet attack the house. (AP Photo/Moises Castillo)



GUATEMALA CITY (AP) — Migrants returning from the United States were once considered heroes in Guatemala, where the money they send back to their hometowns is a mainstay of the economy.

But since the coronavirus pandemic hit, migrants in town after town have been mistreated, run off or threatened by neighbors who fear they will bring the virus back with them from the United States.

Similar mistreatment is being reported across Latin America and the Caribbean. In Haiti, police are guarding a hotel full of quarantined deportees from the U.S. — partly to prevent them from escaping and partly to stop attacks from neighbors frightened of the coronavirus.


For immigrants already shaken by the Trump administration’s hard line on deportation, mistreatment at home is a further blow, and a disturbing illustration of how the pandemic is upending longstanding social norms in unexpected ways across the world.

Vanessa Díaz said her mother heard rumors that neighbors were organizing to keep her from reaching her home in the northern province of Petén after she was deported back to Guatemala on a flight from the United States.

Díaz had to run inside with her 7-year-old son and hide when she arrived.

“When we arrived my mother said, ‘Get out of the car and run into the house.’ She was afraid they were going to do something to us,” Díaz recalled.

The Guatemalan government says at least 100 migrants deported from the United States between late March and mid-April have tested positive for COVID-19. Even those who, like Díaz, are not infected — she was placed in quarantine at home for two weeks after arriving last month on flight where nobody tested positive — carry the stigma.

“The assistant mayor was going around egging people on, because they wanted to kick me and my son out of my house,” Díaz said.

The fear hasn’t subsided; Díaz’s mother must shop for food for them all, because her daughter doesn’t dare venture out. The mother has filed a complaint with police, because she’s afraid neighbors might yet attack the house.

“I am afraid. The police came to the house and left their phone number, so we can call them” if there’s any trouble, Diaz said. But reason and the threat of legal action appear to mean little. “I have a document that says I do not have the disease,” Díaz said, referring to a letter given to her by the Public Health Ministry when she was sent home to self-quarantine.

Díaz left Guatemala on Feb. 14 and was caught entering the U.S. two weeks later. She and her son spent more than a month in detention in Texas before they were deported.


The treatment of returning migrants by their own countrymen has become a matter of concern for President Alejandro Giammattei, who issued an appeal last month to stop the harassment.

“A few months ago, many people were happy to get their remittances checks,” Giammattei said, referring to the money migrants send back to their home country. “Now, the person who sent those checks is treated like a criminal.”

He stressed that through steps like quarantines and health checks, authorities are trying to guarantee that returning migrants are free of the virus.

But on social media, videos have been posted of angry residents chasing fellow Guatemalans deported from Mexico who had escaped from a shelter in the western city of Quetzaltenango where they were supposed to be in quarantine, even though there have been no coronavirus cases among migrants deported from Mexico.

And when one migrant deported from the United States who tested positive for the virus left a hospital in Guatemala City where he was supposed to remain in isolation, the persecution was almost immediate. The local station Radio Sonora identified the man by name, posted photos of him and asked citizens to find him; comments on social media quickly turned brutal, with some suggesting the man should be killed. A judge eventually ordered his arrest because he could infect others, but he remains at large.

More than 680 people have tested positive for the coronavirus in Guatemala, including those deported from the U.S., and at least 17 have died. Both figures are considered significant under counts because testing has been so limited.

Ursula Roldan, director of the Institute for Research on Global and Territorial Dynamics at Rafael Landívar University, said the government hasn’t set up shelters for returning migrants or carried out public education programs in their hometowns.

“The migrants aren’t to blame. They have made so many sacrifices on their journey, they have sustained the economy of this country,” Roldan said.

Roldan also blamed the U.S. government for deporting people with the virus, and of fostering anti-immigrant sentiments.

“Unfortunately, the tone regarding the migrants gets more aggressive when there are official statements, like for example when President Donald Trump depicts migrants as a danger in his speeches,” Roldan said.

The Roman Catholic Bishops Council has issued public calls to respect migrants, saying the situation “breaks our hearts.”

“How is it possible that both the governments of the United States and Mexico continue to deport people, during a crisis that has exposed the precarious nature of our health care system and a lack of effective strategies to contain the pandemic?” the council said in a statement.

“The example being set by both governments before the whole world is that they do not have the slightest sense of humanity,” it said, while not sparing criticism of Guatemalan society, too.

“This isn’t about finding fault with others, when we here in Guatemala are witnessing the lack of solidarity in those towns that haven’t allowed their fellow Guatemalans to return,” the council said. “When they sent money home, people congratulated them and praised them. Now, when they are deported, without a dollar in their pocket, they are rejected and suffer discrimination.”

Meanwhile, Díaz is faced with the prospect of finding a job in a hostile town, penniless after her failed bid to reach the United States.

Asked what she would do after her quarantine ended Saturday, Díaz said: “Look for work.”

AP PHOTOS: 
Altered reality of the coronavirus pandemic

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AMISH FAMILY PENNSYLVANIA USA


People buy fruit and vegetables at a shop in Naples, Monday, April 27, 2020. Region Campania allowed cafes and pizzerias to reopen for delivery Monday, as Italy is starting to ease its lockdown after a long precautionary closure due to the coronavirus outbreak. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini)


An elderly man partially covers his face with a mask protection to prevent the spread of the coronavirus, as he smokes a cigarette, in Pamplona, northern Spain, Saturday, May 2, 2020. Spain relaxed its lockdown measures Saturday, allowing people of all ages to leave their homes for short walks or exercise for the first time since March 14. (AP Photo/Alvaro Barrientos)


Gala, 7, speaks with her friend and classmate Oliver, 6, as they jump on the walls of their courtyards in Barcelona, Spain, Wednesday, April 29, 2020 during the lockdown to combat the spread of the COVID-19 coronavirus. (AP Photo/Emilio Morenatti)

A woman wearing mask and gloves, prays on the grave of her mother who died from the coronavirus, at a cemetery in the outskirts of the city of Babol, in north of Iran, Thursday, April 30, 2020. (AP Photo/Ebrahim Noroozi)

The graves of those that have died during the previous weeks are seen at the Vila Formosa cemetery, during the new coronavirus pandemic in Sao Paulo, Brazil, Thursday, April 30, 2020. (AP Photo/Andre Penner)

Freedom! In France, a nursing home takes on COVID and wins
A NURSING HOME IN THE USA DID THE SAME THING AND FOUND NO CASES OF COVID-19 AFTER 14 DAYS STILL IN LOCK DOWN TILL JUNE 1 MSNBC REPORTED TODAY

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Nurses hug as they leave the Vilanova nursing home in Corbas, near Lyon, central France, Monday, May 4, 2020. For 47 days and nights, staff and the 106 residents of the Vilanova nursing home waited out the coronavirus storm together, while the illness killed tens of thousands of people in other homes across Europe, including more than 9,000 in France. Because staff and residents were locked in together, Vilanova didn't have to confine people to their rooms like other homes to shield them from the risk of infection brought in from outside. (AP Photo/Laurent Cipriani)
LYON, France (AP) — As the coronavirus scythed through nursing homes, cutting a deadly path, Valerie Martin vowed to herself that the story would be different in the home she runs in France.

