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Sponsored by: MEMIC
Updated: March 8, 2021 Diversity / Equity / Inclusion 2021

MEMIC

COVID-19’s disproportionate impact on people of color and immigrants

Rooted in our relentless commitment to workforce safety, MEMIC has persistently educated employers and their workforce on safe work practices — sanitation, social distancing and wearing masks since the pandemic first took hold. We sincerely believe and hope those simple measures have helped reduce the spread of this nasty virus.

Nevertheless, we have also been called upon to provide compassionate care, pay medical bills and compensate for lost wages of the hundreds of people who have contracted the disease at work.

With customers in every county in the state, it is easy for us to ask all Maine employers to help lead the effort toward vaccination against COVID-19 for all who are medically able. According to the Edelman Trust Survey, employers are respected as sources of trusted information and demonstrated leadership.

Why is there such urgency? Failure to achieve the estimated 80% vaccination rate needed to beat this deadly virus will risk lives, further impair Maine’s economy, and undermine the financial security of families, workers and employers.

A disproportionate impact

Given the focus of this Mainebiz edition on diversity, equity and inclusion, we also must note that while the virus does not discriminate in terms of infection, in Maine and elsewhere, it has disproportionately impacted people of color and immigrants.

That economic and racial disparity was magnified amid the pandemic as our nation confronted long-simmering issues of race ignited in 2020 by the death of George Floyd and others. We must do better.

None of us can (or should) ignore that many more people of color are essential workers who may be required to show up for work to feed their families. They do not have the advantage of working from home because they are primary caregivers, housekeeping personnel, grocery clerks, or work in food processing or manufacturing. They kept the economy moving. Many also, of necessity, live with extended family members which precludes isolation for those infected by Covid-19. We owe all essential workers our deepest gratitude.

In all of this, I see hope for better days ahead. We are talking to each other and having long overdue and difficult conversations. As our experience at MEMIC has demonstrated through more than 27 years of relentless commitment to workforce safety, people can change behaviors. We can be mindful of the value of every life. We can be intentional with our words and deeds. And each of us can make a difference.

Here’s to a better and safer future for us all.

— Michael P. Bourque, President and CEO of MEMIC