Supermarket chain prohibits wearing face mask and employee killed

It may not be possible to have more than one and a half million deaths per million Kovid-19 in the United States, A company prohibits its employees from wearing face masks.

But it happened in one Florida’s largest supermarket chain, When the coronovirus was at the highest point of contagion and was spreading rapidly throughout the world.

During that period, 70-year-old Gerardo Gutierrez worked in a supermarket branch called Publix en Miami Beach.

Yet he died in April, TRHow to get kovid-19 in march, When the epidemic was declared, In which Italy was entering a national imprisonment leading to a surprise in the West and the dead still number in the United States.

“We were all in a panic by now,” the plaintiff recalls her daughter, Ariane, in a civil case against Publix for wrongful death.

A colleague of Gutierrez, who Symptoms of the virus were, Confirms that supermarket chains prohibited the use of face masks with the intention of “scaring their customers”

“The result is that my father passed away. He went to work every day without any type of mask or gloves, and he did not allow him to use them,” his daughter denounced.

By ordering the closure of the lockout and its beaches in Miami Beach on March 23, Publix waited until the first week of April Allow your workers to voluntarily wear face masks, according to demand.

The policy change came late for Guterz, who was already very ill. He was hospitalized on 10 April and on 28 April his friends and family were expelling him for the zoom. He died that day.

Arian says, “He loved swimming. He was very active, very important. He could live many more years.”

Two weeks ago, a judge denied a request by the supermarket chain to treat the complainant as a workers’ compensation claim and not a lawsuit.

“We keep paying”

In early March, Miami Beach was still in the midst of its most touristy season. This is the time when students across the country They take spring break And they celebrate their youth on the beaches of Florida as if there is no tomorrow.

A lot was said about Unwanted party atmosphere From Miami to this island, when much of the country was adopting the rules of social distinction for the first time – until then unknown.

“People were slow to notice. And we still haven’t paid attention to it.” Miss arian gutierrez

Health officials did not initially recommend public use of face masks, so that to guarantee The medical staff There was enough stock.

“This message was a major strategic public health mistake at the beginning of the epidemic,” says Poornima Madhivanan, an epidemiologist at the University of Arizona.

Also, in a great way for health workers and scientists, The mask became a political statement Because Donald Trump, who was president, refused to wear it for months. Sometimes he even teased those who did so.

“Those mixed messages confuse people. And we continue to pay for it. Masks are necessary.” Epidemiologists say.

Stay with kovid

One of these lessons, according to the expert, is that, “As much as we want to say that science is strong, science is only as good as messengers communicate.”

A January study at the University of Southern California found that a large majority of Americans (between 80 and 90 percent) believe Wearing a mask is an effective way to protect yourself Against Kovid-19, but only half of them use them consistently.

“It shows that knowledge does not necessarily translate into behavior,” Madhuvanan said.

Initially sE believed that hot weather killed the virus, That shopping bags had to be disinfected, that race was a factor, suggesting that inequality was a factor and that many, such as Gutierrez, suffered misinformation.

“Some things have changed, but others, such as the use of masks, should be commonplace in the West, as they are in Asian countries. We have to live with kovid, There will never be a time when we can say that Kovid will leave. We need to learn to manage it, Like the flu, warns epidemiologist.

LG