Wednesday, May 27, 2020

What if you can't reopen?

One of my biggest concerns regarding all the "reopening" is that for people who can't or don't want to reopen, there doesn't seem to be an option. What if you have a chronic disease or are otherwise at high risk of infection or serious complications from COVID-19? Or what if you live with or care for someone who is? If your business reopens and you are called back to work, can you just say, "No thanks, it's not safe for me yet," and continue collecting unemployment?

Someone I'm connected to on Facebook posted about this recently (claiming her daughter is a hairdresser clamoring to go back to work), and I shared these thoughts. She said that [in our state, at least] people can stay on unemployment if they're unable to return to work. That sounds like a good option. However, I haven't seen anything else written about that, and I've seen a lot written to the contrary, like the tweets here. If you're aware of an option to not return to work even if it reopens, please reassure me by leaving a comment!

Other arguments against reopening and relaxing restrictions right now? How about Coronavirus infections are rising as states reopen, potentially signaling a second wave? "New daily cases of COVID-19 — which have been falling for weeks, both nationally and in the hardest-hit metropolitan areas — suddenly and simultaneously started to rise in more than a dozen states. ... Most of the affected states were among the first to reopen in late April or early May ... One of [the conditions to reopen] was a 'downward trajectory of documented cases within a 14-day period.' Few if any of the early-to-open states met this benchmark. Then they reopened anyway."

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