Recovery at risk, paid sick days, premium wages

What are the odds of one person among the thousands who packed Toronto’s Trinity Bellwoods park Saturday carrying the virus that causes COVID-19?

We don’t know, of course. But it is reasonable to speculate the odds are quite good that at least one of the partiers is infected. They were, for the most part, 20-somethings, the least likely to get seriously ill, and most likely to have the virus and not even know it. No symptoms at all, or such mild symptoms they could be mistaken for seasonal allergies.

Now, think about what happened when all those thousands of young people dispersed. Think about how many would have exposed others to the virus, people who didn’t make the same mistakes but stand to pay the price — including serious illness and death.

All this because those thousands of people in the park were sick and tired of being isolated, from their friends, from nature, from the world. Join the club. One way to describe their actions is pathologically selfish. The majority at that park would have known they were putting themselves at risk, and would have known that means they were putting others at risk, too. They just didn’t care. They were so put upon by the indignities and deprivations of quasi-lockdown, they were compelled to put their own short-term interests ahead of everyone else’s.

So, does all this and the angst and anger that has come after, really matter?

The recent reversal that has seen new reported case numbers growing daily after weeks of decline is being blamed by many, including Health Minister Christine Elliott, on Mother’s Day. That’s when families began to loosen their lockdowns and mingle with friends and relatives.

Then came Doug Ford’s decision to begin reopening the economy, which with the benefit of hindsight looks premature. We have daily cases bouncing around the 400 mark, and warm weather has arrived. If the trend toward relaxing personal space and safety measures continues, we could easily find ourselves back on the pandemic curve in a place we don’t want to be. That’s why events like Trinity Bellwoods matter. They are putting recovery at risk.

One of the great injustices of the pandemic has been the plight of low-wage workers who literally cannot afford to stay home sick. It’s easy to criticize, but if you had to choose between going to work sick and paying your rent and food bills, you might very well make the same choices.

At the behest of the federal New Democrats, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has pledged to work with premiers to introduce 10 days of paid sick leave per year to deal with the pandemic and future similar threats, which unfortunately are guaranteed.

It’s a good and needed idea, but also a tall order. Ontario’s previous Liberal government had a plan to give workers three paid sick days. It was killed by the Ford government. Will Ford and his caucus change their tune having lived through the pandemic?

When the Ontario government announced its plan to pay a $4 hourly premium to front-line workers, the move was widely praised. Unfortunately, it wasn’t well thought out.

The problem is in defining front-line work. It’s no problem with nurses, including those in long-termcare homes. But what about people who work directly with those people? What about clerks, sterilization, maintenance and security staff, occupational therapists, pharmacists and lab technicians, to name just a few. Turns out they are excluded, and that’s not sitting well. Back to the drawing board.