New study holds the most dangerous positions in California during the pandemic

As the state struggles to vaccinate people against the coronavirus, a new UCSF study shows that essential workers, especially in the food and transportation industries, carry the greatest risk of death among Californians in working age. The authors suggest that the employees be shot in a row.

The study found that cooks, packaging machine operators, agricultural workers, bakers and construction workers are one of the most dangerous jobs. Other high-risk occupations for death include sewing machine operators, dispatch and reception of clerks, maintenance workers, customer service workers, truck drivers, domestic helpers, and house cleaners.

“Although we pay a lot of lip service to essential workers, it screams at you who is really at risk, if you put the real occupations at the top of the list much more at risk and are associated with death.” Kirsten Bibbins-Domingo, a professor of epidemiology and biostatistics at UCSF who worked on the study.

Researchers surveyed the death rates of Californians between the ages of 18 and 65 – a group responsible for a third of COVID-19 deaths – from March to October, and compared them with pre-pandemic statistics to determine which occupations are the largest experienced an increase in deaths. The study also evaluated race and different occupations.

The occupational data came from death certificates and were grouped into nine general categories. The most dangerous category includes food and agricultural workers – everyone from farm workers to food processors and meat packers to cooks and others working in restaurants – followed by transport and logistics: people packing, shipping and delivering goods, including managers. Most of them, including cooks, farm workers and managers, continue to work during the lockdown.

Working adults in the 18-65 range experienced a 22% increase in deaths during the pandemic, according to the study. However, food and agricultural workers increased by 39%, with transport and logistics workers increasing by 28%, employees in the facility by 27% and manufacturers by 23%.

The study said most of the jobs are held by lower-income workers who do not have the choice to work from home and who are often forced to work close to co-workers. Many do not have the necessary personal protective equipment such as masks and disinfectants and do not have sufficient sick leave to be able to keep them at home when they are ill. In some cases, according to Bibbins-Domingo, the requirements for social waiver or sick leave are few.

The study also found that Latino workers had a 36% increase in deaths during the pandemic, and black workers had a 28% increase compared to a 6% increase for white workers. Some non-white workers saw particularly high jumps in deaths during the pandemic. Deaths among Asian health workers rose by 40% during the pandemic, while black retail workers rose by 18%.

Laurie Thomas, executive director of the Golden Gate Restaurant Association in San Francisco, said the study was “obviously very worrying.”

“It’s not surprising when you see the essential workers on the list,” she said.

Thomas, who owns two restaurants in the city, said she wants to see the data by province, to compare how San Francisco, which has more restrictive measures, fared compared to other parts of the state. She said she only heard anecdotally from one restaurant worker in San Francisco who died of COVID-19 and that she had three cases among her employees, two that occurred when the restaurant closed during the initial closure.

The study calls on employers to provide adequate protective equipment for their workers, ensure the necessary social distance and provide adequate sick leave. It requires government agencies to apply the requirements. It also suggests that the higher mortality rate – and the role of essential workers – should be taken into account when deciding who should be prioritized before the limited number of vaccinations.

“What every Californian needs to recognize is that there are people who need to be at work and who need to work under circumstances to put them at risk,” Bibbins-Domingo said. “Their work is essential work, which means that it is essential for all of us, and that it must be taken into account.”