South Guilford News

Emails from public health agencies revealed turmoil as meatpacking companies clashed with public health institutions about COVID-19 outbreaks within their plants.

Documents recently obtained by ProPublica from public health agencies reportedly showed how ill-equipped the companies were to deal with cases at meatpacking businesses, which were often uncooperative and hostile, and how completely overwhelmed they became as workers became infected, according to the June 12 report. 

Tyson Foods, the country’s largest food company, hindered health agencies' attempts to contact infected workers and only relented when finally faced with “injunctive relief or prosecution," ProPublica reported. 

Emails showed that companies often didn’t implement measures to protect workers until after workers began to become infected and instead spent critical early weeks urging officials to keep the plants open, ProPublica reported. 

The ProPublica report also suggested many other obstacles to health agencies including insufficient manpower to administer tests and monitor cases, having to translate health guidelines into various languages for non-English speaking workers, some state’s privacy laws preventing health officials from releasing of names of businesses where outbreaks were occurring, and even the basic issue of health officials being unclear whether they actually had any authority to regulate the companies.

At least 87 workers from meatpacking plants have died from coronavirus, more than 25 of them working for Tyson Foods, ProPublica reported.