Coronavirus information and extenuating circumstances policy • Hacker News Board

Re: Coronavirus information and extenuating circumstances policy

#31

Post by ornornor » Sun, Mar 01, 2020, 3:58 PM UTC

mlthoughts2018 wrote: post #23

Shivetya wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The major reason is far too many people exhibit an exaggerated state of self entitlement which they use to excuse their actions including those which put others at risk. Some will do it just to spite others, some will do it out ignorance. We just have so many people who have the means to travel that you cannot properly contain any outbreak so you do the best to mitigate the impact The end result usually is the same,…

I think you mean corporations display an exaggerated sense of self-entitlement, and by not making full refunds easy and well-understood, they create these negative externalities. Asking individuals to bear the financial risk related to these types of emergencies seems wrong to me on all levels, moral, pragmatism, effectiveness, social fairness, etc. These types of risks should be borne by corporations in the form of…

Agree with you although it’s a very, very unpopular opinion in North America where most HN readers are from.

Re: Coronavirus information and extenuating circumstances policy

#32

Post by netsharc » Sun, Mar 01, 2020, 3:59 PM UTC

graeme wrote: post #21

heligate229 wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Can't overemphasised. The fine print of the travel insurance is very important! However, I don't get why cancellation policies will be a major reason of the spread. Your explanation on sunk cost fallacy and cancellation seems to be missing. Airbnb has a clause to refund under "Epidemic disease or illness"

The link says you can only automatically cancel for mainland china and korean trips. So any trips to Italy, Iran, Washington State etc can’t be refunded. It encourages people to still go. Sunk cost fallacy: people might not take a free trip to italy now, but they may go if they previously paid for one.

If I were a billionaire I'd tell these people, "Fine, I'll refund you out of my pocket, stay home and don't be an infection vector!". Obviously I'd make them sign a contract to make sure they stay home (or the contract would stipulate that they'd have to pay me back, plus a punishment on top).

Re: Coronavirus information and extenuating circumstances policy

#33

Post by lawn » Sun, Mar 01, 2020, 4:00 PM UTC

Retric wrote: post #18

jpxw wrote: post #4

If you’re in a major city, this is the time to start taking preventative measures. Avoid mass gatherings and public transport if you can.

There are 70 known cases of Coronavirus in the US. Making precautions at this point is reasonable, going to extremes is not. My suggestion is to prepare for the possibility of major disruption starting 2 to 6 months from now. Avoid non refundable trips etc.

It's only 70 cases because people aren't getting tested.

Re: Coronavirus information and extenuating circumstances policy

#34

Post by ghaff » Sun, Mar 01, 2020, 4:01 PM UTC

Retric wrote: post #18

jpxw wrote: post #4

If you’re in a major city, this is the time to start taking preventative measures. Avoid mass gatherings and public transport if you can.

There are 70 known cases of Coronavirus in the US. Making precautions at this point is reasonable, going to extremes is not. My suggestion is to prepare for the possibility of major disruption starting 2 to 6 months from now. Avoid non refundable trips etc.

My approach at this point is to minimize booking things that I can't cancel or that have significant cancellation penalties. It wouldn't surprise me if I end up eating some additional costs for booking things late or last minute fees for cancellations. Not that I was planning to anyway but this is certainly not the year for booking expensive pre-paid trips.

Re: Coronavirus information and extenuating circumstances policy

#35

Post by mothsonasloth » Sun, Mar 01, 2020, 4:02 PM UTC

agumonkey wrote: post #16

Where's the alexa plugin that infers your covid19 status based on the sound of your voice, breathing, coughing and internet queries for medicine and things you can binge watch for a month ?

