Research out of UT, on the basis of different models, predicts that between 10,000 to 30,000 people among the general population—as well as construction workers themselves—in Central Texas could get hospitalized by mid-August as a result of allowing construction workers to continue working on construction projects.
Extensive, third-party monitoring of job sites, as proposed below, is a very important step. Also, regularly monitoring infections by occupations and job sites (over some numerical threshold), along with transparency in the numbers, would be helpful to both the general public and workers themselves, permitting the drawing of important inferences in terms of the level of risk they incur.
Empower the workers. Do not leave them or the general public in the dark. To do otherwise is to put us all at risk.
-Angela Valenzuela
#Covid #Coronavirus #CoronavirusCapitalism
UT study: Construction activity can raise coronavirus risks for workers, community
New research from the University of Texas finds that construction work can undermine efforts to slow the spread of the coronavirus and lead to larger numbers of COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations, both among industry workers and the public at large.
However, the research also found that the impact from ongoing construction work could be significantly lessened by taking steps to protect workers from virus transmission at job sites and to monitor their health.
Austin Mayor Steve Adler said the analysis — which was conducted in response to a request from the city — highlights the need for health and safety measures on job sites to be strictly adhered to, for the sake of workers themselves and the community.
The head of the Home Builders Association of Greater Austin called the study flawed, saying it included a “broad range of incorrect assumptions.”
Last month, Adler and Travis County Judge Sarah Eckhardt issued orders to halt all but “essential” construction in the city and county — part of their larger social distancing and stay-home mandates. But a subsequent executive order from Gov. Greg Abbott superseded the local bans, opening the door for residential and commercial building to continue.
The new UT research indicates that, given certain assumptions, allowing all construction work to proceed could potentially triple the number of COVID-19 hospitalizations — from 10,000 to 30,000 — by mid-August among the general population in the Austin region.
The risk is even greater for the workers, who could see hospitalizations multiply eightfold by that time, the study found.
The impact could be offset with mitigation measures on job sites to help curb the spread of the virus, said Lauren Ancel Meyers, the study’s lead researcher and a UT biology and statistics professor. Meyers is director of the UT COVID-19 Modeling Consortium and holds the Denton A. Cooley Centennial Professorship in Zoology at UT.
Adler said the study is the first analysis he is aware of nationwide “that actually quantifies and looks objectively at the risk to public health presented by unmitigated construction.” He said he wants to heighten awareness about the issue and to exert community pressure to hold the construction industry accountable for any risk its activity could present.
“Now we see clearly with the UT study the extreme risk that construction without proper mitigation presents,” Adler said. “And it shows us just how important having proper mitigation on site is going to be. My hope is that when the community sees this study and learns about this study, then everyone will want to do better.”
The city will have inspectors monitoring job sites to the extent possible, Adler said. But he said that much depends on self-monitoring.
“We’ll do everything we can do, but there’s a limit to what we can do because we can’t put code inspectors on every construction site,” Adler said. “Ultimately, in this community, we’re going to have to want to take care of one another, and that includes the construction industry.”
He said other options include independent third-party monitoring at job sites, possibly by the city’s Better Builder Program, the Workers Defense Project or trade groups.
“Those conversations are ongoing now and are that much more serious now that we have this UT study,” Adler said.
The Austin metro area has about 50,000 construction workers representing over 4% of the labor force, not including undocumented workers, according to the study.
After Abbott’s order opened the construction spigot, the city issued additional health and safety guidance for workers on job sites. Those include prescreening the “general health” of workers each day before they start work; disinfecting shared tools in between uses; having at least one hand-washing station with soap or hand sanitizer for every 15 workers on a site; and limiting crew sizes and rotating shifts for sites with more than 10 workers on the job at any time.
Leaders in the local residential and commercial construction industries, and the real estate and design community as a whole, had pushed back against last month’s local ban on all but limited types of construction. They argued that it went too far and crippled an industry that is the region’s lifeblood.
In recent years, Austin has typically had about 60,000 to 65,000 construction workers generating $6.5 billion to $7 billion in annual gross product, said Ray Perryman, a Waco economist. The Austin chapter of the Associated General Contractors of America puts the construction workforce total at an estimated 100,000.
Joe Fowler, president of the Home Builders Association of Greater Austin, said construction is among the most safety-conscious industries in the world.
“On a daily basis, even before COVID-19, the construction industry operates within strict federal, state and local safety rules and regulations,” Fowler said.
“To even suggest that construction workers are more likely to become sick than your average beauty supply store worker, music producer or car wash owner, (all deemed by the city of Austin as ‘essential business’) is not supported by fact or science. The UT model focuses on a select 4% of the workforce that already adheres to advanced safety protocols, and includes a broad range of incorrect assumptions,” he said.
Meyers responded: “We were specifically asked to conduct analyses addressing the construction workforce and have not made any claims about the relative risks for other essential occupations.”
The study considered several scenarios that varied the intensity of contact among construction workers at job sites and the proportion of workers allowed to be at the sites.
The study assumes, as a highest risk scenario, that workers would have double the typical workforce contact rate.
Fowler said the governor, county and city have issued clear safety protocols that limit the number of workers on a job site: “Therefore, to support a model that contact between construction workers would ‘double’ is wild speculation with no basis in reality. And even if you rely on the model, with the safety protocols already in place (both pre- and post-COVID-19), the risk of increased exposure should be less than for your pizza delivery.”
Meyers said the study’s scenario in which construction workers have double the number of contacts at job sites “means that the average number of daily contacts at construction job sites are double the average number of contacts at all job sites (for the entire workforce).”
“We acknowledge that this may not be the case and that we do not have data to directly estimate daily contacts at construction job sites. We provided a range of scenarios, from half the average contacts to double the average contacts because of this uncertainty,” she said. “We agree that safety protocols can substantially reduce the risk of COVID-19 transmission on job sites.”
Fowler acknowledged that “there will always be bad actors.”
“All you have to do is walk outside your door to see a wide range of people not obeying the law, but in America we punish the offenders, not everyone for the actions of a few,” he said.
Fowler said there are “important reasons the Department of Homeland Security determined that construction is an essential business, and they did not do so lightly. The fact that some folks don’t like that determination does not change the facts.
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