SAN FRANCISCO (AP) – The battle to contain the devastation caused by the coronavirus in central California reaches the border with Mexico, where migrant workers heading north to harvest lettuce, broccoli, carrots and other crops They are offered the COVID-19 vaccine as soon as they enter the United States.
California is vaccinating farm workers by looking for them where they live and where they work, protecting a population disproportionately hit by the virus. Activists say the campaign was slow to start, but gained momentum in recent weeks, as the number of available vaccines increases and mobile clinics emerge that go to farms and food processing plants.
Farmworkers are especially vulnerable because they are crowded together in dormitories and eat together as well. They often go to the fields in crowded vans or buses or work in processing plants also in close contact.
At a recent event at the United Farm Workers union headquarters in Delano, there was a big party with DJs and free food that drew a thousand people in the Central Valley.
In the border city of Calexico, which has only allowed workers considered essential to enter since March last year, Salud Sin Fronteras volunteers inoculate agricultural workers arriving from Mexico.
Further north, Ernestina Solorio, 50, who works as a strawberry picker in Watsonville, was the first to be vaccinated at a center set up in a backyard. A single mother of four, Solorio said she lived in constant fear of catching it and spent weeks calling clinics to see if she could get vaccinated.
“I was thinking what would happen to my children if I got sick. Who would cook them? Who would take care of them? ”The woman declared.
Researchers at Purdue University estimate that about 9,000 farm workers died from COVID-19 in the United States and nearly half a million were infected with the virus.
California was the first state to authorize vaccinations for farmworkers in the United States, followed by other states, including Washington, Michigan and Georgia. Arizona, another state on the border with Mexico, did not declare them a priority, but some companies are vaccinating them on their own. In Florida, the nation’s top citrus grower, activists say they have tried unsuccessfully to get the residency requirement for vaccination removed and farm workers declared essential personal.
California is the largest producer of fruits and vegetables in the United States and that sector employs about 800,000 farm workers. Some arrive with H2A visas and have their papers in order, but many are in the country without permission.
It is not clear how many farm workers have been vaccinated so far because the authorities do not take note of the occupation of the people it inoculates. The California Department of Health says it has about twenty mobile vaccination centers. Three out of four are in the fertile Central Valley.
“There is a lot of optimism and hope now because farm workers feel that they have been given priority and this vaccine allows them a lot of flexibility,” said Diana Tellefson Torres, executive director of the United Farm Workers Foundation, alluding to the Johnson & Johnson vaccine.
In Riverside County, nearly 15,000 farmworkers have been vaccinated since January, which became the first county to expand its criteria for vaccinations. County officials say they plan to continue dispatching mobile units to farms as more migrants arrive to participate in the asparagus, avocado and citrus harvests, according to spokeswoman Brooke Federico.
Migrant workers generally pick and process winter crops in Southern California and then go to the Central Valley and north for summer crops. Some are reluctant to be vaccinated because they fear they will not be able to show up for the second vaccine because they have moved to another region, according to activists.
“We try to explain to them that if they go somewhere else, we won’t be tracking them. But they can go to any clinic, they will vaccinate them if they had given them a date for the second dose, ”said Luis Olmedo, executive director of the Comité Cívico del Valle, a grassroots organization in Calexico.
Immigrants without a residence permit are sometimes afraid to sign up to be vaccinated or go to vaccination centers that require online registration. Many do not have access to the Internet or do not know how to operate it, according to Hernán Hernández, executive director of the California Farmworker Foundation.
“You need a community organization that inspires confidence because there will be a lot of mistrust and many people will not want to share information with the government,” he said.
Activists also fight misinformation about the vaccine, denying that it changes male hormones or that it is worse than the disease.
In a nationwide United Farm Workers Foundation study of 10,000 workers, 73% said they would get vaccinated as soon as possible and only 5% said they would not.
Rafael Cervantes, 54, a mechanic at Black Dog Farms in Holtville, received the first dose of Moderna’s vaccine on March 5, after signing up for a clinic.
Cervantes, who has three children, says he knows people who died after being infected with COVID-19 and has relatives who were infected, including his two daughters, a sister and his brother-in-law, who still needs oxygen and a nurse by his side.
He states that he understands why the authorities decided to vaccinate people over 65 years of age first, who are more vulnerable.
“The important thing is that now we have access to vaccines,” he said. “I wanted to get vaccinated because I want to continue supporting my family and because I didn’t want to get sick. I like this life ”.
