"If you're sick, stay home." That's the Big Lesson everyone needs to learn from the latest virus panic. It is ancient wisdom that has been largely ignored for at least the past 60 years, especially once antibiotics became readily available to the general public. Folks seem to think they can just pop a pill and go on about life, never stopping to think about who they are exposing to their illness.
My mother went to nurses' training school in the early 1930s, before antibiotics were commonly available. Skilled nursing care was what pulled folks through serious illness back then. My mother loved to care for sick people, and she was good at it. Consequently, when one of her children was sick, we were stuffed into bed and cared for, whether we liked it or not. A favorite remedy for a bad cold or bronchitis was to rub my chest with with Vicks Vaporub, place a damp towel over it, followed by a plastic bag, a dry towel and the heating pad. I was required to lie there and cook for what seemed like hours. And the plastic bag inevitably tickled my neck in the most annoying fashion.
Because my mother made me stay home and in bed when I was sick, I missed a lot of school. I still have all of my report cards from grades 1-12, and, just for fun, I got them out and added up all of my absences. I missed over a year of school! Yet I was still valedictorian of my graduating class. You can see why I laugh every time I see a public school's reader board proclaiming that attendance is the key to success in school.
No, attendance is the key to state and/or federal funding for schools. I am convinced that is why schools have become such sticklers for attendance. They don't care if the kid is sick: just get them to school where they can be counted for the day and keep the money rolling in! I sincerely hope school funding and attendance policies are re-considered before the next school year begins.
And while I'm on my attendance rant, I was never impressed when a classmate had perfect attendance. It only meant he/she had come to school sick, exposed me to their germs, and then Nurse Mama made me stay in bed for a week. There should be no awards for perfect attendance. Period.
How about attendance policies for employees? There's another problem that needs to be addressed. My oldest daughter worked for several years for one of the Big Box stores. Basically, if she could stand up, she was expected to show up for work. How many times over the years have you gone through a checkout stand and observed the cashier with a red nose, flushed cheeks, laryngitis, and a cough? That person should have stayed home, and the employer ought to have insisted on it.
Hospitals are even worse. Nobody should be at work at a hospital when they are sick. My younger daughter was a phlebotomist at a big hospital for a few years. She, too, was expected to show up for work unless she had an appointment set up with the mortician. This is a health care facility, fer cryin' out loud! Why should someone with stomach flu or a bad cold be spreading germs to already-sick patients, not to mention co-workers? Yes, they have masks and gloves to wear, but still, if I was a patient I would be very unhappy to find an obviously-ill hospital employee caring for me.
Unfortunately, hospitals (around here, at least) are chronically understaffed. If someone is sick, there may be no one else to take their place. This needs to be addressed, too, even if it means hiring more supplemental employees.
It doesn't matter if you have COVID-19, influenza, a stomach bug, or the common cold: If you are sick, stay home. That's the way it always should have been, and the way it ought to be from here on out. Nobody has ever wanted to share your germs, and nobody is ever going to want to share your germs.
