MECCA, Calif. — Dust swirled in the air as Luz Gallegos parked her SUV on the side of a dirt road. She had just learned that her aunt died of covid-19 — the third family member to succumb to the disease in only two weeks.
She stepped out of her car at about 11:30 a.m. onto a bell pepper farm in this agricultural community in the Coachella Valley, a little northwest of the Salton Sea.
Gallegos, a daughter of farmworkers who had worked in the fields herself, had only 15 minutes to make what she considered a life-or-death pitch to roughly 20 workers who had just finished a break.
The farm had already seen two workers fall ill to covid.
“We’re losing people in our community each day,” she said.
https://californiahealthline.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2021/02/Reporte-campania-pionera-d-vacuna-campesina-version-completa-.mp3 “I’m very grateful that this group came out here to give us information about the virus and vaccine,” says farm manager Juan Castillo (not shown). “As farmworkers we sometimes go from home to work and back and don’t have time to listen to the news.” KFF Health News is a national newsroom that produces in-depth journalism about health issues and is one of the core operating programs at KFF—an independent source of health policy research, polling, and journalism. Learn more about KFF.Some elements may be removed from this article due to republishing restrictions. If you have questions about available photos or other content, please contact NewsWeb@kff.org.