But providing businesses with broad legal immunity reduces any incentive for them to provide protective equipment to employees or safe spaces to customers.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., announced Monday that he is willing to work with Democrats to pass another COVID-19 relief bill when his institution finally returns from an inexcusably long recess in May. But seasoned liberal observers would know that such announcements from him should offer as much apprehension as hope — and McConnell did not go against type.
His top priority isn’t addressing the myriad economic hardships facing most Americans, who have seen jobs evaporate, salaries cut, small businesses suffer, retirement accounts dwindle and may yet still take ill or die of the disease the government seemingly has no comprehensive plan to fight, but rather addressing what he called the “the lawsuit pandemic” by providing legal immunity to companies for lawsuits related to their actions during the pandemic.
Denying people — or their immediate loved ones — their day in court for pandemic-related deaths caused by negligence or other misconduct is a terrible idea. And it indicates that the differences between Republican and Democratic priorities couldn’t be more stark. Congressional Democrats are fighting for aid that will preserve essential services to ordinary people and reduce the economic misery inflicted by necessary stay-at-home orders, while Republicans are laser-focused on preventing powerful actors from being held accountable.
The American tort system is far from perfect, but it provides critical remedies to ordinary people who are otherwise at the mercy of more powerful actors. To immunize actors from lawsuits during a raging pandemic would be not merely unwise but also perverse: Decisions made by employers about whether and how to operate with a deadly and highly communicable virus circulating have potentially life-and-death consequences for employees and customers…
To read the entire article from NBC News, click https://www.nbcnews.com/think/opinion/mitch-mcconnell-s-new-coronavirus-plan-make-sure-you-can-ncna1194226
