What’s helping the ‘tripledemic’ spread? Working parents without paid sick time

Between RSV, the flu, Covid and now Strep A, working parents need paid sick time to lower the chances of them sending sick kids to school.

America’s children are facing an unprecedented “tripledemic” of RSV, the flu and still-prevalent Covid-19, while new threats like Strep A loom. Years of necessary Covid precautions have reduced exposure to illness in early life and in utero, leaving young children at risk of more frequent and more serious illnesses due to their unprepared immune systems. Pediatric health leaders are calling for a national emergency response as children’s hospitals across the country run out of beds. 

Yet instead of summoning every tool at our disposal to keep kids safe, we are fighting infection with our hands tied behind our backs because far too many in this country do not have paid sick time. Parents without paid sick days are nearly twice as likely to send a sick child to school or child care — the inevitable result of the impossible choice between caring for their children and providing for them.

Sending sick children to school or child care means depriving them of the rest and care they need to recover, risking their health in the face of overwhelmed hospitals and medication shortages.

Sending sick children to school or child care means depriving them of the rest and care they need to recover, risking their health in the face of overwhelmed hospitals and medication shortages. Forcing parents to send sick kids to school or child care also spreads disease to other children as well as to teachers and child care providers, who then bring illness home to their loved ones and out into their communities. 

Many states and cities have taken the lead and guaranteed their workers paid sick time, with demonstrated, powerful benefits from reducing disease transmission to lowering emergency room visits to higher rates of flu shots. Others should join them as the fight for federal paid sick time rights continues.