He's right, depending on how quickly it spreads a very large chunk of pilots could be out at once.
If you have it with minor symptoms, you still don't get to come to work. Imagine the press release, pilot from x company knew he had the virus and elected to fly around the country.

If there is one thing you can count on is that pilots will come to work sick. I've seen it multiple times. They're either worried about their reliability number, pay, or answering the question on an app about how many days they've missed. And remember, once you get above 3-4 days missed in a year you are ineligible for work in the training department.

And the FAs are worse.

mare you talking about days missed in a year, or trips?

Days missed. I'm not sure now what the number is, but in years past your app for the training department was automatically kicked out above a certain number. They don't have reserves for the training department, therefore they don't want people that call in sick very much. They have gotten desperate lately though...

Next rumor - all future new hire classes postponed. No more interviews.

I can believe it. I’m not sure how the hiring is still going given there will be virtually zero movement for at least 3-6 months or more.

Perhaps SkyWest is positioning themselves to be at the top of pilot numbers and able to take on contracts when the majors actually pick up again?

Don't sweat it, you can apply for LOA, unpaid of course.

Sure you’re talking in jest.

However, if you’re not smarten up and plan for the worst.

Whew, thank god!

Hopefully we can link any illness to a previous passenger, otherwise we're not pay protected. Of course, that passenger actually has to be screened and release all necessary info to get that information back to us to qualify. Seems as though we're not pay protected if we get infected while dead heading, walking through terminals, riding in hotel vans/taxi cabs, or staying at a hotel; maybe I just read the email the wrong way?

Oh absolutely in jest. If anyone isn’t putting money away, now is the time to start. Hopefully this turns out to be a distant memory but always plan for the worst.