This paper analyzes the documentary film COVID's Hidden Toll (2020), examining how the COVID-19 pandemic disproportionately affected low-wage immigrant workers in essential industries such as agriculture and food preparation. Drawing on macro social work frameworks from Netting, Kettner, Thomas, and McMurtry (2016), the paper applies mechanical, morphogenic, and factional analogies to interpret the social structures depicted in the film. It explores how overcrowded living conditions, lack of sick leave, fear of authorities, and absent employer accountability created ideal conditions for disease transmission and deepened pre-existing social inequities. The paper argues that the pandemic exposed long-standing vulnerabilities that cannot be resolved without structural changes in workplace policy and social protections.
Although it is difficult to find a community that has not suffered in some manner due to the coronavirus pandemic, certain demographics have suffered more than others. Low-wage immigrant workers in essential jobs such as agriculture and food preparation are among the hardest-hit communities, as depicted in the film COVID's Hidden Toll (2020). While the mechanical analogy of social governance conceptualizes society as working harmoniously together as a unified, mechanized structure, the film demonstrates that such workers frequently fall through the cracks (Netting, Kettner, Thomas, & McMurtry, 2016). These workers labor on crews where managers are opaque about whether other employees have COVID symptoms. They are desperate for work and must accept conditions in which they share bathrooms and close quarters with other workers.
In other words, the care that one might hope an employer would show for employees is entirely absent. Employers do not even have the incentive to keep workers healthy enough to return to work, given that they regard employees as disposable. Workers are seen as one of many low-skilled immigrants desperate for wages, and there is little legal enforcement of appropriate safety guidelines. A more fitting analogy for the society depicted in the film may be that of a morphogenic analogy — a social structure in continual flux and renegotiation (Netting et al., 2016). Arguably, low-wage workers have always borne the brunt of having to come into work sick and push themselves harder than would be expected of the average employee. But the COVID-19 pandemic brought to the forefront inequalities which had long been overlooked, with consequences that extend well beyond the workplace.
"Home overcrowding accelerates disease transmission chains"
"Fear, lack of benefits, and legal status deter care"
"Factional inequities persist beyond pandemic conditions"
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