Are the midwestern superclusters coming our way anytime soon?

Meat Packing Plants

I did a little digging on meat packing plants in California…  Here’s a Google map of meat our packing plants.

I didn’t spend much time looking into plants nearest to the Bay Area as yet.  I ran out of time because my eye was caught by recent headlines about one CA plant – Central Valley Meat Company in Hanford CA (Kings County).  On May 7, the Associated Press reported that At least 138 employees contracted COVID-19 at California meat packaging plant.

HANFORD, Calif. (AP) — At least 138 employees at a meat packing plant in central California have tested positive for the coronavirus.

Reports say several employees at the Central Valley Meat Company in Hanford first tested positive for the virus more than a week ago.

Kings County Supervisor Doug Verboon said the meat packing plant now accounts for nearly two-thirds of the coronavirus cases in the rural county. The company employs about 900 workers at two plants in Hanford and Vernon and continues to operate.

Company officials say they are following CDC guidelines to keep their employees safe.

The Kings County website is not sharing any information on locations of outbreaks, but most of the cases are clearly related to Central Valley Meat, located in Hanford.  See the charts below (from the Kings Co. website on May 8, and note how the Kings curve is shooting out of sight!The Central Valley Meat website gives no information on the infection. But the website displays the following message as a delayed overlay to the front page, all but ordering employees to show up.

National context and background

MSNBC’S Lawrence O’Donnell reports on meat packers, prisons and nursing homes…