Corona virus (Page 5)

I read through the article.  Here are a couple things that stand out to me.

Mr. McCormick works 3 jobs and has kids in daycare.  He and his wife have to decide if him taking time off work to visit the doctor at the risk of losing pay makes sense.  A rational parent will minimize the impact of lost time at work, either by having the parent who doesn't lose wages take the time off, or by having the parent making less take time off for this.  If he's taking time off, that implies his wife makes more than the $45-50K a teacher with 15 years would make in West Virginia (I looked up the salary schedule and assume at 37, he's got 15 years of experience).  He's working adjunct positions, so he easily exceeds $50K with the implication he's the lower wage earner, so the two together are making over $100K.  In Princeton, WV, that goes a long way if you're a good steward of your money.  

He's worried about the $20 or $50 co-pay his plan charges?  My family deductible is $3000 before I get to worry about a co-pay.  

"Junk Insurance..."  I pay over $500/month for my employer-subsidized insurance (with a $3000 deductible).  This means I spend $6000/year even if I never use any healthcare services.  Assuming my portion is 25%, the total cost of this insurance is $24,000+.  THAT is junk!  In addition to my insurance premium, I'm contributing to my HSA to cover healthcare expenses should they arise (and yes, they are arising).  A few years back, it would have been ~$900/month for my Obamacare policy (individual coverage with a $7000 deductible).  That's junk!  I could work out the math, but I'd have to expect $30K plus in annual medical expenses based on premiums alone.  

The anecdote of the Florida businessman...First...go to the Emergency Room when you have an EMERGENCY!.  With "flu like symptoms' he should have scheduled an appointment with his physician.  Sadly, he was responding to the media hype rather than making a rational decision and it's costing him $1400.  He could have gone to his doctor and received the negative result for...$150...

At the same time, what would he expect if his test result was positive?  The hospital would keep him quarantined, tying up a $3000/day bed for a week or two instead of being sent home by his doctor to self-quarantine.  Again...mild symptoms, so why does he need to hole up in an expensive hospital room?  For "mild symptoms" I wouldn't even go to the doctor if I expected a viral infection.  

Where I live,  med-stops, urgent care buildings, and hospitals are more numerous, by far, then grocery stores.  There is virtually nobody in this country who does not have access to Immediate stabilizing medical care.....NOBODY. 

And no.....this latest virus is not going to make the system break down.  This is all such BULLCHIT!!!!

Interesting. To be honest, the details of those two families didn't make much sense to me. What stuck with me was "The number of uninsured non-elderly people in the US rose to 27.9 million in 2018" That number is still considerable although it has improved dramatically. My question is how does a "high" % of non insured people impact the rest of the population in case of something like a pandemic

Deleted out much of the text.  

My guess is 27.9M uninsured non-elderly in 2018 is significantly LOWER than the number of uninsured non-elderly in 1950 (both in terms of absolute numbers and percentages).  

Insured vs. Uninsured is probably far less impact than the % of people who won't follow medical advice (whether insured or not). 

Why will so many people ignore medical advice?  They're leveraged to the hilt and/or living paycheck to paycheck and they feel "compelled" to show up for work even if they're contagious.  Losing even a week of income becomes catastrophic.  I saw a headline recently that 40% of the US population has <$400 available to cover any kind of "emergency."  

Originally posted by Synon

Originally posted by Left Brain Good article. And it's time to ask.....why IS the media hell bent on stoking fear? They've never gone to this length with any other new virus....even one's that were far more deadly. (hint: it's plainly obvious)

You're not going to ask us to put on the tinfoil hats again are you?

No, just answer the question.  

50,000 are dead from pneumonia each year with 250,000 hospitalized.  Nearly the same amount from influenza. Just 10 years ago 60,000,000 Americans contracted swine flu with 275,000 being hospitalized and 12,500 dead.  Worldwide it killed over 500,000 people.  What was different then?  Why was there no fear mongering by the media?  What has changed? 

Hmmmmmmmm....what could it be?

I'm just asking what the difference is.  Just answer the question. LMAO

And yes, marcag, I can only assume people in other countries care about our political mess.....just like you. 

And Synon - you may need your tin foil after all....if that's where you put the answer to my question.

The people who are yelling the loudest about how this has been politicized seem to be the least likely to look at the actual data coming out of other countries. 

Yes, it has not infected the same # of people as the flu YET. But it appears to spread just as easily as the flu. The reason epidemiologists are concerned is precisely BECAUSE this appears to be mild in many cases. It has a much higher death rate than the flu, puts a significant percentage of people in the hospital, and spreads as easily as the flu. If we allow it to spread like the flu, we will see an overburdened healthcare system very quickly, because this virus causes serious disease requiring intervention in 10-20% of cases, and most of those who have recovered were ill for 30 days (that means using a hospital bed for a month). That is absolutely not the case with the flu! And the ease of which this spreads is absolutely not the case with diseases like Ebola and SARS!

In hard hit areas of Italy, they are already having to triage patients. Italian doctors are speaking out - they aren't intubating anyone over 65 with any comorbidities, because they don't have the resources. There are plenty of people in the hospital with breathing tubes who are in their 40s and 50s . It's not "just a cold" for everyone. The data show that this causes very serious illness in a large proportion of cases. And if you're over 60, oof.

https://twitter.com/jasonvanschoor/status/1237142891077697538

https://twitter.com/silviast9/status/1236933818654896129

^^ These are threads from actual doctors treating this in Italy. If we don't slow transmission, it is very likely that something similar is going to go down here. Seattle is already well on it's way. 

If we choose to pretend it is nothing, we will overwhelm the system, and possibly cause more deaths because we will not have capacity to treat everyone. If we take measures to slow the spread of the disease, it is possible that the healthcare system will be able to keep up, and outcomes will be better. 

South Korea has demonstrated that social distancing can slow the spread of this, without measures as extreme as those taken in China. Italy is about to attempt the same. These countries have nothing to do with our political mess, and I guarantee they wouldn't be taking these measures if this was "just the flu." They are taking these measures because their healthcare systems are overwhelmed, and they have no choice but to slow the spread of the disease if they want.

Headline here is sensationalist, but article is solid.

https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2020/03/coronavirus-cancel-everything/607675/?fbclid=IwAR1_2mAEtNaEuCBtTk3mKHl98aok8kcXMecadu9HPYu4NoppvVPBLiTIR_g

The reason people are making this political is because we have a president who is consistently saying things that outright contradict the advice of the CDC and the scientists (what few are left) in his own administration. And judging by the response of the markets, the current leadership is not inspiring confidence. By ignoring it, and bungling testing for over a month while this spread all over the county, we are quickly coming to a point where cases are going to exponentially multiply and overwhelm the system. This is already happening in Seattle. I'm personally hoping Colorado does a better job, for the sake of my friends who are healthcare workers, and all of the folks I know in their 60s, 70s, and 80s who are still living very amazing lives. 

Just answer the question.

Not at all....the question is why is the media hyping this as much as they are.  I gave examples and stats from another virus that wasn't covered this way AT ALL.....hell, most people that I ask don't remember H1N1 or barely remember it.  I want to know what is different this time.  Does somebody know something that they aren't telling the rest of us?  Because, as i said in my post to Stacers.....I have to attend "official briefings" and I haven't heard ANYTHING like what she posted from the people doing the briefing.