The action she took to stop the virus from infecting and killing the vulnerable older adults in her care was both drastic and effective: Martin and her staff locked themselves in with the 106 residents.

For 47 days and nights, staff and residents of the Vilanova nursing home on the outskirts of the east-central city of Lyon waited out the coronavirus storm together, while COVID-19 killed tens of thousands of people in other homes across Europe, including more than 9,000 in France.
In this photo provided by the Vilanova nursing home, residents play inside the Vilanova nursing home on April 30 2020 in Corbas, central France. As the coronavirus cut a deadly path through nursing homes, staff locked themselves in with the 106 residents at this care home to stop COVID-19 coronavirus from infecting and killing the vulnerable older adults in their care, and they have not had any people falling victim to the virus.(Valerie Martin via AP)

“I said, ‘No. Not mine. My residents still have so much to live for,’” Martin said in an interview. “I don’t want this virus to kill them when they have been through so much.”

On Monday, Martin and 12 colleagues who stayed in the home for the full duration ended their quarantine with hugs of celebration and singing, and with an uplifting victory: Coronavirus tests conducted on the residents and staff all came back negative. The caregivers, who nicknamed themselves “the happily confined,” left in a convoy of cars, joyously honking horns and heading for reunions with families, pets and homes.

“We succeeded,” Martin said. “Every day, every hour, was a win.”

While COVID-19 killed people by the dozens at some other homes, Martin said there were just four deaths at Vilanova during their lockdown and that none appears to have been linked to the virus. The average age of residents at the home is 87 and the deaths were not unexpected, she said.

In this photo provided by the Vilanova nursing home, residents pose with a nurse on April 23 2020 in Corbas, central France. As the coronavirus cut a deadly path through nursing homes, staff locked themselves in with the 106 residents at this care home to stop COVID-19 coronavirus from infecting and killing the vulnerable older adults in their care, and they have not had any people falling victim to the virus.(Valerie Martin via AP)

Because staff and residents were locked in together, Vilanova didn’t have to confine people to their rooms like other homes to shield them from the risk of infection brought in from outside. That spared residents the loneliness that has been agonizing for others. Vilanova allowed residents to continue to mingle and to get fresh air outside.

The son of a 95-year-old resident described the staff as “a fantastic team,” saying they saved his mother by shielding her from the virus and keeping her spirits up, even holding celebrations for her birthday on April 17. Gilles Barret said the home’s daily Facebook posts of news, photos and videos also were “such a comfort.”

“It saved lives,” he said. “Perfect, perfect. I tip my hat to them.”

Martin said she didn’t want their residents to feel like “prisoners” and that it wouldn’t have felt right to her had she continued to come and go from the home while depriving them of their liberty during France’s lockdown, in place since March 17.
In this photo provided by the Vilanova nursing home, resident Mr Chatal smiles during a fake wedding with a nurse on April 25 2020 in Corbas, central France. The nursing staff of a care home in Lyon decided 45 days ago that rather than lock residents in their rooms as the government urged, the staff would lock themselves in the home with residents so as not to deprive the elderly of their freedom. The home has had zero virus cases so far. (Valerie Martin via AP)

Residents were confined to their rooms for two days at the beginning while staffers gave the home a thorough cleaning, and that proved “a catastrophe,” Martin said.

“In two days, we already saw people who started no longer wanting to eat, people who didn’t want to get up, people who said, ‘Why are you washing me? It’s pointless,’” she said,

In all, 29 of the 50 staff volunteered to stay, bringing pillows, sleeping bags and clothes on March 18 for what they initially thought might be a three-week stay but which they subsequently opted to extend. Other staff came from outside to help and were kept apart from residents and made to wear masks and take other protective measures to prevent infections.

In this photo provided by the Vilanova nursing home, a nurse works with residents inside the Vilanova nursing home on April 22 2020 in Corbas, central France. The nursing staff of a care home in Lyon decided 45 days ago that rather than lock residents in their rooms as the government urged, the staff would lock themselves in the home with residents so as not to deprive the elderly of their freedom. The home has had zero virus cases so far. (Valerie Martin via AP)

The carers slept on mattresses on the floor. Martin slept in her office. One of the volunteers left a 10-month-old baby at home. The team tallied the days on a blackboard marked: “Always together with heart.”

“It was tough,” said caregiver Vanessa Robert. But there were also moments of “total joy, getting together in the evenings, fooling around, tossing water bombs at each other.”

Martin said her top priority now is to console her estranged cat, Fanta. And one of the weirdest moments of the lockdown was climbing back into her car and hearing the same tune on the CD player — Limp Bizkit’s “Mission Impossible” soundtrack — that she had been listening to when she parked seven weeks earlier.

“It was a bit like entering a holiday camp,” she said. “Living a lockdown with 130 people is extremely rewarding.”

___

Leicester reported from Le Pecq, France

A nurse leaves the Vilanova nursing home in Corbas, near Lyon, central France, Monday, May 4, 2020. For 47 days and nights, staff and the 106 residents of the Vilanova nursing home on the outskirts of the east-central city of Lyon waited out the coronavirus storm together, while the illness killed tens of thousands of people in other homes across Europe, including more than 9,000 in France. Because staff and residents were locked in together, Vilanova didn't have to confine people to their rooms like other homes to shield them from the risk of infection brought in from outside. (AP Photo/Laurent Cipriani)

Coronavirus cuts ‘deep scars’ through meatpacking cities

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In this Friday, May 1, 2020, photo, a worker leaves the Tyson Foods plant in Waterloo, Iowa. The coronavirus is devastating the nation’s meatpacking communities — places like Waterloo and Sioux City in Iowa, Grand Island, Neb., and Worthington, Minn. Within weeks, the outbreaks around slaughterhouses have turned into full-scale disasters. (AP Photo/Charlie Neibergall)

IOWA CITY, Iowa (AP) — As the coronavirus spread from the nation’s meatpacking plants to the broader communities where they are located, it burned through a modest duplex in Waterloo, Iowa.

