DEMOCRACY OF DISEASE:

As in many meatpacking towns around the country, local leaders and residents are torn about how to address the new threat, which pits the economic needs of employees and local businesses against rapidly growing health risks to everyone in the community.

The Seaboard plant, where wages start at $16 per hour, is by far the largest employer in the city of fewer than 11,300 people. The plant is both a linchpin of the local economy and a hot spot in the nation's battle against the new coronavirus.

Opinions about the dangers of the virus do not necessarily fall along neat or predictable lines, interviews with about two dozen local residents show. Although the population is small, Guymon and Texas County are demographically and politically complex.

The county, where about 70 percent of plant workers live, is a Republican stronghold in the heart of the U.S. Bible Belt, and it overwhelmingly supported President Donald Trump in 2016. Yet residents have diverse backgrounds: Plant workers come from North America, Latin America, Africa and Asia. Some 41 percent of households in the county speak languages other than English at home, according to the most recent U.S. Census figures.

The city of Guymon, which was majority white at the turn of the century, is now more than half Hispanic or Latino. The plant dominates the economy, but many agricultural businesses operate around it, mostly owned by whites.

As different as residents are, their lives intersect. The city's many businesses rely on the immigrants as customers and workers, and some local businesses are owned by minorities and immigrants. Nearly everyone seems to either work at the plant or know someone who does.

Support for the company seems to run hot and cold depending on feedback from a friend or a brother-in-law. Several workers expressed fear of going to work but fear, in equal measure, of losing their jobs if they complained.

The main point of contention appears to be how seriously to take the threat of the coronavirus.

For now, Seaboard confirmed, its employees appear to account for roughly half of Texas County's COVID-19 cases. The numbers are in flux: Not every employee has been tested and the county's confirmed caseload is steadily rising with expanded testing.

What's certain is that the virus respects no boundaries, said Dr. Martin Bautista, who already is working with other physicians to contain infections at Guymon's nursing home, where he said one patient has died.

"It's a virus. It doesn't recognize the color of your skin, socioeconomic status, nothing."

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