Ship of Fools
We are all on an infected cruise ship run by people who have been promoted to their highest level of incompetence (credit to the Peter Principle).
The latest example is demonstrated in the new CDC guidelines for essential workers. “Previous recommendations suggested self-isolating for 14 days now the CDC is changing that rule to get people back to work - faster. “
Clear instructions, designed to be understood and followed by everyone are essential in crises.
Instead, the CDC suggests all essential employees take their temperature before going to work, but do not specify what temperature is too high. I could not find that information on the CDC site. 98.7? 99.0?
In addition, the CDC tells employers to assess their employees for symptoms before they start work.
Some people have always gone to work despite being sick. People need money and they need to keep their job to keep their health insurance.
I guess the CDC assumes that all supervisors are junior diagnosticians who are familiar with Covid-19 symptoms and have the skills to detect headaches in others, differentiate between a smoker cough and a Covid-19 cough, and tell the difference between an overweight out of shape employee and someone with shortness of breath due to Covid-19.
The employer’s need for “healthy” employees to maintain their business could influence their screening standards. This would increase the possibility of spreading Covid-19 at the workplace, further stress essential businesses, and prolong the pandemic.
This new set of guidelines also means that employees can no longer use their own judgment to self isolate for 14 days as under the previous guidelines. They also would not be eligible for sick leave or unemployment benefits unless their employer approved their self isolation.
I know we live in uncertain times and everyone wants answers, but we should hope for clearer guidelines before the ship goes down.
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