In the downstairs unit lived Jim Orvis, 65, a beloved friend and uncle who worked in the laundry department at the Tyson Foods pork processing facility, the largest employer in Waterloo. Upstairs was Arthur Scott, a 51-year-old father who was getting his life back on track after a prison term for drugs. He worked 25 miles (40.23 kilometers) away at the Tyson dog treats factory in Independence, Iowa.

The two men were not well acquainted. But both fell ill and died last month within days of each other from COVID-19 — casualties of an outbreak linked to the Waterloo plant that spread across the city of 68,000 people. Similar spread is happening in other communities where the economy centers around raising hogs and cattle and processing their meat, including the hot spots of Grand Island, Nebraska, and Worthington, Minnesota.

The virus is “devastating everything,” said duplex owner Jose Garcia, who received notification two days apart from his deceased tenants’ relatives. “These two guys were here last week. Now they are gone. It’s crazy.”

He said it’s possible one of the men infected the other because they shared an entryway, or that they each contracted the virus separately at their workplaces.

The virus threatens the communities’ most vulnerable populations, including low-income workers and their extended families.

In this Friday, May 1, 2020, photo, medical workers flex their muscles as they pose for a photo at a drive-thru COVID-19 testing site in Waterloo, Iowa. The coronavirus is devastating the nation’s meatpacking communities — places like Waterloo and Sioux City in Iowa, Grand Island, Neb., and Worthington, Minn. Within weeks, the outbreaks around slaughterhouses have turned into full-scale disasters. (AP Photo/Charlie Neibergall)

“They’re afraid of catching the virus. They’re afraid of spreading it to family members. Some of them are afraid of dying,” said the Rev. Jim Callahan, of the Church of St. Mary of Worthington, a city of 13,000 that has attracted immigrants from across the globe to work at the JBS pork processing plant.

“One guy said to me, ‘I risked my life coming here. I never thought something that I can’t see could take me out.’”

In Grand Island, an outbreak linked to a JBS beef plant that is the city’s largest employer spread rapidly across the rural central Nebraska region, killing more than three dozen people. Many of the dead were elderly residents of long-term care facilities who had relatives or friends employed at the plant.

In Waterloo, local officials blame Tyson for endangering not only its workers and their relatives but everyone else who leaves home to work or get groceries. They are furious with the state and federal governments for failing to intervene — and for pushing hard to reopen the plant days after public pressure helped shut it down.



“We were failed by people who put profit margins and greed before people, predominantly brown people, predominantly immigrants, predominantly people who live in lower socioeconomic quarters,” said Jonathan Grieder, a high school social studies teacher who serves on Waterloo’s city council. “This is going to be with us for so long. There are going to be very deep scars in our community.”

Grieder cried as he recounted how one of his former students, 19, lost her father to the coronavirus and has been left to raise two younger siblings. Their mother died of cancer last September.

Black Hawk County Sheriff Tony Thompson said he first became concerned after touring the Tyson plant April 10 and witnessing inadequate social distancing and a lack of personal protective equipment. As hundreds of workers began getting sick or staying home out of fear, Thompson joined the mayor and scores of local officials in asking Tyson to close the plant temporarily on April 16.

But Tyson, with support from Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds, waited until April 22 to announce that step after the outbreak intensified. The company warned of the significant economic consequences even a temporary shutdown would create.

The plant, which can process 19,500 hogs per day, is now poised to resume production after President Trump invoked the Defense Production Act to require meatpackers to stay open.

Reynolds and Tyson have argued the plant with 2,800 workers is critical to the nation’s pork supply and the regional farmers who sell millions of hogs to Tyson.

In three weeks, Black Hawk County’s cases skyrocketed from 62 to 1,523 — more than 1% of its 132,000 residents. Deaths rose from zero to 15. Ninety percent of the cases are “attributed or related to the plant,” the county’s public health director said.

Tyson has not released the number of workers who tested positive but said that “workplace safety continues to be a top priority.”

Thompson said the plant’s outbreak decimated the community’s “first line of defense” and allowed the virus to spread to nursing homes and the jail he oversees. “These are the places we did not want to fight the COVID-19 virus,” he said.

In this Friday, May 1, 2020, photo, Jonathan Grieder, a high school social studies teacher who serves on the Waterloo City Council, stands on the front porch of his Iowa home. “We were failed by people who put profit margins and greed before people, predominantly brown people, predominantly immigrants, predominantly people who live in lower socioeconomic quarters,” Grieder said. “This is going to be with us for so long. There are going to be very deep scars in our community.” (AP Photo/Charlie Neibergall)

The losses are quickly mounting.

A refugee from Bosnia died days after falling sick while working on the Tyson production line, leaving behind her heartbroken husband. The virus also took an intellectually disabled man who died at 73, years after escaping forced labor at an Iowa turkey plant and happily retiring to Waterloo.

Scott, who went by the nickname Dontae, was planning to reunite in June with two teenage children he had not seen in person since he was incarcerated on federal drug charges in 2011.

A former small-time heroin distributor who suffered from addiction, he and his wife divorced during his prison term, and she moved to Mississippi with the children. Since his 2018 release, friends said he was doing well and rebuilding relationships.

Scott told his daughter, Destiny Proctor, 18, that he suspected he became infected at the Tyson pet food factory, which has stayed open under federal guidance classifying the industry as critical infrastructure.

This March 11, 2020, photo provided by Destiny Proctor shows her father Arthur Scott, at the Tyson dog treats factory in Independence, Iowa. Scott died on April 23 after contracting the coronavirus. His neighbor in a Waterloo, Iowa, duplex also died of the virus. (Courtesy of of Destiny Proctor via AP)

Proctor and her 15-year-old brother were looking forward to living with their dad this summer. Instead, their final talk was a video call from a hospital where he struggled to talk.

“It was so, so sad,” said Proctor, who described her father as funny and caring and frequently sending her cards and gifts. “He told me he couldn’t breathe.”

___

Associated Press writers Amy Forliti in Minneapolis and Grant Schulte in Lincoln, Nebraska, contributed to this story.

