Shutdowns Are Here, Planned Or Not
Dec. 26th, 2021 11:59 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
canyonwalker"It's not like March 2020" talking heads assured us just 6 days ago, even though the data show it's worse. President Biden used that line, too, in a speech on Covid that day. Biden's point was that we won't have stay-home measures like we did then. But here's the thing: things are shutting down whether planned or not.
It's visible in the 1000s of flight cancellations the past few days. At a peak travel time airlines are finding themselves short-staffed— not because they laid off too many employees months ago but because huge percentages of their staff are staying home, sick, either with Covid or quarantining after exposure to Covid. The same thing is happening with restaurants, stores, and other businesses. They simply don't make the news the way widespread flight cancellations do.
Even one of my family members, "Tessa", has been impacted by a workplace exposure. ...No, not the one that infected her just over a year ago, but a new exposure at a different workplace. Now employees are scrambling to find tests and figure out what to do next. It appears the small firm has no sensible Coronavirus policy in place, so likely employees will continue coming to work sick, untested, and unmasked, until widespread sickness forces the company to shutdown temporarily.
Update: Two weeks later the unplanned shutdowns are spreading. I can't even get in to see my doctor because the whole practice is shut!
It's visible in the 1000s of flight cancellations the past few days. At a peak travel time airlines are finding themselves short-staffed— not because they laid off too many employees months ago but because huge percentages of their staff are staying home, sick, either with Covid or quarantining after exposure to Covid. The same thing is happening with restaurants, stores, and other businesses. They simply don't make the news the way widespread flight cancellations do.
Even one of my family members, "Tessa", has been impacted by a workplace exposure. ...No, not the one that infected her just over a year ago, but a new exposure at a different workplace. Now employees are scrambling to find tests and figure out what to do next. It appears the small firm has no sensible Coronavirus policy in place, so likely employees will continue coming to work sick, untested, and unmasked, until widespread sickness forces the company to shutdown temporarily.
Update: Two weeks later the unplanned shutdowns are spreading. I can't even get in to see my doctor because the whole practice is shut!
