The Coronavirus Thread

[Scot Dutchy]

This is a world map that constantly updated by the Dutch News Service.

https://localfocus2.appspot.com/5e591af43f4a2

[Hermit]

Are you really concerned how often you touch your face? A pretty empty life then. Who really fucking cares? Stop farting.

I take it there's no link to your ex recto assertion then.

[rainbow]

[JimC]

Unlike swine flu, which often killed young and fit people...

[Cunt]

Is there concern that it is bi- or multi-phasic? I mean serious concern. I've heard less-informed speculating about it.

Also, the other concern is that a lot of the drugs used in the US (and probably Canada) are produced in China, which has disrupted supply chains at the moment.

I still see no reason to react differently. I doubt extreme measures would prevent infection a lot more than regular measures (for me/my life I mean) so no visible need to change plans yet.

Maybe Tero knows more about the drug supply-chain disruption and what effect it could have.

I think 'disease x' is a pretty serious claim, it is quite unlikely to be that, but I did hear one loon speculating merrily that with the pope, and those Iranian leaders falling ill, maybe this is a bioweapon made to take out the elite.

<cough>

[Tero]

A good number of our drugs are made in China and India. If you make the bulk drug there, you can ship it here and make the pills here. It's all under control of one company. You have quality control that way. Package and text is all here, you can sell it as US made.

Over the counter drugs tend to be made abroad, pills package and all. Especially store brands. Very few drugs expire in the time it says on the package. Store cool if you plan to keep it a year.

If the package says "distributed by" it's not made here.

[pErvinalia]

Crumple just posted in the ratskep thread after a couple of weeks off..

It could make a interesting time for the chaps who like to draw attention for themselves by driving into crowds or going into japanese kamikaze mode by some other means. All they need to do if buy some pepper and set themselves up for a sneezing fit in the crowd with it for a mass outbreak?

[Seabass]

Goddammit, I love Crumple.

[pErvinalia]

We need to start a campaign to get him back here.

[Hermit]

We need to start a campaign to get him back here.

Copping an earful of his tosh at Ratzkep is more than enough already. I don't particularly want to get it in stereo.

[Seabass]

Great system for handling pandemics, eh?

A Miami man who flew to China worried he might have coronavirus. He may owe thousands.

After returning to Miami last month from a work trip in China, Osmel Martinez Azcue found himself in a frightening position: he was developing flu-like symptoms, just as coronavirus was ravaging the country he had visited.

Under normal circumstances, Azcue said he would have gone to CVS for over-the-counter medicine and fought the flu on his own, but this time was different. As health officials stressed preparedness and vigilance for the respiratory illness, Azcue felt it was his responsibility to his family and his community to get tested for novel coronavirus, known as COVID-19.

He went to Jackson Memorial Hospital, where he said he was placed in a closed-off room. Nurses in protective white suits sprayed some kind of disinfectant smoke under the door before entering, Azcue said. Then hospital staff members told him he’d need a CT scan to screen for coronavirus, but Azcue said he asked for a flu test first.

“This will be out of my pocket,” Azcue, who has a very limited insurance plan, recalled saying. “Let’s start with the blood test, and if I test positive, just discharge me.”

Fortunately, that’s exactly what happened. He had the flu, not the deadly virus that has infected tens of thousands of people, mostly in China, and killed at least 2,239 as of Friday’s update by the World Health Organization.

But two weeks later, Azcue got unwelcome news in the form of a notice from his insurance company about a claim for $3,270.

In 2018, President Donald Trump’s administration rolled back Affordable Care Act regulations and allowed so-called “junk plans” in the market. Consumers mistakenly assume that the plans with lower monthly costs will be better than no insurance at all in case of a medical catastrophe, but often the plans aren’t very different from going without insurance altogether.

Hospital officials at Jackson told the Miami Herald that, based on his insurance, Azcue would only be responsible for $1,400 of that bill, but Azcue said he heard from his insurer that he would also have to provide additional documentation: three years of medical records to prove that the flu he got didn’t relate to a preexisting condition.

