A Target worker in Virginia wearing his own mask, gloves and safety glasses said he felt helpless recently when customers swarmed him as he organized a clearance area. Another Target worker, a cashier in North Carolina, said he welcomed the installation of plexiglass partitions at the registers over a week ago, but said they should have come sooner. A Whole Foods worker in Portland said she and some of her colleagues are feeling “scared, angry and devastated” after a fellow employee died from the coronavirus last week.

To convey their concerns, they plan to call out of work Friday as part of a nationwide employee “sickout” involving Target and Whole Foods, as well as Amazon, Instacart, FedEx and Walmart.

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The grassroots effort — the latest example of a wave of worker activism during the coronavirus crisis — is asking customers to boycott those companies’ local stores and services Friday to coincide with International Workers’ Day, also known as May Day, which in a normal year is marked by massive labor rights demonstrations in major cities.

“As workers, we have agency, we have the ability to change things, and we don’t have to be passive spectators in our political and social lives,” said Adam Ryan, a Target employee in Christiansburg, Virginia, and a liaison with Target Workers Unite, a rank-and-file initiative supporting the sickout.

While it’s unclear how many Target employees, along with those working for other companies, will stay home, Ryan said there are at least 100 Target stores and distribution centers where at least one worker has agreed to a sickout pledge.

The company said in a statement that concerns are being raised by a “very small minority” of its 340,000-member front-line workforce.

This latest incarnation of worker solidarity comes at a precarious moment for the broader labor movement, labor studies experts say, as the pandemic has led to tens of millions of Americans filing for unemployment and could gut or radically alter countless industries for years to come.

While these workers, lauded for being essential and risking their own health during the global crisis, may win protections and benefits, the changes are not guaranteed or permanent, according to Janice Fine, the director of research and strategy at the Center for Innovation in Worker Organization at Rutgers University.

Recessions, like the one many economists believe the U.S. is already in, puts workers, especially lower-wage ones, at a disadvantage, she added.

“Given how bad it’s going to be, we can expect more worker exploitation, a greater degree of wage theft and a lower level of power on the part of workers,” Fine said. “In a situation like that, where you have a lot of workers looking for employment, it makes the ability of collective action so much harder. On the other hand, because we don’t know yet to what depths the recession will reach, COVID-19 means all bets are off.”

These “sickout” protests follow earlier efforts, including some Instacart shoppers and Whole Foods workers staying home in late March and hundreds of Amazon tech and fulfillment center employees calling out last week to protest what they say are unsafe and unethical working conditions.

To acknowledge and compensate workers for the risks involved at jobs that require public interaction, several large retailers and supermarkets have offered bonuses and wage hikes.

At Target, workers in April were given masks and gloves to wear, signs were hung and floor decals placed to encourage customers and workers to stay 6 feet apart, and contactless order pickup has been made available. The big-box retailer has also extended its temporary $2 an hour wage increase to May 30, and will continue to provide other benefits, including free back-up care for employees who need help with children or elderly family members and 30-day paid leave for employees who are elderly, pregnant or have certain underlying health conditions.

The investment is worth at least $300 million, and while Target CEO Brian Cornell said last week that online sales have surged, he warned the company will see lower profits because of coronavirus-related costs.

Four Target workers who plan to call out Friday told NBC News they are protesting the slashing of hours, unstable schedules, and the need for greater health benefits. They also said the company had initially rebuffed attempts by employees to wear masks and that the “hazard pay” increase of $2 an hour was already in the works apart from the pandemic. They added that they’re concerned about a flood of customers when they reopen the Starbucks kiosks within Target stores in coming weeks.

A Target spokeswoman said in an email that the hourly wage increase was provided “to recognize the significant contributions our front line team members are making.”

Andrew Stacy, who averages about 30 hours a week at his Indianapolis store, said that although he enjoys his job and the people he works with, he wants to send a message to those who are making decisions: “This is being misconstrued as a bunch of people complaining about their job. But I just want it to be safe for all of us.”

