In defense of sick days
It is is perverted to spread illness to coworkers just because you want to prove how tough you are.
It could be argued that people, especially in the younger generation, take too many sick days: That people stay home when they could go to work and be fine. But we need to be careful not to go too far in the other direction and condemn all use of sick days, as Matt Walsh did on his podcast. Walsh is wrong here.
There are plenty of times where it is perfectly reasonable to take a sick day. For example, if you are actively vomiting or you have diarrhea, stay home. This is not only justifiable, but it is actively perverse to spread illness to coworkers just because you want to prove how tough you are. Do not bring your gastrointestinal virus into the office and cause other people to get sick. Reducing that to "my tummy hurts" is ridiculous.
Plus, a lot of employers do not want people in the building if they are sick. Many employers had mandatory "work from home" policies during the COVID-19 pandemic, including some that have extended into the present day. This is to protect other coworkers, especially people who are older or have a weakened immune system. The principle holds if you have a gastrointestinal virus, or a hacking couch that will spread a nasty cold or influenza to coworkers. In a job where you directly face customers, that also protects them from illness.
This is the same principle as quarantine orders for people with highly contagious diseases. When Europe was being devastated by the Black Death in the 1300's, ships arriving in port would have to sit for 40 days so disease would not spread into the city. Quarantine orders were put in place during colonial times to limit the spread of smallpox, which was a devastating disease. Granted, having influenza, norovirus or a bad cold is nowhere near as deadly on a large scale as the Black Death or smallpox, but the principle is the same.
I realize that conservatives are reacting to some of the more onerous restrictions of the COVID-19 pandemic, and but we do not have to throw out reason and centuries of public health practice just because some irrational people treated SARS-COV-2 like an angry pagan god. It is also fashionable for older people to rip on younger generations. Walsh, who is 38, is falling into that as he beats up people in their early 20's.
As far as children, most schools (public and private) will send children to the nurse's office and often send them home if they come in sick, so staying home from school is not just an issue of children being malingerers as Walsh alleges. These students could not stay in class even if they wanted to.
It is worth having a discussion of whether people take too many sick days. But when you take an extreme position, as Walsh did, you are not going to convince anyone you are correct. Instead, you will be dismissed as a crank, short-circuiting a reasonable conversation.