Mixed Messages and COVID-19 Prevention: Why Information Is Not Always Enough to Protect Meat Processing Workers

Details

• Personal Author:
  Call TP ; Coburn JF ; Flores RR ; Flynn MA ; Kaur H ; Mahoney D ; Menéndez CKC ; Sivén JM
• Description:
  Introduction: The objective of this project was to investigate U.S. meat and poultry processing workers' knowledge of COVID-19; their perceived ability to protect themselves from infection; and perspectives on COVID-19 vaccines to inform COVID-19 prevention efforts within this linguistically, racially, and ethnically diverse workforce. Methods: Qualitative semistructured in-depth interviews were conducted with Mexican, Central American, Congolese refugee, and Black or African American meat/poultry processing workers from Mississippi, Minnesota, Virginia, and Kentucky (N=40). Data were collected from December 5, 2020 to January 28, 2021. Interview audio was transcribed, and rapid qualitative data analysis was used to analyze transcripts. Results: Most participants expressed receiving mixed messages about COVID-19 protection measures: they were told how to protect themselves (n=38), but workplace policies (such as lack of paid sick leave) often undermined their efforts. Participants who were asked about COVID-19 vaccines (n=31) were aware that there were 1 or more vaccines available to protect them from COVID-19; one third were eager to get vaccinated. Conclusions: Community-based efforts may consider supplementing large-scale unified information campaigns to prevent mixed messages, address worker needs to accurately gauge the threat of illness to their communities, and empower them to prevent infection. Description provided by NIOSH
• Subjects:
  • Communicable Diseases
  • Emigration and Immigration
  • Food Industry
  • Food-Processing Industry
  • Occupational Health
  • Safety
• Keywords:
  • COVID-19
  • Information dissemination
  • Meat packing industry
  • Food processing workers
  • Disease prevention
  • Vaccines
  • Qualitative methods
  • Policy
  • Immigrant workers
  • Health equity
  More +
• ISSN:
  2773-0654
• Document Type:
  Text
• Genre:
  Journal Article
• Place as Subject:
  Florida ; Kentucky ; Minnesota ; Mississippi ; Ohio ; OSHA Region 3 ; OSHA Region 4 ; OSHA Region 5 ; Tennessee ; Virginia ; West Virginia
  More +
• CIO:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH)
• Division:
  DSI - Division of Science Integration ; DSR - Division of Safety Research
• Topic:
  Workplace Safety & Health
• Location:
  North America
• Volume:
  2
• Issue:
  4
• NIOSHTIC Number:
  nn:20067915
• Citation:
  AJPM Focus 2023 Dec; 2(4):100128
• Email:
  jsiven@cdc.gov
• Federal Fiscal Year:
  2024
• NORA Priority Area:
  Manufacturing
• Peer Reviewed:
  True
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/230149/cdc_230149_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 251.69 KB]
• Collection(s):
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:68bb67dd049b73ae4f5b844dc7659648880118dbb481b55af4efd7a4986fe9311169a35523c57cd8fb291d960ae1adf481d8eb20b15bb2b82967b4f7dabd9d5f