Employees at Targets in Chicago; El Paso, Texas; Fargo, North Dakota; and Pensacola, Florida, have tested positive for COVID-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus, in recent days.

With the flush of stimulus checks to American households, workers have noticed a surge in shopping.

Some workers have suggested limiting foot traffic inside stores or closing stores to customers in favor of online ordering and drive-up service only. Policies surrounding closing access to stores, however, have been found to disadvantage people who don’t have internet access, can’t afford online ordering fees or are on food stamps.

Target said that it began requiring masks when federal guidance changed and that “when concerns have been brought to our attention, we’ve taken additional action, including increasing the frequency of overhead announcements and adding more signage.”

But Cassidy Melczak, who works in the electronics department of a Target outside Charlotte, North Carolina, said customers have largely failed to change their behaviors in stores, while masks are being improperly worn and employees remain confused about policy changes. Customers are coming in, she added, but just to get their hands on the latest Nintendo Switch.

“They call us essential workers,” Melczak said, “but I think what they really mean is disposable.”

Amazon warehouse workers have put out their own demands in recent weeks, including the release of more information about COVID-19 infections at facilities and for wage increases and paid sick days to become permanent.

A spokeswoman for Amazon, which also owns Whole Foods, said the company has made more than 150 changes to date and that all employees have been given masks, temperature checks, hand sanitizer and increased pay and time off. While Amazon has successfully staved off past attempts by workers to organize, there has been increasing pressure from leaders of America’s largest labor unions, as well as elected officials, to protect workers and not fire employees who’ve been critical.

“While we respect people’s right to express themselves, we object to the irresponsible actions of labor groups in spreading misinformation and making false claims about Amazon during this unprecedented health and economic crisis,” spokeswoman Kristen Kish said. “The statements made are not supported by facts or representative of the majority of the 500,000 Amazon operations employees in the U.S. who are showing up to work to support their communities.”

Typically, when the economy is doing well and the labor market is tight, workers’ wages improve and they have more bargaining power, Fine said.

In recent years, on the public sector side, teachers from West Virginia to Chicago have walked off the job and held multiday strikes to successfully win raises and contract deals. Meanwhile, drivers for Uber and Lyft, who are nonunionized and work as independent contractors, rallied for more rights.

Workers who were already organized before the pandemic were on better footing to ask for new safety measures and pay increases now, said John Logan, a professor and the director of labor and employment studies at San Francisco State University.

The United Food and Commercial Workers union, for instance, has seen its locals negotiate comprehensive safety agreements with supermarkets, including paying employees who have to self-isolate and paid breaks for employees to wash hands, and have pushed stores to limit the number of customers at a time and provide workers with personal protective equipment.

Logan said organized employees don’t have the same fear about demanding certain protections and benefits, and are in a position to negotiate for those again in future contracts. He added that large retailers where workers are not unionized also “can’t be expected to roll out safeguards” voluntarily or in a timely manner.

But even as workers continue protesting through sickouts and walkouts during the pandemic, Logan said there remains the “specter of pandemic-era unemployment as a way to get workers not to organize.”

In general, union membership has been hobbled in recent decades, falling from about 1 out of 5 workers in the early 1980s to now about 1 out of 10, federal data shows. The decline of the manufacturing industry and an increase in opposition lobbying have strained the movement, on top of more recent accusations that the Trump administration has willfully undermined worker protections.

Some unions will have to confront a harsh reality. UNITE HERE, which represents hotel, casino and service workers in Las Vegas, Atlantic City, New Jersey, and elsewhere, has seen 98 percent of its more than 300,000 members lose their jobs in the past two months.

Dermot Delude-Dix, a research analyst with the union’s local in Philadelphia, said despite the layoffs, UNITE HERE is helping workers through a relief fund to pay for food, rent and insurance, and is pushing to ensure workers can return to their jobs when businesses reopen and that their rights are protected if a business changes hands.

