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Nancy Pelosi Says House Will Pass Coronavirus Bill with Free Testing for All
- Iwan-Zotow 7y agoMore treasuries to sell, more debt to pile up...
- deleted 7y ago[deleted]
- bosswipe 7y agoIn response to a massive crisis is the perfect time to spend without worrying about debt. What doesn't make sense are the trillion dollar deficits over the last few years of a booming economy to pay for Trump's tax cuts.
- Seenso 7y ago> more debt to pile up... So, lets pile up bodies instead?
- m0zg 7y agoThere's no cure. Bodies will pile up regardless.
- Seenso 7y ago> There's no cure. Bodies will pile up regardless. There's not cure, but there is treatment. Many deaths will be avoidable if we can slow down the spread, to spread out the load to avoid overwhelming the medical system too much.
- m0zg 7y agoWe're already slowing down the spread. The country is pretty much shut down. And you aren't going to be able to test ~60 _million_ people who will ultimately be infected with this (using 2009 H1N1 estimates). This is not an excuse to the utter CDC/FDA incompetence/sabotage we're witnessing, it's just a statement of fact. We're in the uncharted waters with this, countermeasures of even the _current_ magnitude have never been applied before.
- Seenso 7y ago> The country is pretty much shut down. No, it isn't yet. I'm in the office right now, with thousands of my colleagues. > And you aren't going to be able to test ~60 _million_ people who will ultimately be infected with this Maybe not, but you don't want to discourage people from getting tested now. Getting a positive test is an important cue to take extra stringent isolation measures. Aggressive testing helps reduce the need for stringent, general measures like lockdowns: https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus-response-specialre/italy-and-south-korea-virus-outbreaks-reveal-disparity-in-deaths-and-tactics-idUSKBN20Z27P https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus-respon...
- toxican 7y agoAnd then it will either die in the Senate or somehow pass unanimously with the exception of Rand Paul.
- mrlala 7y agoSenate is already saying it's dead...
- josephorjoe 7y agoSenate may well be dead if they are seen to be standing in the way of getting testing done (or at least the 33 of them up for reelection this year).
- jgwil2 7y agoSource?
- vermontdevil 7y agoNot dead but Lamar Alexander reported McConnell plans to take it up after recess (March 23).
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- christkv 7y agoSo is this free testing but pay the ICU ?
- ceejayoz 7y agoBaby steps. "Medicare for All for Coronavirus" would be guaranteed to die in the Senate, at least for now.
- ssklash 7y ago> "Medicare for All for Coronavirus" would be guaranteed to die in the Senate, at least for now. This is absolutely true, and that fact that it is amazes me and makes me disappointed in my own country. This virus is unprecedented in recent history, excluding the Spanish Flu of course, and the fact that something of this magnitude is completely insufficient for the Senate to get over their [hangups/ideological opposition/ownership by insurance companies] concerning healthcare is sickening. If this doesn't wake people up to the necessity of more universal healthcare, and make blindingly obvious the superiority of the response of countries with more universal systems, nothing will.
- cavisne 7y agoCoronavirus started in a country with universal healthcare. The only way to actually prevent the spread of this type of disease is independent of government - changing personal behavior.
- crooked-v 7y agoNo man is an island. 'Changing personal behavior' means nothing when someone's only option is to go into work sick because they literally can't afford to stay home without being evicted.
- ceejayoz 7y ago> The only way to actually prevent the spread of this type of disease is independent of government - changing personal behavior. There are all sorts of governmental actions that can change personal behavior.
- ch4s3 7y agoFrankly we need to be revamping how we handle travel security, specially the TSA. Pat downs and dirty shared bins are certainly vectors for transmission, and should stop. We should probably also be checking for fever and diverting sick travelers. The no cost tests are great, but we need to get over our aversion to the mediocre foreign test kits and additionally ramp up supply of kits. Free is useless if there’s a backlog and large lag time for testing.
- majos 7y agoI’m surprised by the lack of temperature screening, especially in airports. It doesn’t seem hard to implement. We can at least strongly encourage individuals with fevers to self-quarantine and monitor. Baseless conjecture, but I think instruction from a government envoy to self-quarantine based on a temperature reading is more likely to work on people than hoping they check and decide on their own.
- whatshisface 7y ago>It also seeks to give workers new protections, including paid emergency leave, with both 14 days of paid sick leave and up to three months of paid family and medical leave, as well as enhanced unemployment insurance, which will extend protections to furloughed workers. >In addition to supporting workers, the "Families First" bill would also seek to strengthen food security initiatives, including SNAP, food bank services, student meals and senior nutrition programs, while also increasing federal funds for Medicaid, as states across the country face increased costs. By packing so much social assistance into the bill, the House is going to create serious problems with getting it through the Senate. The goal of mass testing would be better served if the controversial issues were separated from the immediate one.
- revel 7y agoSNAP is set to be cut in April. It's essential that the program coverage not be cut during what is almost certainly a massively global recession. The most vulnerable will die without this assistance.
- wonderwonder 7y agoThe administration confirmed a couple days ago it is still intending to push forward with their budget request to cut CDC funding by 15%. They don't care about poor people.
- Shank 7y agoI mean, this is how politics generally works. Almost every big bill has included in it things that don't relate to the bill and are just on someone's wishlist to get passed. It'll likely be rejected by the senate and amended, but this is pretty normal politics to me.
- dionian 7y agoYup plus it gives them the opportunity to grandstand about why their rivals didn't approve
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- 98codes 7y agoYou can offer people $10 to get tested -- if the tests don't exist, what difference will this make? Where ARE all the tests, anyway?
