Immigrant Legal Status among Essential Frontline Workers in the United States during the COVID-19 Pandemic Era: IMR

Emerging evidence suggests that the COVID-19 pandemic has extracted a substantial toll on immigrant communities in the United States, due in part to increased potential risk of exposure for immigrants to COVID-19 in the workplace. In this article, we use federal guidance on which industries in the United States were designated essential during the COVID-19 pandemic, information about the ability to work remotely, and data from the 2019 American Community Survey to estimate the distribution of essential frontline workers by nativity and immigrant legal status. Central to our analysis is a proxy measure of working in the primary or secondary sector of the segmented labor market. Our results indicate that a larger proportion of foreign-born workers are essential frontline workers compared to native-born workers and that 70 percent of unauthorized immigrant workers are essential frontline workers. Disparities in essential frontline worker status are most pronounced for unauthorized immigrant workers and native-born workers in the secondary sector of the labor market. These results suggest that larger proportions of foreign-born workers, and especially unauthorized immigrant workers, face greater risk of potential exposure to COVID-19 in the workplace than native-born workers. Social determinants of health such as lack of access to health insurance and living in overcrowded housing indicate that unauthorized immigrant essential frontline workers may be more vulnerable to poor health outcomes related to COVID-19 than other groups of essential frontline workers. These findings help to provide a plausible explanation for why COVID-19 mortality rates for immigrants are higher than mortality rates for native-born residents.

Impact of nasal photodisinfection on SARS-CoV-2 infection in an industrial workplace.

Objectives: We aimed to evaluate a quality improvement initiative designed to control SARS-CoV-2 (COVID) using the large-scale deployment of antimicrobial photodisinfection therapy (aPDT) for nasal decolonization in a Canadian industrial workplace (a food processing plant). Study design: Using a retrospective chart review of treatment questionnaires, linked to COVID laboratory testing results, a quality improvement assessment was analyzed to determine treatment effectiveness and safety. Methods: This voluntary aPDT intervention involved the administration of a light-sensitive liquid to the nose followed by nonthermal red-light irradiation on a weekly basis. Employees in food processing industries are at increased risk for COVID infection due to the nature of their work environments. In an effort to mitigate the transmission and consequences of the disease among such workers and the community at large, aPDT was added to a well-established bundle of pre-existing pandemic safety measures (e.g., mask-wearing, testing, contact tracing, workplace-engineered barriers, increased paid sick leave). Results: From December 2020 to May 2021, we found high interest in and compliance with aPDT treatment, along with a statistically significant lower PCR test positivity rate in the study population in comparison to the case rates for the local Canadian province. Treatment safety monitoring and outcomes of the aPDT program demonstrated no serious adverse events. Conclusions: This study suggests nasal photodisinfection provides safe and effective COVID viral suppression when deployed across the majority of workers in an industrial workplace setting.

Blindness (review)

Before COVID, directors often deployed such elements to disrupt traditional theatre by staging site-specific pieces or having actors lip-sync recordings of absent others. Despite being forced to live in appalling conditions in an abandoned mental hospital with countless infected strangers, this resourceful woman never lost her vision or compassion. A central intercom announced that leaving the hospital would result in death.

2023 ACHE Hudgens Award Recipient: Baljeet S. Sangha, FACHE, COO, San Francisco Health Network

The integrated, safety-net healthcare system for the City and County of San Francisco includes the Priscilla Chan and Mark Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital and Trauma Center, San Francisco's only Level 1 trauma center, and the Laguna Honda Hospital and Rehabilitation Center. [...]even when folks can't get out of their home, we at the San Francisco Health Network know we can still reach out to them with access to substance abuse and mental health support as well as other critical preventive screenings. Dr. Ford: A few years ago, San Francisco enacted a law directing firms that employ 20 or more employees, most notably food service workers, to contribute a minimum amount to health benefits per employee hour. [...]many of them are doing two or three jobs to support their families, so it is impossible for them to get healthcare during periods that may be "normal” for the rest of us.

