Dickensian US Working Conditions Almost Guarantee Ebola Catastrophe

[nashville_brook]

Why is the US freaking out about Ebola while the rest of the world seems to be taking it stride? Damn good question.


Dickensian US Working Conditions Almost Guarantee Ebola Catastrophe

http://thiscantbehappening.net/node/2505


(snip)

One reason Europeans are not in a state of hysteria about Ebola the way the US public is, besides the confidence Europeans have in their universal health care systems, is that they know that waiters, maids and housekeepers have a right to paid sick leave, so they are not going to be on the job infecting others if they get the disease. They'll be availing themselves of free or next-to-free healthcare and getting tested and if necessary, treated.

Europeans also know that low-income workers are not going to send sick children off to day care or school. Unlike in the US, where many poor working parents have to choose between leaving small children home alone when they’re sick, or sending them to school anyway, so that their parents can keep their jobs, European parents in countries like Finland, where I spent some time last summer, and most other parts of the EU, have the right to paid leave so they can stay home and care for a sick child. Their schools also have nurses, unlike in the US, where impoverished school districts like Philadlephia have cut their school nurses from the payroll.

These programs are humane and just and have been won through years of labor movement struggle in Europe, but they are also beneficial to all the other people in a country -- the middle and upper classes for whom things like health insurance and paid sick days are simply expected.

Not so in the US, where a Darwinian philosophy prevails that argues that the poor do not deserve “handouts” like sick pay or health benefits.

PAID SICK DAYS IN US COMPARED TO REST OF WORLD

[raging moderate]

1. And I wish I could give 100 recs.

Raised in poverty by a poor working mother, I know how true this is. Thank you for pointing out what is so obvious to me. Those who would deny this eternal truth must surely be willfully deluding themselves.

[nashville_brook]

4. the public health issue with the US have no paid sick days policy is

huge, and it's been ignored, largely, where paid sick days campaigns are being fought. but i think it's one of the most compelling, given the threat of an outbreak of anything, be it ebola or bird flu. when pollsters measure public support on the public health issue they've done so in the context of an epidemic-free environment. i wonder if that will change now.

on the other side -- the personally lived side -- those of us who work in environments without sick days know what we face. we cover up our fevers with tylenol and make-up. we get the kids to school, prolong their time in the nurse's office if at all possible until we can get off of work, and pray everything will pass by tomorrow.

it's either that or lose your job.

[cali]

2. I don't buy this. a) Spain has been freaking out and austerity measures in Europe

are certainly just as big a risk factor. b) anyone who thinks that we are on the verge of an "ebola catastrophe) is fearful and ignorant- or as in this case, using fear to push an agenda. I may agree with the agenda but the tactic sucks. We will almost certainly get more ebola cases here, but even the most pessimistic of experts doesn't forecast anything close to a catastrophe.

shitty, shitty piece of "journalism".

[nashville_brook]

7. despite austerity, people in Spain have paid sick days

actually they have one of the most generous paid leave policies in Europe. this increases their security RE infectious diseases.

[cali]

8. I know. that was not my point.

my point was that austerity in Europe has made their health care systems vulnerable- much has been written about this.

more importantly, this is such a piece of shit in that there are NO epidemiologists or experts in the disease itself who think that there is a potential "ebola catastrophe" barreling down on this country.

Mr. Lindorff is using ebola to make his point. It's grotesque.

[nashville_brook]

9. if you read the piece it's not about the health care system, it's about workplace policy

that's where the pressure is applied to vector an infectious disease, be it ebola or the flu, in order to keep your job.

[cali]

10. I read the entire short lousy piece

Of course it involves the health care system- it's about ebola. It also makes assumptions and conclusions with little basis. I agree with Lindorff about horrible workplace policy but disagree with his trying to use ebola to make his point. It's bullshit and fear tactics to say that workplace policy in this country will lead to an "ebola catastrophe". He presents exactly zero evidence for his conclusions and experts don't agree with him regarding an ebola epidemic in the U.S.

[DirkGently]

13. Hahaha. It's an editorial, cali. Please extinguish your hair.

If you even glance at the site, you can see it's advocacy, not journalism. Lindorff's other piece is a POEM about Walmart.

