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Ask HN: How are you preparing for COVID-19 disruptions?

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Re: Ask HN: How are you preparing for COVID-19 disruptions?

#431

Post by senordevnyc »

jedberg wrote: post #279
senordevnyc wrote: post #190

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think you should take whatever reasonable precautions help you feel better, but just to put your mind at ease a little: one of the few bright spots with this virus is that it doesn’t seem especially dangerous to kids. To my knowledge there have been zero deaths of any kids under the age of 10. I have a 4 year old and I’m much more concerned about her parents and grandparents than her.

> I have a 4 year old and I’m much more concerned about her parents Isn't that you? :)

Yes :)

Re: Ask HN: How are you preparing for COVID-19 disruptions?

#432

Post by Mountain_Skies »

kempbellt wrote: post #154

By listening to "It's The End Of The World As We Know It (And I Feel Fine)" by R.E.M. Seriously, stressing out about this is going to create more problems than the virus itself. Humans love starting panic parades anytime something scary happens. Best thing to do is not worry about it.

RE: It's The End Of The World As We Know It, at the end of the song at about 3:57, you can hear a voice in the background say what sounds like "Party". I've never been able to find an explanation for how that got into the song or why it is there.

Re: Ask HN: How are you preparing for COVID-19 disruptions?

#433

Post by cjamesd »

jacquesm wrote: post #278
8iterations wrote: post #188

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes I agree with you, I am concerned with the elderly & infants. As these are the demographics which usually have higher fatal outcome both in diseases, and even adverse effects from drugs/surgery.

Young children are surprisingly resilient against Coronavirus infections, their mortality is so low that it hardly figures in the stats (on an individual level it is still just as much a tragedy).

As the father of a newborn, grateful to hear this. Do you have a source?

Re: Ask HN: How are you preparing for COVID-19 disruptions?

#434

Post by djannzjkzxn »

marshray wrote: post #314
runjake wrote: post #228

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Fair enough. Is it killing a significant amount of non-immunocompromised people? I haven't devoted a lot of attention to COVID-19, but would assume it doesn't have a high casualty rate among healthy people who practice the basics (rest and hydration)? I guess one way to look at it is that it's a model for handling a much deadlier bug. And the world is doing a mediocre job at it.

A significant percentage of (probably 2 - 20%) of the cases require hospitalization. As a point of reference, there are typically about 1000 free hospital beds[1] in the state of Kansas, for a population of 2.9M. http://www.kdheks.gov/cphp/download/KS_PF_Plan.pdf page 22

These rates are taking the number of confirmed cases and dividing by the number of hospitalizations. The problem is that minor cases usually don’t get detected so they don’t get included in the denominator. A single confirmed case might correspond to a thousand infections. It’s too early to know.

Re: Ask HN: How are you preparing for COVID-19 disruptions?

#435

Post by cjamesd »

wonderwonder wrote: post #227
jerf wrote: post #144

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You might be surprised. There are some old laws and powers that are going to be dusted off, and in some other cases it may be the case that governments just claim powers on an emergency basis and essentially nobody other than the absolute political fringes of society is going to complain.

"essentially nobody other than the absolute political fringes of society is going to complain" I very much dont think that is the way this plays out in the western world. In China, they welded the doors shut on entire residential buildings leaving the people in there to either die or survive on their own. They bagged and gagged people with elevated temperature and force quarantined them. They had crematoriums working…

Source for these claims?

Re: Ask HN: How are you preparing for COVID-19 disruptions?

#436

Post by disabled »

lapinot wrote: post #411
jacquesm wrote: post #272

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You got very lucky. Lottery level winning lucky.

Basic lottery is 1 in 14 million winning. I guess "citation needed", having that exact winner on hn is pretty low probability. This is an irrational comment in an irrational subthread. I'm not sure adhesive tape doesn't have high germs density but i'm pretty sure there is little correlation between your finger sticking to a material and a germ sticking to that same material. This message has no positive outcome besid…

It does attract bacteria plus other pathogens, plus makes them hard to remove.

