Working With Covid

The CDC’s updated recommendations for health care workers, which shows how need impacts policy.

By Kenna Rooney

Staff Reporter

February 2022

As Covid-19 has run rampant throughout the world for the last two years, it has touched the lives of every person on this earth. All 7.7 billion can attest to Covid changing their lives. Whether it be socially, economically, or mentally, people have suffered. Specifically, healthcare providers (HCP) have faced tremendous distress. Having to handle the nonstop cases at work and then come home to process it all, while still going through it personally is draining.

Recently, the CDC has brought down the quarantine time from ten days to five provided that people are asymptomatic. As long as people are up to date with their vaccinations and have no symptoms, healthcare providers no longer have any work restrictions. This is largely in part to the fact that there is not enough staff in their field.

A lot of workplaces are short staffed right now. As expressed by freshman Quetzalli Ortega, “A lot of people have stopped going to work and a lot of places need more people working.”

For healthcare workers, the pressure for those who’ve tested positive but are asymptomatic is even more consequential.While the majority of places are short-staffed, healthcare workers, who work with the most vulnerable people around, are coming in with positive tests.

At the beginning of the pandemic, the main focus was to flatten the curve of positivity, which meant people stayed home. Health care professionals were belittled for wanting to continue working if exposed. Now, that attitude has changed.

When asked about how they felt about people working while sick, an anonymous student said, “I mean if it’s a sniffle it’s not really a big deal, just make sure you’re covering your mouth and washing your hands. But if you have a whole cold or something worse where your stomach hurts, you have a headache, cough, etc. you shouldn’t be at work.”

The majority of students who were asked said that they thought it was inhumane to force people to work while sick. Another anonymous student commented, “It is inhumane because it is taking away choice. You choose to work a job, [but] you don’t choose to get sick.” The student added, “If you are forced to work in general besides for your own reasons, that is inhumane in general, but if it’s because of sickness, it is even worse because of the risks.”