The point is dead-on. We have a de facto nationwide policy of telling hotel, restaurant, and nursing home workers to come in to work with "flu-like symptoms" or be fired.

That IS a perfect recipe for an epidemic, and if ebola was a flu, there really would be one. Ebola is not the flu, and has a low-enough R nought that it won't happen this time.

That doesn't invalidate the point, nor is this person actually putting forward ebola panic, for anyone who cares to think for a moment about it.

[cali]

20. ha ha it's bullshit dirk dear.

it makes a claim that's wholly bullshit and uses fear tactics as a means of advocacy.

[DirkGently]

28. Nope. You just didn't read it right.

I get it. You came barreling in here because -- let me guess -- you're slugging it out in GD over "Ebola: Panic or Don't Panic?" And arguing it's no big because Fox News is telling us it's oh-my-gawd-the-Africas-is-killing-us-all?

But this is not that. This is a sardonic and entirely pertinent point about the way healthcare is handled in this country, and what it actually means when we continue to permit large employers to extort the lowest-paid workers to come in sick.

There is some head-from-rear removal that a lot of people here need to employ on this subject. Namely, just because the conservative unga-bungas are panicking in order to blame furriners and so forth DOES NOT MEAN WE DO NOT HAVE A PROBLEM HERE.

We are, in fact, very ill-prepared compared to our socialized healthcare brethren across the pond, to deal with a deadly disease that begins with vague "flu-like symptoms." Americans are not permitted to stay home with vague symptoms. They are threatened and fired and held captive, *especially in fields of work that involve close physical contact with the public.*

This article makes that point very well. Your rush to drop it in the wrong box because you couldn't be bothered to note the sardonic tone is not the author's failing.

Hint: Someone talking about ebola and "karmic justice" in the same paragraph is not writing a piece of "journalism."

[Voice for Peace]

32. I woke up this morning with vague flu like symptoms

and threw up almost immediately. I don't think it is
ebola, but maybe a reaction to my first ever flu shot.
Totally irrelevant to the OP I know.

[DirkGently]

34. Not irrelevant at all. We all come in sick.

Even those of us with reasonable sick leave policies at work feel the pressure to not "take advantage" by staying home with a "maybe/possibly/I don't know yet bug of whatever kind.

Meanwhile, tens of thousands of people HAVE to come in sick, because their employers are more worried about being taken advantage of than they are about infecting the populace.

That thinking -- that a basic, health-based precaution is most notable for the possibility of costing a large campaign donor money -- drives the discussion of workplace policy altogether too much.

So your hotel maid comes in sick. Your server comes in sick. Your relative's nursing home worker comes in sick.

That is a very bad dynamic with a range of deadly diseases that all begin with things like a low-grade fever and feelings of "malaise."

[Voice for Peace]

53. truly. although I don't entirely agree with the dire perspective of the author

I agree it's an extremely important piece to look at here in the USA.

Even if it isn't ebola there are other possibilities, homegrown ones.

Parents often need to be reminded by their kids' schools to keep the
kids at home if they are sick. I got sick last winter because of somebody's
visiting grandmother coughing in a classroom.

We are probably due for a major health education program in this
nation. World. Not that we have gone backward, educationally speaking
but I bet there are many today who have no idea how a virus spreads,
or the many ways bacteria like to travel.

.

[DirkGently]

56. I read the piece as sardonic

... and intentionally hyperbolic. But I am seeing that's not the only way people are reading it.

Suffice to say - no, Ebola is probably not coming to kill us all. But it may be a greater threat than it should be, and if was as contagious as flu or measles, we'd be in a lot more danger because of our "suck
it up or get fired" attitude toward food, health and tourism workers.

[Voice for Peace]

58. someone, probably you, in this thread made mention of those who clean surfaces..

this really stuck in my head. Because those who clean surfaces,
as well as those who prepare and serve food, are some of the
most disadvantaged when it comes to health care and also
health education, not to mention salaries or benefits.

Yet surfaces of every kind are ubiquitous, & the bugs' favorite
gathering places. I'm going to be noticing surfaces all day.

[nashville_brook]

60. the movie Contagion actually has great science about vectoring

and, i loved how it treated the social aspects, from panic to blowback.