While Azcue’s experience shows the potential cost of testing for a disease that epidemiologists fear may develop into a public health crisis in the U.S., one insurance expert sees the episode as a cautionary tale about the potential risks associated with deregulation in the insurance market.

“When someone has flu-like symptoms, you want them to to seek medical care,” said Sabrina Corlette, a Georgetown University professor and co-director of the Center on Health Insurance Reforms. “If they have one of these junk plans and they know they might be on the hook for more than they can afford to seek that care, a lot of them just won’t, and that is a public health concern.”

continued: https://www.miamiherald.com/news/health ... 76806.html

[Cunt]

Great system for handling pandemics, eh?

mptoms, just as coronavirus was ravaging the country he had visited.

Under normal circumstances, Azcue said he would have gone to CVS for over-the-counter medicine and fought the flu on his own, but this time was different. As health officials stressed preparedness and vigilance for the respiratory illness, Azcue felt it was his responsibility to his family and his community to get tested for novel coronavirus, known as COVID-19.


“When someone has flu-like symptoms, you want them to to seek medical care,” said Sabrina Corlette, a Georgetown University professor and co-director of the Center on Health Insurance Reforms. “If they have one of these junk plans and they know they might be on the hook for more than they can afford to seek that care, a lot of them just won’t, and that is a public health concern.”

continued: https://www.miamiherald.com/news/health ... 76806.html

This gets even worse if it turns out to be multi-phasic. Maybe that's just more scare tactics.

I don't relate very easily to this insurance scam in the US, since I've got 'gold-star' everything and haven't had to worry about it for awhile.

I've been thinking though, that no matter how carefully handwashing etc. is done (WILL be done!) it might not be a very big difference, as to whether the virus will be contracted/transmitted/noticed.

That last really worries me. If I sniff, should I go to the hospital? If I cough?

What if I feel rough for a day or two, then it passes?

I'll focus my extra efforts on to supporting ill folk (vs supporting transmission-reduction).

Of course, the greasy politicians will all try to make the best of it.
https://apnews.com/d36d6c4de29f4d04beda3db00cb46104

(well, he spoke but you know...): “There’s nobody here to figure out what the hell we should be doing. And he’s defunded — he’s defunded Centers for Disease Control, CDC, so we don’t have the organization we need. This is a very serious thing.” — debate Tuesday night.

: “We increased the budget of the CDC. We increased the NIH budget. ... He’s wiped all that out. ... He cut the funding for the entire effort.”

They’re both wrong to say the agencies have seen their money cut. Bloomberg is repeating the false allegation in a new ad that states the U.S. is unprepared for the virus because of “reckless cuts” to the CDC. Trump’s budgets have proposed cuts to public health, only to be overruled by Congress, where there’s strong bipartisan support for agencies such as the CDC and NIH. Instead, financing has increased.

I'm not saying 'AP' is terrilby reputable either, but they clearly aren't on the debate stage for to achieve lots of goals - they are there for ONE goal. Win the nomination.

I'm not as sure of AP's goals, but their fact-check sounds reasonable. It's easy to believe politicians are opportunistic fuckers with their eye on the prize.

[Tero]

"Your insurance does not cover that"

During their stay, the father and daughter were twice sent to the nearby Rady Children’s Hospital for isolation treatment that lasted three or four days. When the quarantine ended and both were found to be free of the virus (they’ve been tested multiple times, according to the paper), they went to stay with Wucinski’s mother in Pennsylvania.

The hospital bills apparently got there first.

So far, the bills total $3,918, of which nearly $2,600 is from the ambulance company that took them to the hospital. The other charges came from hospital doctors and radiologists.

Wucinski turned to GoFundMe, a popular crowdfunding site, to help pay for the costs, as The Intercept reports.

One expert who spoke to the paper said it’s unclear who is legally obliged to pay for federally mandated quarantines, which could increase as the Covid-19 outbreak continues to spread around the world.

https://qz.com/1810869/covid-19-quarant ... us-family/

[pErvinalia]

First human to human transmission in Australia confirmed today.

[Cunt]

Has anyone run a blacklight over their mouse and keyboard?

...asking for a friend.