Skilled Immigrants Searching for Coronavirus Cures at U.S. Companies

David BierThe government has so far kept to minimal and rational restrictions on travel in response to the coronavirus. My colleague Alex Nowrastehhas written about alternatives to outright immigration bans that could slow down the transmission of the deadly disease. But only scientific advancements will save thousands of lives, and it is here that many immigrants are working for treatments and vaccines that will stop the spread and treat the viral infection.The major U.S. companies seeking a coronavirus vaccine or treatment have together received approvals from the Department of Labor to hire foreign workers with either green cards or H ‑1B work visas more than 11,000 times from 2010 to 2019.[i] The eight companies to have used the legal immigration system (at least directly) to request foreign workers include Gilead Sciences, Moderna Therapeutics, GlaxoSmithKline, Inovio, Johnson and Johnson Pharmaceuticals, Regeneron, Vir Therapeutics, and Sanofi. Figure 1 shows the number of workers over the last decade.Figure 2 shows the number of H ‑1B workers for whom the Department of Labor has permitted a hire by the occupation of the worker. Over the last decade, the eight companies have received approvals for 3,310 biochemists, biophysicists, chemists, and other scientists. They have received approvals for 2,801 statisticians to analyze the data the scientists are producing. There were also approvals for 2,133 computer, database, and software support staff t...
Source: Cato-at-liberty - Category: American Health Authors: Source Type: blogs