Opinion: Skirting COVID-19 Guidance Hurts American Workers

The following is an editorial based on the author's experience with getting the coronavirus. The views expressed are the writer's own.

I've been so lucky for most of the coronavirus pandemic that it's downright gross. My job has been stable, my parents have been vaccinated, and my life and work have primarily kept me at home anyway. I could pitch a thinkpiece around the premise of "the COVID lockdown helped me discover yoga," and two-dozen editors of Manhattan-headquartered news outlets, whose lives require no in-person interactions outside of the service workers they expose to the virus, would eat it up.

It shouldn't be this way. More than 500,000 Americans have died from the virus. Between 10 and 20 million people remain unemployed, according to the Department of Labor. Businesses have shuttered, millions have lost their employer-provided health insurance, and the national eviction moratorium will expire March 31 unless politicians take actions.

Working Americans have faced two separate pandemic experiences. Many of us with white-collar jobs have been able to continue our work from home. But workers haven't been so lucky if their jobs require face-to-face labor.

When the pandemic began, my reporting job went from mostly work-at-home to almost entirely remote. There just aren't many things that require in-person coverage in a pandemic. My wife, however, has worked in two stores this past year. So even when I caught COVID and she didn't, my virus somehow still impacted her more than me.

I felt feverish. My body ached. I lost my sense of smell. I shivered with a hoodie and two blankets covering me, while my wife slept in another room, atop our blanket, with the window wide-open. But my job gives me flexible time off. And I knew as soon as I felt good enough, I could make my commute from the bed to the living room and resume work.

My wife, however, had to leave work as soon as my rapid test came back positive. They told her to take a week off, but she didn't have sufficient PTO and wouldn't get paid for it. She tested negative.

I took a PCR test the next day, since sometimes the rapid tests offer false results. It came back positive a few days later. My wife kept testing negative. But a contact tracer from the New Jersey Department of Health told me she should also stay at home for 10 more days.

That's about two weeks of lost wages. The contact tracer said she should file for unemployment insurance. She did, and it took about a month for that money to arrive, as it always does with unemployment. And we needed that money then and there. It would've been even worse if both our jobs required in-person labor, or if we both got sick.

I only leave home for two reasons: to walk my dog or go to the gym. I live on the eighth floor of my apartment building, so I take the elevator. Some of my neighbors stopped wearing masks months ago. I even catch some of our staff without masks. My apartment building offers a senior discount, so we have plenty of elderly residents. But that doesn't matter to some people.

Each patron can only enter my gym after a temperature check and a few questions about their health, but these provide a false sense of security. Many gym-goers wear their masks below their noses, and staff never tell them otherwise.

So thanks to somebody's carelessness, my family lost out on weeks of wages. I'm not mad about taking precautions to slow the spread of COVID-19. My wife and I have been serious about safety the entire pandemic.

I'm mad because the United States has put the entire burden of this pandemic on the working class, while giving those workers and their families so little in return. It's the employee's responsibility to work in dangerous conditions, only to have to sacrifice wages when they're potentially exposed to the virus. They're "heroes" who didn't ask for this and get nothing in return.

It doesn't have to be this way. Dr. Michael Osterholm — a member of President Joe Biden's COVID-19 Advisory Board — proposed in November a 4-6 week national lockdown in which the federal government covers all losses.

Other countries have nearly eliminated or at least competently managed the coronavirus through this approach. We're all sick of staying inside. But if we did a real, thorough lockdown last year, your kids would be back in school, you wouldn't have to worry as much about quarantines, and your favorite activities would be available.

“We could pay for a package right now to cover all of the wages, lost wages for individual workers, for losses to small companies, to medium-sized companies or city, state, county governments. We could do all of that,” Osterholm told Yahoo Finance. “If we did that, then we could lock down for 4 to 6 weeks.”

But Biden, then president-elect, said eight days later that "there is no circumstance which I can see that would require a total national shutdown." So much for believing in science.

The recently passed American Rescue Plan Act isn't all bad. But like the CARES Act and December's COVID-19 Economic Relief Bill — both passed under President Donald Trump's administration — it falls short of the moment.

Twelve-million renters were at least $5,850 behind in rent and utility payments as of December, according to The Washington Post. The current stimulus package won't suffice as the national eviction moratorium expires at the end of the month. (If you live in New Jersey, this doesn't apply to you. The Garden State's eviction moratorium will last up to two months after Gov. Phil Murphy stops renewing the continuous COVID-19 states of emergency.)

The point is, neither Democrats or Republicans aren't doing enough to help the American people. We are our only hope. That means we must act carefully for the rest of the pandemic.

If you're in an elevator, mask up. When you're out in public, keep the mask above your nose. If you're dining at a restaurant, wear your mask whenever staff approaches your table. And leave an amazing tip. A careless decision could expose a worker and make their family miss out on weeks or months of wages. Or worse, they could get sick.

You might be stimulating the economy by patronizing these businesses. But if you're putting workers at risk, you're doing more harm than good. Our government has failed to protect us, but workers shouldn't have to do this alone.