I get paid to stay at home and do nothing!

If memory serves  me well, up until a couple of days ago, I had never ever taken a sick day through all these years of teaching.  Not once.  A few years ago, a student--Robert--who had taken a few classes of mine, joked loudly that I never cancel classes, unlike other faculty.  Unfair to the students, he said.

That streak ended.

The flu bug did not kill me, but merely inconvenienced me.

I am lucky that my employment always came with sick leave that I could take if I ever felt unwell.  But, this is not always the case with all the people.  

Back in the old country, it is only the minority who are employed in what we academics call the "formal sector" get such a privilege.  To the overwhelming majority, going to work when ill is to be expected.

That's how life was everywhere on this planet.  We were all poor and unhealthy.  As societies get prosperous, I expect us to become more caring about our fellow humans. But, even in the uber-rich USA, there are millions who don't have the privilege that I have.  Like the couple mentioned in this report:

Mark Moyer, 20, and Sarah Rogers, 22, were waiting for a note from Dr. Marna Rayl Greenberg.
Because of their hacking coughs, their boss at a local shipping warehouse had told them to leave and not return without a doctor’s note.
But Dr. Greenberg, the hospital’s vice chair of emergency medicine, produced notes certifying only that they were sick. “You need to be seen again, and then I can write you another one saying you’re well,” she said.
The couple, who had matching hand tattoos of the date they met, were clearly struggling. Their jobs pay only $9 an hour, and until they recently moved in with her parents, they had been living in a car.

If they don't show up for work, they lose their hourly wages.  

"Financial need, medical experts say, plays a big role in spreading flu: many Americans go to work sick because they cannot afford to miss days. "  

At least out of selfishness, I would  expect the heartless Americans to provide a safety-net for the struggling people.  Because, the virus spreads.  Easily.  "People with flu can spread it to others up to about 6 feet away. ... To avoid this, people should stay away from sick people and stay home if sick."

But, the family-friendly, Jesus-loving, white supremacist party that now controls all the branches of the federal government couldn't care about fellow humans. It is on a mission to shred to pieces even the little bit of safety net that we have managed to put together since the New Deal.

Oh well; even Jesus will not be able to forge a New Deal with the current version of the Grand Old Party!  The maniacal Republicans will rather excommunicate him first!