Changes in Working Women's Self-Reported Subjective Wellbeing and Quality of Interpersonal Relationships During COVID-19: A Quantitative Comparison of Essential and Non-essential Workers in Singapore

The COVID-19 pandemic has affected working women's well-being in different ways due to contrasting national responses. This article focuses on the specific context of Singapore, which implemented differentiated rules for workers: essential workers continued to report to workplaces, while non-essential workers were required to work from home. This policy had far-reaching implications for working women, who are more likely than husbands to juggle paid work and household duties. The article uses longitudinal data collected in 2018 and during the pandemic in 2020, specifically during Singapore's lockdown period, to measure changes in 287 working women's self-reported levels of stress, fatigue, and quality of interpersonal relationships by essential worker status. While all workers were affected by the pandemic, female essential workers were more likely than their non-essential peers to report declines in stress levels from 2018 to 2020, and less likely to report changes in spousal relationships, both positive and negative. Findings suggest that the differences were driven by exposure to quarantine conditions faced by non-essential workers. Our results highlight the importance of policies supporting frontline workers and more gender-equitable labour market policies to support married women juggling the twin demands of employment and household responsibilities.

Evaluating primary and booster vaccination prioritization strategies for COVID-19 by age and high-contact employment status using data from contact surveys.

The debate around vaccine prioritization for COVID-19 has revolved around balancing the benefits from: (1) the direct protection conferred by the vaccine amongst those at highest risk of severe disease outcomes, and (2) the indirect protection through vaccinating those that are at highest risk of being infected and of transmitting the virus. While adults aged 65+ are at highest risk for severe disease and death from COVID-19, essential service and other in-person workers with greater rates of contact may be at higher risk of acquiring and transmitting SARS-CoV-2. Unfortunately, there have been relatively little data available to understand heterogeneity in contact rates and risk across these demographic groups. Here, we retrospectively analyze and evaluate vaccination prioritization strategies by age and worker status. We use a mathematical model of SARS-CoV-2 transmission and uniquely detailed contact data collected as part of the Berkeley Interpersonal Contact Survey to evaluate five vaccination prioritization strategies: (1) prioritizing only adults over age 65, (2) prioritizing only high-contact workers, (3) splitting prioritization between adults 65+ and high-contact workers, (4) tiered prioritization of adults over age 65 followed by high-contact workers, and (5) tiered prioritization of high-contact workers followed by adults 65+. We find that for the primary two-dose vaccination schedule, assuming 70% uptake, a tiered roll-out that first prioritizes adults 65+ averts the most deaths (31% fewer deaths compared to a no-vaccination scenario) while a tiered roll-out that prioritizes high contact workers averts the most number of clinical infections (14% fewer clinical infections compared to a no-vaccination scenario). We also consider prioritization strategies for booster doses during a subsequent outbreak of a hypothetical new SARS-CoV-2 variant. We find that a tiered roll-out that prioritizes adults 65+ for booster doses consistently averts the most deaths, and it may also avert the most number of clinical cases depending on the epidemiology of the SARS-CoV-2 variant and the vaccine efficacy.

Inequities in the mental health impacts on frontline responders and essential workers

Much of the research on the mental health impacts of the COVID-19 response have been focused on frontline healthcare workers (FHCW). However, other essential workers (OEW) have also faced many mental health challenges due to exposures associated with their employment status, which may be compounded by higher levels of social vulnerability. This chapter describes disparities among FHCW, OEW, and the general public regarding mental health outcomes associated with the pandemic. In addition, it considers the role that structural racism (e.g., historical redlining of neighborhoods and biased lending practices) plays in the higher vulnerability of OEW to the mental health impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic response. Mental health inequities overall, and among essential workers, must be addressed as part of the recovery from COVID-19 to build resilience to future public health emergencies. The model used by New York City to more equitably distribute mental health resources and support services is shared. © 2023 The authors.

Public Health Practice and Health Equity for Vulnerable Workers: A Public Health of Consequence, May 2023

Structured vulnerabilities that threaten the health of meat- and poultry-packing workers are driven by a complex and complicated host of economic, occupational, social, and health care access-related factors. Recognition of these complexities is a first step. More challenging, yet critical to sustaining a commitment to social justice for these frontline workers, are public health practice initiatives rooted in health equity that work toward eliminating health disparities.In this issue of AJPH, Porter et al. (p. 500) describe implementation of a public health practice initiative aimed at reducing COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy and increasing vaccine uptake among poultry industry workers. This editorial seeks to contextualize this initiative as one investment in a larger constellation of investments that are needed to provide resources and services equally to all members of our society.

