NewsPronto

 
The Times


.

USA Conversation

The Conversation USA

The Conversation USA

We call workers 'essential' – but is that just referring to the work, not the people?

  • Written by Zachary Jaggers, Postdoctoral Scholar of Linguistics, University of Oregon
Workers at an Amazon fulfillment center in New York protest conditions in the company's warehouse.AP Photo/Bebeto Matthews

By this point in the coronavirus pandemic, you’ve probably heard a lot about “essential workers.” They’re the people working in hospitals and grocery stores, on farms and in meatpacking plants....

Read more: We call workers 'essential' – but is that just referring to the work, not the people?

More Articles ...

  1. Will we ever be able to shrink and grow stuff?
  2. How people react to the threat of disease could mean COVID-19 is reshaping personalities
  3. How using music to parent can liven up everyday tasks, build family bonds
  4. Leaders' empathy matters in the midst of a pandemic
  5. Pants or no pants? Tips for virtual job interviews from home
  6. EPA decides to reject the latest science, endanger public health and ignore the law by keeping an outdated fine particle air pollution standard
  7. How cafes, bars, gyms, barbershops and other 'third places' create our social fabric
  8. Why offering businesses immunity from coronavirus liability is a bad idea
  9. What are the 'reopen' protesters really saying?
  10. Your guide to the 2020 census questionnaire
  11. The impulse to garden in hard times has deep roots
  12. Why the WHO, often under fire, has a tough balance to strike in its efforts to address health emergencies
  13. Spring signals female bees to lay the next generation of pollinators
  14. The 'first scientist's 800-year-old tonic for what ails us: The truth
  15. Why are kids asking such big questions during the pandemic?
  16. We found and tested 47 old drugs that might treat the coronavirus: Results show promising leads and a whole new way to fight COVID-19
  17. Why apparel brands' efforts to police their supply chains aren't working
  18. Coronavirus: Why is it so hard to aid small businesses hurt by a disaster?
  19. Infected with the coronavirus but not showing symptoms? A physician answers 5 questions about asymptomatic COVID-19
  20. Language differences spark fear amid the coronavirus pandemic
  21. Refugees tell stories of problems – and unity – in facing the coronavirus
  22. How could an explosive Big Bang be the birth of our universe?
  23. How Apple and Google will let your phone warn you if you've been exposed to the coronavirus
  24. Masks and distancing make it tough for the hard-of-hearing, but here's how to help
  25. Can your community handle a natural disaster and coronavirus at the same time?
  26. Brazilian mystics say they're sent by aliens to 'jump-start human evolution' – but their vision for a more just society is not totally crazy
  27. Endangered tigers face growing threats from an Asian road-building boom
  28. Archaeologists have a lot of dates wrong for North American indigenous history – but we're using new techniques to get it right
  29. Empty pews take a financial toll on many US congregations
  30. I was a nurse on the front lines of Ebola, and I saw that nurses need support for the trauma and pain they experience
  31. Wait times remain stubbornly long in hospital emergency rooms
  32. Top football recruits bring in big money for colleges – COVID-19 could threaten revenue
  33. Are we living in a dystopia?
  34. What does 'survival of the fittest' mean in the coronavirus pandemic? Look to the immune system
  35. As states weigh human lives versus the economy, history suggests the economy often wins
  36. Scientist at work: Trapping urban coyotes to see if they can be 'hazed' away from human neighborhoods
  37. Very good dogs don't necessarily make very good co-workers
  38. Climate change threatens drinking water quality across the Great Lakes
  39. Why are white supremacists protesting to 'reopen' the US economy?
  40. Kids have a right to a basic education, according to a new legal milestone
  41. COVID-19 is a dress rehearsal for entrepreneurial approaches to climate change
  42. How the Trump administration accidentally insured over 200,000 through Obamacare
  43. 3 volunteering guidelines to heed during the coronavirus pandemic
  44. 3 crisis-leadership lessons from Abraham Lincoln
  45. Measuring maternal grief in Africa
  46. Who's at risk of not being counted in the 2020 census: 6 essential reads
  47. Scientists at work: Uncovering the mystery of when and where sharks give birth
  48. Coronavirus impact: Meat processing plants weigh risks of prosecution if they're blamed for spreading infection
  49. Welcome to your sensory revolution, thanks to the pandemic
  50. Failure to count COVID-19 nursing home deaths could dramatically skew US numbers