Noem releases finalized CDC report pertaining to Smithfield Foods
South Dakota Department of Health requires plan of action from Smithfield be submitted before Sioux Falls, S.D., plant reopens. Apr 23, 2020
On Thursday, South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem released the 15-page finalized report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention regarding Smithfield Foods in Sioux Falls.
"I want to thank Vice President Pence, Secretary of Agriculture Perdue, and the CDC for prioritizing the situation at Smithfield Foods in Sioux Falls," says Noem. "Their partnership has been critical to the work that we've done to get this cluster under control and safeguard the health of this workforce. My team at the Department of Health will continue to work with Smithfield and offer any assistance we can to help them implement these CDC recommendations, so they can safely reopen this plant as soon as possible."
In a letter to Kenneth Sullivan, Smithfield Foods president and CEO, the S.D. Department of Health said it requires a plan of action addressing the report recommendations be developed by Smithfield Foods and submitted to DOH prior to re-opening the facility. For each recommendation, a timeframe for implementation needs to be indicated. If a recommendation cannot be implemented or a different solution is proposed, the company must provide justification. Smithfield Foods must also indicate the date it intends to reopen.
Once submitted the DOH will expedite a review of the plan of action and schedule a follow-up assessment to review the process changes. Based on a satisfactory assessment by the DOH, the Smithfield facility will be recommended to reopen.
After the facility reopens, the DOH will continue to assess the impact of changes to prevent COVID-19 among employees during unscheduled visits. In the letter, DOH says Smithfield should continue to refine operating processes to further minimize the risk of COVID-19 within employees, both in and outside the workplace.
Source: South Dakota State News, which is solely responsible for the information provided, and wholly owns the information. Informa Business Media and all its subsidiaries are not responsible for any of the content contained in this information asset.
TAGS: PROCESSORS
Date: April 22, 2020
From: Michael Grant, CDC National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health Colin Basler, CDC National Center for Emerging Zoonotic Infectious Diseases Jesica Jacobs, CDC Laboratory Leadership Service Officer Erin Kennedy, CDC Center for Global Health John Osburn, South Dakota Department of Health Jonathan Steinberg, CDC Epidemic Intelligence Officer, South Dakota Department of Health Suzanne Tomasi, CDC National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
To: Joshua Clayton, South Dakota Department of Health Copy: Russ Dokken, Smithfield Foods Scott Reed, Smithfield Foods Mark Wiggs, Smithfield Foods B.J. Motley, President, UFCW Local 304A Union
Subject: Strategies to reduce COVID-19 transmission at the Smithfield Foods Sioux Falls Pork Plant
Background
The South Dakota Department of Health requested an Epi Aid for assistance in developing strategies to help reduce SARS-CoV-2 infections among Smithfield Foods Sioux Falls pork processing plant employees. SARS-CoV-2 is the virus that causes coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). A team from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) traveled to Sioux Falls, South Dakota for an Epi Aid on April 14, 2020. The CDC team included veterinary epidemiologists, an Epidemic Intelligence Service Officer, an industrial hygienist, and a Laboratory Leadership Service Officer. One component of this effort was to visit the Smithfield Foods pork processing plant to evaluate existing health and safety controls and provide recommendations for improvement. This memorandum provides observations and recommendations based on our visits to the plant on April 16 and 17, 2020 and conversations with plant management and the United Food and Commercial Workers Union (UFCW) local president. The recommendations in this memorandum are steps that Smithfield Foods may want to consider implementing to address the conditions we identified at the plant. These recommendations are discretionary and not required or mandated by CDC.
No harvesting or further production work were taking place in the plant while we were on site. The first case among employees was detected on March 24, 2020. Smithfield Foods announced that the process to halt production began on April 11, 2020. The plant informed us that all processing activities were Page 2 of 15 completed on April 14, 2020 and that the plant would be shut down indefinitely while Smithfield Foods continued extensive sanitation and modification efforts in the plant. The few employees we observed in the plant during our walkthroughs were performing maintenance and distribution center tasks. We toured the plant and observed workstations from the pens where the swine are delivered through the distribution center, where product is shipped out of the plant. We also observed the route that employees take from the parking lots through the symptom screening tents and into the facility. Additionally, we observed administrative areas, the occupational health clinic and quarantine room, and the common areas (e.g., break rooms, cafeterias, locker rooms) shared by employees.
