[MonkeyRonin]

Originally Posted by AviationGuy

A server at my favorite Tex Mex restaurant was noticeably sick yesterday. As he waited on me, he kept touching his mouth and nose, and as he worked, he coughed a lot. I asked him why he didn't stay home, and he said he had to make a living. There are likely millions in this country in the same position. But I believe it will soon be the case where customers won't patronize any such businesses. The manager/owner wasn't present but I left a message. Haven't heard back.

Read a good article the other day about why the US may be hit particularly hard due to the lack of paid sick leave and preponderance of gig workers (Canada isn't much better in this regard either). Between the choices of losing their jobs or potentially risk transmitting the virus to others, most people will probably choose the latter.

The Problem With Telling Sick Workers to Stay Home

Even with the coronavirus spreading, lax labor laws and little sick leave mean that many people can’t afford to skip work.

Amanda Mull
February 28, 2020

As the coronavirus that has sickened tens of thousands in China spreads worldwide, it now seems like a virtual inevitability that millions of Americans are going to be infected with the flu-like illness known as COVID-19. Public-health officials in the United States have started preparing for what the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is calling a “significant disruption” to daily life. Because more than 80 percent of cases are mild and many will show no symptoms at all, limiting the disease’s spread rests on the basics of prevention: Wash your hands well and frequently, cover your mouth when you cough, and stay home if you feel ill. But that last thing might prove to be among the biggest Achilles’ heels in efforts to stymie the spread of COVID-19. The culture of the American workplace puts everyone’s health at unnecessary risk.

For all but the independently wealthy in America, the best-case scenario for getting sick is being a person with good health insurance, paid time off, and a reasonable boss who won’t penalize you for taking a few sick days or working from home. For millions of the country’s workers, such a scenario is a nearly inconceivable luxury. “With more than a third of Americans in jobs that offer no sick leave at all, many unfortunately cannot afford to take any days off when they are feeling sick,” Robyn Gershon, an epidemiology professor at the NYU School of Global Public Health, wrote in an email. “People who do not (or cannot) stay home when ill do present a risk to others.” On this count, the United States is a global anomaly, one of only a handful of countries that doesn’t guarantee its workers paid leave of any kind. These jobs are also the kind least likely to supply workers with health insurance, making it difficult for millions of people to get medical proof that they can’t go to work.

They’re also concentrated in the service industry or gig economy, in which workers have contact, directly or indirectly, with large numbers of people. These are the workers who are stocking the shelves of America’s stores, preparing and serving food in its restaurants, driving its Ubers, and manning its checkout counters. Their jobs tend to fall outside the bounds of paid-leave laws, even in states or cities that have them. Gershon emphasizes that having what feels like a head cold or mild flu—which COVID-19 will feel like to most healthy people—often isn’t considered a good reason to miss a shift by those who hold these workers’ livelihood in their hands.

Read more: https://www.theatlantic.com/health/a...=pocket-newtab