Struggling in im/mobility: lived experience of Macao's mainland Chinese migrant laborers via WeChat Moments during COVID-19

The coronavirus epidemic (COVID-19) has led to drastic changes in social life. Focusing on a group of essential workers, this study examines how mainland Chinese low-skilled labor migrants discursively manifest their everyday lives via WeChat Moments. From analyzing social media posts and interview data, this study demonstrates that these labor migrants' stay in Macao was a period of unsought and undesired time of waiting, impacted by socio-structural constraints of class, age, gender, and outsider identity. Participants experienced positive (happiness with newfound opportunities) and negative emotions (anxiety and entrapment) during forced immobility due to border closures. This study contributes to understandings of border-crossing as interpreted and experienced via social media discourse. © 2022 The Author(s). Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of International Communication Association. All rights reserved.

Mental health impacts on other essential workers

The stressors, and subsequent mental health sequelae, associated with being a part of the frontline, patient-facing healthcare response to the COVID-19 pandemic have been clear from the very start of the pandemic. However, a broader group of workers, perhaps typically not considered to be part of the frontlines of a public health emergency response, have also been deemed essential to the response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Protective service workers, including law enforcement and emergency services, those working in food production, processing, and dietetics, maintenance and environmental service workers, and laboratory workers are among those unable to work from home, yet potentially unaccustomed to the stressors of being an essential workers during a public health emergency. Changes to many systems-including health insurance and other benefits, provision of personal protective equipment, and prioritizations for vaccinations and other pharmaceutical and nonpharmaceutical interventions-are needed going forward to retain and protect essential workers during future public health emergencies. © 2023 The authors.

Lessons from the response

The COVID-19 pandemic, and the measures implemented to control it, collided with another public health emergency-the opioid crisis-with dire consequences. In October of 2017, the Secretary of the US Department of Health and Human Services declared the opioid crisis a public health emergency. That declaration has been renewed several times, including during the COVID-19 pandemic, with the latest renewal set to go into effect on July 4, 2022. The overlap of individual, environmental, and social risk factors for substance use disorder (SUD) and COVID-19 present major challenges to those working as part of the response to both pandemics. The severity of the implications of this dual pandemic-an estimated 100,000 people in the United States died from a drug overdose during the first year of the pandemic-make this an area of the pandemic response where lessons learned had to be rapidly implemented to save lives. Identifying ways in which those lessons can be expanded to other populations at risk, including those with other pre-existing mental disorders, will be important to reducing the inequitable impacts of the pandemic on mental health. © 2023 The authors.

The Impact of Life Stressors Associated With the COVID-19 Pandemic on Essential Workers of Color

Objective: Although essential workers of color in the United States have been notably at risk during the COVID-19 pandemic, less is known about the impacts of associated life stressors within this population. Thus, the purpose of this study is to understand (a) the impact of life stressors among a sample of essential workers of color during the COVID-19 pandemic and (b) associations between life stressors and sociodemographic characteristics, work, mental health, substance use, and eating behaviors. Method: Essential workers of color (N=319) completed the Holms-Rahe Life Stress Inventory to examine whether any set of 43 life stress experiences occurred because of COVID-19. We used latent class analysis to examine patterns of clustering. Results: We identified three latent classes: (a) minimally impacted, (b) moderately impacted, and (c) widely impacted. Most of our sample reported being minimally impacted (53%) or moderately impacted (35%) by life events during the pandemic. However, participants clustered within the widely impacted pattern (11%) reported significantly more concerns with substance use, binge eating, and perceived stress. Conclusions: Findings highlight distinct patterns of life-stress impacts caused by COVID-19 among essential workers of color. Social workers must consider how to implement policies to reduce the systematic challenges faced by those who are most marginalized.

Seroepidemiology and risk factors for SARS-CoV-2 infection among household members of food processing and farm workers in North Carolina.