[Voice for Peace]

62. eeek.. that looks very scary. I'll have to wait for netflix streaming.

great cast, too!

[nashville_brook]

71. it is on streaming -- not sure which one

we just watched it last weekend b/c it was free and rotten tomatoes gives it big approval.

[nashville_brook]

36. it's something i've wondered about

symptoms of flu and ebola are similar in the early stages. ebola has to be contained with good public health policy, or else we'll be facing real panic as people start their regular flu season.

[Voice for Peace]

54. Can you imagine if people in Dallas start getting the flu?

Probably a lot of panic going on there.

[deafskeptic]

66. Factors like this are the reason why I'm so concerned. n/t

[nashville_brook]

76. honestly, i have the same concern for ebola as i do for flu, enterovirus and every other bug

we shouldn't encourage business to profit by putting public health and safety at risk.

[deafskeptic]

78. agreed.

I don't think ebola will spread as quickly as some air borne virus and as lethal as ebola. If such an virus emerged, I would be very concerned! However, conditions are a lot better for spreading viruses and bacteria than people realize. Speaking of the flu, I'm over due for the shots. I find this a bit ironic.

[nashville_brook]

49. just b/c there's dipshits on FOX news boiling over with ebola panic

doesn't mean we don't have a LOT we need to do in terms of increasing our public health security.

also, just b/c there's dipshits on FOX saying stupid things about ebola, doesn't mean that we're magically immune to it. we have decades of bad public health and workplace policy that dipshits on FOX news LOVE -- and that's a problem we can fix.

[Gormy Cuss]

114. FFS, it's not about Ebola. Ebola hysteria is the hook because it's current.

A few years back 'bird flu' would have been used as the hook. The point of the editorial is that one of the consequences of living in a country without paid sick leave mandates is that we are all more susceptible to communicable disease because sick people have no incentive to self-isolate and reduce the spread of disease and instead have strong disincentives in the form of short-term wage loss and potentially job loss.

[JDPriestly]

18. It is more likely that ebola risk would be enhanced because of the terrible condition of many of

our public toilets and because of the failure of so many Americans (especially men) to wash their hands after using public restrooms.

Also, we could have a problem because of the size of our supermarkets and the numbers of people who shop in them. One person with ebola pinching the vegetables and fruits after using the restroom and after not washing his or her hands could expose a lot of shoppers.

It's unlikely but ebola is a terrible disease and we cannot be too careful.

I don't know whether you cook, cali, but I can certainly understand that if a restaurant worker has open skin somewhere or cuts his finger on a knife and is working with ebola in his blood, we could have several customers being exposed to ebola.

Of course, I have actually worked in restaurants, served tables, cooked, used public restrooms in filthy little service stations and rail stations . . . .

And then there are airplanes. We sit almost on top of each other. If someone in the contagious stage of ebola sneezes while sitting next you or in some other way exposes you to their bodily fluids (planes used to provide bags for vomit because people suffered from motion sickness in them. I suppose ebola or some other problem that affected your stomach could cause a person to vomit) -- you have a problem.

Ebola probably won't be an epidemic in the US, but the chance it could become an epidemic is not to be laughed at.

I'm sure that the banks thought they had the sub-prime mortgage market under control. They didn't. I'm sure that our government thought it had Iraq under control. We didn't. I could go on and on.

Better safe than sorry. And having service workers whether in hospitals or restaurants or day-cares working after potential exposure to ebola or while sick with anything endangers the rest of us.

[nashville_brook]

21. janitors are also among those least likely to have sick days

we're only as strong as our weakest link.

people who are in charge of surfaces, linens, and all the little details of "universal precautions" require the same sick leave policy as hospital administrators.

[JDPriestly]

23. Yes!

[Horse with no Name]

37. You might (or might not) be surprised to know

that housekeeping in most hospitals has been farmed out to contractors that offer even lower wages than the hospital and either no health insurance benefits or very expensive benefits.
When they did this at our local hospital, all of the people who had been loyal hospital employees (some for over 20 years) were made to reapply and most of the older and long term employees were not rehired.
They lost all of their hospital benefits.