He predicts the “road to recovery will be long,” but remains optimistic that workers are in a stronger place to advocate for themselves because of what they’re enduring in their workplaces now.

“All of this has brought to the forefront how important these jobs are to our society and in the supply chain that runs from the meatpacking factories to the grocery stores to the grocery delivery services,” Delude-Dix said. “For some, the people behind these jobs are seen as human beings in the public eye for the first time. That’s powerful.”

Over the past month, scores of businesses across the country have shut down in order to minimize the spread of the coronavirus, resulting in millions of workers losing their jobs and wages. The Bureau of Labor Statistics reports an estimated 22 million Americans have filed for unemployment since mid-March, nearly wiping out all the job gains made since the Great Recession.

If you’ve recently been laid off from your job or are worried you could be, you may be wondering if you’re entitled to a severance package, what it covers and if you’ll be able to negotiate certain elements of it. Getting clarity around what will happen to your pay, insurance coverage and other benefits can help you bridge the gap of lost income.

Here’s what to discuss with your employer in order to make sure you don’t leave anything on the table.

There’s no requirement under the Fair Labor Standards Act that mandates companies provide severance following a layoff. However, organizations that do have a severance policy will usually include it either in the employee contract or offer letter you signed before joining the company, or in an employee handbook.

Organizations can decide whether severance policies extend to all full-time, part-time and hourly wage workers. According to a survey from Randstad Risesmart, an outplacement service, 56% of HR leaders reported they offered severance to all employees following an involuntary separation; the remaining 44% offered it to only some employees, primarily officers, senior executives and managers with the company. Unionized workers may be entitled to severance based on the terms of their collective bargaining agreement.

Companies could also establish new severance policies or revise existing ones given the pandemic, says Keri Norris, who serves as chief legal officer, executive vice president and general counsel at the online legal service LegalShield.

If you’re laid off and presented a severance agreement by HR, it’s OK to say you need time to review the terms before signing, Norris says. Under the Older Workers Benefit Protection Act, employees over 40 must be given 21 days to consider the offer; after signing, they have seven days to change their decision. If you and at least one other person are laid off in a group termination, you’ll have 45 days to consider a severance offer, regardless of age.

It may be a good idea to consult a lawyer to review your options and understand what rights you’re trading in exchange for compensation, Norris says. It’s common that workers must agree to a non-compete clause, a non-disclosure agreement, or terms they won’t sue or disparage the company in order to receive severance pay.

It may be possible to negotiate the terms of a non-compete, especially during a time when many people are worried about finding a new job. If your company is concerned about protecting trade secrets, for example, you might be able to trade a non-compete clause for a non-disclosure agreement that confirms you won’t take proprietary information with you to a new employer. 

As far as what you get in return, make sure you understand what payments and benefits coverage will continue, if at all, and discuss whether any elements of the package are negotiable. In some cases, companies will make it clear up front that the agreements are final and non-negotiable.

If there is flexibility, however, you may be able to negotiate your severance pay, payment timeline, insurance coverage, retirement plan funds and more.

“Be prepared and be thoughtful,” Norris tells CNBC Make It. Given the financially challenging times of the pandemic, your employer may not have the funds to meet every request in a negotiation. There may be less room for discussion if you’re part of a mass layoff. “But every employee has the right, and I would say obligation to themselves and family, to ask.”

Severance pay itself takes shape in a number of ways.

First is the amount. In some cases, severance pay is based on previous wages (for example, one month’s salary), length of tenure (such as two weeks’ pay for every year with the company) or it could be a flat amount not based on earnings history at all.

“Some companies, particularly when layoffs are happening in a situation like now, can determine a base rate, say $500 or $1,000, in severance for all workers,” Norris says. Ultimately, “the employer has the latitude to be able to decide what goes into a severance package.”

It may be possible to negotiate for more in your base severance pay, particularly if you’re a high performer, in a senior position or if you’ve been with the company for a long time. If you were expecting a bonus or commission in the future, you may be able to bring that to the table as leverage to receive a bigger payout.