Background: Racial and ethnic minorities have borne a disproportionate burden from coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). Certain essential occupations, including food processing and farm work, employ large numbers of Hispanic migrant workers and have been shown to carry an especially high risk of infection. Methods: This observational cohort study measured the seroprevalence of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2) and assessed the risk factors for seropositivity among food processing and farm workers, and members of their households, in North Carolina, USA. Participants completed questionnaires, blood samples were collected, and an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay was used to assess SARS-CoV-2 seropositivity. Univariate and multi-variate analyses were undertaken to identify risk factors associated with seropositivity, using generalized estimating equations to account for household clustering. Findings: Among the 218 participants, 94.5% were Hispanic, and SARS-CoV-2 seropositivity was 50.0%. Most seropositive individuals did not report a history of illness compatible with COVID-19. Attending church, having a prior history of COVID-19, having a seropositive household member, and speaking Spanish as one's primary language were associated with SARS-CoV-2 seropositivity, while preventive behaviours were not. Interpretation: These findings underscore the substantial burden of COVID-19 among a population of mostly Hispanic essential workers and their households in rural North Carolina. This study contributes to a large body of evidence showing that Hispanic Americans have suffered a disproportionate burden of COVID-19. This study also highlights the epidemiologic importance of viral transmission within the household.

Anxiety and Depression Symptoms Among Young U.S. Essential Workers During the COVID-19 Pandemic.

OBJECTIVE: Emerging cross-sectional data indicate that essential workers in the COVID-19 era face increased mental health risks. This study longitudinally examined clinical symptoms of generalized anxiety disorder, depression, and posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) among U.S. essential workers, including health care workers and workers in indispensable occupations such as manufacturing, food industry, construction, transportation, hospitality, and emergency services, during the COVID-19 pandemic. The authors anticipated high symptom levels and greater symptom severity among women versus men and among younger adults compared with older adults. Analyses also explored the association between COVID-19 vaccination status and clinical symptoms. METHODS: This four-wave online survey study assessed clinical symptoms in a convenience sample of 4,136 essential workers at baseline and 14, 30, and 90 days between August and December 2021. Symptoms of anxiety, depression, and PTSD were measured with the Generalized Anxiety Disorder-7, Patient Health Questionnaire-9, and Primary Care PTSD Screen instruments, respectively. RESULTS: At every time point, 74%-78% of respondents reported symptoms of anxiety and depression, which were highest among younger adults (ages 18-22 years), females, and transgender respondents. Vaccinated participants had slightly higher symptom levels than unvaccinated respondents. Rates of clinical symptoms did not change significantly over time. CONCLUSIONS: Essential workers consistently reported symptoms of generalized anxiety, depression, or PTSD, especially younger adult, female, and transgender participants. The overwhelming and unprecedented nature of the COVID-19 pandemic underscores the need to offer mental health care to essential workers, especially those in these subgroups. Employers and administrators should support and proactively encourage employees to access care when needed.

"They Knew They Were Still Safe with Us": Experiences of Domestic Violence Shelter Staff on Survivors' Experiences in Shelter in the Early COVID-19 Pandemic.

Background: Domestic violence (DV) shelters are an essential service for survivors and their children. While research has demonstrated global increases in DV during COVID-19, little is known about the experiences of DV shelter staff. This study aimed to understand DV shelter staff's experiences and how they navigated the early stages of the pandemic. Methods: Researchers disseminated a cross-sectional online survey, first to state DV coalitions and then directly to DV shelters. Univariate and bivariate analyses were used for multiple-choice items, and patterns were identified using thematic analysis for open-ended responses. Results: Survey participants included 368 DV staff (180 leadership, 167 direct services, and 21 other roles) from 48 states. They reported little change to their schedules and mixed feelings of shelter preparedness for the pandemic. Participants described shelter methods for preventing the spread of COVID-19, changes in shelter policies and satisfaction with such policies, and the impacts of the pandemic on themselves and survivors. Balancing survivor autonomy with the health and safety of staff and other residents proved to be one of the most consistently challenging tasks. Participants also described how programs adapted to changing regulations and continued to serve survivors throughout this challenging time. Conclusion: Several innovative practices were implemented by staff throughout the pandemic, including expansions in technology use and non-residential services. Most reported feeling prepared for a similar crisis in the future. We offer five recommendations for DV shelters and their funders, including increased mental health support for staff and greater transparency in policies for both shelter residents and staff.