[nashville_brook]

40. not at all surprising...

i've been working on paid sick leave issues for a while now. the intersection of public health and private profit is particularly horrifying. we've been weakening the weakest links for decades, to squeeze a few more pennies per quarter profit out.

i spent 4 months in the hospital with a bad infection a few years ago. i saw housekeeping once every few days. don't know if that's the norm, and i was way too sick to care, but i can tell you that when they did come it was just to empty trash and sweep. I can't remember once anyone cleaning surfaces.

[SickOfTheOnePct]

59. Couldn't agree more

I can agree with the agenda without endorsing the method.

I despise the use of ignorance to engender fear in pursuit of a goal, no matter how worthy the goal.

[Dreamer Tatum]

3. "Dickensian." What a joke. nt

[Travelman]

6. Indeed

This piece is a load of crap.

[The Traveler]

11. Nice pronouncement

Now, explain how the basic thesis of the article is incorrect in its implications.

I'm a professional with paid sick leave ... and I basically don't stay off the job unless I am flat on my back. If I actually lost pay by staying home sick, I'd have to be hospitalized from keeping me from work. I think that dynamic is fairly obvious. If that is "crap", I wold like to know the logic that establishes it as such.

Trav

[nashville_brook]

50. everywhere i've worked, it's considered weak if you don't show up sick

before taking a day off. you have to have that one day in the office proving you're grossly ill or else you're replaceable.

[The Traveler]

55. Same here

I think that's part of the problem.

Trav

[nashville_brook]

65. and we're privileged to actually have sick days!

sometimes i wonder if anyone is actually paying attention

[BuelahWitch]

14. Maybe not Dickensian, but pretty shitty for 21st century America

No sick time, no vacation time, no paid holidays. Just work till you fucking drop dead.
Indeed, what a "joke."

[DirkGently]

16. It really is a recipe for epidemic.

I'm seeing responses here that miss that point somehow. Assume it's a result of whatever EBOLA: PANIC OR NOT SO MUCH PANIC???!!! silliness is currently raging in GD blinding people to a rather more important fact:

We have crappy, dangerous sick leave policies here.

[Kingofalldems]

33. No surprise with that response.

Compared to Europe, it is Dickensian.

[nashville_brook]

47. is that poster someone who is unfamiliar with working in the US?

or are they perpetually oppositional?

weirdest reply ever. like a space alien.

[leftstreet]

5. DURec

[MattSh]

12. Pffft. We're the USA!!! We don't want to be like stinking Russia...

We don't need no government dictating to us how many days we must take off...

Dictating. Like in dictatorship!

Russia - Workers are entitled to 28 calendar days of annual leave and 12 paid public holidays.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_statutory_minimum_employment_leave_by_country

.
.
.

<- For the sarcastically challenged.

[nashville_brook]

29. it would be *grotesque* to respond to ebola with reasonable public health policy

[DirkGently]

43. Free to be as diseased as we pleases!

'Murica. 'Cause vaccines and sick leave is for Commies.

[nashville_brook]

73. the chamber of commerces that pleases spreads diseases

[uppityperson]

15. I agree that too many people are forced to come to work sick, send their kids to school sick. But,

"Dickensian US Working Conditions Almost Guarantee Ebola Catastrophe" is rather hyperbolic at the beginning (Dickensian) and the end (ebola catastrphope) as is saying Europeans are not in a state of hysteria about ebola because at least Spain is.

One positive thing that might come out of the fears is having it more acceptable to use what sick days you have, and perhaps places giving sick days.

[nashville_brook]

72. low-wage industries aren't going to "give" sick days if we don't demand it

they have their "bottom line" to protect. you know -- it's us or them.

[uppityperson]

74. I wish they would realize that is costs them less to keep a few home than have many get

sick and be unproductive.

[nashville_brook]

82. i've been "talking to them" for years on this subject -- the have ALEC behind them

they're dug in. it's a matter that no one is going to move on unless it's put to a ballot measure or handed down from the federal level.

[DirkGently]

87. Short-sighted greed bypasses the brain.

And goes straight to the jerking knees, which kick and squeal that the possibility a worker might somehow take advantage of an employer (instead of vice versa) is The Worst Thing That Could Happen.

