[jjk166]

If there were any problem with filling these positions, employers would offer higher wages until they could find someone to fill these "essential" roles or accept that maybe they're not so essential after all. In a properly functioning economy, people who risk their lives and do the things others are unwilling or unable to do but need to get done get paid a premium. If essential employees can't leverage their irreplaceability into higher wages, that suggests a deep systemic problem. This sort of welfare would allow the economy to get through the current crisis without addressing that problem and then get back to suppressing wages as usual.