Why 'stay home when sick' matters so much right now
CBC
"Stay home when sick" came before "mask up" as a message to prevent spread early in the COVID-19 pandemic. Now that influenza, RSV and other viruses have joined the mix, the original advice holds true more than ever, say some Canadian doctors.
The triple threat of respiratory viruses slamming pediatric hospitals across Canada add to longstanding pressures on health-care systems.
Of course, many workers don't have the luxury of staying home, leading to renewed calls for paid sick leave.
Earlier this month, Labour Minister Seamus O'Regan announced 10 days of paid sick leave for federally regulated private sector employees.
Dr. Andrew Boozary, an assistant professor of health policy at the University of Toronto, wants a similar sick-leave policy to be available for all Canadians, regardless of their socioeconomic status or barriers of inequity.
"We'd want to ensure that there is that alignment across the country as well as ease in accessing paid sick days," Boozary said in an interview.
Research from the U.S. suggests paid sick days are cost-effective and improve productivity, he said.
"Coming through the pandemic, we're seeing this now where various respiratory illnesses beyond just COVID are driving a real strain in the health-care system," said Boozary. "If we fail to learn the lessons of the pandemic on the importance of social policy, it's unclear as to how sustainable our current health-care system will be."
B.C. Seniors Advocate Isobel Mackenzie said researchers in that province studied factors associated with outbreaks and deaths from COVID-19 in the province's long-term care homes.
"Not surprisingly, in most outbreaks the sort of patient zero, if you will, with COVID was a staff member," Mackenzie said. Other people were not coming into the homes at the time.
"We know that those facilities that offered little or no paid sick leave were more likely to have large outbreaks than those who had more robust … paid sick leave for their staff."
Mackenzie praised B.C.'s move to introduce five paid sick days. Length of the entitlement varies across Canada.
Now as people go to school, work and socialize again, anything that helps put a dent in respiratory illnesses by reducing the possibility of a pathogen finding a vulnerable person is important, doctors say.
Dr. Laura Sauvé, a pediatric infectious diseases specialist in Vancouver, said many of the viruses going around now cause overlapping symptoms.