- josephorjoe 7y agoSouth Korea...
- chvid 7y agoChina recently gave a bunch of test-kits to Italy ... maybe you can talk to them?
- crispyporkbites 7y agoWhat do you mean the tests don't exist? The most common test uses nasal swabs and the Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction (RT-PCR) technique. Millions have been tested globally and thousands in the US: https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/about/testing.html https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/about/testing.html In the UK the NHS will drop a kit off at your house if you call up and say you have the symptons. In the UK you will soon be able to buy them directly for £40 online: https://www.drandrews.co.uk/covid-19-corona-virus-self-test-kit-c-24-p-177 https://www.drandrews.co.uk/covid-19-corona-virus-self-test-...
- unlinked_dll 7y agoThere's two steps here, getting material from people who may be infected and analyzing it to check. The US is bottlenecked by the latter, we haven't mobilized our labs. Frankly if they wanted to get more tests out faster they should be getting university labs mobilized. Conferences are already on hiatus for presenting research, get the researchers who aren't focused on medicine but capable of preparing lab results working on it.
- Trisell 7y agoThere is a lot of FUD currently going on. This podcast by Joe Rogan is great. Listen to an expert and then make your decisions. Here is the bio of the guy he interviews. Since Joe Rogan isn’t a “reliable” source. Michael Osterholm is an internationally recognized expert in infectious disease epidemiology. He is Regents Professor, McKnight Presidential Endowed Chair in Public Health, the director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy (CIDRAP), Distinguished Teaching Professor in the Division of Environmental Health Sciences, School of Public Health, a professor in the Technological Leadership Institute, College of Science and Engineering, and an adjunct professor in the Medical School, all at the University of Minnesota. http://podcasts.joerogan.net/podcasts/michael-osterholm http://podcasts.joerogan.net/podcasts/michael-osterholm
- deleted 7y ago[deleted]
- andybak 7y agoI don't have time to listen to a Podcast. Can you summarize? I've read a hell of a lot around this recently and if his conclusion is anything other than "this is an epoch changing event that requires massive, immediate change in our behaviour" then I suspect I'll disagree. (sorry if I'm jumping to conclusions but there's a lot of people saying we shouldn't be worried and they are dangerous)
- deleted 7y ago[deleted]
- vermontdevil 7y agoYou can read here https://www.listennotes.com/podcasts/the-joe-rogan/1439-michael-osterholm-hOvloIESWg4/ https://www.listennotes.com/podcasts/the-joe-rogan/1439-mich...
- tomku 7y agoThat looks like an automated transcription that's almost entirely unreadable nonsense. Maybe not the best thing to be recommending to people who are looking for easily-digestable information.
- revel 7y agoOnce again, vastly better and more effective policy actions coming out of the House than the Senate or White House. A payroll tax cut isn't going to help service industry workers who lose their jobs due to demand falling off a cliff. Right now there are two crises unfolding simultaneously in the US: the virus itself and its devastating impact on the payment side of the health care system. Across the US, particularly in states that didn't adopt the ACA, workers are uninsured or underinsured. Those workers are going to attempt to work through illness because they can't pay for care and, in turn, will massively spread the virus. It's a train wreck that's been decades in the making
- majos 7y agoWhat’s with the flood of downvotes on this comment? It’s civil, relevant, and contributes to discussion of the topic. Maybe you disagree with its conclusion, but that’s not what downvotes are for.
- throwaway2048 7y agoBecause anything that blames government policy for specific failures beyond a generic bemoaning of "regulations" is seen as "too political" and "uncivil" by HN.
- kick 7y agoI agree with the downmodded comment, but it's important to remember that downmodding can be used to express disagreement: Paul Graham: I think it's ok to use the up and down arrows to express agreement. Obviously the uparrows aren't only for applauding politeness, so it seems reasonable that the downarrows aren't only for booing rudeness. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=117171 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=117171 Also, try not to comment on the voting on comments, it doesn't help much, and breaks the site's guidelines: Please don't comment about the voting on comments. It never does any good, and it makes boring reading. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
- WrtCdEvrydy 7y agoACA is far better than Obamacare.
- stanski 7y agoWhy would you have to pay to get tested...
- xutopia 7y agoAs an outsider to the US things like this feel like this should be part of the system already. It's socialized medicine but they don't dare call it that.
- gshock 7y agosend the bill to china
- azurezyq 7y agoWe are in the third month of the outbreak and "free testing" is still something up for debate... It's surreal.. When time means lives, the gov should really unite and work on something useful quickly. I'm wondering when did US start to lose the ability of "fast execution" since WWII.
- ryanmarsh 7y agoHere is the text of the bill for those interested. H.R.6201 - Families First Coronavirus Response Act. https://www.congress.gov/bill/116th-congress/house-bill/6201/text https://www.congress.gov/bill/116th-congress/house-bill/6201...
- crispyporkbites 7y agoYou have to pay to be tested in the US? I'm incredulous. This will mean the virus sticks around quite a bit longer, and that has a material affect on the global population.
- crooked-v 7y agoIn the US, the default state of affairs is that you have to pay for all health care, even if it's to protect other people from you.
- mnm1 7y agoThis is a token gesture. Free testing is not enough. Free treatment should be a minimum. Does anyone think that the improvements to unemployment can pay for a few weeks in the icu? That would bankrupt anyone without decent insurance or a high enough out of pocket maximum. And if not bankrupt, really hurt them. Especially while on unemployment / disability. This clearly shows neither party really gives a fuck about people. One pretends a little more than the other. This won't pass the Senate.