Opinion: Gig workers deserve more than just a coronavirus tip

A Deliveroo food delivery worker carrying an insulated food bag in Hong Kong, Feb 20. In an increasingly global public-health crisis, it’s the foot soldiers of 21st-century capitalism – Deliveroo riders, Uber drivers, TaskRabbit jobbers, 'zero-hours' workers – who look doubly vulnerable. — Bloomberg

However messy the world gets, the only certainty is that we will still need couriers to deliver pizza. That was the vision of last year’s hit video-game Death Stranding, in which an armour-plated delivery man carries packages from bunker to bunker in post-apocalypse America.

The current Covid-19 coronavirus outbreak is confirmation of sorts: As people stay cooped up at home in self-quarantine, whether by choice or by force, the occasional guilty pleasure of ordering food has become a lifeline.