According to a study co-authored by a professor at the University of South Florida, workers in the service industry with lower levels of education were about five times more likely to die from COVID-19 than people in positions higher socioeconomic status.
The researchers analyzed about 70,000 deaths from COVID in 2020 for adults aged 25 to 64 and also looked at whether people had a university education and in which job sectors they worked.
The team found that 68% of COVID-19 deaths among working-age adults during the first year of the pandemic were people in low socioeconomic positions with labor, commercial, and service jobs.
These jobs usually require on-site assistance and prolonged close contact with others.
Jason Salemi, an epidemiologist with the USF College of Public Health, calls for improvements in job security in these industries. Too often, he says, employers and security officials focus on personal protective equipment such as masks to curb infections. This is important, but Salemi argues that much more needs to be done to protect front-line workers who are more likely to be exposed to coronavirus.
“We need to think about ventilation and air filtration for those working in indoor public environments,” he suggested, adding, “Emphasizing the importance of testing and not getting sick to work, perhaps offering a low paid for illness yes [staff] be positive ”.
The study was published in the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health. He found that white women constituted the largest population group considered high “SEP” or socioeconomic position, which involved having at least a bachelor’s degree. More than half of the Hispanic men analyzed in the data had a low SEP. According to the study, the mortality rate of Hispanic men with low MS is 27 times higher than white women with high MS.
Salemi said he expects the study to grow in awareness that “getting back to normal” doesn’t mean the same thing to everyone. Workers in high-risk industries continue to face threats as coronavirus cases increase now.
“And even if they are not hospitalized, if they get sick, they may have to go home, they may not be able to make money during that time,” he said. “So you just recognize that the simple steps we can take to reduce community transmission are doing an exceptional job of protecting these people.”
Salemi was the author of the study with a team of researchers from the COVKID project, which monitors data on the effect of the pandemic on children and adolescents. In this case, he said, they were studying the cost of the virus to the parents and grandparents of many young people.
The team plans to look at the 2021 and 2022 data in the future to see how the availability of COVID-19 vaccines affects disparities in mortality.
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