California has been ranked as the state with the highest rate of anti-COVID-19 vaccination in the country, which would mean that it has given a strong setback to the pandemic, however, there are counties, such as Kern, where for various reasons the help and attention has not been able to fully permeate.
And that's because, according to Edward Flores, associate professor of sociology at the University of California, Merced, the Central Valley had one of the largest increases in COVID-19 deaths in the state between 2019 and 2020.
Kern County is known for its vast farm fields where thousands of farm workers risk their lives every day to ensure that food is available on every table in the country to avoid yet another food crisis, this time a food crisis.
However, it is these essential workers who grow and process food, who today see their health compromised due to fears, misinformation, lack of transportation and mistrust.
While COVID-19 vaccines are more affordable, other factors such as paying rent, avoiding eviction, or maintaining electricity, as well as getting transportation or simply having enough time in the day, play an important role in dealing assertively with a pandemic that continues unabated.
In light of this, the role of governments will be key to ensure that agricultural and food processing workers are not left behind, even worse than before the pandemic.
"Agricultural workers experienced a much higher risk of death from COVID-19 in 2020 compared to other workers, who are particularly disadvantaged."
During a briefing with the media by the Ministry of Communications and Public Works, the Ethnic Media ServicesThe expert noted that in the U.S., agricultural workers continue to have the lowest vaccination rates, "but this is not necessarily the problem in itself. This is just a symptom of the problem, because the full household survey tells us that vaccination rates are indeed the lowest among people who lack health care and who also experience food and housing insecurity."
Thus, the Central Valley had the largest increase in deaths in the state between 2019 and 2020 with a 26 percent rise, and young people are the most affected.
Zooming in on the counties, Flores referred that of those 12 counties with the highest increase in deaths between 2019 and 2020, eight of them were in the Central Valley.
Along those lines, Kern County had a 23.5 percent increase in COVID-19-related deaths between 2019 and 2020. Between March and December 2020 alone, the county reported 1,230 deaths, which accounted for more than a quarter of the state's pandemic-related deaths." It was the second-highest rate, second only to warehouse workers," he noted. "When we look closely, we see that Kern County had a 37 percent increase in mortality between 2019 and 2020."
Added to this is the fact that 67.3 percent of these workers are immigrants who earn low wages, live in rented, overcrowded homes and with children. "There are still some very significant differences between agricultural workers and other high-risk workers because of the social inequality they suffer."
According to the U.S. Census Bureau, only fifty percent of agricultural workers nationwide have been vaccinated. And this figure is much lower than any other core group or non-core workers who have a vaccination rate of 84 percent.
Flores said that vaccination rates vary according to diet. "People living in households with sufficient quantity and types of food had vaccination rates of 88 percent, while those without that condition averaged 56 percent."
But food is not the only factor, as the lack of access to health care also has an impact. And in those who add these two characteristics together, vaccination levels are 39 percent, said Flores.
"The disadvantages are most evident in people without health insurance and often don't have enough to eat." In addition, people who thought they would be evicted had lower vaccination rates. And those who thought it was "very likely" they would be removed from their homes in the next two months had vaccination rates of 35 percent.
In view of this, said that to improve vaccination rates and reduce the spread of COVID, it is necessary to invest more in expanding the safety net, which would involve wage increases for undocumented immigrants, extending sick leave, and improving the distribution of rental assistance, especially for tenants who are at risk of eviction.
For Juana Montoya, regional coordinator of the organization Líderes Campesinas, and resident of Arvin, a small farming community in Kern, the conditions faced by thousands of farm workers are not the best.
The daughter of farm workers, she dropped out of high school during her freshman year to work in the fields due to economic problems: she started out picking cherries, blueberries, peaches and peppers.
Juanita, as those who know her call her, knows firsthand how hard it is to work in the fields, even during the pandemic, she faced the harsh cold and got sick a couple of times.
Her day, along with that of her husband, begins at 4:30 in the morning, to take public transportation with great fear, not knowing if anyone nearby has had COVID, she denounced.