Second, severance will be paid either as a lump sum or in installments over a period of time. It may be possible to negotiate for one method over another.

For example, in some states, receiving severance pay makes you ineligible to receive unemployment insurance, or it could lower your benefit amount. By receiving a one-time severance payment soon after a layoff, you may be able to file for unemployment coverage later on.

Alternatively, because severance pay is subject to federal, state and local taxes, you may prefer to receive pay in installments that will be taxed at a lower rate.

Workers who’ve lost their job can stay on their employer’s health insurance plan for up to 18 months through the Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act (COBRA).

However, this option can be expensive.

That’s because, as an employee, your employer covers a portion of the costs of your health insurance plan. The average annual premiums for employer-sponsored health insurance in 2019 were $7,188 for individuals and $20,576 for families, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation. Employers, on average, covered 82% of the premium for individuals and 70% of the premium for families.

Under COBRA, you’re on the hook to cover 100% of premiums, plus a 2% administrative fee.

It’s worth asking whether your employer can help cover some or all of these costs for either the full 18-month period or until you’re able to enroll in another plan during open enrollment, Norris says. If your employer is able to continue paying their portion directly to the insurance company, you’ll lower your taxable income. Otherwise, crunch the numbers of how much in premiums you’ll expect to pay out of pocket, and ask for that amount to be added to your severance payout either upfront or over time.

If you receive life insurance or disability income insurance from your employer, discuss whether they’ll be able to extend coverage for a period of time after you’re laid off. One month is a good place to start.

Don’t overlook additional company benefits you may be paying into with every paycheck, including dental and vision coverage, a legal plan, identity theft protection or flexible spending accounts for health expenses and dependent care.

Norris recommends you take a look at your last pay stub and see what voluntary deductions are taken out. Your employer may be able to tell you what your options are for these moving forward, or they may direct you to contact the administrator of each work-sponsored benefit to understand exactly what will happen to your coverage after termination.

While these benefits don’t have the same federal protections that the COBRA requirement does, “at the time of a layoff, it’s important to ask your employer about each and every part of your benefits package and see if there’s a way for it to be continued for a period of time,” Norris says.

There’s no federal law that requires companies to pay out accrued paid time off to workers, but states have their own rules.

According to insurance review site Policygenius, seven states require payment for unused vacation following a layoff, 37 require payment if it’s included in an employment contract or the company follows a PTO accrual system and the remaining six states don’t have legislation regarding paying out PTO after a worker leaves.

If you work for a company, or in a state, that doesn’t require you get paid out for your accrued PTO, you may be able to negotiate for it in your severance package.

This could also impact your unemployment insurance eligibility, so be sure to check with your state’s unemployment office for more.

While the contributions you make to your 401(k) belong to you, any employer match might be considered unvested until you’ve worked with the company for a certain period of time. If you haven’t reached that point at the time of a layoff, you may be able to ask to keep unvested shares of your retirement plan, or other stock and stock options.

Either way, remember to check if you’ll be able to keep your retirement plan with your employer, or if you’ll need to roll it into another investment vehicle by a certain deadline.

New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio said Tuesday that he has ordered the city’s human rights commissioner to investigate Amazon’s decision to fire a warehouse worker who organized a strike at its Staten Island warehouse.

Chris Smalls, a warehouse worker at the facility, known as JFK8, organized a strike on Monday to call attention to the lack of protective measures for workers who continue to be on the job amid the coronavirus outbreak.

Smalls claims he was fired by Amazon in retaliation for his decision to organize the strike. Amazon said it dismissed Smalls after he “received multiple warnings for violating social distancing guidelines.”

“I’ve ordered the city’s commission on human rights to investigate Amazon immediately to determine if that’s true,” de Blasio said at a news conference Tuesday. “If so, that would be a violation of our city’s human rights law and we would act on it immediately.”

De Blasio added that the New York City Sheriff’s Office has inspected JFK8 to make sure it’s following social distancing precautions and said that it will “continue to inspect as needed.” 

