Ben Gee carries the coronavirus all over London. A bicycle courier, Gee zips from the city’s hospitals and clinics with medical samples of the virus, taking them to laboratories for processing.
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Ben Gee carries the coronavirus all over London.
A bicycle courier, Gee zips from the city’s hospitals and clinics with medical samples of the virus, taking them to laboratories for processing.
Gee faces a two-fold fear: exposure to the coronavirus and whether he will have a job after the outbreak. The British government considers medical couriers to be essential workers during the pandemic, but Gee faces being laid off when it is over because the outbreak has hurt the other business of the diagnostics firm he works for.
Thousands of other «gig economy» workers, including ride-hailing service drivers and food couriers, also are torn between safety and sustenance. As Britain’s economy stalled when the country went into lockdown on March 23, sending unemployment to a two-decade high, they have scrambled to keep working despite the risks.
«There’s a lot of anxiety,» Gee said as he paused between deliveries. «Everyone else was going in one direction, staying at home. And I was going in the other direction.
«You just don’t know if it’s something you’re going to catch,» he said. «I can’t afford to get the virus and be off sick, because if that was the case, I only get the statutory sick pay, which is £94 ($115) week. So it is very much a case of just having to get up and get in and work, and just hope that I don’t catch it.»
Gee and his colleagues say they haven’t been given adequate protection for going into hospitals, clinics and doctors’ offices where they collect swab samples to be tested for the highly contagious virus. Their employer gave them gloves, cotton masks and hand gel, but Gee says the supply runs out quickly.
