Geography of contagion: spatialization of COVID-19 in meat plants territories in Brazil and the United States

• Grant number: 21/12783-6
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Post-Doctoral
• Start date: July 01, 2022
• End date: June 30, 2025
• Field of knowledge: Humanities - Geography - Human Geography
• Principal Investigator: Bernardo Mançano Fernandes
• Grantee: Allan Rodrigo de Campos Silva
• Host Institution: Instituto de Políticas Públicas e Relações Internacionais (IPPRI). Universidade Estadual Paulista (UNESP). Campus de São Paulo. São Paulo , SP, Brazil
• Associated scholarship(s): 23/02366-4 - COVID-19 pandemic uneven Geographies: a South-North dialogue between Brazil and the UK, BE.EP.PD

Abstract

Since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, meat processing plants in Brazil and the United States have become centers of contagion for the disease. From a geographical point of view, the chronology of the contagion suggests that the plants acted in the subsequent spatialization of COVID-19 in their territories, reaching communities of immigrant workers, indigenous people and neighboring municipalities. Specific sanitary characteristics, added to corporate pressures, the non-compliance or absence of sanitary norms for the prevention and control of COVID-19 and the definition of the meat processing industry as an essential activity by governments are the main factors for the spread of COVID-19 in meat plants. This research will analyze plants controlled by the BRF and JBS companies in the Brazilian municipalities of Concordia, in Santa Catarina, Dourados, in Mato Grosso do Sul and São Miguel do Guaporé, in Rondônia, and Cold Spring and Worthington in the state of Minnesota, in the United States. Our theoretical-methodological orientation understands the spatial dynamics of contagion as part of the space production process. We will analyze the spatialization of contagion through a multidimensional and multiscale perspective, considering the correlations between political, economic, health and epidemiological aspects. The research methodology includes the collection and analysis of contagion data by COVID-19 in selected municipalities, conducting semi-structured interviews and conducting field work. Our hypothesis suggests that meat plants acted as accelerating spaces for the COVID-19 contagion on their territories, impacting the scale and internalization of the pandemic both in Brazil and in the US. (AU)