The meatpacking, food, and aviation industries, among others, are lobbying governments to prioritize their employees for vaccination, arguing they are essential workers crucial to propping up the economy.
“Meat industry workers are part of the essential workforce and prioritizing them will provide an efficient means of administering the vaccine to a significant number of people who have been identified by [the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention] as a population that was greatly affected by COVID-19,” said Dr. KatieRose McCullough, director of regulatory and scientific affairs at the North American Meat Institute.
These industries are lobbying to be included in Phase 1b of the vaccine distribution process recommended by the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, a CDC panel made up of medical and public health experts, which envisions early vaccinations for essential workers who are needed to maintain basic services, such as grocery store employees, bus drivers, and teachers.
The first doses of the coronavirus vaccine manufactured by Pfizer were administered on Monday to healthcare providers, who, with residents and staff of long-term care facilities, are in Phase 1a.
Seniors and people with serious health conditions are eligible in Phase 1c.
Per AHIP guidance, airline and food industry employees do not qualify as essential workers to be given the vaccine in Phase 1b. However, the distribution process is ultimately up to the states as the committee can only make recommendations to states.
While 45 states have said they will follow ACIP guidance for Phase 1a of dose allocation, seven have said they will depart from the guidance in some way, according to the nonpartisan Kaiser Family Foundation. In Utah and Washington, D.C., for example, healthcare workers are in Phase 1a, but long-term care facility residents are in Phase 1b. In California, dentists and other healthcare professionals who provide essential services in less risky settings have worked successfully to be included in the state’s Phase 1a of distribution.
Meatpacking plants were among the first work sites to be pummeled by the coronavirus, with close work stations in an enclosed space providing the virus ample opportunity to spread.
“Since March … meat packing facilities have successfully implemented guidance for programs and controls to reduce cases and protect employee safety, despite worsening surges across the United States. Cases amongst meatpacking facility employees have decreased significantly,” the NAMI representatives said.
The Smithfield Packaged Meats Corporation in South Dakota became a virus hot spot in April after public health experts found they could trace hundreds of cases in the Sioux Falls area back to that plant. At that early point in the pandemic, the plant’s employees made up about 44% of all COVID-19 infections in South Dakota, the New York Times reported. The plant then shut down for about three weeks before gradually bringing workers back.
Fifteen food, beverage, and retail industry trade groups have also written to the Trump administration asking to have priority, adding they had already met with President-elect Joe Biden about the issue. In a November letter to President Trump, groups such as the National Restaurant Association and the Consumer Brands Association said that prioritizing their industries “will be a key intervention to help keep workers healthy and to ensure that agricultural and food supply chains remain operating.”
Airline industry groups and unions have highlighted the importance their employees will play in distributing the new vaccines across the U.S. in the coming months. In a letter written to CDC Director Robert Redfield, 17 trade groups, such as Airlines for America, argued that pilots, flight attendants, air traffic controllers, and customer service representatives should be considered essential workers.
In a separate letter to senators, Joseph DePete, president of the Air Line Pilots Association, said that prioritizing commercial and cargo pilots “is critical” to ensuring that the distribution process can “continue unencumbered.”
The federal health agencies expect that by doling out doses in different phases, people who need them most will have access regardless of their wealth or status, with a lower chance of high-profile individuals cutting in line. Several of them have already announced they will wait their turn for the shots. Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla told CNBC on Monday that he has not received the vaccine, adding he and fellow executives won’t “cut the line.” NFL commissioner Roger Goodell also said Monday that NFL players and personnel won’t jump the lines for the shots before the Super Bowl, currently scheduled for Feb. 7, 2021.
President Trump reversed a Sunday directive issued just hours earlier that would have pushed White House staff to the front of the line for a vaccine.
“People working in the White House should receive the vaccine somewhat later in the program, unless specifically necessary,” Trump tweeted Sunday night. “I have asked that this adjustment be made. I am not scheduled to take the vaccine, but look forward to doing so at the appropriate time.”