An Amazon spokesperson told CNBC in a statement that Smalls had been ordered to remain in quarantine after he came into close contact with an associate who tested positive for the virus.

“Despite that instruction to stay home with pay, he came onsite on March 30, further putting the teams at risk,” the spokesperson said. “This is unacceptable and we have terminated his employment as a result of these multiple safety issues.”

Smalls and other employees walked out to call attention to the lack of protections for warehouse workers. The workers are also urging Amazon to close the facility after a worker tested positive for the coronavirus last week. The organizers said that at least 50 people joined the walkout. Amazon said only 15 people took part in the walkout.

The decision to fire Smalls drew criticism from New York state Attorney General Letitia James, who on Monday night called the move “disgraceful.” James said the Office of the Attorney General is “considering all legal options,” as well as calling on the National Labor Relations Board to investigate the incident. A spokesman from the NLRB told CNBC that in order for the agency to begin an investigation, it must receive a charge. The spokesman said the NLRB has yet to receive any charges against Amazon that originate in New York.

— CNBC’s Noah Higgins-Dunn contributed to this report.

In the first Democratic presidential debate since Sen. Bernie Sanders earned a big target on his back, Democratic candidates jumped into an often chaotic and uncomfortable fray in Charleston, South Carolina, on Tuesday night.

Sanders took shots from his rivals early and often after weeks of strong polling and a series of key wins in early nominating states, including a landslide Nevada caucus win on Saturday. But none of the seven candidates stood out in the debate, at times a choppy affair as White House hopefuls interrupted each other and talked over the CBS News moderators, untouched by opponents’ venom.

It was the 10th overall debate. In addition to Sanders, the candidates on stage were former Vice President Joe Biden, Sens. Amy Klobuchar and Elizabeth Warren, former New York Mayor Mike Bloomberg, billionaire Tom Steyer, and former South Bend, Indiana, Mayor Pete Buttigieg.

Those six candidates tried to direct attention to Sanders, with Bloomberg pointing to the Vermont senator’s vote against the Brady Bill, which mandated the establishment of a background check and stricter gun control measures.

Bloomberg, who took a beating in last week’s Democratic debate, appeared more steady on Tuesday. After a widely panned performance during his first time on stage with his rivals, the billionaire businessman responded to criticism about his record on policing, alleged sexual harassment and donating to Republican political candidates with what seemed like more prepared remarks.

Tensions were high on Tuesday, as candidates used their last chance to sell themselves on a national stage before the crucial South Carolina primary on Saturday. Biden maintained a slight lead in South Carolina with 27% of support, according to a poll from NBC News released on Monday. Sanders trailed him with 23%.

The results of the primary could determine the fate of some of the Democratic heavyweights in the race.

Here are the night’s top moments:

Biden predicted victory in South Carolina on Saturday when he was pressed by the moderators on his sinking poll numbers in the state.

“I will win South Carolina,” he asserted when asked if he would end his candidacy if he doesn’t prevail in the state.

The former vice president touted his record in South Carolina with the black community, saying he has “created jobs for people. The people know me. My entire career has been wrapped up in dealing with civil rights and liberties.”

“I don’t expect anything. I’m here to ask. I’m here to earn. But folks, I intend to win South Carolina and I will win the African American vote here in South Carolina,” Biden added.

Biden’s lead over Sanders has been slipping in South Carolina, where the former vice president has been relying on support among black voters.

If Sanders beats Biden, it will be the Vermont senator’s fourth straight popular vote victory. Coming just days before Super Tuesday, that could give him a boost toward an insurmountable delegate lead.

Buttigieg told billionaires to donate to his campaign following a spat with Sanders over the former South Bend mayor’s campaign contributions.

Sanders, who has built his campaign on promoting wealth inequality and dismissing the ultra-wealthy, went after Buttigieg for accepting contributions from 50 billionaires. “I’ll tell you, Pete, what the American people want,” he said. “They don’t want candidates to be running to billionaires for huge amounts of money.”

