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A comment on Farmworkers face coronavirus risk: ‘You can’t pick strawberries over Zoom’. Parent comment

Re:Farmworkers face coronavirus risk: ‘You can’t pick strawb... by munk-a on Wednesday April 01, 2020 @02:21PM (#22751892)
Who gets to choose who gets sick first - do remember that in the US a farm worker getting sick might bankrupt them and kill them not because a hospital bed isn't available - but because they can't afford it or end up having a heart attack after dealing with the stress of those costs.

Additionally Covid-19 isn't super fatal, but it isn't just a get sick and whatever disease. Folks with health problems absolutely can die from this disease and it looks like healthy people can end up being saddled with respiratory issues like Pneumonia which is a bucket of fun for the rest of your life.

I don't think you were intentionally being insensitive in this manner (even barring your disclaimer your point is balanced and reasoned - it isn't unnecessarily cruel and has grains of truth). But do recall that this disease can be fatal or otherwise debilitating - I'd find it reasonable to treat essential workers, like these farm labourers, like we treat vets[1] give them life long coverage from the government for any complication resulting from their labour.

I don't want some farm worker who kept working through this to end up bankrolling Aetna.

1. At least, how we act like we treat them - America is pretty terrible to veterans.

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Re:Farmworkers face coronavirus risk: ‘You can’t pick strawb... by delfinom on Wednesday April 01, 2020 @02:38PM (#22752098)
>Who gets to choose who gets sick first - do remember that in the US a farm worker getting sick might bankrupt them and kill them not because a hospital bed isn't available - but because they can't afford it or end up having a heart attack after dealing with the stress of those costs.

But this is literally a every day risk and problem with or without covid-19 as there is a whole host of diseases they could catch any day, especially the flu. The bigger problem is our shitty healthcare system.

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Re:Farmworkers face coronavirus risk: ‘You can’t pick strawb... by tluyben2 on Wednesday April 01, 2020 @03:05PM (#22752418)
The parent comment was about the healthcare system right? As a lot of that wouldn’t happen in a lot of countries so I assumed it was.
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