This is exactly it, you live life doing things correctly then can't enjoy it when health care costs so much it ruins everything. I'm sorry to hear that happened to your grandparents, that's just awful to say the least. Also, you're absolutely right, I'm in a fortunate situation too - insurance from my employer, but with that said the cost has gone up each year and coverage is less and less... But with that said I'm very thankful too, without good insurance it just can ruin you. And you're very right - small fraction even after meeting a deductible in comparison to Others
This is very very bad. It not only doesn't help stop the spread but it actually helps it spread even more. If I am poor then I will just hide it as much as I can, pretend I have the flu and keep working, if going forward means I will have to pay thousands of dollars in tests and quarantine and go bankrupt. Already isolation and quarantines is costing thousands of people their job and lost wages, if they had to pay for testing as well? Only if I have severe pneumonia with one foot already in the grave will I let the CDC know. The system instead of encouraging responsibillity it punishes the people who want to protect others? Whereas if the tests were free like almost everywhere else, even forced on suspected cases, any poor person would get access, detected and asked or forced to quarantine. This needs to be fixed because it is simply not viable and will cause a already bad situation to flare up into a huge epidemic. And the rich unless they go to live in a bunker underground won't be able to escape infections either. And no matter how rich you are, there aren't any effective drugs yet.
Absolutely agree with you, fortunately I have good insurance, with that said, I just feel bad for the people that don't or can't afford the better options, It's really messed up with health care here. Also, just like you stated, the virus won't care about your assets/cash - I think of it as something similar like the anti-vax crowd - "my kid can't get measles because we're rich and that's for poor people" - uh no... Your kid might get lucky because of herd immunity but unfortunately w/ enough of the anti-vax crowd we'll be breaking the herd immunity. I mean... What 1st world country has a measles outbreak at Disneyland?? Anyway, the misleading non-science/confirmation bias is going to cause a setback, maybe Corona will be a wake up call on our healthcare system here (heck even some basic medical education could help) - meaning that vaccines really don't cause autism. And, it's seriously frustrating when people will get health advice from their favorite celebrities but ignore what their Dr says... I mean until they have a major issue. Sure, we all have probably not followed our primary care Dr's suggestions sometimes - but hopefully those are just on the individual, ie eat better etc., And not "you need to get your kids vaccinated", because now you're putting everyone at danger (including your kids).
It is unnecessary to panic but people also need to be careful and take it more seriously than a regular flu. My personal explanation on the low severe + critical + death percentages (deaths are included because these patients all require hospitalization they die, even if unavailable) in both the Diamond Princess and the South Korea is that many patients who had only initial symptoms or even asymptomatic have been tested and included in the total numbers. Their health conditions had also been monitored from early on. In contrast, other countries have adopted different practices. Japan, excluding those from Diamond Princess (9.9%): only people who have had fever for four consecutive days or showed serious pneumonia symptoms can request for a test. Italy (12.3%): since Feb. 26, contacts linked to confirmed cases or recent travelers to outbreak areas would not be tested unless they show symptoms The number in China (19%) was only until Feb. 11 when the total number of confirmed cases was still rising. It was skewed by the early days when testing capability was limited and there was a shortage of healthcare personnel and medical supplies in the Hubei province. Asymptomatic cases were not all tested and those who were tested positive would be quarantined but excluded from confirmed cases until symptoms were developed. The treatment plan has also evolved over time so other countries now have more knowledge on the choices of drugs. So you are right that the actual severe + critical + death percentage may be lower than 9% if all infected cases are counted. However, do not overlook that the percentage of patients who require hospitalization could be much higher than that. According to Washington Post, in Italy 1263 of 2263 cases (55.8%) were hospitalized as of yesterday. South Korea initially tried to hospitalize everyone in Daegu but started to change their strategy on Mar. 1 when they found out it was impossible. The situation could become much worse in case the hospitals are overwhelmed and run out of medical supplies, causing an increase in the doctors' risk of being infected or developing other diseases due to overworking. As a side note, as of 2017, the US ranks 32nd among 40 OECD countries in the number of hospital beds per 1000 people.
Yeah the expert I am following said exactly the same Many -NOT critical- cases require oxygen for 2-3 days, after that they can recover. But hospitals have limited oxygen tanks and can only give it to so many people at the same time. Especially since a trained nurse is required to be present to give it to the patient. Without oxygen, the same patients can end up developing severe symptoms and even dying.
https://www.vox.com/2020/3/2/21161067/coronavirus-covid19-china Julia Belluz Can we trust China’s data? Bruce Aylward The big question is, are they hiding things? No, they are not. We looked at many different things to try to corroborate that cases are dropping. When I went to fever clinics and talked to people working there, they’d say, “We used to have a line out the door, and now we see a case once per hour.” According to the national data, fever clinics went from seeing 46,000 people per day at one point and it’s now down to 1,000. So there’s been a huge drop in numbers into the feeder system. Second thing: When talking to physicians in hospitals, I heard again and again that we have open beds, we can get people isolated even more rapidly. I heard that in Wuhan and other provinces. The third thing: I talked to people running clinical trials of drugs, and they are having a problem recruiting patients. All these things helped corroborate [China’s data]
Preliminary - scientists found two main strains. The more aggressive one started in Wuhan. https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus-china-toll-idUSKBN20R07Z SHANGHAI (Reuters) - Scientists in China studying the coronavirus outbreak said they had found two main types of the disease could be causing infections. The researchers, from Peking University's School of Life Sciences and the Institut Pasteur of Shanghai under the Chinese Academy of Sciences, cautioned that their analysis examined a limited range of data, and said follow-up studies of larger data sets are needed to better understand the virus's evolution. The preliminary study found that a more aggressive type of the new coronavirus associated with the disease outbreak in Wuhan accounted for about 70% of analyzed strains, while 30% was linked to a less aggressive type.
Indeed Offices will be closed, and they are going to have their employees work from home starting Monday in Austin.
Thanks. They were good people. I can't say their golden years were anything close to ideal, but they taught me some hard lessons about life.
Six new cases in LA county, but none of them through community spread. Some were returning from Italy. https://www.latimes.com/california/...ty-declares-coronavirus-emergency-6-new-cases
I think the outbreaks in Italy, South Korea, and Iran are MUCH bigger than the numbers would show. Italy has flat out stopped testing mild cases. This is good news if you look at the mortality rate...there are probably much bigger numbers of people that have it than die (you pretty much count 100% of the dead). Its bad news if you want to contain it. It is also interesting that the WHO has basically come out and said China's numbers are pretty accurate, and they have greatly diminished the number of cases by their efforts (they've basically contained it)...so it shows it CAN be contained with extreme measures. The US Coronovirus funding package has like $1.25 billion for international efforts. I'd be curious if China puts up similar money to help overseas. I also wonder if this will lead to real crack downs on live animal markets in China.
