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Who’s In and Who’s Out under Workplace COVID Symptom Screening?

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Abstract

COVID symptom screening, a new workplace practice, is likely to affect many millions of American workers in the coming months. Eleven states already require and federal guidance recommends frequent screening of employees for infection symptoms. This paper provides some of the first empirical work exploring the tradeoffs employers face in using daily symptom screening. First, we find that common symptom checkers will likely screen out up to 7 percent of workers each day, depending on the measure used. Second, we find that the measures used will matter for three reasons: many respondents report any given symptom, survey design affects responses, and demographic groups report symptoms at different rates, even absent fluctuations in likely COVID exposure. This last pattern can potentially lead to disparate impacts, and is important from an equity standpoint.

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  • Krista Ruffini & Aaron Sojourner & Abigail Wozniak, 2020. "Who’s In and Who’s Out under Workplace COVID Symptom Screening?," Opportunity and Inclusive Growth Institute Working Papers 36, Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis.
    • Handle: RePEc:fip:fedmoi:88802
    DOI: 10.21034/iwp.36
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    1. Kumar, S. & Quinn, S.C. & Kim, K.H. & Daniel, L.H. & Freimuth, V.S., 2012. "The impact of workplace policies and other social factors on self-reported influenza-like illness incidence during the 2009 H1N1 pandemic," American Journal of Public Health, American Public Health Association, vol. 102(1), pages 134-140.
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    Cited by:

    1. Zachary Swaziek & Abigail Wozniak, 2020. "Disparities Old and New in US Mental Health during the COVID‐19 Pandemic," Fiscal Studies, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 41(3), pages 709-732, September.
    2. Wichmann, Bruno & Wichmann, Roberta, 2022. "COVID-19 and Indigenous health in the Brazilian Amazon," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 115(C).

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    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • I1 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Health
    • J50 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Labor-Management Relations, Trade Unions, and Collective Bargaining - - - General
    • J70 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Labor Discrimination - - - General
    • K30 - Law and Economics - - Other Substantive Areas of Law - - - General
    • M50 - Business Administration and Business Economics; Marketing; Accounting; Personnel Economics - - Personnel Economics - - - General

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