Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
In facing the reality that the virus is here to stay, some forms of social support to be considered would be:
1. Universal, paid sick leave, 10-15 days per year. This would allow workers to avoid being pressured to work while sick and risk getting their co-workers sick. This should be permanent in a world of endemic covid-19 and is not unreasonable relative to what a lot of European countries had even before the pandemic started.
2. Stronger social safety nets for healthcare and disability care. In a world of endemic covid-19, the system must be able to "absorb" the needs of a certain number of people being ill enough to need real medical care, and in some cases, taking some time to recover before being able to work again. This might need to be permanent in a world of endemic covid-19, and is not unreasonable in relation to many other developed countries.
3. Shifting government subsidies towards healthier food rather than corn syrup and empty calories. This would reduce the mortality and morbidity rates of the disease in each age bracket, by reducing metabolic syndrome and obesity. Vitamins, especially vitamin D, should be added to more foods to compensate for the increasing number of people with jobs that keep them indoors all day long and possibly result in sunlight deprivation.
4. New buildings should be built with ventilation requirements to reduce aerosol transmission.
5. Voluntary booster vaccines for anyone who wants to reduce their risk of transmission further rather than simply avoiding personal hospitalization and death.
6. In extreme cases, being immune compromised should be considered a "disability" and should qualify some people to receive extra government aid.
7. Mass-producing voluntary-use KN95 masks.
By implementing these measures, the goals should be to (1) keep mortality and morbidity at a manageable level, (2) to avoid collateral damage from the periods of time that a person cannot safely work , and (3) to preserve as much personal liberty as possible while doing so.
Would you implement such hysteric measures for the flu?
So the idea of giving people sick leave so they can stay home when sick seems hysterical to you? If people didn't come to work when sick, it would help cut down on flu and COVID cases, not to mention the common cold.
There are plenty of sick leave measures in place on a state and federal level.
No there are not. Many jobs do not allow for sick leave; not even unpaid sick leave. Might even be the food preparers at your favorite takeout restaurant who come into work when sick.
In facing the reality that the virus is here to stay, some forms of social support to be considered would be:
1. Universal, paid sick leave, 10-15 days per year. This would allow workers to avoid being pressured to work while sick and risk getting their co-workers sick. This should be permanent in a world of endemic covid-19 and is not unreasonable relative to what a lot of European countries had even before the pandemic started.
2. Stronger social safety nets for healthcare and disability care. In a world of endemic covid-19, the system must be able to "absorb" the needs of a certain number of people being ill enough to need real medical care, and in some cases, taking some time to recover before being able to work again. This might need to be permanent in a world of endemic covid-19, and is not unreasonable in relation to many other developed countries.
3. Shifting government subsidies towards healthier food rather than corn syrup and empty calories. This would reduce the mortality and morbidity rates of the disease in each age bracket, by reducing metabolic syndrome and obesity. Vitamins, especially vitamin D, should be added to more foods to compensate for the increasing number of people with jobs that keep them indoors all day long and possibly result in sunlight deprivation.
4. New buildings should be built with ventilation requirements to reduce aerosol transmission.
5. Voluntary booster vaccines for anyone who wants to reduce their risk of transmission further rather than simply avoiding personal hospitalization and death.
6. In extreme cases, being immune compromised should be considered a "disability" and should qualify some people to receive extra government aid.
7. Mass-producing voluntary-use KN95 masks.
By implementing these measures, the goals should be to (1) keep mortality and morbidity at a manageable level, (2) to avoid collateral damage from the periods of time that a person cannot safely work , and (3) to preserve as much personal liberty as possible while doing so.
Thoughts?
COVID is here to stay, I agree. We should be doing the following
1) R&D full speed into early treatments.
2) R into whose at risk based on lab results (instead of grossly general age/BMI tables)
3) Stop tracking cases of COVID so closely, it's just scaring the public. Track COVID like we do the Flu
4) Run models, if need be, push money into expending short term hospital capacity.
5) R&D into technology that can quickly and intrusively detect the virus into the air for airports and other large venues. Think sampling of the air for the virus.
6) Let's do high quality studies on masks, see if they work, how much they work, which masks work and how much, and any downsides
#6: absolutely NOT! Disabled implies you can’t work. Your logic says that people who’s immune systems are weak cannot work. But, they can do everything else in life.
BS!
#3: there shouldn’t be ANY subsidies!
#2: that’s not the governments job. People should have emergency funds to cover those kinds of expenses.
#1: how often are you sick? I’m never sick. How can small businesses just absorb an expense like that? Why should the business be responsible for your sickness? Again, you should have an emergency fund to cover any lost wages.
By implementing these measures, the goals should be to (1) keep mortality and morbidity at a manageable level, (2) to avoid collateral damage from the periods of time that a person cannot safely work , and (3) to preserve as much personal liberty as possible while doing so.
Thoughts?
Good list. Universal paid sick leave should have happened a long time ago. How many times have I or my co-workers come in with a cold or flu, even with sick leave? And then think of the folks who don't get paid if they don't show up, and come in the the flu.
Quote:
Originally Posted by FearNotChooseLife
I have no idea what the average FT worker gets as far as paid time off. I would think it would be close to 20 days.
I work at a place with generous sick time for its full-time employees - 10 days/year, and all of it rolls over, never expires. Part-time employees receive sick time based on the hours they work each week.
But there are so many places that do not offer sick time, especially for part-time employees. Those are the grocery store workers, restaurant servers, day care workers, etc. who don't get paid unless they come into work.
Quote:
Originally Posted by FordBronco1967
#3: there shouldn’t be ANY subsidies!
That ship sailed many decades ago. The best we can do now is shift some of the incentives toward production of healthier foods and organic farms.
Quote:
#1: how often are you sick? I’m never sick. How can small businesses just absorb an expense like that? Why should the business be responsible for your sickness? Again, you should have an emergency fund to cover any lost wages.
I'm happy for you.
Businesses offer benefits to their employees that ensure healthy, happy workers. Sick time is one of those benefits. Sick time not only benefits the employee who's sick, but also the sick employee's co-workers. The pandemic has shown how one ill employee can shut down an entire workplace. It's in every business' best interest to keep its employees healthy.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
