In California’s San Joaquin Valley, the people who work in the fields, orchards and meat-packing plants are among the hardest hit by COVID-19. Food and agricultural workers in California had an almost 40% increased risk of dying last year, compared with the risk for the state’s general population. Tragically, this inequality is no surprise: a century of research has shown that social determinants drive disease.
The question is, what is science going to do about it?
“We know what the impact is of a lack of employment, a lack of fair wages, a lack of transport, of poor education and racism,” says public-health historian Graham Mooney. “So, if public health has no power to influence these issues, then public health becomes nothing.”
