State tracking virus among ‘sex workers’
Could lead to higher case numbers
“Commercial sex worker” added to the daily testing report.
The state has added “commercial sex worker” to the daily coronavirus testing report in a metric advocates for the exploited say is underestimating what could be a potential COVID-19 “superspreader.”
The sex workers occupation is listed alongside plumbers, hair dressers, nurses, engineers, teachers, the retired, unemployed and more, all tracked by the state daily for COVID-19 testing and deaths. The state Department of Public Health told the Herald the entry was added last month.
“The first time it was included was on December 3, 2020, in the Chapter 93 data, because that was the first time a case was identified and reported that occupation,” said DPH spokesman Omar Cabrera. “Because of small numbers of reports with that occupation, no additional information is available.”
Cabrera did not respond to Herald follow-up questions about fears the tally is underreporting children and adults who are being exploited for sex but fail to divulge that information.
A Herald analysis of daily coronavirus reports for the past two months shows that commercial sex worker was declared nine times as an occupation.
The metric comes as Attorney General Maura Healey’s office reported indictments of a man and woman for allegedly running two brothels in Framingham that saw 30 paying johns a day.
“Victims would typically arrive over the weekend, be sold for commercial sex for a week and leave as another victim arrived,” the indictments announced Friday allege. “The brothel(s) ushered in between 20 and 30 sex buyers each day, during which customers paid $45-$50 for 15 minutes of sex with victims.”
That alarming flow of abusers points to a potential public health crisis that goes mostly unreported, advocates for those exploited say.
“The pandemic has not slowed people from being prostituted,” said Nikki Bell, founder the CEO of Worcester-based Living in Freedom Together. “The desperation has actually increased.”
Food insecurity, staggering unemployment, isolation and substance abuse are all contributing to women, men and children being exploited. Some traffic has moved to online forums for pornography and explicit images, but in Boston, Worcester and beyond, the vulnerable are still being preyed upon.
“Referrals for our kids continue. They continue to be bought and sold in Eastern Massachusetts,” Lisa Goldblatt Grace, co-founder and executive director of Boston-based My Life My Choice, said. “The commercial sex industry is violent and degrading. Add a pandemic into it along with economic instability, and it just adds to the risk of getting the deadly virus.”
Emergency room doctors and nurses, social workers and those in law enforcement are still turning to My Life My Choice to report children they fear are being exploited, Goldblatt Grace says.
Advocates contacted by the Herald say “Johns Boards” — where men exchange vulgar insights on those they’ve abused or are looking to stalk — are still lit up. The fear of contracting the coronavirus has not deterred them, experts add.
“There’s a real potential for this to be a superspreader,” said Bell. “They are also exposing their families.”
Those who pay for sex are not likely to alert spouses or others to their risky behavior in the midst of a pandemic that’s still expected to peak in the coming weeks, as the Herald reported Sunday.
“We’re trying to push for more services for the most marginalized in our society,” said Bell, who also helps run a shelter. “If you reach to the bottom, everybody else comes up with them.”