In response, Buttigieg downplayed contributions from the billionaire donors, saying they make up a small portion of his campaign funds.

But immediately following his clarification, Buttigieg used the opportunity to ask on live television for additional donations, most notably from other billionaires.

“In fact I shouldn’t miss the opportunity, if you’re watching right now and you support my campaign, go to PeteForAmerica.com and chip in. And if you’re watching right now and you’re a billionaire, I will raise your taxes,” he quipped. “But if you’d like to defeat Donald Trump, please go to PeteForAmerica.com and donate the legal maximum of $2,800.”

Warren attacked Bloomberg over an accusation from a former employee who claimed the media mogul quipped “kill it” when she was discussing being pregnant.

Bloomberg flatly denied ever saying any such thing. “I’m sorry if she heard what she thought she heard,” he said.

Bloomberg also grew testy over Warren’s continued pressure on him to overturn nondisclosure agreements for all former Bloomberg LP employees who alleged misconduct at the company. He argued that he had already released the three women who claimed that he personally said offensive things in the workplace.

Bloomberg said he was “probably wrong to make the jokes — I don’t remember what they were. … If it bothered them, I was wrong, and I apologize for that. But we went back 40 years, and we could only find three cases where women said they were uncomfortable. Nobody accused me of doing anything other than making a comment or two.”

Halfway through the debate, Bloomberg segued from a question about New York’s trans fat ban to attacking President Donald Trump over his administration’s response to coronavirus.

“If you have good public health then you can do things. You read about the [coronavirus] and what’s really happening here is the president fired the pandemic specialist in this country two years ago, so there’s nobody here to figure out what the hell we should be doing,” Bloomberg said. “He’s defunded Centers for Disease Control, so we don’t have the organization we need. This is a very serious thing. As you see, the stock market is falling apart and people are very worried, and they should be. This is a very serious thing, and we don’t have anybody to respond.”

In 2018, Trump fired the majority of the White House global health emergency team. The spread of coronavirus outside of China, and warnings this week from CDC experts, sent markets tanking on Monday and Tuesday.

Klobuchar dodged a question on whether she’d close borders to Americans who have been exposed to the virus to prevent an outbreak in the United States, instead advocating for treatment for those people. Then she gave out the website for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, an answer to Buttigieg’s plug for donations to his campaign.

“I’m not going to give my website right now. I’m going to give the CDC’s website,” Klobuchar said, calling the situation “serious.”

Immediately following the comments from the Democratic candidates who said the White House has not responded well to the outbreak in China, Trump tweeted that the “CDC and my Administration are doing a GREAT job of handling Coronavirus.”

Biden scored laughs with his response to a question on whether he’d meet with North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un.

He was in the middle of detailing his plan when he cut himself off, asking the moderators why he was abiding by the time constraints for responses when no other candidate did. Candidates had run over time with several responses.

“I would make it clear to China: We are going to continue to move closer to make sure that we can in fact prevent China, prevent North Korea, from launching missiles, to take them down and if we don’t — why am I stopping. No one else stops,” Biden said.

“There’s my Catholic school training,” he added, shaking his head.

“Vice President Biden, you’re a gentleman,” one moderator remarked, but the comment did not satisfy Biden.

“Yeah, gentleman don’t get very well-treated up here,” he quipped.

–CNBC’s Tucker Higgins contributed to this report from Charleston, South Carolina.

The Bottom Line

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Tue, Mar 10 20202:13 PM EST

Apple is cracking down on apps related to the COVID-19 coronavirus outbreak that aren’t from recognized institutions like governments or hospitals, iPhone developers told CNBC. 

Four independent developers told CNBC that Apple rejected their apps, which would allow people to see stats about which countries have confirmed cases of the COVID-19 coronavirus. Some of these apps used public data from reliable sources like the World Health Organization (WHO) to create dashboards or live maps. Some developers asked not to be named to avoid further complications with Apple’s review process. 

