COVID-19 is a disaster on an epic scale that has turned our lives upside down.
Beyond the numbers of cases, deaths, and the unemployed, are the real impacts on individuals and their families. A pandemic of this magnitude and suddenness demands quick action from decision-makers. However, information about workers, their health, their economic security, and their needs remains incomplete. The goal of this research project is to understand how workers and their families have been affected by COVID-19 pandemic at home and on the job.
In addition to the general survey, EHSC researchers worked with several organizations to develop targeted surveys for domestic workers, healthcare workers, and day laborers.
Healthcare Workers:
COVID-19 & Healthcare Workers Report
We worked with the Service Employees International Union-United Healthcare Workers West (SEIU-UHW). SEIU-UHW represents more than 100,000 people employed by healthcare organizations (including janitors, respiratory therapists, caregivers, environmental service technicians and others who perform direct and indirect patient care). We collected data from 421 participants at a time when Delta variant was emerging and cases and deaths were increasing. Nearly 1 in 3 front-line SEIU-UHW healthcare workers had been told by a healthcare provider they had COVID-19, compared with 5% of Californians.
Check out the blog we wrote about our collaboration with SEIU-UHW here.
Domestic Workers:
COVID-19 & Domestic Workers Report
We worked with California Domestic Workers Coalition - a coalition of 11 organizations in Northern and Southern California. In California, more than 2 million homes rely on the essential labor of house cleaners, nannies and home attendants. Domestic workers, who are mostly immigrant women of color, are the only group of workers excluded from the state's health and safety protections under the California Occupational Safety and Health Act. The COVID-19 Survey for Workers collected data from 164 domestic workers. Domestic workers had 3X COVID-19 infection rate compared with the general population in California.