Led by Natalie Bowman, MD MPH, assistant professor of medicine in infectious diseases, UNC researchers are studying COVID-19 prevalence, incidence, and risk factors for transmission among meat packing plant and farmworkers in a new observational study, COFF-NC (COVID-19 in Farming and Food processing industries in North Carolina).
Meat packing plants and farms have served as foci of local outbreaks of COVID-19. Workers also infect their household members, promoting spread in surrounding communities. In addition to the adverse effects on human health, these localized outbreaks can overwhelm medical and public health institutions, especially in underserved rural communities where these industries are often located. Additionally, these workers tend to be members of racial or ethnic minority groups that have suffered a disproportionate burden of COVID-19 morbidity and mortality.
Learn more from the UNC Health and UNC School of Medicine Newsroom.