
Amazon is sued over warehouses after New York worker brings coronavirus home - laurex
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus-amazon-com-lawsuit/amazon-is-sued-over-warehouses-after-new-york-worker-brings-coronavirus-home-cousin-dies-idUSKBN23A3FI
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slynn12
This is going to be controversial, but Amazon in my mind is one of those
companies that gets a pass. They needed to move fast and get people supplies.
If that hadn't, there would have been bigger issues.

Very sad all of this is happening, but Amazon should get a little slack.

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threatofrain
In the context of national lockdown, Amazon is basically of national security
importance right now as Amazon not working right would’ve killed any lockdown
strategy. America doesn’t have enough slack for Amazon to bow out in any way.

This should’ve been very clear when we talk about any shutdown — things were
never going to work if we all insisted on the same level of sacrifice. Amazon
workers must keep working, just as food and transportation workers had to keep
going at any cost, and next will be the teachers inside closed rooms with 30
or 40 kids.

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Avicebron
Isn't it a little questionable that we are discussing one singular company as
being a requirement for a country to remain functional? is this peak
capitalism, a monopoly has a country by it's throat and doesn't pay taxes in
said country?

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krapp
>is this peak capitalism, a monopoly has a country by it's throat and doesn't
pay taxes in said country?

It's not actually true. I'm not aware of any lockdown or shelter in place
orders which don't allow people to buy food or necessities, and plenty of
essential businesses remain open, and also deliver.

Also, the vast majority of items being shipped by Amazon remain non-essential
goods. Amazon may well be helping people, but their necessity in keeping the
country running is overstated.

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HenryBemis
It is unfortunate that this happened, and good luck proving that in court.
Unless the virus that killed him had a unique trace/DNA/something that can
show that the cousing contracted this from the employee, and that the employee
contracted that from another employee, that she would only meet through work
(i.e. they didn't make love, have lunch, take a stroll holding hands, etc.). I
am not trying to judge the people, but it is difficult to prove that "THIS"
happened only during my "9 to 5", and only within Amazon walls.

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throwaway_jobs
> and good luck proving that in court

Far less than 10% of cases will ever go to trial, so odds are this will settle
far before ever going to a jury and having to prove anything.

Otherwise I don’t think it is a very difficult case to win, as the other
commenter mentioned it’s a civil case so the burden isn’t “beyond a reasonable
doubt” rather “more likely than not.”

During discovery they would be able to swab and test Amazon for any traces of
corona (which I’m sure they would find) and at which point amazon has a lot of
exposure and potential liability, which may even include a temporary shutdown
to clean all traces of the virus...amazon would never risk that or information
getting out regarding their warehouse (thus goods they deliver) are spreading
the virus.

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roenxi
Most of the workers time is spent not working. In the literal, it is more
likely than not that when they got the virus they were not at work.

They'd need solid actual evidence to even meet a "more likely than not"
standard.

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sudosysgen
Most of the time I spend not working is spent sleeping.

This is probably even more true for an Amazon warehouse employee.

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roenxi
You can catch coronavirus from your wife/girlfriend/children while sleeping.
The virus does not care.

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sudosysgen
Much, much less probable than catching it while awake, and a very large share
of people either sleep alone or live alone.

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malandrew
If such a case succeeds given how much Amazon is is already doing to prevent
coronavirus, say goodbye to economy recovery. Most companies aren't capable of
doing even a fraction of the measures Amazon has put in place. If Amazon can
be found liable here, pretty much every business in the country that tries and
re-open will find themselves liable.

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ta17711771
Maybe we NEED to be closed for a while.

Slow down the consumption. Grow our own food. Barter with each other for
services.

We can reverse some of the damage. Let's do it.

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PixyMisa
That would kill upwards of 95% of the world's population.

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ta17711771
Nonsense.

Don't forget, things were more than livable a hundred years ago.

We don't need multinationals to feed us. It's a sham. We're just not making
proper use of our available space/resources as individuals.

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nostrebored
This is a ridiculously myopic view of the world. A more efficient economy
supports more people. This is inarguable.

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mcv
A more efficient economy may also be more vulnerable. Food produced closer to
home, with decentralised supply chains, may be more expensive, but are harder
to disrupt on a large scale in the face of disaster.

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Filligree
So your solution is to, what, kill people until a less efficient economy works
again?

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mcv
I have no idea where you'd possibly get such a bizarre idea.

For one thing, I'm not offering a solution here, but an analysis. But if you
want a solution, mine would be to save as many lives and reorganize the
economy so less lives will be risked in the name of short-term profits.

