UEP and other agricultural and food industry groups joined together to call on the Trump administration, the Biden transition team and the nation’s governors to prioritize food and agricultural workers in making COVID-19 vaccines available. Noting that the Department of Homeland Security considers food and agriculture part of the nation’s critical infrastructure, the groups wrote: “As we approach the time when new COVID-19 vaccines are approved and ready for distribution, we would like to reiterate our support for priority access for essential critical infrastructure workers.”

UEP and the other organizations added: “We fully appreciate and support that our nation’s heroic first responders, medical professionals, elderly and caretakers, along with other vulnerable individuals, clearly have the highest priority for vaccination.” But after these groups, both the DHS standards and recommendations from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention would prioritize essential workers, including those in food and agriculture.

More than 25 national agricultural and agribusiness groups participated in the appeal, which states that “our members take seriously the tremendous responsibility to protect the health of our farmers and workers so that we may continue feeding the nation.

Ultimately, each state’s governor will establish priorities for access to vaccines. UEP urges its members and state poultry organizations to contact officials in their own states in support of prioritizing egg industry workers for vaccination. A sample script and talking points for state outreach are available in  UEP’s COVID-19 Library.