Anna Romina Guevarra is the founding director and associate professor of Global Asian Studies at the University of Illinois-Chicago and a Public Voices Fellow of the OpEd Project. She is an award-winning author on race, labor, and migration, and an expert witness on asylum cases.
In the aftermath of the pandemic, state and federal agencies classified essential services—and workers—needed to maintain critical operations and functions and ensure that Americans have the basic necessities for everyday functioning and survival. Yet, these are the same workers who are disproportionately getting infected or dying. At the peak of the pandemic in April, according to the United Food and Commercial International Union (UFCW), more than 11,000 workers were infected or exposed, and health-care workers, who comprise 20 percent of the frontline workers in the U.S., show the biggest rate of COVID-19 infection. The most recent data from the Centers for Disease Control reports that to date, approximately 162,328 health-care personnel have been infected by COVID-19, and more than 700 have died. These risks are disproportionately high in the U.S. relative to other industrialized wealthy countries, given the inadequate and finite supply of PPEs provided to frontline workers. Additionally, hospitals are currently ill-equipped for handling fatal airborne pathogens in the wake of President Trump’s cancellation of federal regulations that would have set up infectious disease standards for preparing and protecting workers.
They are essential—yes. But they are not disposable—certainly not to their families and those who care for them. v