Our team was unable to identify important demographic information about this workforce, limiting our ability to understand the diversity of the employees. However, plant management reported that there were approximately 40 different languages spoken by employees in the plant and that English, Spanish, Kunama, Swahili, Nepali, Tigrinya, Amharic, French, Oromo, and Vietnamese are the top 10 languages. We were also unable to obtain information about the workstations of confirmed positive cases. This type of information could provide a better understanding of what workplace factors may have contributed to the spread of COVID-19 among employees. Key demographic and workstation information was requested from the company to help answer some of these questions in the future. Additional recommendations and findings may be provided upon receipt of demographic and workstation information.
Observations and Discussion
Employee Screening
snip...
NIFA Invests in Rapid Response Research on COVID-19 Impacts on Agriculture
Media Contact: Bill Hoffman, 202-445-5576
KANSAS CITY, MO, April 22, 2020 – The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA) announced that it is investing in research on the impact of COVID-19 on American agriculture. Last week, NIFA opened its request for applications on research or extension activities that focus on developing and deploying rapid, reliable, and readily adoptable COVID-19 agricultural strategies across the food and agriculture enterprise. Through the Agriculture and Food Research Initiative (AFRI) program, NIFA will invest up to $9 million for research in the following areas: health and security of livestock; food and food processing; well-being of farm workforce, food service providers, and rural Americans; and economic security. Applications are due June 4, 2020.
“Keeping the agricultural workforce healthy and our nation’s food supply safe is a top priority for USDA,” said Scott Angle, NIFA Director. “The entire country depends on the jobs that these agricultural workers do, from farm to fork, to ensure a robust agricultural food supply. The systems that our agricultural workforce manages and the products they produce literally sustain both our bodies and our nation’s economy.”
NIFA is using an expedited solicitation, evaluation, and grant-making process to quickly deploy funding on COVID-19 agricultural research. In turn, the agency will only fund projects designed to swiftly fill knowledge and information gaps; strengthen and support critical cross-cutting issues to protect the food and agriculture supply chain, livestock health and security, the safety of our foods; as well as research projects that focus on the well-being of farm, food service providers, and rural Americans. “Every step must be rapid,” said Angle, “so we can use agricultural sciences to mitigate this crisis.”
In response to the current Pandemic, NIFA also set a deadline of May 21, 2020, for COVID-19 research proposals from all other areas in the wide-ranging AFRI request for applications (RFA). NIFA also re-opened its Small Business Innovation Research RFA to search for COVID-19 solutions from small businesses.
NIFA invests in and advances agricultural research, education, and extension, and promotes transformative discoveries that solve societal challenges. NIFA's integrated research, education, and extension programs support scientists and extension personnel whose work results in user-inspired, groundbreaking discoveries. These discoveries combat childhood obesity, improve and sustain rural economic growth, address water availability issues, increase food production, find new sources of energy, mitigate climate variability, and ensure food safety. To learn more about NIFA’s impact on agricultural science, visit https://nifa.usda.gov/impacts, sign up for email updates or follow us on Twitter @USDA_NIFA, #NIFAimpacts.
###
Business
USDA Inspector Reportedly Dies Amid Meat-Plant Viral Outbreaks
By Deena Shanker and Lydia Mulvany
April 23, 2020, 2:14 PM CDT
Agency reported death during a call, two participants say Another inspector died in March, a union official says
An inspector from the U.S. Department of Agriculture has died after apparently contracting Covid-19, according to information the federal agency provided Thursday during a phone call with consumer groups.
The USDA didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment. Two participants on the call corroborated that the death was disclosed on the call.
“If USDA had acted more quickly to ensure worker safety, they could have prevented the disease from spreading across the meat industry as it has,” says Sarah Sorscher of the Center for Science in the Public Interest, who was on the call. “Instead, we have massive shutdowns and worker deaths. All that delay and lack of action is going to make it much harder to bring these outbreaks under control.”