Vaccine Strategy During the Covid-19 Pandemic: A Community Engaged Research Supporting a Policy Oriented Towards Nonprofit Organizations and Volunteers

In the face of the Covid-19 crisis, vaccination was the medical tool and nonprofit organizations have tried to reduce its social impact. Nevertheless, they are mostly constituted of elderly volunteers, who chose to suspend their commitment. In France, within community-engaged research, a proposition from practitioners was to adapt the health strategy by including volunteers in the vaccine strategy. A survey dedicated to these topics and testing the proposition in January-February 2021 obtained 1,862 responses from volunteers. It confirms that the pandemic has disrupted volunteering and that the vaccination of volunteers would allow NPOs to reduce the lack of human resources.

Social inclusion and immigrant workers: Coming out of the shadows during COVID-19 pandemic

Immigrant groups are often adversely affected by the social exclusion process, which promotes a lack of opportunities, choice, and not being part of the democratic process that promotes social inclusion. In the USA, immigrants, particularly the undocumented, work at higher rates in essential critical infrastructure sectors than native-born citizens. COVID-19 has exposed the systemic undervaluing of work that is now clearly understood to be essential for societal survival. During the COVID-19 pandemic, immigrants are risking their health to keep Americans safe, healthy, food secured, and contributing to the US economic recovery. The need to promote social inclusion measures for immigrant essential workers is a global concern. This chapter addresses the COVID-19 pandemic, a relational conceptualization of social exclusion, essential workers, and the significance of undocumented immigrant contributions during the pandemic. It acknowledges the divestment of immigrant populations by the Trump administration, and the lack of responsiveness by the US Senate to the needs of undocumented immigrant essential workers. Future directions include a reconstruction of social inclusion measures through a call to action. A partnership among government, employers, and essential workers is necessary for the undocumented to come out of the shadows and become part of the social fabric through a pathway to citizenship. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved)

Who cares for wellbeing? Corporate wellness, social reproduction and the essential worker: The Interdisciplinary Journal of Organization, Theory and Society

This paper seeks to contribute to the rethinking of wellbeing in organisation studies. First, it contributes to critiques of corporate wellness by drawing on social reproduction theory to show how the wellbeing of every individual worker is dependent on the efforts of many, often unacknowledged, others. Corporate wellness initiatives epitomise the dominant, neoliberal narrative of wellbeing in which individuals are posited as responsible for the maintenance of their own wellbeing. Against this, social reproduction theory highlights the relational, socially distributed and materially grounded character of wellbeing. Second, the COVID-19 pandemic opened an opportunity to radically rethink wellbeing. A social reproduction reading of the category of the essential worker allows us to analyse some of the tensions and contradictions involved in the work of producing wellbeing today. It shows the unequal distribution of both the work involved and of its rewards. In sum, this paper helps extend debates over wellbeing in organisation studies beyond, on the one hand, individualised accounts of wellbeing and, on the other, accounts that ultimately confine understandings of wellbeing to the traditional workplace. It argues for the need for organisational studies of wellbeing to take the wider social reproduction of wellbeing as its starting point.

Doubt in store: vaccine hesitancy among grocery workers during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The objective of this study was to assess the influence of workplace safety conditions alongside the World Health Organization's model of the "3 Cs", on grocery store workers' vaccine hesitancy concerning COVID-19. Data for this study come from the Arizona Frontline Workers Survey, a longitudin web-based survey of 770 grocery store workers in the state of Arizona (US) collected in July 2020 and January 2021. We utilized ordinary least squares and multinomial logistic regression analyses to assess predictors of hesitancy at our Wave 2. Thirty-nine percent of our sample reported being unlikely to get vaccinated against COVID-19. Two aspects of the "3 Cs" model, confidence and convenience, were correlated with lower levels of vaccine hesitancy while the perceptions of being protected by one's employer increased hesitancy. Our findings underscore the importance of workplace conditions for vaccine hesitancy and the need to include vaccine messaging in employers' safety practices.