While panicked Americans cleaned supermarkets of toilet paper and food last spring, grocery workers gained recognition as one of the most indispensable frontline workers of the pandemic.
A year later, most of the workers wait their turn to receive COVID-19 vaccines, with little clarity on when this could happen.
A decentralized vaccination campaign has led to a patchwork of policies that differ from state to state, and even country to country in some areas, leading to a conflicting implementation of low-paid essential workers who are exposed to hundreds of customers every day .
‘We are apparently not front-line workers getting the vaccine. It was a shock, “said Dawn Hand, who works at a Kroger supermarket in Houston, where she said three of her co-workers were dealing with the virus last week. She watched as others were vaccinated at the pharmacy. the store without knowing when it’s her turn.
Texas is among several states that have decided to exclude groceries and other essential workers from the second phase of its vaccination effort, but rather adults over 65 and people with chronic medical conditions.
Focusing on older adults is an approach that many epidemiologists support as the most ethical and effective, as it will help reduce deaths and hospitalizations more quickly. People over 65 are responsible for 80% of deaths in the country, according to the Centers for Disease and Control Prevention.
“Our main goals with vaccines should be to reduce deaths and hospitalizations,” said William Moss, executive director of the International Vaccination Center at Johns Hopkins University School of Public Health. “In order to do that, we need to start vaccinating those at greatest risk.”
But many grocery workers are surprised and discouraged to find that they have been left out of such policies, in part because a CDC panel has raised their expectations by recommending the second phase of vaccination of the vaccine – 1B – includes groceries and other essentials employees in. .
Even when grocery workers are put first, they still have a long wait. New York opened vaccines for grocery workers in early January, along with other essential workers and everyone 65 and older. But a limited supply makes booking an appointment difficult, and even more so for workers who do not have large businesses or unions.
Edward Lara had to close his small grocery store – known as a bodega – in the Bronx for 40 days when he and his employees contracted the virus last year. He tried for weeks to get a vaccine appointment and eventually found out he could register via the website of a network of healthcare providers, who would notify him when a lock is open.
Lara’s father-in-law died of the virus in March. His mother-in-law passed away in November. Last week, a friend who runs his bodega’s insurance policy also passed away. And a cousin in New Jersey got the virus for a second time and scared him to death it could happen to him.
‘Nothing should be done. Cross my fingers and hope that God protects me, ”Lara said after registering for the waiting list.
Only 13 states currently allow grocery workers to sign up for vaccinations, according to the United Food and Commercial Workers Union, which represents 1.3 million U.S. grocery, meat packaging and other front-line workers.
Some states are still working through a first phase that puts health care workers and nursing home residents first. Many states have divided the second phase into levels that place grocery workers lower than others, including people 65 and older, teachers and first responders. Eleven states do not have a clear plan to prioritize grocery workers at all, according to research by United 4 Respect, a working group working for workers at Walmart, Amazon and other major retailers.
At MOM’s Organic Market, a 21-store grocery store chain in the Mid-Atlantic region, Chief Culture Officer Jon Croft initially thought the company would be vaccinated by 1,500 employees by the end of January. He now thinks it will be more like March or April. The company could only pre-register workers from two stores in Maryland and two in Virginia.
“People feel they deserve to get a chance to be vaccinated after being in the front line,” Croft said. “The politicians and the health departments sang the praises of grocery workers, but now they have been silent.”
Large food retailers say they are doing their part to get their workers vaccinated. Kroger, the country’s largest grocery chain, said employees in Illinois have been vaccinated since they were eligible, but grocery workers are not yet eligible in most jurisdictions in which the company operates. Target and Walmart also said they will offer their workers vaccinations at their own pharmacies as soon as they are eligible.
Kroger, Trader Joe’s, Target and the online delivery service Instacart offered bonuses or extra paid time for workers receiving the vaccine.
When Lidl of Suffolk County on the Long Island grocery chain announced that he would get appointments for his local workers, he immediately contacted those he said were at greatest risk. So far, more than 100 employees in Suffolk County have now been shot.
Joseph Lupo, a Lidl supervisor who fell ill with the virus in March, is one of them.
“I never want to get COVID again, or want to see someone else get it,” Lupo, 59, said.
But for many grocery workers, the realization that they are not eligible soon brings with them a sense of accomplishment. They waged a mostly losing battle for paychecks, which a handful of companies offered in the spring, but despite the recurrence of the virus, ended.
A year into the pandemic, some buyers still refuse to wear masks and managers often do not force them to follow the rules.
“There are people who wear a mask halfway down or take it off as soon as they walk in the door,” said Drew Board, who paid $ 13.50 an hour for grocery delivery at a Walmart in Albemarle, North Carolina. earn. . “I politely ask them to pull it up again, and then do it again when they walk away.”
Francisco Marte, president of the Bodega and Small Business Association of New York, said he tells his own workers not to risk their lives against buyers who do not wear masks. In August, an angry customer chopped off thousands of dollars worth of goods at a Bronx bodega after being asked to wear a mask.
“It should be the job of the police,” said Marte, whose organization handed out 150,000 free masks in the spring. “I say to the employees: keep your distance and wear your mask, but do not endanger yourself, because it is we who lose.”
Marte said he is pushing local officials to set aside vaccine appointments for bodega workers, many of whom do not know they are eligible. He hopes the recent opening of a large vaccination site in Yankee Stadium will facilitate access.
The virus, meanwhile, continues to spread through grocery stores.
In the past two months, there have been 137 COVID-19 outbreaks in grocery stores in Southern California, and according to the UFCW, 500 grocery workers in Houston have been infected. The union knows of 124 grocery workers who have died since the start of the pandemic.
Debbie Whipple, a scanning manager at a Kroger in Fayetteville, Georgia, said her union, UFWC Local 1996, did not expect Georgia to open up to the earliest vaccinations for grocery workers.
“We need to be here, just like a firefighter and a cop, because people need food,” Whipple said. He describes the frustration of seeing customers regularly walk around barefoot and turn down offers of free masks. “We need to get the vaccine.”
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Associated Press Writer Anita Snow in Phoenix contributed to this report.