In the United Kingdom they are gearing up for it. In fact, in the second week of December the Brits might start launching the anti-coronavirus vaccination campaign.
In London they are preparing for distributing the first doses of the vaccine, created by Pfizer and BionTech; furthermore, as reported by the Guardian, they are about to pinpoint the social and age groups who will first require treatment. Meat calls for priority.
The representing associations of livestock and farming industry would like to get rapid access to the vaccination campaign to guarantee their workers’ health as much as operations’ continuity.
The working environment
For the time being, the agency in charge of the operations (namely the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation) is thinking of including in the very first group people who are more vulnerable due to either health or age reasons.
Yet, besides that, one more parameter the British government’s Department of Health is taking in consideration is the professional one.
“In the meat industry working environments are often chilly, which is a challenging factor – commented Nick Allen, President of the British Meat Processors Association, while talking to foodnavigator.com –. Moreover, manufacturing plants are often located in country areas, which suffer from a shortage of infrastructures and poor public transport network.
That is why workers do not only share their workplace, but also a car: as a result, that makes infection odds rise”.
Meat calls for priority
BMPA, together with homologous Northern Irish association and other partners, is therefore asking to include the most relevant players of the meat industry in the list of the susceptible ones.
However, as a matter of fact, since last March some factories were closed, both in Europe and in the Americas, because some workers turned out to receive a positive test for the virus.
Priority vaccination “would therefore ensure a risk group and their own community benefit from necessary protection – wrapped up Allen –. In addition to this, the industry would have the opportunity to keep working without interruption”.
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