One developer said an Apple employee explained over the phone that anything related to the coronavirus must be released by an official health organization or government. Another developer got a written response that “apps with information about current medical information need to be submitted by a recognized institution,” according to a screenshot seen by CNBC. 

Apple has been specifically evaluating coronavirus apps to prevent the spread of misinformation. It looks at both where the health data comes from and whether the developers represent organizations that users can trust to publish accurate data, like governments or health-focused organizations, according to a person familiar with the matter. 

The restriction appears to be working, as search results show few apps about the outbreak and no obvious spam. But it could also reduce the availability of software that would enable iPhone users to track the outbreak, and raise fairness questions about who is allowed to develop apps for iPhones. 

The move comes as big tech companies have grappled with the effects of misinformation related to the coronavirus outbreak on their platforms. Last month, Amazon warned sellers that it would take down listings for products that claim to kill coronavirus. Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg wrote on Tuesday that he’s “focused on making sure everyone can access credible and accurate information” about the outbreak and is removing content with conspiracy theories. Google presents information from the World Health Organization at the top of Google searches about the coronavirus in a special module and has banned ads for anti-coronavirus products. 

“Right now the technology industry is working very hard to ensure the platforms are not being used to provide people with false or, even worse, dangerous information about the coronavirus,” said Morgan Reed, president of the App Association, an industry group that represents app developers. “We are seeing significant pressure inside and outside to halt applications and advertisements before they harm citizens.”

A search for “coronavirus” on the App Store on Wednesday in the United States revealed mostly benign results.

The top result was a Portuguese-language app about the outbreak published by the Brazilian government. Below that was an unrelated wallpaper app, a game that looks similar to top-grossing epidemic game Plague Inc, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation’s app, the Epoch Times, and an app with COVID-19 information published by Unbound, a developer of medical apps. 

The top result for “COVID 19” is a “virus tracker” from a developer called Healthlynked with WHO figures and maps charting where confirmed cases have been. It’s currently No. 2. for medical apps on Apple’s app store in the United States. Below that is the Unbound app and several Chinese-language apps. 

App Review, the department inside Apple that manually screens every single iPhone app before they become available to download on Apple’s platforms, relies on a document called the App Store Review Guidelines to justify their decisions to software companies about what’s allowed on iPhones.

Developers who had coronavirus apps rejected by Apple said that reviewers cited a guideline numbered 5.2.1, which says that “apps should be submitted by the person or legal entity that owns or has licensed the intellectual property and other relevant rights.”

Zachary Shakked, who makes apps to help small businesses manage social media accounts, said although he was sympathetic to Apple’s need to prevent misinformation, he had published apps in the past with high ratings and hundreds of thousands of downloads, and suggested a tiered system to separate spammers or misinformation from vetted developers.

An updated policy published by Apple on Wednesday has a new item, 5.1.1.ix, which is close to what developers said they were told. Apps in “highly-regulated” fields like healthcare, financial services, or air travel need to be submitted by a “legal entity that provides the services, and not by an individual developer.”

Apple’s App Store policies have drawn criticism for being inscrutable, and some competitors have claimed Apple has too much power given that the App Store is the only way to distribute software for iPhones to the public.

Spotify CEO Daniel Ek wrote in 2019 that App Store rules “purposely limit choice and stifle innovation at the expense of the user experience” and filed a complaint with the EU.

At a congressional hearing in January, the general counsel of Tile, which makes an app for the App Store, testified that Apple “can change the rules when it wants.”  Basecamp founder David Heinemeier Hansson said at the same hearing that every “application maker using the App Store lives in fear that their application is denied” and that the appeals process would make “Kafka blush.”

Google Play, Google’s Android app store, has a rule against apps that “capitalize on a natural disaster” or “atrocity” or appears to “profit from a tragic event with no discernible benefit to the victims.” On Thursday, a search for “coronavirus” or “COVID-19” returned no results on Google’s app store in the United States, an intentional move from Google to prevent misinformation. 