Too many politicians seem to find that a compelling argument.

[JDPriestly]

17. Excellent post. Again, greed is our nation's worst enemy.

When will we ever learn?

And if ebola does not take hold here, eventually we will pay a price for our lack of mandated sick leave and, let's don't forget, paid vacation.

The ebola quarantine is 21 days or so (if what I heard is correct). What American can afford to stay out of work for 21 days if not yet on his/her death bed?

So, even if we gave people one or two sick days, it would not help to allow them to take a leave to obey a quarantine for ebola or some other disease yet to be discovered.

Maybe we should make some arrangement or create some program to make sure people who are quarantined can afford to pay their rent and eat.

It doesn't happen very often. Maybe there is some sort of emergency money already available for that.

[nashville_brook]

30. even in corporate, 21 days is enough for even vested level employees to have to dip into

short term disability -- if it's available. most corporate employees would simply lose their job.

but low wage workers? they're looking at homelessness.

[progressoid]

19. I bought lunch a few days ago at a deli and the server was obviously was sick.

Ironically, I too was sick. And working while sick. No choice but to work while sick.

I got the soup.

[nashville_brook]

22. I've had the Flu Soup many times!

on another note -- where i used to work they combined sick leave with vacation, so naturally there were people who used up all their PTO and come in sick for the latter part of the year when the flu hits. i'm one of these people who catches every bug that comes along, so that dynamic always cost ME a week out of work no matter how hard i tried to sequester myself.

[DirkGently]

31. We are subsidizing industry with our health.

We've all taken the flu soup. And signed in with the sneezing hotel clerk. And taken god-knows-how-many restaurant meals prepared by a sniffling cook required to come in sick.

And when anyone dares suggest we should change any of that, here come the lobbyists to tell us Disney World or Red Lobster or Mears Taxi will burst into flames if their employees are permitted to stay away from customers when they know they are sick.

[nashville_brook]

42. +1000000

[FLPanhandle]

24. "Europeans are not in a state of hysteria about Ebola the way the US public is"

Two reasons why:

1) our media sensationalizing Ebola for ratings and money

2) a public so scientifically illiterate that they don't realize the real risk is basically zero.

[Egnever]

44. Exactly!

Our news here is warped by an obscene obsession with promoting fear to drive eyeballs. It is disgusting.

If it bleeds it leads!

[kairos12]

67. ..and if it thinks, it stinks.

[nashville_brook]

45. just b/c FOX news is reporting badly on this, doesn't mean we don't have

work to do to improve public health -- in terms of sick leave we're the only industrialized nation that doesn't mandate employers provide any time off. that's a disaster every flu season, when many people die. the death rate for ebola is higher, so the emotions are turned up higher, but the effect is the same: when you make people work sick, disease is spread.

[suffragette]

98. "when you make people work sick, disease is spread"

Pretty basic, yet all too common across the U.S.

K&R

[BlindTiresias]

63. It isn't zero

As the epidemic in west africa gets larger the risk to the United States also increases.

[FLPanhandle]

68. Compared to other risks and illnesses in this country

Ebola is at the bottom of the list of things to worry about. Statistically, it's a zero risk.

I'd fly to west Africa right now and the biggest risk I'd face would be the car ride to/from the airport.

[nashville_brook]

69. while Africa remains at most risk from widespread ebola virus, the US

clings to business-"friendly" policy that puts public health at risk from ANY infectious disease.

[BlindTiresias]

75. Weird thing about epidemics

They start small and get larger, so previous incidence does not guarantee future safety.

[nashville_brook]

77. also, viruses mutate as they spread

right now we assume droplet transmission, but in a few evolutionary hops the bug could change to aerosol transmission.

[FLPanhandle]

79. Then you must live in perpetual state of fear.

There are far more likely pandemic causing viruses than Ebola.

I laugh at the fear people have at this virus when, if they were logical, they would be far more worried about a new flu strain or malaria re-entering this country.

That's the thing about fear and lack of understanding amplified by a media after ratings. Logic goes out the window.

[BlindTiresias]

81. Well

If there was an epidemic of a flu with >1-5% mortality yeah I'd be worried, but there isn't yet. Malaria is also treatable and tends to be confined to certain environments.

