Say It Ain't So Already

Lack of Paid Sick Leave Could Exacerbate H1N1 Flu Pandemic

November 5, 2009 at 10:54 AM Leave a comment

From the New York Times:

Public health experts worried about the spread of the H1N1 flu are raising concerns that workers who deal with the public, like waiters and child care employees, are jeopardizing others by reporting to work sick because they do not get paid for days they miss for illness.

[...]

Public health experts say policies like these encourage many people with H1N1, commonly called swine flu, to report to work despite official warnings from the government and most companies that they should stay home.

“For people who are really caught on a weekly income, if they can’t make a go of it, they might say, ‘I’m desperate. I’m going to do what I have to do, and I’m going into work even though I’m sick,’” said Robert Blendon, a professor of health policy at Harvard.

He warned that this might spread disease, and that these financially squeezed workers might send their flu-stricken children to school, infecting others.

I can so imagine that this is happening right now.  How sad and frankly, pitiful.  I’m embarrassed for our country.  This is third world stuff, not the stuff of the “greatest nation on Earth,” for God’s sake.  We should be ashamed of ourselves.

(H/t to my good friend LH.)

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