Page - 475 - in VULNERABLE - The Law, Policy and Ethics of COVID-19

475Occupational Health and Safety and COVID-19: Whose Rights Come First in a Pandemic? Yet thousands of workers in transport,3 meat processing,4 and ware- houses5 have fallen ill and hundreds have died from COVID-19 in Canada and the U.S. The Collegium Ramazzini, an international body of occupational physicians, published guidance materials that divide the most vulnerable workers in the pandemic into three categories: those at “very high risk,” a category that includes those working in health care, transport, sales and cleaning; at “high risk,” including those working in security, hotel and food services, and the cruise industry; and, finally, those at “significantly increased risk,” including workers in meat packing, manufacturing, construction, and mining.6 To examine the regulatory protections governing health and safety, this chapter focuses on COVID-19 as an occupational health and safety (OHS) hazard, looking specifically at the hazard repre- sented by the illness itself. The mental health consequences of work- ing in the pandemic are huge, but beyond the scope of this chapter,7 3. Barbara Neis, Kerri Neil & Katherine Lippel, “Mobility in a Pandemic: Covid- 19 and the Mobile Labour Force” (21 April 2020) On the Move Partnership Working Paper at 37, online: On the Move <https://www.onthemovepartnership. ca/>; Chris Fox, “Six Taxi and Limo Drivers Working Out of Toronto Pearson Airport Have Died of Covid-19”, CTV News (6 May 2020 Chapter E-4020), online: <https://toronto.ctvnews.ca/six-taxi-and-limo-drivers-working-out-of-toronto- pearson-airport-have-died-of-covid-19-1.4927304>. 4. Joel Dryden & Sarah Rieger, “Inside the Slaughterhouse: North America’s Larg- est Single Coronavirus Outbreak Started at this Alberta Meat-Packing Plant”, CBC News (6 May 2020), online: <https://newsinteractives.cbc.ca/longform/ cargill-covid19-outbreak>; Daphné Cameron, “Les leçons de Yamachiche”, La Presse (1 May 2020), online: <https://www.lapresse.ca/covid-19/202004/30/01- 5271642-les-lecons-de-yamachiche-.php>; Andrew Russell, “After Failing to Publicly Reveal Covid-19 Outbreak Ontario Meat Plant Now Has 24 confirmed Cases”, Global  News  (6 May 2020), online: <https://globalnews.ca/news/6913049/ coronavirus-ontario-meat-packing-plant/l>; Collin Harris, “Cargill Meat-Pro- cessing Plant South of Montreal Says 64 Workers Infected with COVID-19”, CBC News (20 May 2020), online: <https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/montreal/ cargill-chambly-covid-19-shut-down-1.5563539>; Sarah Berger Richardson, this volume, Chapter E-5. 5. Sara Mojtehedzadeh, “Amazon Worker at GTA Warehouse Tests Positive for COVID-19”, The Star (23 April 2020), online: <https://www.thestar.com/busi- ness/2020/04/23/amazon-worker-at-gta-warehouse-tests-positive-for-covid-19. html>; Joel Dryden, “Alberta Declares COVID-19 Outbreak at Amazon Warehouse Near Calgary”, CBC News (1 May 2020), online: <https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/ calgary/calgary-amazon-covid-warehouse-outbreak-1.5553126>. 6. “Prevention of Work-Related Infection in the Covid-19 Pandemic” (5 May 2020), online: The  Collegium  Ramazzini,  <http://www.collegiumramazzini.org/>. 7. Ali Watkins et al, “Top E.R. Doctor Who Treated Virus Patients Dies by Suicide”, New York Times (27 April 2020), online: <https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/27/ nyregion/new-york-city-doctor-suicide-coronavirus.html>.