Fear of deportation is preventing foreign farmworkers in the United States from seeking medical care, undermining crucial efforts to prevent a potential bird flu outbreak, according to a recent report by KFF, a health policy organization.
Dairy and poultry workers have accounted for most cases of bird flu in the country, and early detection among them is key to averting a pandemic. However, public health specialists say they are struggling to reach farmworkers because many are afraid to talk with strangers or leave their homes.
“People are very scared to go out, even to get groceries,” said Rosa Yanez, an outreach worker at Strangers No Longer, a Catholic organization in Michigan that supports immigrants and refugees with legal and health issues, including bird flu prevention.
About 65 dairy and poultry workers across the United States have tested positive for bird flu since March, but infectious disease scientists warn that the true number of infections is likely higher due to limited surveillance.
Health workers say the problem has intensified recently. A Latina outreach worker in Michigan, speaking on the condition of anonymity due to fear of retaliation, said, “Many people don’t go to the doctor right now because of the immigration situation. They prefer to stay at home and let the pain or redness in the eye or whatever it is go away.”
The fear affects all Hispanic communities, regardless of legal status, the KFF report states.
“Regardless of immigration status, people who look like immigrants are feeling a lot of fear right now,” said Hunter Knapp, development director at Project Protect Food Systems Workers, a farmworker advocacy organization in Colorado that conducts bird flu outreach.
This has led to a collapse in trust between health workers and farmworker communities. “Dairy workers became even less willing to speak about the lack of protection on dairy farms and the lack of sick pay when they’re infected—even anonymously,” said Antonio De Loera-Brust, spokesperson for the United Farm Workers.
Late last year, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention rolled out a seasonal flu vaccine campaign targeting more than 200,000 livestock workers, hoping vaccinations would lessen the chance of a farmworker being infected by seasonal flu and bird flu viruses simultaneously. Yet, vaccination rates dropped following immigration enforcement actions, according to health workers.
Anna Hill Galendez, managing attorney at the Michigan Immigrant Rights Center, which is involved in bird flu outreach, said aggressive tactics by immigration agents deterred sick dairy workers from seeking care. “They wanted medical care. They wanted flu vaccines. They wanted personal protective equipment. They wanted to get tested,” Hill Galendez said. “But they were afraid to go anywhere because of immigration enforcement.”
De Loera-Brust of the United Farm Workers emphasized the universal nature of the health threat: “Every time a worker gets sick, you’re rolling the dice, so it’s in everyone’s interest to protect them. The virus doesn’t care what your immigration papers say.”
Public health officials warn that each human infection presents an opportunity for the virus to evolve into a form that could spread more easily between people, making the pandemic threat a serious concern.