As meat processing plants become hotbeds of virus outbreaks, inspectors are finding themselves at higher risk and increasingly getting sick themselves. There are about 6,500 inspectors across the country working for the USDA’s Food Safety and Inspection Service. One hundred have tested positive for the virus.
Paula Schelling, the acting national joint council chairwoman of food-inspector locals for the American Federation of Government Employees, who wasn’t on the agency call, said she also heard of the death on Thursday. She said that the worker was in Chicago and his wife is now in intensive care. Another inspector died in New York in March, she said.
“It makes my heart sad,” she said.
USDA Modernizes Swine Slaughter Inspection for the First Time in Over 50 Years
Release & Contact Info Press Release Release No. 0139.19 Contact: USDA Press Email: press@oc.usda.gov
WASHINGTON, September 17, 2019 — The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) today announced a final rule to modernize swine slaughter inspection and bring it into the 21st century. For the first time in more than five decades, the USDA’s Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) is modernizing inspection at market hog slaughter establishments with a goal of protecting public health while allowing for food safety innovations.
“This regulatory change allows us to ensure food safety while eliminating outdated rules and allowing for companies to innovate,” Secretary Sonny Perdue said. “The final rule is the culmination of a science-based and data-driven rule making process which builds on the food safety improvements made in 1997, when USDA introduced a system of preventive controls for industry. With this rule, FSIS will finally begin full implementation of that program in swine establishments.”
Background: The final rule has new requirements for microbial testing that apply to all swine slaughterhouses to demonstrate that they are controlling for pathogens throughout the slaughter system. Additionally, FSIS is amending its meat inspection regulations to establish a new inspection system for market hog establishments called the New Swine Slaughter Inspection System (NSIS).
In the final rule, FSIS amends the regulations to require all swine slaughter establishments to develop written sanitary dressing plans and implement microbial sampling to monitor process control for enteric pathogens that can cause foodborne illness. The final rule also allows market hog establishments to choose if they will operate under NSIS or continue to operate under traditional inspection.
FSIS will continue to conduct 100% inspection of animals before slaughter and 100% carcass-by-carcass inspection, as mandated by Congress. FSIS inspectors will also retain the authority to stop or slow the line as necessary to ensure that food safety and inspection are achieved. Under the NSIS, FSIS offline inspectors will conduct more food safety and humane handling verification tasks to protect the food supply and animal welfare.
To view the final rule, visit the FSIS website at: go.usa.gov/xVPVK
#
USDA is an equal opportunity provider, employer, and lender.
The new rule will end limits on how fast slaughterhouses can kill pigs. It will also shift responsibility for removing defective meat during the slaughtering process from government inspectors to plant workers. The USDA will still inspect live pigs and the final pork products.
As line speeds increase, meatpacking workers are in ever more danger Don't expect the Trump administration to improve conditions in this already brutal industry. Matt McConnell Opinion contributor
WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 18, 2019
USDA Modernizes Swine Slaughter Inspection for the First Time in Over 50 Years and TSE Prion Risk Factors
Coronavirus can infect cats — dogs, not so much But scientists say it’s unclear whether felines can spread the virus to people, so pet owners need not panic yet.
