Several weeks ago I had a thread about sex and coronavirus and received appalling abuse for even raising the subject. I am so glad that someone is looking out for sex workers. They are another form of gig economy and so their options for claiming benefits or SSP if they can't work are fairly limited. They are also now in a potentially life threatening situation. This is not something that condoms can protect you against.
The OPs comments seem to indicate that direct bookings are down, which I am relieved about from the sex workers perspective, although presumably they will be finding it hard as they still need to pay their rent and eat but at least if they don't have as many clients then their chances of contracting (and thus by implication transmitting) the virus are slightly reduced. I hope that some of these sex workers may be able to branch out into using social media and telephony/video which may continue to provide some income without the incumbent dangers of face to face contact.
The point of my original thread was that I was concerned for the wives and families of the men who are continuing to go to sex workers in this crisis. We all saw people at the weekend flocking to seaside resorts like nothing is happening. In the same way, there are still a load of very stupid cunts who will continue to seek out paid sex out and/or use Tinder even in the midst of a lockdown. But the stakes now are much higher. This isn't like bringing home a mild case of the clap to your unsuspecting wife or partner. These guys could be infecting their kids, their work colleagues, the girl at the supermarket.
The abuse I received for even daring to talk about it was appalling. people telling me that your can't transmit the virus by genital contact, that most sex workers don't kiss for this reason. Ignoring the fact that in close proximity just by breathing and touching you could be transmitting it anyway. I was even accused of "vomiting my opinions about infidelity" all over everyone.
The point I was trying to make is that guys stuck at home all day with the partner and kids crawling all over and limited options for nookie for weeks and weeks, if they are the type of bloke who is inclined to stray, they will be absolutely gagging for some outlet and may not stop to think of the consequences until it is too late. Lockdown or no lockdown. There are always people who think the rules don't apply to them. People telling me "it happens, so live with it". Not exactly helpful. We need to be thinking about this.
A previous poster mentioned there doesn't seem to be any sort of financial support for sex workers but if anyone does know of anything, I would be happy to donate if it would give them some alternative source of income at least for a while.