A rapidly growing number of companies are taking action to prevent employees from discussing possible COVID-19 diagnoses in their workplaces; news of such action is based on complaints before the National Labor Relations Board and the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, according to Bloomberg. Companies named in these complaints (some of which are disputed by the companies themselves) encompass a wide range of industries, including Amazon, Cargill, McDonald's, Target, Urban Outfitters, Smithfield Foods, and General Electric. The issue is not limited to just the private sector either: Teachers are apparently getting similar orders from their school districts.

Companies have generally cited laws around employee privacy as to why they've implemented such policies, but Bloomberg points out that these laws do not specifically prevent employees from communicating about their own health and safety concerns and, indeed, employees are explicitly given the right to talk about and protest their job conditions. Despite these gag orders, Bloomberg said that, so far, only two companies have been sanctioned for violating the law.