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Provide Aid to Families of Essential Workers Who Have Lost Their Lives to COVID-19
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Sponsor: The Breast Cancer Site
They made the ultimate sacrifice. Let's help their families pay for their final expenses.
As the COVID-19 virus ravages the planet, many Americans are furloughed or working from home, so they can stay out of harm’s way. However, there are others who cannot avoid being potentially exposed to the virus, because they are considered “essential workers” and must continue risking their health and even their lives to serve the public.1 Many of them have not been provided with proper safety equipment and protocols,2 and some, like the NYC transit workers, have even been penalized at times for wearing their own protective masks.3
These employees, who work in healthcare, transportation, infrastructure, agriculture, food service, maintenance, manufacturing, financial services, and more, are both heroes and victims. They deserve better than they’re getting, and in the case where they contract the virus and pay the ultimate price for their “essential worker” title, their grieving families should not have to find a way to pay for their healthcare costs and funerals.
The internet is buzzing with stories about healthcare workers and other essential employees who have been exposed to COVID-19,4 contracted the virus, and in some cases, even lost their lives to the disease. For those who die, funerals are bleak affairs—either postponed until the end of social distancing rules or going forward with limited numbers of guests. Only closed-casket events are allowed.5 The deceased are lowered into the ground by grave diggers in hazmat suits as their families stand a distance.6 There are no final face-to-face goodbyes, no hugs between people from different households, no comfort for the dying or for the mourners.
The heroes who lost their lives while they worked to support their communities deserve so much better than this. We owe it to them, at the very least, to make sure that their grieving families have one less thing to worry about during an incredibly difficult time. They already have to figure out how life will go on without their loved ones; they shouldn’t have to worry about how to pay for their loved ones’ medical bills and final expenses.
Essential workers’ healthcare expenses should not be their responsibility, because it was not their choice to put their health on the line. And in the event that the disease takes their lives, their bereaved families should not have to worry about their medical and funeral expenses.
Sign the petition to tell the president and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to create a fund for aid to the families of the essential workers who have fallen ill and even died of COVID-19. This is the least we can do for our nation’s unsung heroes.