Share via Email


* Email To: (Separate multiple addresses with a semicolon)
* Your Name:
* Email From: (Your IP Address is 44.208.25.215)
* Email Subject: (personalize your subject)


Email Content:
Chick-News.com Poultry Industry News, Comments and more by Simon M. Shane

Controversy Over COVID Precautions for FSIS Inspectors

12/13/2020

A recent article in The Government Executive criticized the USDA-Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) for lack of action to prevent exposure of inspectors to COVID-19. Central to the claim is an inadequate supply of PEP.  An additional concern is that inspectors were not informed of the incidence rates of COVID within the plants where they were assigned.  It is noted that at the outset of the COVID outbreak, a number of FSIS inspectors contracted the disease and two fatalities were reported.

 

In a response, the FSIS stated that the article was "not accurate or based on reality" the Agency claims that there was enough protective equipment, and that face coverings and face shields were available and their use was mandatory.


FSIS inspectors in pre-COVID times

The FSIS also claims that it has "followed CDC's guidance and recommendations".  This is a somewhat specious argument since CDC guidelines were not based on a sound appreciation of the aerosol transmission of COVID-19 in confined areas. Initial preventive actions in March through April by many red meat companies lacked rigor. In contrast procedures introduced by progressive chicken companies were proactive and preceded the confusing recommendations issued by the CDC. The actions of the Agency were clearly influenced by directives from the White House, intent on maintaining the Nation’s protein supply and following a policy of consistently minimizing the risks and consequences of COVID-19 infection.

 

In the FSIS rebuttal, the Agency noted that policy was modified to allow inspectors in high-risk health category to self-certify with their supervisors and to be excused from inspection duties with full pay until protective gear became available.  This statement in itself is a self-admission that PPE was inadequate during the early months of 2021. The FSIS statement confirmed, "no regulated establishments closed during the pandemic due to lack of inspection personnel".  There were in fact cases of extended working hours as all plants were forced to operate under the April 28th Presidential Executive Order issued under the Defense Production Act on.  At this time, a number of major packers had closed pork and beef plants and the United Foods and Commercial Workers International Union claimed that 5,000 meat-packing workers had contracted COVID-19 with twenty fatalities. 

 

A study conducted by Columbia University determined that in the early stage of the COVID pandemic, one in eight cases was directly or indirectly related to a meat packing plant.  Through July 21st, the study estimated between 240,000 to 310,000 cases associated with proximity to livestock plants comprising eight percent of all U.S. cases at the time.  According to CDC data to the end of June, nine percent of workers at meat and poultry processing facilities in fourteen states had been diagnosed with COVID-19.  By the end of May, 240 plants in twenty-three states confirmed COVID-19 although it is acknowledged that testing was inadequate, and the number affected is obviously an underestimate.

 

It is now evident that factors predisposing to COVID transmission in meat packing plants during March through May included corporate denial and indifference to the infection, close proximity among workers, ineffective screening, absence of functional PEP and low air exchange rates and cold temperature in work zones. Collectively these deficiencies resulted in high incidence rates among workers concurrently exposing FSIS meat inspectors to common risks in a shared environment.


 
Copyright © 2024 Simon M. Shane