Virus-afflicted 2020 looks like 1918 despite science’s march

By CALVIN WOODWARD MAY 4, 2020 

FILE - In this 1918 file photo made available by the Library of Congress, volunteer nurses from the American Red Cross tend to influenza patients in the Oakland Municipal Auditorium, used as a temporary hospital. Science has ticked off some major accomplishments over the last century. The world learned about viruses, cured various diseases, made effective vaccines, developed instant communications and created elaborate public-health networks. Yet in many ways, 2020 is looking like 1918, the year the great influenza pandemic raged. (Edward A. "Doc" Rogers/Library of Congress via AP, File)


WASHINGTON (AP) — Despite a century’s progress in science, 2020 is looking a lot like 1918.

In the years between two lethal pandemics, one the misnamed Spanish flu, the other COVID-19, the world learned about viruses, cured various diseases, made effective vaccines, developed instant communications and created elaborate public-health networks.

Yet here we are again, face-masked to the max. And still unable to crush an insidious yet avoidable infectious disease before hundreds of thousands die from it.

As in 1918, people are again hearing hollow assurances at odds with the reality of hospitals and morgues filling up and bank accounts draining. The ancient common sense of quarantining is back. So is quackery: Rub raw onions on your chest, they said in 1918. How about disinfectant in your veins now? mused President Donald Trump, drawing gasps instead of laughs over what he weakly tried to pass off as a joke.

In 1918, no one had a vaccine, treatment or cure for the great flu pandemic as it ravaged the world and killed more than 50 million people. No one has any of that for the coronavirus, either.

Modern science quickly identified today’s new coronavirus, mapped its genetic code and developed a diagnostic test, tapping knowledge no one had in 1918. That has given people more of a fighting chance to stay out of harm’s way, at least in countries that deployed tests quickly, which the U.S. didn’t.

But the ways to avoid getting sick and what to do when sick are little changed. The failure of U.S. presidents to take the threat seriously from the start also joins past to present.

Trump all but declared victory before infection took root in his country and he’s delivered a stream of misinformation ever since. President Woodrow Wilson’s principal failure was his silence.

FILE - In this November 1918 photo made available by the Library of Congress, a nurse takes the pulse of a patient in the influenza ward of the Walter Reed hospital in Washington. Science has ticked off some major accomplishments over the last century. The world learned about viruses, cured various diseases, made effective vaccines, developed instant communications and created elaborate public-health networks. Yet in many ways, 2020 is looking like 1918, the year the great influenza pandemic raged. (Harris & Ewing/Library of Congress via AP, File)


Not once, historians say, did Wilson publicly speak about a disease that was killing Americans grotesquely and in huge numbers, even though he contracted it himself and was never the same after. Wilson fixated on America’s parallel fight in World War I like “a dog with a bone,” says John M. Barry, author of “The Great Influenza.”

The suspected ground zero of the Spanish flu ranges from Kansas to China. But it was clear to U.S. officials even in 1918 that it didn’t start in Spain.

The pandemic took on Spain’s name only because its free press ambitiously reported the devastation in the disease’s early 1918 wave while government officials and a complicit press in countries at war — the U.S. among them — played it down in a time of jingoism, censorship and denial.

Like COVID-19, the 1918 pandemic came from a respiratory virus that jumped from animals to people, was transmitted the same way, and had similar pathology, Barry said by email. Social distancing, hand-washing and masks were leading control measures then and now.

Medical advice from then also resonates today: “If you get it, stay at home, rest in bed, keep warm, drink hot drinks and stay quiet until the symptoms are past,” said Dr. John Dill Robertson, Chicago health commissioner in 1918. “Then continue to be careful, for the greatest danger is from pneumonia or some kindred disease after the influenza is gone.”

In the manner of the day, there just had to be a catchy rhyme in circulation, too: “Cover up each cough and sneeze. If you don’t you’ll spread disease.”

But there were also marked differences between the viruses of 1918 and 2020. The Spanish flu was particularly dangerous to healthy people aged 20 to 40 — the prime generation of military service — paradoxically because of their vibrant immune systems.

When such people got infected, their antibodies went after the virus like soldiers spilling from the trenches of Europe’s killing fields.

“The immune system was throwing every weapon it had at the virus,” Barry said. “The battlefield was the lung. The lung was being destroyed in that battle.”


This Library of Congress photo shows a demonstration at the Red Cross Emergency Ambulance Station in Washington, D.C., during the influenza pandemic of 1918. Science has ticked off some major accomplishments over the last century. The world learned about viruses, cured various diseases, made effective vaccines, developed instant communications and created elaborate public-health networks. Yet in many ways, 2020 is looking like 1918, the year the great influenza pandemic raged. (Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division via AP)


Young soldiers and sailors massed at military camps in the U.S., sailed for Europe on ships stuffed to the gunwales with humanity, fought side by side in the trenches and came home in victory to adoring crowds. The toll was enormous, on them and the people they infected. The Spanish flu could just as easily have been called the U.S. Army or U.S. Navy flu instead. Or the German or British flu, for that matter.

Among those who died in the pandemic was Friedrich Trump, Donald Trump’s paternal grandfather. Among those who contracted it and recovered were the wartime leaders of Britain and Germany as well as of the United States, British and Spanish kings and the future U.S. president, Franklin Roosevelt, when he was assistant Navy secretary.

But the toll was heavier on average people and the poor, crowded in tenements, street cars and sweaty factories.

They could not all live by the words of the 1918 U.S. surgeon general, Rupert Blue: “Keep out of crowds and stuffy places as much as possible. ... The value of fresh air through open windows cannot be overemphasized. ... Make every possible effort to breath as much pure air as possible.”

An estimated 675,000 Americans died in the pandemic, which is thought to have infected one-third of the global population.

BAD SCIENCE

In 1918, the surgeon general noted in a handbill that “a person who has only a mild attack of the disease himself may give a very severe attack to others.” The warning is just as applicable to the coronavirus, especially as scientists learned large numbers of people with COVID-19 may spread it despite no obvious symptoms. Exactly how often the new virus kills can’t be determined without better counts of the infected; some estimates put the 1918 flu’s death rate at 2.5%.

Blue’s public notice also warned people to avoid charlatans and only get medicine from doctors.

Physicians, though, didn’t always know what they were doing. Medical journals at the time describe a rash of unusual treatments, some in the league of Trump’s amateur theories about disinfectant, blasts of lights and an unapproved drug that has both potential benefits and risks.

One 1918-era doctor recommended that people sniff a boric acid and sodium bicarbonate (baking soda) powder to rinse out nasal passages. Others prescribed quinine, strychnine and a poisonous garden plant called Digitalis to help circulation, as well as drugs derived from iodine for “internal disinfection,” according to Laura Spinney, who wrote the 2017 book “Pale Rider: The Spanish Flu of 1918 and How it Changed the World.”

