The workers most likely to catch COVID are…
Richy Z, Age 11
COVID-19 is part of our lives. It is shutting down schools, workplaces, making people lose jobs, and worse, harming them. That’s the purpose of this paper: to interpret attainable, raw data. This way we can find out where and who the most likely people to catch COVID-19 are, so those people can be more cautious to prevent exposure when they work.
The analysis is using data from a database called the Workers Compensation Information System (WCIS), which collects work-related injuries and illness in California. The database has 3 parts: The First Report Of Injury (FROI), the Second Report of Injury (SROI), and Medical Billing Data. FROI is the main data source of this writing.
Up to Dec. 2nd, 56,869 COVID cases were reported to WCIS. The line graph below shows work-related COVID-19 cases each month. The trend starts low, swells up in the summer, and then slowly comes back down in fall. As you can see, July has the highest number of COVID-19 cases, about 1/4 of the total amount of cases. June has about 1/5 of the total cases. California’s November COVID-19 cases have a huge increase but have not shown in WCIS because there is a delay between the COVID-19 cases happening and being reported to WCIS. According to that, we can predict that there is going to be a big swell in WCIS cases.
The North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) is used by WCIS to classify industries by the characteristics of the job. NAICS is a 6-digit hierarchy coding system. 2 digits represent the industry sector. 3 digits goes into the sub-sector. 4 digits is the industry group. 5 digits is the industry, and six digits specifies if it is in Mexico, Canada, or the USA. This paper uses the 3-digit level of the NAICS code to compare COVID-19 risk among industries and occupations. Hundreds of industries would show up if using 4-6 digits, which would make it hard to analyze and compare. 2 digits would be too broad. The table shows the top 10 industries with the most COVID-19 cases. Frontline workers such as healthcare workers, doctors, public safety officers, and firefighters are likely to catch COVID-19. Other than frontline workers, food-related industries such as restaurants, food manufacturing, and trading places are also in the top 10 COVID-19 rankings due to the amount of customer interaction they have to do. It’s the same for messengers and carriers.
Top 10 industries with the most COVID-19 cases
According to WCIS, in California, the male gender has 29,035 cases. The female gender has 29,560 cases. The difference is insignificant, so Californian males and females in the workplace have an equal chance of catching COVID-19. Age is grouped by under 17, 18-19, 20-24, 25-34, 35-44, 45-54, 55-64, and 65 and over. The majority of COVID-19 cases are in the 25-54 ranges, which accounts for 71% percent of the COVID cases. The younger aged people (Between 17-24) have less and accounts for 11.9% of the cases. The older people (55+) have less COVID-19 exposure; they account for 15.1% of the total COVID cases.
I hope that middle-aged workers in the frontline and food-related industries take more COVID-19 preventions to protect themselves from exposure to COVID-19 and that the vaccine can stop the spread of this virus and bring life back to normal.
Sources
Division of Workers’ Compensation. (2020). Gender, Age, Industry, Monthly COVID Data. Retrieved from Workers Compensation Information System.
NAICS. (2017). HISTORY OF THE NAICS CODE. Dec. 5th. www.naics.com/history-naics-code/
Changing With The World
Andy S, Age 12
We are living amongst a pandemic that will be one for the books. One that we can tell our kids WE were in. SARS-CoV-2. School turned into an online school. Sports got cancelled. Vacations were stopped. Freedom became stuck at home. Lives were lost. Masks became a norm. Businesses went bankrupt. All throughout, the main theme has been loss and then change. Shaping our routine into a one that would fit our circumstances. Many people don’t cooperate with this change and some do, but we all know that all of us just want things to go back to the way they were. Peaceful. A life filled with friends, laughs, and going outside without masks.
Sometimes we forget that this pandemic comes with not only many cons but also pros. There includes the usual cons, not being able to have fun with friends, having to wear that itchy mask all the time, the losses, the seclusion and generally a tough time at what we always used to be able to do. I was at my optometrist’s office a few days ago where it occurred to me how different it was compared to last year. The flat windows in the front of the office where you signed in had been changed into sliding ones, instead of the high glass desk that I was always used to at the front of the door. All the doctors (and I) wore masks and they took my temperature upon entry, all to reduce the spread. So much change. So unusual. So different. I remember my parents talking about the numerous businesses that had gone bankrupt throughout the pandemic. People who poured their life savings towards their dreams. All came to a crashing halt, just because of a virus. A boba tea place opened downtown just before lockdown began. A somewhat successful place open to the various teens and parents stopping for a drink. Now, they’re struggling to survive. They're just the lucky ones, the ones that haven’t gone bankrupt. For those coping with the loss of their business, they’ve gone to the second phase of what I call the PP. The Pandemic Process. They are going through change. Changing with the world that surrounds them. A world with a virus.
Even though these cons prevail, if you look at the bright side, there are pros out there too. You form a durable bond with your family that was never there before, and most importantly, you acknowledge the things you take for granted. These are benefits of the virus, something that is abnormal to us. Going to school most of the day and doing the homework we got didn’t give communication and bonding a time to shine. I would come home at around 5 at night. My parents would cook dinner and we would eat quickly. Most of the days, I would have basketball or water polo practice. So, as soon as we finished dinner, I was off for practice until around 8 at night. For the days without practice, I usually tried to finish all of the homework that would be due for a practice night. Socialization didn’t usually make its way into our family’s tight schedule. Before our seclusion, our family was too busy to socialize or have fun together. But now, we're gathered around the foosball table, laughing, yelling, and bragging, finding the fun that we missed all these years. We sit together in a room, watching the movie that we all decided on and munching on the freshly made popcorn. I understood how much we have changed. How much time we spent together. How much time we spent laughing together. In the end, together. But most importantly, I recognized the numerous things in my life I took for granted. When we are living out our lives, it’s easy to lose sight of all the things that integrate together to form the life that we live. All of the parts that, when taken away, make us realize how much they matter to us. How much we miss them. Because we don’t deserve those things, the friends, the family, the shelter, the fun. But we have them, and we need to realize that we need to appreciate them and what they do for us. Now, all of us wish things were back to a life where we didn’t have to cope with so much change. A life where the world throws difficulties at us and believes that we can tolerate it,then assumes that we change with it. But, this is the world we live in. A world where we have to deal with the loss, and then move on. Because we can't lose to a simple virus. We have to deal with the loss and change with it. Adapt to it. SARS-CoV-2.
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