Let’s say there was no such thing as COVID-19–nothing out there but the stuff that’s always out there: the flu, bad colds, bronchitis, etc. And let’s forget all about mandatory face masks and social distancing.
You have a really bad cold, or the flu. You’re sick. Quite sick, in fact. Does that mean you go to work anyway? Go to your bridge club? Sit there sniffling and sneezing in a crowded movie theater?
No. It’s only common sense: no. You stay home until you’re better. That way you don’t pass your germs around to others. Do we really need a “new normal” to figure out that? Do we really need the government to throw another bunch of mandates at us?
If you’re sick, stay home. If everybody had done this in the first place, we probably wouldn’t have wound up shutting down our economy for months on end and driving everybody crazy. Healthy people can go to places and do things that sick people should avoid until they’re better. We do not need the government to tell us that. And we might have saved a couple thousand businesses from going under. It wouldn’t have been so much fun for tinpot tyrant mayors and governors, but it would’ve been a lot easier on America.
It would be a good thing if we learned this lesson.
And then we could start a discussion of the folly of hyper-urbanization. That’s another thing we need to learn.
It all seems so simple. What has always worked would continue to work just fine. That is until “shadow
government” and their agenda decided to use any means of taking control, and what amazes me is that
the general public are acting like a bunch of mindless sheep.
And I, as well.
Ah, if only that were so. My husband was an IT guy before going on disability, working contracts in several provinces, both civilian and government, hired by but US and Canadian based contracting companies. One constant in all the offices he worked in, was that one sick employee who would come in to work while sick, just to “prove” what good, dedicated self-sacrificing employees they were. So there they would be, hacking and coughing and sneezing in the cubical, making no real effort to cover their mouth or nose. Inevitably, half the office would end up sick. They would stay home while sick, while the guy that started it all would have recovered by then, and he would be sitting in the office, complaining about all those lazy people staying home sick, instead of being a hard worker like him.
There were a few times our entire family got sick because of that “one guy” at work, who wouldn’t stay home. And it’s not like in some situations, where people have no choice because they can’t afford to stay home. My husband and his co-workers had very generous sick leave available.
This is why I’ve said, pretty much since the beginning of the pandemic responses, that it’s not so much that I want to detract from the seriousness of this particular virus, but that I wished people would take the common cold or annual flu more seriously. Long before this viral strain showed up, every public washroom had signs showing how to wash your hands to prevent the spread of viruses and bacteria. Pretty much every grocery or department store, shopping mall or government building already had hand sanitizer stations at the doors or throughout the buildings. We were already being encouraged to cough into our elbows. But hardly anyone was doing it.
But then things got crazy, and now with the mandatory masks, the common sense actions are falling by the wayside, because everyone is wearing their magic talisman – and where masks are mandatory, cases are increasing.
Unfortunately, a lot of companies pressure employees not to use sick leave. I worked for one company which would ding your annual review if you had more than three instances of sick leave, unless you were in the hospital. It’s one of those passive-aggressive things; we love you and are granting you sick leave, but don’t you dare use it.
Oh, my, yes. That is a major problem, too. Thank God the last company my husband worked for was not like that.
Showing up to work sick as a dog was an early form of virtue signalling.
I hadn’t thought of it that way, before!