Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
The Struggle To Keep The Food Supply Steady Made More Difficult As Grocery Stores, Meat Plants Hit By Infections
The Washington Post: Grocery Workers Are Beginning To Die Of Coronavirus
Major supermarket chains are beginning to report their first coronavirus-related employee deaths, leading to store closures and increasing anxiety among grocery workers as the pandemic intensifies across the country. A Trader Joe’s worker in Scarsdale, N.Y., a greeter at a Giant store in Largo, Md., and two Walmart employees from the same Chicago-area store have died of covid-19, the disease the novel coronavirus causes, in recent days, the companies confirmed Monday. (Bhattarai, 4/6)
The Wall Street Journal: Coronavirus Hits Meat Plants As Some Workers Get Sick, Others Stay Home
The coronavirus pandemic is hitting U.S. meat operations, slowing and temporarily halting production at some plants as sickness and fear keep workers home. Meat plant employees, working by the hundreds in plants, with many standing side by side on processing lines, play a critical role in replenishing supermarkets. But workers’ concerns that they could contract the coronavirus have prompted walkouts and complaints, while a growing number of positive cases prompts some meat companies to scale back operations. (Bunge, 4/6)
The Associated Press: Online Grocery Services Struggle To Meet Spike In Demand
A pandemic forcing everyone to stay home could be the perfect moment for online grocery services. In practice, they’ve been struggling to keep up with a surge in orders, highlighting their limited ability to respond to an unprecedented onslaught of demand. After panic buying left store shelves stripped of staples like pasta, canned goods and toilet paper, many shoppers quickly found online grocery delivery slots almost impossible to come by, too. (Chan, 4/7)
Kaiser Health News: Inside Meals On Wheels’ Struggle To Keep Older Americans Fed During A Pandemic
In the best of times, Meals on Wheels faces the herculean task of delivering 200 million meals annually to 2.4 million hungry and isolated older Americans. But this is the time of the dreaded novel coronavirus. With the pandemic bearing down, I wanted to get inside Meals on Wheels to see how it would gear up its services. After all, 79% of its existing clients are 75 or older. There would be more demand now that many more seniors — including those who probably never imagined they’d be stuck inside — are advised it is safest to remain housebound. (Horovitz, 4/7)