Google Play also published a website called “Coronavirus: Stay informed” with suggested apps, including software from the CDC, Red Cross, and Twitter. 

Google didn’t have a comment for this story. 

Some popular Android apps related to the coronavirus are not available for iPhones. On Wednesday, a top free Android app in South Korea, which has over 3,000 confirmed cases of COVID-19, was a mapping app that alerts users when they have been within 100 meters of where a confirmed coronavirus case had been.

The app, Corona 100m, is not published by a public health source and has at least 1 million downloads, according to its Google Play listing. It’s not available for iPhone and the developer didn’t immediately return an email asking if there were plans to release it for Apple’s App Store.

Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has some tough words for former political rival and current Democratic presidential hopeful Bernie Sanders in the Hulu documentary series “Hillary,” which is set to be released on Friday. 

In particular, Clinton says Sanders didn’t start working until he was in his 40s. 

“[Sanders] was a career politician. He didn’t work until he was 41 and then he got elected to something. It was all just baloney, and I feel bad that people got sucked into it,” Clinton says in the four-part Hulu docuseries about the 2016 presidential race. 

Sanders, who has been serving as a Vermont senator since 2007, is running for the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination with a pitch that he is relatable to average working Americans, promising things like Medicare for All and the cancellation of student debt. 

While a spokesperson for Sanders’ campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment regarding his work history, CNBC Make It obtained a copy of Sanders’ resume from the 1980s from the The Jack and Shirley Silver Special Collections Library located at the University of Vermont. (The library’s research collection includes the papers of a number of Burlington, Vermont, mayors and state politicians, a spokesperson tells Make It.)

Take a look. 

The three-page resume is on City of Burlington letterhead, where Sanders served as mayor from 1981 to 1989. 

It starts with a personal section that lists Sanders’ date of birth, marital status (“Divorced, [with] one son”) and his health status (which he describes as “excellent”).

Under education, Sanders lists a BA in political science from the University of Chicago.

As for his employment history, Sanders says he spent his first 12 years of employment after graduation, from 1964 to 1976, as a freelance writer, carpenter, youth counselor and state employee.

According to Politico, after Sanders graduated from the University in Chicago in 1964, he bounced from job to job. Early gigs included working as an aide at a psychiatric hospital and teaching preschoolers for Head Start (a program to help children in low-income families succeed in school) in New York City, Politico reported.

Then Sanders moved to Vermont in 1968 when he was 27, where he worked for the Vermont Department of Taxes as a researcher. He later moved to a nonprofit called the Bread and Law Task Force, where he helped register people for food stamps, according to Politico. 

From 1976 to 1981, Sanders wrote that he worked as a director at American People’s Historical Society in Vermont, writing and producing educational films. (According to Politico, Sanders made a 30-minute documentary on socialist Eugene Deb, a prominent labor organizer in the early 1900s, who Sanders cited as his hero.)

In 1981, Sanders, then 39, ran for mayor of Burlington, Vermont, and won by 10 votes. His new job came with a yearly salary of $33,824, which is equivalent to more than $100,000 in today’s dollars, Politico reported last May. After he was elected, Sanders told an Associated Press reporter that, “it’s so strange, just having money.”

Under the “activities” section of Sanders’ resume, he lists himself as chairperson of the Vermont Liberty Union Party from 1971 to 1976, where he says he opposed local telephone rate increases and fought to make public access television open to local filmmakers. 

Sanders also lists his accomplishments as the mayor of Burlington during his six years in office: “Sanders has led the fight for fair taxation in Vermont and for major changes in health care and utilities. The Sanders Administration in Burlington has developed new programs in the area of arts, youth, women’s rights and environmental protections,” he wrote.

What’s more, Sanders says on the resume that he was the first “socialist” to receive 15% of the vote in the Vermont gubernatorial race.

On the last page of his resume, Sanders summarizes his accomplishments in bullet points, from being the “only socialist mayor” in the United States to being the only mayor “supported by third-party progressive movement against Democratic and Republican opposition.”