Ebola is a highly lethal and growing epidemic, so it is more cause for concern than yet-to-exist influenza pandemics and treatable and environmentally confined diseases like Malaria.

[Cali_Democrat]

96. Yup

Americans are constantly frightened and easily panicked.

[Rex]

25. This should piss off the Turd Way and Kochheads.

They can't stand the truth.

[nashville_brook]

70. yes, some have emerged to stamp around

as if cleaning up public health policy is some sort of anti-democratic value.

[Rex]

116. They would probably defund OSHA

I don't see any difference between Third Way types and libertarians. Both groups seem to hate the social fabric that keeps us all alive and healthy.

[daredtowork]

26. I've been joking about the possible Biblical titles

for the consequences of "leave it in the Lord's hands" policy.

But this is really no joke, and I'm glad this post and others are starting to bring on the statistics.

It's just sad that we Americans refuse to engage in long-term thinking but instead persist in "what can we get away with" thinking. All our policies are reactionary. Something bad has to happen before we start putting appropriate policies in place. By then it's usually too late.

[valerief]

27. In the U.S., only the wealthy "deserve" handouts. In "The Family" we learn it's their religion. nt

[Horse with no Name]

35. It would be nice to assume that this wasn't an issue in healthcare

but as a nurse, I was REQUIRED to work sick, despite the fact that I was contagious or risk losing my job.
When I was actually so ill that I was hospitalized and put in isolation for an infectious disease, I was fired for excessive absenteeism.

[nashville_brook]

38. omg that's SO true. it's in all areas of healthcare!

thank you for sharing this. i think people think that nurses and healthcare workers have magical immunity and super-effective workplace policy to protect them and us. it's SO not the case. overworked nurses are the norm and that includes nurses working sick.

[Horse with no Name]

39. These hospital corporations do not care

They don't care about their employees and they don't care about their patients. If you are fortunate enough to encounter a person in management who is willing to go to the mat for their employees, they will be terminated sooner than later.
They simply care about the bottom line and how they can cut staffing and costs to the point that they make the absolute highest profits humanly possible and still pass the necessary surveys to keep the money rolling in and the doors open.

[nashville_brook]

41. and if you asked them, they'd say they're not in business to care

they're in business to make money. that's why we have to demand regulatory relief from the government. corporations are not people who have feelings for people. they have to be made to do the right thing. we have to make it so they either have policy that ensures a minimum of public health or they can't practice medicine. it's that simple.

[Horse with no Name]

46. We NEED single payer

and a Surgeon General....

now more than ever and we have neither.

[nashville_brook]

48. so true.

i actually have a health condition that keeps me in pretty constant contact with healthcare professionals, and i'm always wondering if the shitty quality of care i experience (from most, not all) of my providers comes from the fee for service. my condition is one of those that's hard to pin down, so i get shuffled around. no one wants to deal with it. i always feel like it would be different if the focus were on wellness rather than services.

also would be nice to have a SG who could be working the public angle on this day in and day out. i remember how pivotal C Everett Koop was in the AIDS battle. if we had a strong SG advocating for public health on all levels, we could really change some things.

[DirkGently]

51. Holy crap. We do that to Nurses too?

I cannot understand why, even if we can't muster the empathy for workers (and we most definitely should) we would tolerate policies like that from a public health perspective.

So, you can't have meat over XX degrees in a restaurant kitchen, but you can make a healthcare worker come into work with a contagion?

We are screwn.

[nashville_brook]

57. it absolutely should be a matter where the public health dept shuts you down

whether you're a hospital or a hot dog stand, for having sick people working with the public.

[Horse with no Name]

80. Yes we do--and to be certain, I am not just talking about Ebola...because there are many other

threats out there that exist that you are more likely to get from your healthcare worker. Namely the flu.

http://www.cnn.com/2014/09/22/health/infants-tb-texas/
(CNN) -- More than 700 infants and 40 health care workers have been exposed to tuberculosis, commonly called TB, at a hospital in El Paso, Texas, according to the city's Department of Public Health.

Health officials are not yet saying if any of the people exposed have tested positive for the disease.