We found that SARS-CoV-2 replicates poorly in dogs, pigs, chickens, and ducks, but efficiently in ferrets and cats. We found that the virus transmits in cats via respiratory droplets
SARS-CoV-2 Infection in Children
Of the 1391 children assessed and tested from January 28 through February 26, 2020, a total of 171 (12.3%) were confirmed to have SARS-CoV-2 infection. Demographic data and clinical features are summarized in Table 1. (Details of the laboratory and radiologic findings are provided in the Supplementary Appendix, available with the full text of this letter at NEJM.org.) The median age of the infected children was 6.7 years. Fever was present in 41.5% of the children at any time during the illness. Other common signs and symptoms included cough and pharyngeal erythema. A total of 27 patients (15.8%) did not have any symptoms of infection or radiologic features of pneumonia. A total of 12 patients had radiologic features of pneumonia but did not have any symptoms of infection. During the course of hospitalization, 3 patients required intensive care support and invasive mechanical ventilation; all had coexisting conditions (hydronephrosis, leukemia [for which the patient was receiving maintenance chemotherapy], and intussusception). Lymphopenia (lymphocyte count, <1 .2="" 10-month-old="" 149="" 2020="" 21="" 4="" 6="" 8="" a="" admission.="" after="" and="" as="" been="" bilateral="" br="" child="" common="" condition="" death.="" died="" discharged="" failure="" finding="" from="" general="" ground-glass="" had="" have="" hospital.="" in="" intussusception="" liter="" march="" most="" multiorgan="" of="" one="" opacity="" patients="" per="" present="" radiologic="" stable="" the="" there="" total="" wards="" was="" weeks="" were="" with="">
Two COVID-19 infected children, aged 12 and 13, die in Belgium and UK
By Alasdair Sandford with AFP, AP • last updated: 01/04/2020
A health worker in the intensive care ward observes a COVID-19 patient at a hospital in Belgium, March 27, 2020. (AP Photo/Francisco Seco, File)
A 12-year-old girl in Belgium and a 13-year old boy in the UK infected with the novel coronavirus have died, authorities said.
They are believed to be the youngest victims of the disease in their respective countries.
The 12-year-old girl's death was announced during the daily news conference given by Belgium's health service, at the end of its regular update on casualty figures and hospitalisations.
“It's an emotionally difficult moment because it involves a child, and it has also upset the medical and scientific community,” said spokesman Dr Emmanuel André, visibly upset.
"We are thinking of her family and friends. It's a very rare event, but one which devastates us."
Another spokesman added that the child had had a fever for three days and had tested positive for the coronavirus. No other details were given of the girl's background.
Until now the youngest person to die from the virus in Belgium was a 30-year-old female nurse, according to Belgian media.
Just a few hours later, London's King's College Hospital announced that a 13-year-old COVID-19 patient had also died.
"Sadly, a 13-year old boy who tested positive for COVID-19 has passed away, and our thoughts and condolences are with the family at this time," a Trust spokesperson said in a statement.
"The death has been referred to the Coroner," it added.
An appeal posted on the GoFunMe crowdfunding platform by Madinah College, named him as Ismail and said that he didn't have "any pre-existing health conditions.
"Sadly he died without any family members close by due to the highly infectious nature of COVID-19," it added.
Ismail is believed the be the youngest victim of the disease in the UK.
Last week French authorities said a 16-year-old girl had died at a children's hospital in Paris. The death of the teenager, identified as Julie A. and described as otherwise healthy, has provoked strong emotions in France.
Coronavirus in France: healthy 16 year-old dies of COVID-19
Deaths from COVID-19 among people so young are exceptional. Health authorities have said previously that serious cases of the illness -- although predominant in older and more vulnerable age groups -- can occur in adults of any age.
Last weekend the US state of Illinois announced the death of an infant under one year old who had tested positive for coronavirus. The cause of death was being investigated. Medical reports on cases in China have documented the death of a 10-month-old baby and a 14-year-old boy.
A recent US study by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) of 2,500 patients found no cases of deaths among people aged under 19. But it did find that people of all ages were liable to become seriously ill: more than a third of those hospitalised were aged between 20 and 54.
Coronavirus in Europe: Latest numbers on COVID-19 cases and deaths
The Belgian girl's death was included among the latest national figures released on Tuesday, confirming nearly 200 more deaths since the previous update. More than 700 people in the country have died from coronavirus since the outbreak began.
Hospitals in three regions have been particularly badly affected, the authorities say -- around Brussels, in Limburg in eastern Flanders, and in Hainaut in Wallonia to the west.
With 12,775 confirmed COVID-19 cases as of Tuesday, Belgium has the 10th highest number of infections among countries worldwide, according to data compiled by the US Johns Hopkins University Coronavirus Resource Center.
Purging the elderly and their votes
And, across the nation, according to a recent report in the Wall Street Journal, the coronavirus epidemic has affected more than 2,100 nursing homes and long-term care facilities, causing more than 2,300 fatalities. The article states that the official tally “almost certainly understates the extent of the epidemic, because not all states provide data.” As a further matter, a Time article suggests the number is at least 3,600 deaths. And on April 16, a report indicates that at least 5,670 nursing home residents have died from COVID-19.
