“But in the face of an outbreak, a pandemic, what’s your options?”As I said, it’s almost funny: Everyone’s a socialist in a pandemic. But the laugh catches in your throat, because the only joke here is the sick one American society plays on workers every day. And Republicans’ interest in universal health care is ephemeral. The true embarrassment is that it took a possible pandemic for leaders to realize that the health of the American work force is important to the strength of the nation. If companies don’t pay workers when they’re off sick, they’ll have an incentive to work while ill, endangering everyone.

Source: New York Times March 11, 2020 09:00 UTC