[zarzavat]

Clearly if all doctors stay home sick, then it will lead to many more deaths than if they all came in with COVID.

On the other hand, if only 0.1% stay home sick with COVID, then the effect of their absence will probably be to reduce deaths if their job can be covered by others adequately.

So what we have is a question of degree: there exists a threshold at which doctors (or nurses, etc) should come in even if they have COVID. And somewhat counterintuitively the more doctors who are sick, the greater the likelihood that if they came in with COVID there would be fewer deaths overall.

Exactly where this threshold lies is an open question, and will depend on the facts.