When the Bills Keep on Coming: the Experiences of Seafood Processors During the COVID-19 Pandemic.

Details

• Alternative Title:
  Journal of Agromedicine, 2025, v. 30, no. 2: When the Bills Keep on Coming: the Experiences of Seafood Processors During the COVID-19 Pandemic.
• Journal Article:
  Journal of Agromedicine
• Personal Author:
  Guillot-Wright, Shannon ; Porterfield, Laura ; Wilson, Brenda ; Davis, Lacy
• Description:
  Essential workers were at increased risk during the COVID-19 pandemic, including seafood processors who are often rendered invisible within the public sphere. To examine the health and safety concerns of seafood processors, many who are low income or im/migrant workers on H-2B visas, our team conducted qualitative research with 44 participants. We found that in addition to high occupational health hazards that existed before the pandemic, COVID-19 increased workers' financial risks, which put them in more dangerous health and safety positions, since they needed to work through physical and mental health illness. These financial risks can be seen through the themes of paid sick leave, mental health, economic duress, and primary care access. We conclude with three recommendations to the H-2B visa worker program, which will not only decrease health disparities for im/migrant workers, but also increase health equity across seafood worker populations.
• Content Notes:
  Author manuscript
• Subjects:
  • Humans
  • COVID-19
  • Seafood
  • Occupational Health
  • Adult
  • Female
  • Male
  • SARS-CoV-2
  • Sick Leave
  • Middle Aged
  More +
• Keywords:
  • COVID-19
  • economic duress
  • mental health
  • migrant workers
  • paid sick leave
  • primary care access
  • seafood processors
• Source:
  Journal of Agromedicine, 2025, v. 30, no. 2
• DOI:
  https://doi.org/10.1080/1059924X.2024.2421585
• ISSN:
  1059-924X ; 1545-0813
• Pubmed ID:
  39462149
• Pubmed Central ID:
  PMC11983676
• Document Type:
  Text
• Funding:
  K01 OH012797/OH/NIOSH CDC HHSUnited States/ ; L60 MD017738/MD/NIMHD NIH HHSUnited States/
• Genre:
  Journal Article
• Pages in Document:
  227-236 (14 pdf pages)
• Volume:
  30
• Issue:
  2
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/262135/cdc_262135_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 85.91 KB]
• Collection(s):
  CDC Public Access
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:f07f7c6e9c0f36506f2b9a0ed4d231939ff38c997869ac87c0124d4aa2e006ee5df49369691f91eb13e52b31715bc5a46bd5befdfe991744e06371d7d5a5cd1c