COVID-19 and Meat Processing Plants: Deadly for Humans and Animals

Welcome, concerned viewers, to today’s important, informative and urgent program, “COVID-19 and Meat Processing Plants: Deadly for Humans and Animals.” What exactly is a meat processing plant? They are fenced-off, massive multi-story, windowless buildings, in which as many as 10 million animals a year are killed, dismembered, cut into saleable pieces of meat or ground into hamburger mince, meat-meal, or meat-pastes, and then packaged for distribution. They were formerly called “slaughterhouses” or “abattoirs,” but have since been re-named “meat processing plants”- perhaps in an effort to make them less repulsive to the public’s ears and eyes. But we should have no doubt at all – these factories are horrific and torturous to both the animals and the humans who work there. During this current coronavirus pandemic, the slaughterhouse horror story is being magnified, as numerous meat processing plants have become hotspots for human transmission of the COVID-19 virus. Why is the virus so prevalent at meat processing plants? Many experts have cited, the stressful, dangerous working conditions in which employees stand shoulder-to-shoulder for long hours on the meat assembly line; in highly air-conditioned rooms laden with bacteria; and floors swirling in fecal matter and blood. This creates a highly volatile environment where disease can quickly spread. Added to this is the psychological and emotional stress of the constant killing, and the sounds and smells of death, all of which powerfully depress and inhibit the immune systems of the workers, which is exactly what the virus needs for infection and transmission. Whether the meat itself was a medium of transfer, or the workers spread it through their meat-products, equipment and bacterial-rich working conditions, remains to be discovered. One thing is for certain – these situations must stop, and stop quickly! Many organizations are calling for the permanent closure of meat processing plants, and an urgent and complete shift to a plant-based lifestyle. Supreme Master Ching Hai has reminded us that all pandemics and environmental disasters are the consequences from killing billions of innocent and helpless animal co-inhabitants, and recommends a global adoption of the vegan lifestyle.