Popular theories spread that warming your feet would prevent infection, or gobbling brown sugar, or getting the onion rubdown. A “clean heart” was one supposed preventive, though it is not clear whether that meant the organ or the heart of love.


This Library of Congress photo shows a demonstration at the Red Cross Emergency Ambulance Station in Washington, D.C., during the influenza pandemic of 1918. Science has ticked off some major accomplishments over the last century. The world learned about viruses, cured various diseases, made effective vaccines, developed instant communications and created elaborate public-health networks. Yet in many ways, 2020 is looking like 1918, the year the great influenza pandemic raged. (Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division via AP)“There was no Tony Fauci back then,” Barry said in a remote Library of Congress interview in April.

We have Fauci now — a federal immunologist who has been regarded as the truth-teller in White House briefings, singularly immune to Trump’s positive spin and falsehoods. Plus, we know so much more than people did in 1918.

Yet we’re still hearing lots of Dark Ages nonsense.

Conspiracy theorists have blamed COVID-19 on the development of 5G networks, just as they say radio waves caused the 1918 flu. Arsonists recently torched more than a dozen British cell towers after that falsehood circulated.

Over the months of this pandemic, The Associated Press has debunked a series of bogus remedies that spread on Facebook, Twitter and the like. No, blasting hot air up your nose from a hair dryer won’t protect you. Nor will drinking tonic water, eating high-alkaline foods, stuffing antibiotic ointment up your nose, downing vodka or any home elixir.

No, it’s not true that if you can’t hold your breath very long, you have COVID-19. Or that a vaccine from a lab only works on a disease created by a lab.

Social distancing has not come with social-media distancing. Over a century of science, we haven’t gone back to the future, but ahead to the past.

LESSONS OF 1918 (and 1919) WHICH TRUMP HAS NOT LEARNED BECAUSE HEKEEPS REFERING TO THE SPANISH FLU OUTBREAK AS '1917' WHICH OF COURSE WAS THE YEAR OF THE GLORIOUS RUSSIAN REVOLUTION WHICH KICKED THE PARASITES LIKE HIM OUT OF POWER. THE REVOLUTION WHICH STARTED IN THE SPRING ENDED IN NOVEMBER WITH THE BOLSHEVIK WORKER SOLDIERS IN CHARGE, WITH NO WORD OF PANDEMIC MENTIONED IN THE HISTORY BOOKS, WHILE THERE WAS FAMINE. 

In September 1918, as the Spanish flu’s second and by far deadliest wave hit in the U.S., Philadelphia’s public health chief disregarded advisers and let a massive war-bond parade proceed through downtown. The H1N1 virus raced through the masses in what has been called the world’s deadliest parade. As officials insisted there was nothing to be alarmed about, people were seeing neighbors sicken and die with astonishing speed and mass graves being dug.

“It’s just the flu” had worn thin as the mantra of officialdom.


FILE - In this Oct. 19, 1918 file photo provide by the U.S. Naval History and Heritage Command a sign is posted at the Naval Aircraft Factory in Philadelphia that indicates, the Spanish Influenza was then extremely active. Science has ticked off some major accomplishments over the last century. The world learned about viruses, cured various diseases, made effective vaccines, developed instant communications and created elaborate public-health networks. Yet in many ways, 2020 is looking like 1918, the year the great influenza pandemic raged. (U.S. Naval History and Heritage Command via AP)

Late that November, sirens wailed in San Francisco to sound the all-clear after six weeks of lockdown and tell people they could remove their masks. San Francisco, like many cities in the West, had been largely spared the first wave and spent the interval preparing for Round 2, mandating masks and jailing people who didn’t comply.

They had a rhyme for that, too, of course: “Obey the laws, and wear the gauze. Protect your jaws from septic paws.”

The precautions paid off with a death rate lower than in afflicted cities elsewhere. But the city relaxed too soon.

In December, thousands of new cases erupted. A wave spilling into the new year was underway. San Francisco’s death toll mounted by more than 1,000. It was the last lashing by the Spanish flu, and a less lethal one.

The brutal lessons of 1918 and 1919? To Barry, who was enlisted 15 years ago in a Bush administration drive to prepare all levels of government for pandemics, they are to respond early, relax cautiously, tell people the truth.

Instead he has seen denial followed by a chaotic federal response and leadership vacuum as Washington and the states compete for the same medical essentials and now move fitfully toward reopening.

“Now we have plans, even war-gamed the plans, spent billions preparing for just what is happening, federal agencies have been tasked to handle all these things, and we get ... next to nothing,” he said.

Not even a jingle.


___

Associated Press writers Colleen Long and Lauran Neergaard in Washington, Amanda Seitz in Chicago and Karen Mahabir in New York contributed to this report.

US Meatpackers cautiously reopen plants amid coronavirus fears

By STEPHEN GROVES

1 of 8
Healthcare workers run a coronavirus testing site for Smithfield employees in the Washington High School parking lot on Monday, May 4, 2020 in Sioux Falls, S.D. (Erin Bormett/The Argus Leader via AP)

SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (AP) — A South Dakota pork processing plant took its first steps toward reopening Monday after being shuttered for over two weeks because of a coronavirus outbreak that infected more than 800 employees.

Employees reporting for work in Smithfield Foods’ ground pork department filed through a tent where they were screened for fever and other signs of COVID-19. Some said they felt the measures Smithfield has taken would protect them from another virus outbreak, while others were not confident that infections could be halted in a crowded plant.

Lydia Toby said she was “kind of worried” as she entered the plant before 6 a.m. for her first shift in over two weeks. Managers met employees in her department Friday and explained they had installed dividers on the production line and would require everyone to wear masks.

“I think it’s going to be OK,” Toby said.

In the wake of an executive order from President Donald Trump ordering meat plants to remain open, Arkansas-based Tyson Foods was also resuming “limited production” Monday at its pork plant in Logansport, Indiana, where nearly 900 employees tested positive. And the JBS pork plant in Worthington, Minnesota — just an hour east of Smithfield’s South Dakota plant — planned a partial reopening on Wednesday.



Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden on Monday called meatpacking plants — along with nursing homes — “the most dangerous places there are right now.” He called for greater protections for meatpacking workers, as well as a $13-an-hour pay premium.

“They designate them as essential workers and then treat them as disposable,” Biden said, on a conference call about protecting essential workers, such as meatpacking workers, that was organized by the League of United Latin American Citizens.
Virginia-based Smithfield is offering COVID-19 testing to all employees and their family members, according to a text message sent to employees. The message told employees to report to a local high school to be tested. Gov. Kristi Noem said employees aren’t required to undergo tests before returning to work, though it’s strongly encouraged. Noem’s health commissioner, Kim Malsam-Rysdon, said it was Smithfield’s decision to make the tests optional.