An employee at Providence Memorial Hospital in El Paso came to work with an active case of TB some time between September 2013 and August 2014. He or she worked with infants in the nursery and in the post-partum unit at the hospital, the health department says

tsicp.org/web_documents/hospital_tb_exposure121_1_.ppt
This particular exposure was going on at the same time an outbreak of pertussis was happening at the same hospital. The same hospital that DEMANDS that workers come in sick.

[DirkGently]

86. That is a shocking testament to our misplaced

... priorities. The fact is that everyone suffers when anyone has to work sick. No one benefits from anyone trying to do their job when they -- or a child at home for that matter -- is ill.

On the bare naked practical side, it's been shown that "slow" workers due to illness decrease productivity more than having them stay home.

But for Pete's sake, if we can't see anything else regarding how the well being of workers is everyone's concern and everyone's responsibility, how we can possibly rationalize allowing healthcare facilities to require sick people to expose patients?

It's especially hard to believe today, when everyone bathes in hand sanitizer day and night trying to avoid transmission, that we would then turn around and require the medicine and the restaurant food and the elder care and the hospitality service all be provided by sick people.

Jesus.

[840high]

52. k/r

[blackspade]

61. K&R

[SunSeeker]

64. K & R

[Oktober]

83. Dickensian...? Really?

[DeadLetterOffice]

85. Hyperbole! It's not just for breakfast anymore!

[obxhead]

84. No doctors note, no job.

I've worked too many of these jobs, but im not going to a doctor for a common cold or flu that they can't do anything about.

The time is better spent searching the job listings.

[Art_from_Ark]

88. I don't know where the data from that graph came from, but

there are paid public holidays (for full-time workers) in Japan. In fact, yesterday was one of them (Sports Day, the anniversary of the 1964 Tokyo Olympics).

[woo me with science]

89. K&R One Third of Americans One Paycheck Away From Homelessness

Post by fumesucker:

One Third of Americans One Paycheck Away From Homelessness
http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1002&pid=4062833

[nashville_brook]

94. yep, that's the reality that most people don't see -- it's either work sick or face homelessness.

[workinclasszero]

90. I have no health insurance, no paid sick days

Same for my wife. If I came down with Ebola I would probably get the antibiotics and go home treatment from some emergency room like the first US victim.

I heard on the news that it cost 100,000 to decontaminate that guys apartment. Who's gonna pay for that? A person that works a minimum wage job with no benefits?

The 1% will kill us all but unfortunately for them, a virus doesn't discriminate between rich and poor.

Meanwhile the Walton siblings are worth...

Today three family members serve on Walmart’s board of directors; Rob is the chair, and sits on the board with his brother Jim and his son-in-law, Greg Penner.

The six Waltons on Forbes’ list of wealthiest Americans have a net worth of $144.7 billion. This fiscal year three Waltons—Rob, Jim, and Alice (and the various entities that they control)—will receive an estimated $3.1 billion in Walmart dividends from their majority stake in the company.

The Waltons aren’t just the face of the 1%; they’re the face of the 0.000001%. The Waltons have more wealth than 42% of American families combined.

Why does all of this matter? While the Waltons are building billion-dollar museums, driving million-dollar cars, and jumping between vacation homes, Walmart, the country’s largest private employer, is paying its associates an average of $8.81 an hour. The Waltons make billions a year off of a company most of them don’t even work for, while Walmart associates struggle for respect on the job and enough pay to make ends meet.

http://walmart1percent.org/family/

Koch bros...

Koch Brothers Net Worth Tops $100 Billion as TV Warfare Escalates
By David de Jong Apr 17, 2014 7:53 AM CT


David H. Koch, executive vice president and a board member of Koch Industries Inc., at... Read More

Charles and David Koch, the billionaire brothers who run Wichita, Kansas-based Koch Industries Inc., added $1.3 billion to their collective fortune yesterday on reports that U.S. industrial production gained more than forecast. The surge elevated their net worth to more than $100 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-04-16/koch-brothers-worth-100-billion-buying-printers-to-ads.html

[Dirty Socialist]

91. 3 instances of sickness in a year and

I would be fired!

