Anna, a Brooklyn-based sex worker, is speaking candidly to The NY Post about how business for sex workers is down by 85%, but she is still seeing her regulars despite the social-distancing measures being implemented to fight the spread of COVID-19.
The 35-year-old Russian immigrant, says she can’t leave her line of work altogether. since she has to support herself and her 17-year-old daughter. And unlike most taxed American employees laid off recently, she’s ineligible for unemployment benefits. Ann says that she went from making $200, $300 a day to now living on $300 a week.
Anna:
“Before the virus came, I was seeing one or two clients a day, making around $200, $300 a day...What’s the other way? I’m not going to go steal. I’m not going to go rob. I can’t. [But] my daughter needs me. I need to provide. I need to give her some type of support...I’m constantly sanitizing my hands, and I also sanitize his — you know. I’m rubbing alcohol over everything,”
Anna says that she is not taking on new clients, limiting herself to five or six familiar johns and making sure to shower and rinse her mouth after any encounters. “I’m still taking a huge risk, but I’m being as careful as I can,” she says. “Showers before and after the session, rinsing my mouth with Listerine."