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Essential Workers Are Battling This Pandemic In More Ways Than One

Posted on by sbulega-nasuna

By: Stephanie Bulega~Nasuna 

 

Essential vs. Nonessential 

 

This phrase is the center of many Covid-19 conversations. To lower infection, people around the world have put a pause on their daily life. Those are nonessential workers, but being essential means, their jobs are vital for society’s functioning.

 

 It is defined in the 2013 Essential Services Act as “an essential employee is someone that performs work involving the safety of human life and the protection of property” to maintain social order. 

 

They Had To Be Adaptable.

 

 Essential workers are anyone from scientists, teachers, janitors, and etc. For this pandemic, there were never enough people, PPE, and communication. Doctors and nurses see the virus in front of them without supplies, but what can be said for the rest of the essential workers? While hospitals have procedures in place, a survey found, “Allied health professionals and emergency medical technicians/paramedics (that are employed by hospitals) had the least amount of training on their role in the hospital preparedness and response plan,.” (Reilly and Markenson). 

 

However, the preparedness for COVID depends on the capacity of hospitals, human resources, socioeconomics, and other factors based on this tracker. Meaning essential workers face unique challenges without a simple solution.

 

To be Essential Means

 

Still having an income, but everyday co-workers will quit or die. Yet, face this crisis for your community. One story is of Sujatatha Gilda, a New York City MTA conductor who agrees with her co-workers when they say, “We are not essential. We are sacrificial.” She has watched friends die, and she’s given small wipes and sanitizer, N-95 masks held together by tape every three days. Even after contracting the virus once she is returning to work.

 

 Essential workers like Ms. Gilda are the ones that give us peace of mind that, while this pandemic rages, there’s a sense of normalcy for us, but not for people like her. As people die worldwide, the grocer will bag your groceries. The teller will cash your checks, and the doctors will treat you with what they have. Our essential workers carry the remnants of normalcy that has been mostly left behind in this crisis. 

 

They’re Up Against 

 

Is the lack of answers. For the past couple of months, there has been debate about whether about who’s to blame. From early March, Michael Osterholm told CNBC, “What I find really concerning is we’ve really not set the agenda here for the American public, I think in a realistic way.” While Fox News cites the study by John Hopkins and (NTI) that assessed the U.S. was best prepared through the Global Health Security Index, but adds the fact the U.S.’s preparedness lowers with, “social unrest and terrorism, and low public confidence in the government.” Regardless of what view taken the numbers of July 25,2020, the CDC reports 4,099,310 cases, and the deaths have reached 145,013. 

 

For this virus, there are few answers found by Jama Network the fatality rate differs on area, we are not sure about re-infection and immunity, and if masks and a vaccine can put us at ease. 

 

Yet, we ask out essential workers to show up to work no questions because that is the reality. To be there amongst the uncertainty to give us false hope, it’s all okay.

 

Who Are They ?

They are POC and usually women creating the “The higher representation of black and Hispanic people the “essential” category likely contributes to the race gap in coronavirus deaths in many parts of the U.S.” (Vox). Right now, many are faced with still having a job, but with the risks, it does not seem worth it. 

 

The people who are the foundation of society are the most marginalized groups in the U.S., but on top of the prejudice they face daily, they show up. 

 

The article from Vox then tells us the stories of, “Kylee Mays, a McDonald’s worker in Hawaii, wonders why she’s exposing herself to the virus every day earning $11.57 an hour while people on unemployment are making more. 

 

While the U.S. has introduced hero pay and other stimulus packages that money is disappearing. Since panic buying decreased, the costs of plexiglass and PPE, but the virus is still a threat, and now the violence around masks an NYT Times article titled Hero’ Pay Raises Disappear for Many Essential Workers find. While new benefits may come out, it’s on a state by state basis, and so there is a minority denied vital resources.

 

The exploitation of essential workers is teaching us how to re-examine how the government treats vulnerable populations.  

 

When the Black Death devastated a third of Europe’s population, many protests, Richard Sayeed tells the Guardian that the desire for social reform was loud. 

 

He says, “But the peasants’ story reminds us that change isn’t automatic, and Spain’s history shows that the bad guys can take advantage of a crisis.” Now is a turning point for how politics will help vulnerable populations or enforce stricter control for “safety.” 

 

David Willams provides a Hobbes viewpoint for the economy vs. the public’s safety debate, “According to Hobbes, the Leviathan’s foremost responsibility is “If a sovereign is unable to provide that safety,…, where people are threatened not only by a virus,…, but also by one another in the absence of effective governmental authority” (Washington Post). 

 

Throughout this pandemic, we have seen the power of fear, but we need to evaluate Americans how to get more voices heard. Countries with effective coronavirus responses share proportional electoral rules where politicians must appeal to larger sections of the population. As a result, “The resulting health systems in proportional representation countries have a wider geographic distribution of hospitals and medical personnel,” Joel Selway writes to the Washington Post.

 

 In this pandemic, the essential workers are the minority that are losing in our majoritarian government that waits for more deaths and people quitting to wake up to reality.

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34 Comments

  1. My biggest question when reading this blog, which I’m sure is the same as many, is what can be done? When you’re given the choice to either leave your job or put yourself in a high risk position where you are more likely to contract a potentially fatal virus, what do you do? Especially for those whose financial circumstances don’t allow them to leave their jobs for long periods of time. As someone who has been and is currently working in food service during this pandemic the question was always there for me as to why those receiving unemployment and stimulus checks were making significantly more than me at my minimum wage job, and as mentioned in the blog this question has appeared for many others as well. I agree that the conditions surrounding essential workers is completely unfair but like the blog states there is no “simple solution” therefore the question is posed again. What can be done?

  2. I think that this is a very relevant and well-worded blog post. This pandemic has redefined the meaning of Essential Workers. They are the people who are now on the frontline of a war against Covid-19. I really liked how you added the story of the New York City MTA conductor, Sujatatha Gilda. I think it helps humanize your post and shows how this is a very real thing affecting people. I also think the background on Kylee Mays, who is working at McDonald’s, fears for her safety. Currently, as a society, we have been overlooking people who are at risk of being exposed just because they don’t have a career in healthcare.

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