[nashville_brook]

93. one of the people who testified for sick days here was an assisted living worker

someone who does everyday living help, like assisting patients to the dining hall.

she came down with strep throat. no sick days. they said she had to come into work and wear a face mask -- which she brought in for testimony…splatter on with blood. it was in a baggie. i was horrified.

another person worked for Dillards and had an acute gall bladder attack that landed her in the hospital -- either come to work or lose your job was their offer.

it's inhumane, and insane what we've done to our society and public health.

[Crunchy Frog]

92. Good and valid points about the US system, but

We're nowhere near the point o "Dickensian" yet, though many forces in our society are certainly working on pushing us in that direction.

I don' see us having a major Ebola outbreak, and thik that is simply alarmist. The lack of paid sick leave is much more of a problem with common and easily transmitted infections like influenza. It's much more exciting to worry about Ebola, though.

[DirkGently]

108. Maybe the conservative obsession with Ebola is

... a way to cut through our country's general obliviousness to the risk of allowing short-sighted "job creators" to dicate health policy.

As it stands, we routinely allow companies to force someone to come to work to make a taco, change bed linens, drive a bus full or children, or even administer health care, ill, under threat of firing should they stay home.

Perhaps a bit of hyperbole and doom-saying before the actual doom is warranted?

[defacto7]

95. This is so Kicked and Rec'ed

n/t

[Spider Jerusalem]

97. Chart is wrong, or possibly out of date.

Statutory leave entitlement in the UK is 28 days, not 20 (for full-time employees working a five-day week).

[spanone]

99. k&r...

[Katashi_itto]

100. Go Ebola!

[RKP5637]

101. GO USA! At the bottom of the list, as usual. n/t

[raccoon]

102. Just sort the list the other way, and we'll be # 1! nt

[RKP5637]

103. Yep, lol, I got the chart upside down!

[My Good Babushka]

104. If you think "Dickension" is a hyperbole

then you are out of touch with low wage employment in America.
A woman died in her car, overcome by gas fumes and carbon monoxide, between shifts at four part-time jobs.
A 32 year old woman died while demonstrating a vacuum cleaner because she lacked health care.
Amazon is using up weeks of workers' lives making them stand in line, unpaid, for security checks.
It's hard to imagine the kind of circumstances that would incite a liberal, progressive site to mobilize, if this just ain't doing it fer ya.

[nashville_brook]

105. spot-on! thank you!!

Dickensian is exactly the right word and the folks who have a problem with it have obviously been privileged to avoid low-wage work.

[DirkGently]

106. Always find it odd

... that the existence of even more appalling conditions in other places is somehow grounds for dismissing appalling conditions here. Apparently everything is peachy until we have Rio-style cardboard box ghettos with open sewers and child gangs picking pockets to survive.

I guess that's where our conservative friends want to take us.

The woman doing the vacuum demo was here in Florida, by the way. She had two kids but fell into the Medicare gap Gov. Rick Scott refuses to allow the ACA to fill, if I recall correctly.

[marions ghost]

107. The graph says it all

How could anyone argue that Americans don't go to work sick? And that it's not a health threat?

WHY do we put up with this lack of paid leave time?

Americans just don't know how it's so different in other countries. And the implications of that for health in general. That's all you can conclude. Ignorance among the downtrodden lower to middle class and willful ignorance among the rich exploiters.

[librechik]

109. I've been saying this everyday since the threat began

US is set up like a third world country in regard to the health "system"

It's going to be ugly. Just like we deserve for believing the vile notion that healthcare is a for-profit industry.

[nashville_brook]

110. it's insane that we let people to die every year of less dramatic illnesses

as if it's just the way it HAS to be. as if there's nothing to be done.

[librechik]

111. that's the way totalitarianism works

the people are taught that change is impossible and then they believe it.

[nashville_brook]

112. yes indeed -- and it's so depressing to see

even folks here at DU giving full-throated support to "nothing to be done."

[librechik]

115. I know, that's why

I think we lost our chance for change, and now we are just in stasis waiting for the more severe police/surveillance measures.

Or maybe we don't have to wait. That's about as bad as it can be too.

[stopwastingmymoney]

113. My first thought on seeing that headline

Was understaffed hospitals, overworked nurses and orderlies.

People make mistakes when tired and stressed, it could be a real factor.