Merced County official: Feds tried to ‘intimidate’ staff into keeping Foster Farms open
Staff at Merced County Public Health Department have said U.S. government officials tried to intimidate them into keeping Foster Farms’ Livingston plant open despite a serious outbreak of COVID-19 outbreak, according to a story posted Thursday by CBS News.
The Livingston plant was ordered to be shut down by Merced County on Aug. 27 because of the outbreak, which resulted in 392 Foster Farms employees testing positive for COVID-19, and nine deaths.
The plant did shut down for about a week starting Sept. 1. The plant was officially removed from the county’s outbreaks list Wednesday.
But Merced County Director of Public Health Rebecca Nanyonjo-Kemp told CBS News that amid the outbreak, federal agencies had suggested to her that county officials couldn’t shut down the plant, citing the Defense Production Act. That act was part of President Donald Trump’s executive order to keep meat plants running.
Anna Werner, CBS News’ investigative correspondent, asked Nanyonjo-Kemp if someone from the federal government suggested that the county shouldn’t shut down the plant.
“Correct,” Nanyonjo-Kemp told CBS News. “They were trying to intimidate. We refused to be intimidated.”
Nanyonjo-Kemp also told CBS News that Foster Farms only initiated limited testing. Plus, Salvador Sandoval, county health officer, told CBS News that Foster Farms had initially reported “misleading” data, stating that cases of workers who had died were marked “resolved.”
Foster Farms told CBS News “There was no intentional effort on the part of Foster Farms to deceive the Merced (County) Public Health Department,” and said, “All issues related to the reporting of data were quickly resolved.”
Foster Farms has previously said the company has followed CDC guidelines since March. The company also said it has provided company-purchased masks and face shields, plus put social distancing measures in place, along with work station dividers, temperature monitoring, and comprehensive testing, and a deep cleaning program.
“The USDA and the US Dept of Health and Human Services provided material support including access to test kits and expediting lab processing this time,: said Ira Brill, who is the Vice President of Communications for Foster Farms. “This assistance enabled Foster Farms to complete more than 6,700 test in less than seven days. To our knowledge, this one of the most comprehensive and rapidly executed testing programs in the state. We are very appreciative of the help we received from USDA and Health and Human Services.”
The U.S. Department of Agriculture confirmed it set up phone calls with various state and federal agencies, according to the CBS News report.
During the week it was closed, the Livingston plant underwent a deep cleaning and employee were tested.
According to the CBS News report, the Foster Farms plant was only one of a few meat and poultry plants to be closed down due to COVID-19 outbreaks after President Trump issued an executive order urging plants to stay open in April.
Amalia Madrigal-Hernandez, public information officer for Merced County Department of Public Health, confirmed the health department corroborates the information in the report by CBS News.
This story was originally published October 1, 2020 at 3:28 PM with the headline "Merced County official: Feds tried to ‘intimidate’ staff into keeping Foster Farms open."
