"Thank you, heroes!"
Remember those early days of COVID, when we had solidarity AND a modicum of government support?
My Facebook memories in March bring me back to those days when the U.S. started to shut down for COVID.
I don’t mind telling you I was really scared.
Scared in general, for everyone, including … everyone.
But also, scared for my husband.
For 20+ years, he has been Physician Assistant in primary care.
He works at a rural family practice. In March and April, they did not have the personal protective equipment they should have had, thanks to … well, a lot of factors you all probably well remember.
I was also scared because … well, not for nothing, I have had anxiety and OCD throughout my life, so while I’m a shit-kicker and unruly in many ways, I’m also a fraidy cat. A few years before COVID, I had been fixated and obsessing about a global pandemic of bird flu. So … it was bananas to have a pandemic actually happen.
Suddenly I couldn’t say my obsessions or anxieties were irrational anymore.
Suddenly other people were invited into the brain of someone with generalized anxiety disorder and/or Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder.
One day my husband came home from the grocery store and said something like—
Husband: I can’t believe I have to keep track of everything I touched, and wether I touched my face, and what other people have touched, and where germs and viruses might be lingering…
Me: That’s literally how I’ve lived every day of my life since fourth grade.
Husband: For real? How can that be? It’s exhausting.
Well yes, it is exhausting, thankyouverymuch.
So a strange side-effect of the pandemic was that suddenly my Generalized Anxiety Disorder was something most people experienced, at least for a brief window.
The thing is, though, for those of us with this disorder, it never ends. I’m glad y’all feel better now because you don’t have to worry so much or keep track of everything you’ve touched today in your head.
Have a thought for those of us who don’t feel better, and never did before the pandemic either.
(Also the pandemic normalized sanitizing wipes for grocery carts so that was kind of nice for people like me not to feel like such a weirdo, although it goes without saying I’d rather feel like a weirdo than have lost all the people who died from the pandemic.)
Anyway.
Another gripe I want to gripe is the end of the government’s pandemic response.
Quick side salad: don’t let anyone tell you that a universal basic income and/or debt forgiveness is impossible or doesn’t work to lift people out of poverty. We had it —under Trump no less— and it worked.
Ok. But the difference between systemic, government responses and the “invisible hand of capitalism” in a nutshell:
No more support for people staying home when they are sick. Acutely with COVID, or suffering from long COVID.
No more support for immunocompromised folks having some modicum of support and safety.
I’ll bring it home for an example.
Remember all those “Thank you, Heroes?” and “Heroes work here!” banners and signs on hospitals and clinics during the pandemic?
There were huge ones on Duke Hospital. On billboards. Someone even chalked “Thank you heroes!” on the sidewalk outside my husband’s clinic.
It was literally a surface-level project, but it was nice. My husband continued to work as a P.A. at a rural, family practice clinic during the pandemic. It was weird, it was scary, it was exhausting, it was important.
In December 2020, my family got COVID. First my husband, then my son, then me, one or two days apart, like dominoes. We isolated from each other (I never tested positive — tests weren’t widely available; we were 99.9% sure I had it, but my symptoms were different than the boys’, so we didn’t risk it - until I lost my sense of smell on day 13 and we called off isolation one day early).
We were all very, very sick but not hospital sick, thank God. We recover, with truly bonkers-level amazing support from family, friends, and community. My husband takes the *CDC recommended* number of days off with pay because this is a national emergency and there is government support for sick days from COVID.
Fast-forward to January 2024.
My husband is working at the same clinic. We both get COVID. (Sam manages not to get sick! Isolation works! Vaccines work! He stays healthy but gets VERY tired of making grilled cheese sandwiches for us!) Husband and I are both miserably sick. He takes the *CDC recommend* number of days off of work. It’s down to 5 now.
These 5 days he takes off for COVID are not provided as a set-aside. Even for “essential workers” who might spread the disease to vulnerable populations. Nup. The national emergency is over. So if a healthcare provider gets COVID, their compulsory five days is taken out of their PTO.
My husband’s PTO does not distinguish between vacation or sick leave.
So he “gets” to use 5 vacation days for having COVID to follow the CDC’s guidelines.
And he is reminded to count himself lucky that he gets PTO at all. And we do, we do count ourselves lucky that he has PTO.*
I don’t necessarily have beef with PTO being a mix of sick and/or vacay time. My beef is with not having a paid set-aside for COVID. Especially in schools, healthcare, and “frontline” services, where folks are (1) more likely to get Covid and (2) it’s imperative they don’t spread it.
So he goes back to work, masked, following CDC guidelines, but still feeling quite crappy. Me, I didn’t have sick leave so I simply take the time I need: three weeks. Three weeks before I feel any better.
This is just one teeny tiny aspect of the healthcare system in America. And the consequences of ending the national emergency and American’s “bootstrap” bullshit that lifts up stories of Go-Fund-Mes getting funded but calls you a radical commie socialist antifa weirdo if you actually think the goverment should (a) function and (b) provide people with healthcare, UBI, good housing, and so much more.
What if it did, though?
What if we expected, demanded, that our government be a functioning and functional democracy that provides excellent schools, healthcare, and housing; universal basic income; universal employment to those who want it; sustainable energy sources; excellent public transportation; wonderful public parks; carbon remediation; and so much more?
We’re told that it’s impossible.
It’s not impossible. It’s just impossible within our current system.
Let’s make some changes.
XOXO
*Overseas folks often wonder why Americans don’t travel more. We’re not worldly. Well, here’s a great example of why. Paid time off from work is NOT a given — it’s the “really good, full-time jobs” that offer it. And if you have it, PTO is often a mix of sick/vacation days - sick days includes if you’re sick (obviously) but also if your child is sick, if you or your child/ren have medical appointments, or if you need to take time off work to care for an elder or child. Ten days of PTO per year is a GENEROUS starting offer. And, no, we Americans can’t just quit our jobs to travel. Our jobs are how we get health insurance.
The employment and healthcare system in Germany is much more comprehensive and fair than in the USA. However, for reasons I do not understand, the USA per capita GDP is 21% greater (purchase price parity basis). This is in spite of the USA's greater number of poorly educated minimum wage workers. Could it be that the USA system of cutthroat capitalism is more economically efficient, if less fair and humane? More desperate people tend to work harder? As in multiple jobs? Minimum vacation days here, by law, is 20 per year. The average is 28 days, in addition to paid sick days.