Many experts noted that America’s mad scramble to suddenly guarantee paid sick days or coverage for necessary medical procedures must look strange to Europeans, or other developed societies with a generous safety social net, where leaders don’t think the only solution to every problem is to throw more tax breaks at corporations and pray that a few dollars trickle down. The New York Times recently noted that Germany, France, Denmark and the Netherlands are among the nations where workers have a right to paid sick leave — and that sense of security, along with the knowledge that folks won’t get surprise medical bills, have dampened both the economic fallout and some of the fear from the pandemic.