4 ms·

This is great and all, but misses the problem when containment doesn't happen soon enough. I feel like people look at China and South Korea and say "oh it peter

This is great and all, but misses the problem when containment doesn't happen soon enough. I feel like people look at China and South Korea and say "oh it peters out" but miss the need for extreme interventions to make that happen. We still don't know how this turns out if everyone puts their head in the sand like the U.S. is intent on doing with minimal testing and uneven regional containment. Seems to me like a typical measuring problem of having one hard metric so everyone argues about it's implication rather than focusing on where the number comes from.

koheripbal 7y ago
Testing is ramping up pretty quickly now. I think we're going to see a major shift in the next couple weeks with an explosion of newly-detected cases.
- AbrahamParangi 7y ago
  Seattle will likely be Italy within 2 weeks.
- HarryHirsch 7y ago
  That's nice, but how about treatment costs? You can get tested for COVID, but if you present at the ER with respiratory symptoms, physicians will want to rule our influenza and staph, and that will still cost you, nevermind treatment when you are admitted and uninsured. It has been drilled into people that physicians will cheat and overbill you, and that you should not "overconsume medical resources", and now the economic damage of that mindset becomes apparent.
  - murph-almighty 7y ago
    Mark my words, the stories of "Corona patient hit with $100k" bill _will_ lead to a push for M4A.
    - HammockTester 7y ago
      Maybe in another 4 years after Biden loses this election.
      - HarryHirsch 7y ago
        Looking at the current situation (mishandling of coronavirus, imminent recession and a powerless central bank, field of presidential candidates) one wants to echo Szilard, saying that Biden ought to lose the election, but Trump ought to lose the election, too. It's impossible to predict what will happen in the Fall.
- BoiledCabbage 7y ago
  To keep up with the capacity of South Korea, aftet adjusting for population size the US would need to capable of running 70,000 tests per day. We aren't remotely in that ball park. This administration massively dropped the ball here by being more concerned with keeping statistics low than actually keeping people safe. Even though they had weeks of advanced notice they only reinstated a task force after Washington state started spiraling out of control. They could have solved this testing issue at any point within an hr by simply telling the FDA to authorize private testing. Instead they waited until governors and patients were literally begging online to improve test capacity for any change to happen. You want to be in charge? That's what being in charge is. In times of crisis accurately assessing the situation and taking decisive action to solve problems. Not playing a leader on tv while sitting on your hands and passing the buck blaming others while simultaneously giving a false sense of unseriousness by downplaying the situation. A month from now this wasted, squandered time is going to be absolutely indefensible. This country (like every other that hasn't taken this seriously) is gonna get hit hard.
  - harikb 7y ago
    We will discover years later that the delay was intentional, so that certain investments/under the table deal with certain companies can occur first.
- TomMarius 7y ago
  Czech Republic is going to be worse than Italy in 2 weeks, i think at least 700 cases. Today noone wears even masks, people are apathetic, quarantine is absolutely not being taken seriously, people happily went skiing to Italy, even joking that the ski slopes will be emptier. Mostly no testing happens, not even temperature monitoring. Hospitals are absolutely not ready, there is a constant discussion of massive healthcare problems even when there is no virus. Respirators have been banned from trade but not even the government buys them so healthcare is already in crisis. Noone trusts the government because it has already lied about many absolutely insignificant things regarding the virus. It's a clusterfuck and it's just the first hundred of cases now. Today they found out that Praguese taxi driver was infected for 3 days while working, they still have no idea who he met. This all is due to Andrej Babis's desperate actions to keep himself in the government and not go to prison.

koheripbal 7y ago

Testing is ramping up pretty quickly now. I think we're going to see a major shift in the next couple weeks with an explosion of newly-detected cases.

AbrahamParangi 7y ago
Seattle will likely be Italy within 2 weeks.
HarryHirsch 7y ago
That's nice, but how about treatment costs? You can get tested for COVID, but if you present at the ER with respiratory symptoms, physicians will want to rule our influenza and staph, and that will still cost you, nevermind treatment when you are admitted and uninsured. It has been drilled into people that physicians will cheat and overbill you, and that you should not "overconsume medical resources", and now the economic damage of that mindset becomes apparent.
- murph-almighty 7y ago
  Mark my words, the stories of "Corona patient hit with $100k" bill _will_ lead to a push for M4A.
  - HammockTester 7y ago
    Maybe in another 4 years after Biden loses this election.
    - HarryHirsch 7y ago
      Looking at the current situation (mishandling of coronavirus, imminent recession and a powerless central bank, field of presidential candidates) one wants to echo Szilard, saying that Biden ought to lose the election, but Trump ought to lose the election, too. It's impossible to predict what will happen in the Fall.
BoiledCabbage 7y ago
To keep up with the capacity of South Korea, aftet adjusting for population size the US would need to capable of running 70,000 tests per day. We aren't remotely in that ball park. This administration massively dropped the ball here by being more concerned with keeping statistics low than actually keeping people safe. Even though they had weeks of advanced notice they only reinstated a task force after Washington state started spiraling out of control. They could have solved this testing issue at any point within an hr by simply telling the FDA to authorize private testing. Instead they waited until governors and patients were literally begging online to improve test capacity for any change to happen. You want to be in charge? That's what being in charge is. In times of crisis accurately assessing the situation and taking decisive action to solve problems. Not playing a leader on tv while sitting on your hands and passing the buck blaming others while simultaneously giving a false sense of unseriousness by downplaying the situation. A month from now this wasted, squandered time is going to be absolutely indefensible. This country (like every other that hasn't taken this seriously) is gonna get hit hard.
- harikb 7y ago
  We will discover years later that the delay was intentional, so that certain investments/under the table deal with certain companies can occur first.
TomMarius 7y ago
Czech Republic is going to be worse than Italy in 2 weeks, i think at least 700 cases. Today noone wears even masks, people are apathetic, quarantine is absolutely not being taken seriously, people happily went skiing to Italy, even joking that the ski slopes will be emptier. Mostly no testing happens, not even temperature monitoring. Hospitals are absolutely not ready, there is a constant discussion of massive healthcare problems even when there is no virus. Respirators have been banned from trade but not even the government buys them so healthcare is already in crisis. Noone trusts the government because it has already lied about many absolutely insignificant things regarding the virus. It's a clusterfuck and it's just the first hundred of cases now. Today they found out that Praguese taxi driver was infected for 3 days while working, they still have no idea who he met. This all is due to Andrej Babis's desperate actions to keep himself in the government and not go to prison.