Help prevent people from spreading the flu

The flu has descended upon us. Misery abounds and death is occurring. Well, here are some ideas to help reduce the spreading of this disease.

First, I suspect the largest transmission of flu occurs from sick people infecting others by going to work instead of staying home. One way to combat this would be to not allow employees to use sick days as vacation. If employees can do this, they will see staying home sick as eliminating a day of fun instead. I don’t know how to fix things, I’m just saying it should be addressed.

Subsets of the above transmission syndrome are restaurant workers and mass transit which is where I believe most of the deed is done. In restaurants, people are by definition eating food handled by others, and if those others are sick, there’s a good chance some diners will become sick too. With mass transit, dozens of strangers are crowded into confined spaces for extended periods of time. Both these situations are the dreams of communicable disease.

For restaurants, I would suggest owners instigate programs where all their employees get their temperatures checked when they show up for work (forehead scanners make this a ridiculously easy task). I’d sure be prone to eat at a place I knew no worker was running a fever.

For mass transit, give riders a discount if they are already wearing or put on a freely provided respiratory face mask. Promoting face masks as a social norm would be especially beneficial.

This story was originally published January 26, 2017 at 6:04 PM with the headline "Help prevent people from spreading the flu."