Thread by @BillHanage

I liked this because I greatly respect @sdbaral's commitment on these issues, but in the current circumstances I think it is a lot more complicated than this thanks to all the non-linear aspects of infectious disease 1/n

https://twitter.com/sdbaral/status/1473449325057425413

If folks making deliveries had to negotiate poisonous gas, or a horde of vicious venomous kittens from which others were insulating themselves, then sure. But that’s not so here. The force of infection in the community depends on opportunities the virus has for transmission 2/n

If staff in a grocery store are packing deliveries rather than working the till they are still exposed to their coworkers – but they are not being exposed to people who would otherwise be shopping and providing a highway for the virus into a new host, be it staff or customer 3/n

Or staff in a restaurant working to prepare food for take out. Again, they’re not being exposed to the customers, and the risk of an outbreak that will temporarily shut the whole operation down is reduced, because fewer contacts 4/n

These industries by the way need support, the next month or so will be horrible (if only through staff being sick, or customers choosing to stay away), and we should work to keep the businesses in our communities afloat. Those with the $ to support should do so 5/n

(indeed if we can bail out banks after a crisis with its origins in greed, why can't we bail out the likes of hospitality in the face of an extraordinarily transmissible virus?) 6/n

One of the grosser elements of the last few years has been seeing trolls posting stuff like this, when they could be talking about persistent inequities in access to PPE, to vaccines, to sick pay among many other things (it's almost as if they're not in good faith) 7/n

We should provide sick pay. Why in the name of heaven have we been unable to countenance something as simple as that, so that the sick person does not go to work and expose others? relevant too in the context of shifting advice from CDC nytimes.com/2021/12/27/hea… 8/n

In conclusion, given what is likely to be a short but very intense period of transmission, there are things we can do to avoid contributing to it. Some of us are more able to do that than others, and we can advocate for those who are less fortunate 9/end