Smithfield didn’t respond to requests for comment.

About 250 employees were told to report to work on Monday, according to the union that represents them. The plant employs about 3,700 workers and produces roughly 5% of the nation’s pork.

Salaheldin Ahmed, who works in a department that has not yet reopened, said he was called in by plant management to look at changes.

“They fixed a lot of things,” he said, describing how workers would be spread apart where possible.

A Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report Friday said more than 4,900 workers at meat and poultry processing facilities have been diagnosed with the coronavirus, including 20 who died. Not all states provided data.

The CDC researchers cited risks including difficulties with physical distancing and hygiene, and crowded living and transportation conditions. They suggested enhanced disinfection and that workers get regular screening for the virus, more space from co-workers and training materials in their native languages. Many meatpacking employees are immigrants; a CDC report on the Smithfield outbreak found that employees there spoke about 40 different languages.

The United Food and Commercial Workers union, which represents most beef and pork workers and about one-third of poultry workers nationwide, has called for stricter measures than the CDC’s, including mandating that workers be spaced 6 feet apart on production lines. It has appealed to governors for help enforcing worker safety rules. The union also wants to get rid of waivers that allow some plants to operate at faster speeds.

As plants warily reopen or others operate at diminished capacity with many workers staying home sick or in fear, it’s unclear Trump’s order will guarantee an unbroken supply of meat.

Tyson Foods reported record meat sales in the first quarter but warned investors Monday that it faces continued production slowdowns. Company officials said it expected lower productivity “in the short term until local infection rates begin to decrease.”

Zach Medhaug, a maintenance employee at Tyson’s pork plant in Waterloo, Iowa, said he will feel comfortable returning to work when the plant reopens, even as he fears that one of his closest colleagues may soon die from the coronavirus.

Jose Ayala, 44, is in critical condition on a ventilator at the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics after catching the virus a month ago. Medhaug has been calling Ayala, who is medically paralyzed but may still be able to hear, encouraging him to keep fighting.

Medhaug tested positive himself for the coronavirus on April 20. He said he had mild symptoms and expects to return to work later this week at the plant, which suspended production April 22. Medhaug said Tyson has made key safety changes, such as vowing to enforce rather than just encourage social distancing and providing employees with masks instead of telling them to bring their own.

“That’s a huge step,” he said. “The people returning, I see them having a better chance of not getting it at all.”
__


Associated Press writers Ryan J. Foley in Iowa City, Iowa, and Dee-Ann Durbin in Ann Arbor, Michigan, contributed to this report.

BACKGROUNDER  

NDP demands inquiry into Alberta meat plant COVID-19 protocols as Cargill plans reopening

BY HEIDE PEARSON GLOBAL NEWS April 30, 2020 1:43

Dr. Deena Hinshaw responds to the re-opening of the Cargill meatpacking plant after closing due to an outbreak of COVID-19.

As the Cargill Meat Solutions plant in High River, Alta., gets set to restart its operations, the Opposition NDP is calling for an inquiry into how the coronavirus response was handled at that, and other meat facilities, in Alberta.

Speaking about the deaths on Wednesday, NDP Labour and Immigration Critic Christina Gray said the government dropped the ball in not initiating stricter protocols for workplaces like meat facilities.

Along with Cargill, an outbreak of the virus has also seen hundreds fall ill and one person die at the JBS Foods plant in Brooks. Cases have also popped up at other facilities around the province.

WATCH Alberta NDP call for inquiry into Cargill outbreak

Gray said on March 6, the NDP called for the UCP to provide funding and staffing to do inspections of workplaces, which she says the government ignored.

“As the former minister, I’m very well aware of the tight quarters within these plants, and the difficulties with ensuring proper physical distancing measures being taken,” Gray said.

WATCH Alberta Filipino community ‘worried for our lives’ as members test positive for COVID-19

A month later, workers at the Cargill facility started raising concerns about the safety conditions in the plant, which Gray said “fell on deaf ears.”

“I want to again call on the premier to commit to a full, public inquiry into the handling of these outbreaks,” Gray said.

“To be clear, I am not, and have not, calling for a public inquiry now. Only a commitment that one will occur once the provincial state of emergency has been lifted.”

Gray also called for the JBS plant to be closed.

According to Alberta Health, as of Wednesday, 821 cases of the novel coronavirus had been confirmed in workers at the Cargill plant and 276 cases among employees and contractors at JBS.

“We have taken every outbreak seriously and have used our fundamental outbreak principals to limit spread in settings of concern,” chief medical officer of health Dr. Deena Hinshaw said Wednesday.

In an emailed statement, the Department of Labour and Immigration said it was “far too soon “to speculate about the mechanism to conduct an inquiry, federal vs. provincial, etc.”

The department said Occupational Health and Safety is empowered to do reviews at individual workplaces, and as investigations into both the Cargill and JBS plants are underway, the government couldn’t provide any further comment.

“It’s fully expected that some sort of comprehensive review of the COVID-19 pandemic period will take place after the pandemic has passed,” the department said.

“AHS and OHS officials will continue to work to ensure that Cargill, JBS and other food processing facilities are implementing appropriate measures to prevent the spread of COVID-19 and protect workers. Both AHS and OHS will be onsite at Cargill prior to work resuming to do this work.” 

Cargill to restart operations

Meanwhile, Cargill said Wednesday that it will be resuming operations at the High River plant on May 4, bringing back one shift.

The company said the decision was made in consultation with Alberta Health Services and Occupational Health and Safety.

“All employees who are eligible to return to work in our harvest department are asked to report to work,” Cargill said in a news release.

“In keeping with our extensive focus on safety, we want to emphasize that employees should be healthy and not had contact with anyone with the COVID-19 virus for 14 days. Further, out of an abundance of caution, they should continue social distancing in the facility.”

According to Hinshaw, local medical officers of health have done on-site inspections at the plant, which stalled its operations more than a week ago.

“My understanding, from the information that my colleagues have given me, is that this plant in particular has made sure that all measures to prevent spread of infection are being put in place,” Hinshaw said.

READ MORE: Online petition calls for temporary shutdown of JBS meat plant in Brooks, Alberta

She added the health and safety protocols were enhanced, especially in places like the locker room, where additional measures have been put in place.