The impact of the pandemic on female agricultural workers has been severe, she explained, as many have not yet been vaccinated due to misinformation and myths circulating in their communities and the media about the vaccine.
When talking to the workers, she says that they specify that "there is no chip that registers them, there is no negative effect, fertility is not lost and we create trust with them", which has made some of them change their minds, or at least think about it.
He pointed out that since many of them are undocumented immigrants, they are afraid of being vaccinated because they would have to register with the government, which, according to them, could lead to deportations. In addition, a large majority of these workers do not have access to the Internet, not to mention the language barriers.
Montoya added that it is necessary to have transportation to get the vaccine, since many of them do not have the means to travel to a vaccination point and return to work.
Despite the difficulties in providing them with information, teams of health volunteers have been sent to their work sites to answer their questions and make various resources available to them.
"For Líderes Campesinas, the best approach to expanding vaccine has been to bring education and the vaccines themselves directly to the community. We strive for equity, not just in numbers, but in quality of care and encouraging people to make informed decisions, which is why, since the beginning of the pandemic, we have found that a great deal of information regarding COVID-19 and vaccines was and is scarce in our communities."
He acknowledged that Kern County was among the hardest hit counties and that trusted messengers from community organizations are much needed to combat misinformation and fears.
"We are working toward system change so that our communities thrive and protect the public's health."
Margarita Ramirez is a community worker at the Mixteco Binational Center; her job is to speak and provide information about vaccines to farmworkers in Kern, as well as to make them aware of their labor rights.
"This pandemic has affected them because their hours have been reduced, and mainly because they are forced to go to work, even if they are sick with COVID," she said with concern.
He added that the effects have been greater among the Mixtec community, due to the lack of personnel who speak their language. "Mainly, because they don't understand about their rights and there are many people who take advantage of that, mainly the employers."
He pointed out that the help from the state government has come only for some, as most do not qualify for the programs, either because they do not have children, or because of taxes, among others.
Misinformation occurs on a daily basis among the workers themselves, he says, because among them they say that vaccines kill, or that if they get them they could become sterile, "or that you are going to become a zombie", which is why it is important to work in the field and provide them with adequate and accurate information in their own language.
Sarait Martinez is executive director of the Binational Center for Oaxacan Indigenous Development, for her, the disparities of indigenous communities in the U.S. were accentuated by the pandemic.
He recalled that a quarter of the farm workers in the state of California speak indigenous languages, which limits this community's access to information. Often, messages are translated from English to Spanish, but many of the concepts do not exist for these communities.
"So finding the right terminology and how we explain things is completely different. COVID-19 only exacerbated inequalities."
This, he said, limited aid and resources to financial assistance, eviction, prevention and food security, "even though the resources are there." "It is impossible for our community to navigate and have all the requirements to go through the process, because the institutions are not equipped to serve our community in their language and culture."
In addition, many of the indigenous farmworkers had no formal education. Therefore, reading and writing is another limitation.
Punjabi community in the food sector of Kern
Naindeep Singh, executive director of the Jakara Movement, recalled that the Punjabi community dates back, at least in the agricultural sector of Kern County, more than a hundred years, where permanent settlements began to emerge in the 1950s and 1960s, linked to some of the largest agricultural enterprises in the area.
He emphasized that the current situation of Punjabi workers is changing rapidly, because, although exploitation is also widespread, young people who used to work in the fields have migrated to a new model in the food sector focused on the commercialization of products.
However, those who tend to still go into agricultural work are the older immigrant working class, although they are not the only ones, as a large number of young undocumented women work in various food plants.
In terms of how the pandemic has impacted them, he said, at least in Kern County, "it's been kind of a patchwork in terms of how the situation looks on the individual factor, however, on a macro level, it's more what companies are doing."
In this regard, he pointed out that, for various reasons, these companies have flatly refused to make the vaccine available to them, so he considered that it will ultimately have to be a mandate for all employers.
"If we're really going to move the needle on ensuring the health and well-being of our communities, I think that has to go hand-in-hand with language and education as well."
You may be interested in: Congolese refugees in the U.S. struggle to survive COVID-19