This week state, county, and municipal officials have begun rectifying the problem of underreporting of COVID-19 deaths by adding to the tally deaths that have occurred at home or in nursing homes and are presumed to be caused by COVID-19.
President George W. Bush on Pandemic Flu in 2005
Trump disbanded NSC pandemic unit that experts had praised
By DEB RIECHMANN
March 14, 2020
WASHINGTON (AP) — Public health and national security experts shake their heads when President Donald Trump says the coronavirus “came out of nowhere” and “blindsided the world.”
They’ve been warning about the next pandemic for years and criticized the Trump administration’s decision in 2018 to dismantle a National Security Council directorate at the White House charged with preparing for when, not if, another pandemic would hit the nation.
CORONAVIRUS APR. 8, 2020
U.S. Intelligence Warned Trump of Coronavirus Threat as Early as November: Report
By Matt Stieb
We’ve removed our paywall from essential coronavirus news stories. Become a subscriber to support our journalists. Subscribe now.
One of the many, mutually exclusive excuses the Trump administration has provided for its profound delay in responding to the coronavirus is that they were fooled by reports of the outbreak coming out of China. “I will be very candid with you,” Mike Pence explained on CNN last week, “and say that in mid-January the CDC was still assessing that the risk of the coronavirus to the American people was low. … The reality is that we could’ve been better off if China had been more forthcoming.”
Pence, too, could have been more forthcoming about the information the administration was privy to, according to a new report from ABC News. According to two officials familiar with a report from the military’s National Center for Medical Intelligence, the White House was aware of a contagion which is now known to be COVID-19 as early as November. According to ABC News, the report, made up of data intercepts and satellite imagery, determined that the coronavirus was a potential threat to U.S. troops in the region. “Analysts concluded it could be a cataclysmic event,” a source told ABC News. “It was then briefed multiple times to the Defense Intelligence Agency, the Pentagon’s Joint Staff and the White House.”
Though Defense Secretary Mark Esper told ABC News on Sunday that the National Security Council was not briefed about the matter in December, the ABC News report says that the administration was aware of its contents as early as Thanksgiving:
The NCMI report was made available widely to people authorized to access intelligence community alerts. Following the report’s release, other intelligence community bulletins began circulating through confidential channels across the government around Thanksgiving, the sources said. Those analyses said China’s leadership knew the epidemic was out of control even as it kept such crucial information from foreign governments and public health agencies.
“The timeline of the intel side of this may be further back than we’re discussing,” the source said of preliminary reports from Wuhan. “But this was definitely being briefed beginning at the end of November as something the military needed to take a posture on.”
SNIP...
Atkinson’s removal is part of a larger shakeup of the intelligence community under Trump, who has long been skeptical of intelligence officials and information. Atkinson is at least the seventh intelligence official to be fired, ousted or moved aside since last summer.
Below is a timeline of Trump’s commentary downplaying the threat.
Jan. 22: On whether he was worried about a pandemic: “No, we’re not at all. And we have it totally under control. It’s one person coming in from China.”
Jan. 24: “It will all work out well.”
Trump reportedly dismissed January coronavirus warnings from Health Secretary Alex Azar as 'alarmist'
Tom Porter
Trump according to the Post was warned in a January intelligence briefing about the threat posed by the virus as well as by his health secretary, but in public statements for weeks continued to downplay the likely impact of the disease.
A Navy captain tries to save his sailors, and gets fired in the process
Navy secretary, in a transparent bid to appease President Trump, moves precipitously to relieve aircraft carrier captain of his command: Our view The Editorial Board USA TODAY
SATURDAY, APRIL 18, 2020
Coronavirus at Smithfield pork plant: The untold story of America's biggest outbreak
We’re going to win so much, you’re going to be so sick and tired of winning, you’re going to come to me and go ‘Please, please, we can’t win anymore.’ You’ve heard this one. You’ll say ‘Please, Mr. President, we beg you sir, we don’t want to win anymore. It’s too much. It’s not fair to everybody else.’” Trump said.
Trump gop maga, “get back to work now” like leading sheep to slaughter...tss
No comments:
Post a Comment