“Based on these on-site inspections and their assessment of the situation, my colleagues at Alberta Health Services have indicated that they feel these measures are sufficient to limit the spread of infection,” Hinshaw said.

During the temporary closure, Cargill said it took time to take the following extra steps to ensure the health and safety of its employees: 

Reduced likelihood of carpooling to reduce potential for transmission in transit 

Limited access to the plant to no more than two people per car (sitting in the front and back seat to maintain proper social distance) 

Provided buses that have been retrofitted with protective barriers between the seats to alleviate the need for carpooling from multiple areas — employees living in the same household will be granted a variance to the carpooling limitation 

Worked with OHS through both virtual and in-person tours of the plant so they can see firsthand the work being done to protect and minimize the risk to employees on site 

Added additional barriers in the bathrooms and reassigned lockers to allow for necessary spacing 

Conducted extensive COVID-19 sanitation process, including additional cleaning in the parts of our facility that have been closed for 21 days 

Focus on education and awareness of social distancing inside and outside of work, including not sharing food during meals 

Cargill said employees who worked, or were scheduled to work, this week were also paid 36 hours of pay for the week and those who are off to deal with COVID-19-related illnesses are still being offered 80 hours of paid leave.

Union ‘not vaguely reassured’ facility is safe

However, the union representing the workers at the plant, United Food and Commercial Workers Union Local 401, is not happy about the re-open plan.

“There’s been no meaningful consultation with the union or the workers and we’re outraged. I’ve instructed our lawyers that we will engage any legal action available to us to prevent the plant from opening,” union president Thomas Hesse said.

Hesse said the only collaboration the company has had with the union was an invitation for a representative to be part of a “brief visual tour of the plant on very short notice to see what the plant looked like without any workers in it.”

“That’s not a health and safety inspection,” Hesse said. “In fact, the company was angry when the union representative took some photos of the interior of the plant and demanded those photos be returned to the company.”

He said the union is “not vaguely reassured” the facility is safe for workers to return to their jobs.

The union also wants clarification on what operating with one shift will look like, including how many workers will be in the plant during that shift. It also wants details on what’s being done in locker rooms and lunch rooms, as well at the start and end of those shift, to make sure those reporting to work are able to keep two metres apart.


READ MORE: New measures added at High River, Alta., Cargill plant after workers raise coronavirus concerns

“There’s a lot of boxes that need to be checked and a lot of assurances need to be offered to Albertans before we can conclude that the plant will operate safely,” Hesse said.

“A few tidbits are hardly enough to reassure the union that thousands of workers are going to be safe. We have not seen a comprehensive A-to-Z report regarding procedure and protocols that would keep people safe in that plant.”

Hesse said the plant is looking at several avenues to oppose the planned opening, including complaints to Occupational Health and Safety, filing grievances through the collective agreement and possible court action.

The UCP government disputed the union’s claims, saying UFCW workers have “been directly involved in the OHS workplace inspection process and were free to raise specific concerns that they might have had.”

“OHS takes workplace safety seriously and will examine any concerns that are raised through the complaints process going forward,” the department said.

According to the UFCW, workers have told them the JBS plant in Brooks is operating at 30 per cent capacity.

Global News has reached out to both Cargill Meat Solutions and JBS Foods for comment. This story will be updated when a response is received.

Employee tests positive for COVID-19 at Calgary chicken plant 

2 employees of Mountain View Poultry plant in Okotoks test positive for novel coronavirus

© 2020 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc

BACKGROUNDER
Filipino workers at Cargill meatpacking plant feel unfairly blamed for Canada's biggest COVID-19 outbreak

Joel Dryden · CBC News · Posted:  April 27

As of Friday, 558 cases of COVID-19 have been confirmed in workers from the Cargill meat plant

Elma Ton, second from right, said she has been disappointed to see comments making fun of the Filipino community online in the wake of the Cargill outbreak. Her husband Rodel Ton, far right, works at Cargill. (Submitted by Elma Ton)

Arwyn Sallegue, an employee of Cargill's meat-packing plant in High River, Alta. — where 558 workers have confirmed cases of COVID-19 — said he's noticed an upsetting trend online.

Cases connected to the Cargill meat plant outbreak have increased dramatically over the past two weeks. As of Friday, there were 558 cases in workers from the plant, with 798 total cases linked to the coronavirus outbreak. It's the largest outbreak linked to a single site in Canada.

"I see a bunch of [comments] blaming us [for the outbreak], because they said it's in the households," he said.

"We cannot blame anybody. Everyone's a victim. Nobody wants to become sick and ill."

Sallegue, who is a permanent resident of Canada, tested positive for COVID-19 on April 23 and has been in self-isolation. The same day, his father, Armando Sallegue, visiting Canada from the Philippines, also developed symptoms. He, too, was confirmed to have the virus.

"He's only a visitor here, and he doesn't have any health-care coverage," Sallegue said. "He was hardly breathing. He went to the ICU."

Arwyn Salleague's father, Armando Sallegue, who is visiting Canada from the Philippines, is in an intensive care unit after testing positive for COVID-19. (Arwyn Sallegue)

Elma Ton, whose husband works at Cargill, said she also has been disappointed to see comments online, specifically those that disparage multiple Filipino families living under one roof.

"I feel bad. Because instead of helping [the Filipino community], supporting them, understanding them, they're still making fun of us," Ton said.

"Filipinos are known to have strong family ties. So as much as possible, we love to live together."

Lisa Degenstein, who works for the Calgary Catholic Immigration Society in High River, said she had heard of similar comments targeting the Filipino community over the past number of days.

"There's something a little disturbing happening, a bit of community backlash happening. People say, 'Hey, don't you work at Cargill?'" she said. "And isn't it a lot easier to look at someone who isn't white and start making assumptions."
Feeling blamed

One employee at the Cargill plant, a woman of Vietnamese background in her sixties, has died.

Employees at the facility have accused the company of ignoring physical-distancing protocols — citing "elbow-to-elbow" working conditions — and of trying to lure them back to work from self-isolation. 

What led to Alberta's biggest outbreak? Cargill meat plant's hundreds of COVID-19 cases

Health and safety inspection of Alberta meat plant linked to 515 COVID-19 cases was done by video call

A separate outbreak at the JBS meat processing plant in Brooks now has seen 156 cases in workers from the plant, with two deaths — a worker and an individual linked to the outbreak. That plant remains open, operating at one shift per day.

A big chunk of the workforce at the Cargill facility are Filipino, some of whom are temporary foreign workers (TFWs) and others who are permanent residents. Employees interviewed estimated 60 to 80 per cent of the workforce is Filipino.