For example, in the 90s, roll tape (versus now: single use sterile IV tape) was sometimes used to secure IV lines. Here is a study on IV lines (not central lines):

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1496597/

I was phenomenally stupid and also phenomenally lucky not to go in to sepsis for this move.

I do know. Even though I am currently in pharmaceutical remission, I have cheated death a few times as an adult, and I am more aware of medical risks. You would be surprised to know that I am doing well and prospering, especially if you knew my health situation.

Re: Ask HN: How are you preparing for COVID-19 disruptions?

#437

Post by disabled »

jacquesm wrote: post #272
disabled wrote: post #259

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thank you for acknowledging this. I really appreciate it. The issue is that the adhesive from tape is a form of glue. It attracts and keeps hold of germs. Plus, it is extremely hard to get fully off in terms of disinfection purposes. I had a central line (dialysis catheter) in my chest for 4 months for a procedure called plasma exchange. You cannot take a shower with an exposed central line. A single drop of water on…

You got very lucky. Lottery level winning lucky.

Thank you for understanding this.

Re: Ask HN: How are you preparing for COVID-19 disruptions?

#438

Post by skinnymuch »

RegnisGnaw wrote: post #43

Refill your medication(s), that's the biggest one. India produces a lot of drugs and if they get infected, we will see shortage. China also produces a lot of the base chemicals used in medication, so this is worry some. If you have chronic conditions, you really don't want to be without. Soap and sanitizer. Mostly soap. Soap is equally effective as sanitizer in washing hands, etc. Soap is also much cheaper and more a…

A lot of us take controlled medications :/..which are also usually needed more than the easier to get ones that you can stock up on.

Re: Ask HN: How are you preparing for COVID-19 disruptions?

#439

Post by ryan-allen »

geophile wrote: post #196
ryan-allen wrote: post #162

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why would you sell 50% of your stock?

You mean, why that much, or why not all of it? I was tempted to sell all of it, but decided to wait a while. I sold because I think the risk of further, large declines is greater than the likelihood of a continuing increase. (In 2008, as that crisis was developing, I also sold everything, and bought back once things returned to a new normal.)

I mean why exit 50% of your position rather than ride it out? I figured you might find cash more prudent.

Re: Ask HN: How are you preparing for COVID-19 disruptions?

#440

Post by heartofgold »

dfsegoat wrote: post #358
allovernow wrote: post #136

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>The annual Flu, MERS and SARS were far far worse This is NOT TRUE. I urge you to stop relying on the news and look at the literature that is being published in real time. I don't have time for a full response but 15% of cases require ICU care to survive. There are less than 100k ICU beds in the U.S. and the virus spreads 2-5x (R0 estimates from 3 up to 8 depending on source) more readily than SARS or MERS or the 191…

What led you to believe I cited the news? I cite the WHO and CDC where I could. If I am interpreting that information incorrectly based on my previous experience in epidemiology, please educate me. - SARS case fatality rate = 15% (WHO - 1) - MERS case fatality rate = 34.4% (WHO - 2) - COVID19 case fatality rate = 2.3% (WHO - 3^) 1- https://www.who.int/csr/sars/en/WHOconsensus.pdf 2- https://www.who.int/emergencies/me…

You are citing case fatality rate for MERS and SARS, but not the flu (which is typically 0.1%), and yet in any given year the flu has killed many more people than MERS or SARS. Why? Because millions get the flu whereas MERS and SARS were contained.

Now consider that COVID-19 is much more contagious than the flu and it has a significantly higher case fatality rate than the flu.

Furthermore, people can and do protect themselves against the flu with a vaccine. There is no vaccine for COVID-19. And still further, no one is immune because the disease is new to humans.

So yes, while covid-19 has a 98% survival rate, a widespread outbreak could kill hundreds of thousands of people.

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