Nearly a year ago, an outbreak of Covid-19 hit a Los Angeles County meatpacking plant. It hasn’t abated.
An outbreak of Covid-19 at the Farmer John pork processing plant in Los Angeles County, California, has sickened almost half its workers, the Food and Environment Reporting Network (FERN) reported. Public records revealed that the plant, owned by Smithfield Foods, reported cases inconsistently, potentially affecting public officials’ ability to respond to the outbreak. The plant has been fined $105,000 by the state’s occupational safety authority, the highest citation at any meatpacking nationwide since the pandemic started. It’s a sobering reminder that even though the Biden administration has promised to issue temporary workplace safety rules (a departure from the Trump administration, which implemented nonbinding guidelines), many workplaces have a long way to go.
