https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/4-georgia-poultry-workers-dead-coronavirus-company-says-n1186326

4 Georgia poultry workers dead from coronavirus, company says

American workers who process the nation’s meat have proven especially susceptible to the new virus, as they work shoulder-to-shoulder on production lines.

By The Associated Press

SAVANNAH, Ga. — Four employees of a major poultry producer’s operations in rural southwest Georgia have died after becoming infected with the coronavirus, a company spokesman said Friday.

Tyson Foods spokesman Gary Mickelson said three of the employees worked at the company’s chicken processing plant in Camilla, while the fourth person worked in a supporting job outside the plant. He declined to say how many workers there have tested positive for COVID-19, the disease caused by the new virus.

American workers who process the nation’s meat have proven especially susceptible to the new virus, as they work shoulder-to-shoulder on production lines. Several U.S. plants have closed because of outbreaks, including a large plant owned by Smithfield Foods in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, that produced roughly 5% of U.S. pork before it was shut down after more than 500 workers became infected.

Mickelson said two other Tyson Foods workers have died from the virus at its plant in Columbus Junction, Iowa.

“We realize everyone is anxious during this challenging time and believe information is the best tool for combating the virus,” Hector Gonzalez, Tyson’s senior vice president for human resources, said in a statement. “That’s why we’re encouraging our team members to share their concerns with us, so we can help address them.”

Gonzalez said the company has improved safety measures at the Camilla plant by checking employees’ temperatures, requiring workers to wear face coverings, installing dividers at work stations and providing more space in break rooms. He said the company in March had “relaxed our attendance policy to encourage workers to stay at home when they’re sick.”

The Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union, which represents 2,000 workers at the Georgia chicken plant, identified the three plant employees who died as women who had worked there for 13 to 35 years. A statement from the union said many plant employees are “sick or in quarantine.”

“It’s too little too late here,” Edgar Fields, president of the union’s Southeast Council, said in a statement Friday.

In Georgia’s rural southwest corner, where the Camilla plant is located, the rate of coronavirus infections and deaths have outpaced far more densely populated regions of the state. The union said many plant employees live in neighbouring Dougherty County, which leads Georgia with 88 coronavirus deaths.

For most people, the new coronavirus causes mild or moderate symptoms that usually clear up within weeks. For some, it can cause severe illness and be life-threatening.

The union has called on poultry processors to require employees to quarantine themselves for 14 days, and pay them sick leave, when they’re exposed to co-workers testing positive for the virus. It also wants individual departments to be shut down for 72 hours and cleaned after a worker tests positive.

The Georgia Department of Public Health reported Thursday evening that 617 deaths statewide have been linked to the virus. Infections have been confirmed in more than 16,300 people. About 20% of them were hospitalized.

‘They might as well be letting off atomic bombs’: Sir Paul McCartney blames ‘medieval’ Chinese wet markets for coronavirus

‘Whoever is responsible for this is at war with the world and itself,’ said the former Beatle

Sir Paul McCartney has criticised Chinese wet markets for their public health risk amid the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.

Speaking to Howard Stern on his SiriusXM radio show, the former Beatle said: “They might as well be letting off atomic bombs because it’s affecting the whole world.”

“Whoever is responsible for this is at war with the world and itself.”

Although no origin for the deadly virus has been officially determined, some have heaped blame for the pandemic on China’s wet markets, which sell freshly slaughtered animals.

Last week, more than 200 conservation groups across the world signed an open letter calling on the World Health Organisation to force the closure of markets where wild meat is sold for consumption.

Stern brought up the topic of the markets to McCartney, who has been a very public vegetarian and animal rights campaigner for decades.

“I really hope that this will mean the Chinese government says, ‘Ok guys, we have really got to get super hygienic around here,’” McCartney said. “Let’s face it, it is a little bit medieval eating bats.”

“They don’t need all the people dying. And what’s it for? All these medieval practices. They just need to clean up their act. This may lead to it. If this doesn’t, I don’t know what will.”

McCartney also praised the community spirit that has emerged during the pandemic, saying: “A lot of people are pulling together and it is a great thing. It is inspiring.”

The Independent has recently launched a campaign calling for tighter restrictions on the trade of wild animals.

China unveils new list of animals that can be farmed for meat

COVID-19 is thought to have originated at a Wuhan wet market

The Chinese government released a new list of animals that can be farmed for meat as the country begins to reopen to a new normal following the novel coronavirus outbreak that is thought to have originated in a wet market in Wuhan.

The draft list was released Thursday by the country’s Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs and is available online for a public comment period.

The list of acceptable livestock and poultry includes 18 species of traditional staples such as pig, cow, chicken, sheep, goat and more.

The government document also designates 13 species of “special livestock” such as deer, reindeer, alpaca and others.

It also includes a special category of livestock that can be raised for fur but not for food including mink, foxes and raccoons.

China’s Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs noted in a statement accompanying the list that dogs “have been ‘specialized’ from traditional domestic animals to companion animals” and should not be included as “livestock” for food.

Chinese officials had initially linked the COVID-19 outbreak to large, live animal markets in Wuhan where many of the cases originated.

Ebola, SARS, bird flu and now COVID-19 are all believed to have started as pathogens crossing from animals to humans. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that about three-quarters of new human diseases originate in animals.

In late February, Chinese lawmakers adopted a decision to prohibit the trading of wildlife and eliminate the trade and consumption of wild animals after the outbreak emerged, according to the nation’s state-run news organization Xinhua.

Department of Agriculture experts anticipate a significant increase in US pig production and higher pork exports to Mexico and China this year.

As of March 1, 2020, approximately 4% more pigs were kept in the United States than in the previous year.

In the United States, the signs on the pig market are still pointing to expansion.
The farmers have once again increased their stocks to record levels.

According to recent data from the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), a total of 77.63 million pigs were held nationwide as of March 1, 2020; that was almost 4.0% more than twelve months earlier and more than ever since the spring census began in 1988.
The survey found growth in all animal categories.

The productivity of sows also goes up.
In the last recorded period from December 2019 to February 2020, with an average of 11.0 piglets per litter, more animals were born alive than ever before in this winter period. Compared to the same period in the previous year, the increase was 2.8%.

In view of the stock development, the USDA experts also anticipate a significant increase in US pork production in 2020; This should increase by around 830,000 t compared to the previous year to a record level of 13.15 million t (!!!)
With domestic consumption growing rather moderately, pork exports are forecast to increase by almost 650,000 tons or 23% to 3.52 million t (!)

Above all, higher sales are expected in Mexico and China.

As part of phase 1 of the trade agreement with the People’s Republic of China, Beijing facilitated access to the US pork market and reduced import duties.
The delivery volume there has already increased significantly in recent months, according to the American meat export organization (USMEF).

https://www.topagrar.com/schwein/news/usa-schweinefarmer-stocken-weiter-auf-12026326.html

And I mean…What can one say?

Is that all we have learned from this pandemic? Should we perhaps wait until 1 billion non-thinking, non-learning, non-understanding human animals die?

We continue to allow slaughterhouses and the animal industry to think for us, produce viruses and work at high speed for mass animal suffering.

We saw this virus bomb as an opportunity to introduce a new animal order that will abolish factory farming in the future.
Not only for the benefit of the animals.

However, learning ability has been shut down in most brainless and fearful people, or so-called good people, through daily propaganda and the lying system.

No virus, not even the corona is stronger than human stupidity and evil.

My best regards to all, Venus