Cesar Cala with the Philippines Emergency Response Taskforce — a network of volunteers that seeks to support crises in the Filipino community — said many in the community are afraid to speak out about their experiences, especially TFWs whose stay in Canada is linked to their employment at these facilities.

Cesar Cala, a volunteer with the Philippines Emergency Response Taskforce, said many Filipinos feel like they're being singled out and blamed for the crisis at Cargill. (Cesar Cala)

But this has posed a challenge, as Cala said many in the community feel as though their concerns were not taken seriously.

"Many Filipino workers and residents sent a letter to the company asking that the plant be closed so that safety measures could be put in place, but no actions were taken," Cala said.

    

      NOT HAPPENING AT CARGILL

That letter was signed by more than 250 Filipino residents and sent April 12 — a day before 38 cases were confirmed by the union — calling for the plant to be closed for two weeks.

The plant remained open for the rest of the week, and 358 cases were confirmed five days later.

'Several pieces of this puzzle'

On April 18, Agriculture and Forestry Minister Devin Dreeshen, along with Dr. Deena Hinshaw, Alberta's chief medical officer of health, and other health officials, participated in a telephone town hall with Cargill workers. Dreeshen said he was confident the plant was safe.

Two days later, Cargill announced it would shut down the facility temporarily after it was announced that a worker had died.

"The situation got worse, and what [the Filipino community is] hearing from officials is that they are the ones spreading the virus," Cala said.

Hinshaw has said that many cases at the Cargill facility were likely exposed to COVID-19 weeks ago, and many factors have been identified that contributed to the spread.

Employees continued to carpool to work after safety measures were introduced at the plant, Hinshaw said, and some employees of continuing care centres with outbreaks also lived in large households with Cargill workers.

Many family members living in those households also don't have enough space to self isolate, she said.

"There seems to be several pieces of this puzzle, and the challenge has been to put all of those pieces together," Hinshaw said Monday. "I would say that plant shutdown is not a single, only factor in this."

Dr. Deena Hinshaw said Friday that there is no reason to assume that everyone connected with Cargill is infected with COVID-19. (Art Raham/CBC)

Later in the week, Hinshaw said those affected by the outbreak deserved support, and should not be restricted from accessing businesses like grocery stores or banks.

"There is no reason to assume that everyone connected with that facility is infected," she said. "The people who are affected by this outbreak are experiencing many difficulties, and they need support and compassion as we work to stop further spread."
Challenges and frustrations

Cala said the realities of transportation and housing are out of the control of many employees at these facilities. Having sent a letter voicing their concerns before numbers of confirmed cases skyrocketed, Cala said they now feel they have been unfairly blamed.

"That's why I think it's important that public leaders need to speak out and say, no, this is our common, collective issue, it's not an issue of the Filipino community," Cala said. "No one is covering their backs. It's more like, 'Hey, you're partly to blame for this.' That's not very good to hear."

Cargill is one of the two primary beef suppliers for McDonald's Canada, and normally processes about 4,500 cattle per day at this time of year. (Jeff McIntosh/The Canadian Press)

Daniel Sullivan, a spokesperson with Cargill, said the company was working with health officials and community organizations to provide further support for TFWs and other employees.

"Our workers have been deemed essential – like healthcare workers and first responders – and we are committed to supporting them," he said in an email to CBC News. "It is important to know that all TFWs are union members with the same wages and benefits as other workers in our facilities."

Sallegue, still in self-isolation as he awaits news on his father in ICU, said he hopes that foreign workers can receive the support they need.

"Only thing I'm feeling right now is, we need support. We are here to work, to contribute and help," he said. "I hope you will not blame our community."

‘Death is so real’: Immigrant group says meat workers afraid after COVID-19 plant closure

BY BILL GRAVELAND THE CANADIAN PRESS April 25, 2020

https://globalnews.ca/video/rd/2da4dd7e-84f7-11ea-9793-0242ac110003/?jwsource=cl
WATCH ABOVE (April 22, 2020): The workers at a Cargill meat plant in Alberta -- and their families -- are no doubt on edge, and have been for weeks. The novel coronavirus has significantly impacted the Filipino community in the area because many are employed at the plant and have tested positive. Jill Croteau reports.

An organization that works with immigrants says the temporary closure of a large slaughterhouse in southern Alberta has left many among its largely Filipino workforce fearful for the future.

Cargill shut down its plant just north of High River, Alta., earlier this week after an outbreak of COVID-19 and the death of one employee. The decision put 2,000 employees out of work.

Marichu Antonio from Action Dignity said 70 per cent of the workers at Cargill are Filipino. There are also Mexicans, Chinese and Vietnamese working at the plant.

Her organization, previously known as the Ethno-Cultural Council of Calgary, assists new Canadians obtain services. She said it has received hundreds of calls from Cargill workers.

Antonio, who is originally from the Philippines, said people are worried about what happens after the plant reopens.

 “The possibility of death is so real right now. They know the long-term implications to their families if something happens to them as the main breadwinners, so they’re very worried. They’re afraid,” she said.
“They don’t know what their future is and they don’t know what is best for them.”TWEET THIS

Antonio said the death of the Cargill worker in her 60s has hit many people hard.

“The woman who passed away was of Vietnamese descent. She took her sick day that Friday and then she was hospitalized Saturday and passed away Sunday.”

Antonio’s organization helped the woman’s husband arrange a funeral.

Cesar Cala, a co-convener of the Filipino Emergency Response Task Force, said a significant number of plant employees are temporary foreign workers here in Canada alone. There are also many with permanent resident status who have their families with them.

He said those who are sending money home often look to save expenses by moving in with other workers.

“Either they rent places or they make living arrangements with other workers from other businesses. It’s a good way to save money.”

The cost savings go beyond living together.

“They car-pool. Most of them live in Calgary, so it saves a lot of money for them to go in a car-pool … five of them going there together and coming back.”

Cala said workers are worried about their health and feeling pressure to head back to work, even if they are still showing symptoms. He said having a steady income is a priority for them.

“For a lot of the (temporary foreign workers), their employment and their status to stay in Canada is tied up to their employment. It’s not just losing their jobs,” he said.

“It might be about losing their status as well. They’ve incurred so much cost coming to Canada and they’re also quite anxious, because there’s no clarity on what’s going to happen and what’s in store.”

Antonio said her group has been urging workers to tell their stories publicly.

“We’ve been asking them … to share their stories and their reality, but they’re afraid that they may not be rehired. There are many stories that they can tell.”