data nerd fascination with COVID

[kanzeon_2040]

A big part of the fascination I've had for the COVID pandemic is how much data we have about it, and the ability to model it. Modeling the course of the pandemic became more complex over time, as human behaviors cycled between shutting everything down and pretending it isn't happening at all. Then we started vaccinating people, but then we began

Comments

[matrixmann]

That going-to-work-while-sick is a question of your labor and entrepreneur culture over there.
Sickness gets punished - you're missing in your workspace when being sick, if that happens more often, your employer fires you and hires someone who isn't sick "too often" in his view.
It's a question of regarding an employed person as a mere tool to achieve profit and that tool always has to function. Isn't allowed to have (human) weakenesses, isn't allowed to have own needs. Like a robot.

[kanzeon_2040]

I agree, even today we still do not have a requirement for sick leave in the US. A highly-paid professional like me gets health insurance and sick leave, but there is still no requirement for businesses to offer either to their employees. And even people who get sick leave are often discouraged from using it by their supervisors.

There was a temporary six-month government subsidy for businesses to offer sick leave for COVID illness only, but sick leave still wasn't required, even for COVID.

[matrixmann]

Well, there you go why people behave like that. If they get constantly taught to show up sick, only not if they're missing a limb or anything else prevents them even moving.

[anais_pf]

Yes, and those waiters who come to work sick are probably there because if they stay home, they don't get paid. Paid sick leave would go a long way toward preventing the spread of illness of all sorts.