Michael Haywood was an equipment service supervisor for Riverside’s Flood Control District. He was also a man with a number of pre-existing medical conditions. He was married to a woman with her own serious medical conditions.

When the COVID-19 pandemic reared its ugly head, Mr. Haywood talked with his supervisors. He told them that both he and his wife had disabilities that made them highly vulnerable to serious illness or death from COVID. He personally had survived cancer twice, suffered from hypertension, used an inhaler, and, it turned out, had other health  conditions, including diabetes; his wife had autoimmune diseases so severe that her doctor took her off work lest she contract the virus and die.