The WHO wants to know your location

Re: Coronavirus information and extenuating circumstances policy

#36

Post by ghaff » Sun, Mar 01, 2020, 4:03 PM UTC

mlthoughts2018 wrote: post #23

Shivetya wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The major reason is far too many people exhibit an exaggerated state of self entitlement which they use to excuse their actions including those which put others at risk. Some will do it just to spite others, some will do it out ignorance. We just have so many people who have the means to travel that you cannot properly contain any outbreak so you do the best to mitigate the impact The end result usually is the same,…

I think you mean corporations display an exaggerated sense of self-entitlement, and by not making full refunds easy and well-understood, they create these negative externalities. Asking individuals to bear the financial risk related to these types of emergencies seems wrong to me on all levels, moral, pragmatism, effectiveness, social fairness, etc. These types of risks should be borne by corporations in the form of…

AirBnB is probably not the best example given that the cost of last minute cancellations is mostly borne by the people renting out their places (some of which are admittedly full-time businesses) rather than AirBnB itself.

Re: Coronavirus information and extenuating circumstances policy

#37

Post by yodsanklai » Sun, Mar 01, 2020, 4:05 PM UTC

Retric wrote: post #18

jpxw wrote: post #4

If you’re in a major city, this is the time to start taking preventative measures. Avoid mass gatherings and public transport if you can.

There are 70 known cases of Coronavirus in the US. Making precautions at this point is reasonable, going to extremes is not. My suggestion is to prepare for the possibility of major disruption starting 2 to 6 months from now. Avoid non refundable trips etc.

I agree with you. I'd argue that even thousands of cases in the US wouldn't put you at risk (especially if you're young and healthy). However, if we consider that the number of infected people increases tenfold every 10-15 days, and that there already many unreported sick people, we may expect disruptions sooner that 2 to 6 months.

Re: Coronavirus information and extenuating circumstances policy

#38

Post by dragonwriter » Sun, Mar 01, 2020, 4:08 PM UTC

Retric wrote: post #18

jpxw wrote: post #4

If you’re in a major city, this is the time to start taking preventative measures. Avoid mass gatherings and public transport if you can.

There are 70 known cases of Coronavirus in the US. Making precautions at this point is reasonable, going to extremes is not. My suggestion is to prepare for the possibility of major disruption starting 2 to 6 months from now. Avoid non refundable trips etc.

> There are 70 known cases of Coronavirus in the US.

Sure, but “known” is doing a lot of work in that sentence, we know that there are unknown cases and we don't know how many and we know that in at least a couple of places (and it's likely that there are more we don't know about) some of known and therefore almost certainly more of the unknown cases are due to community spread.

Re: Coronavirus information and extenuating circumstances policy

#39

Post by maxerickson » Sun, Mar 01, 2020, 4:09 PM UTC

mlthoughts2018 wrote: post #23

Shivetya wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The major reason is far too many people exhibit an exaggerated state of self entitlement which they use to excuse their actions including those which put others at risk. Some will do it just to spite others, some will do it out ignorance. We just have so many people who have the means to travel that you cannot properly contain any outbreak so you do the best to mitigate the impact The end result usually is the same,…

I think you mean corporations display an exaggerated sense of self-entitlement, and by not making full refunds easy and well-understood, they create these negative externalities. Asking individuals to bear the financial risk related to these types of emergencies seems wrong to me on all levels, moral, pragmatism, effectiveness, social fairness, etc. These types of risks should be borne by corporations in the form of…

The costs of the cancellations may exceed the profits of the company (In which case it's still appropriate for investors to take the loss, I'm just pointing out that there's a wider range of possibilities).

Or the pricing of refundable tickets vs non-refundable tickets. It turns out if you agree to take on the risk of cancellation, most corporations are willing to give you a lower price on the ticket. Constraining the conditions that they can factor into non-refundable tickets will impact prices, so you can't just ignore consumer behavior, which for things like airplane tickets is to pay as little as possible...

Re: Coronavirus information and extenuating circumstances policy

#40

Post by agumonkey » Sun, Mar 01, 2020, 4:09 PM UTC

mothsonasloth wrote: post #35

agumonkey wrote: post #16

Where's the alexa plugin that infers your covid19 status based on the sound of your voice, breathing, coughing and internet queries for medicine and things you can binge watch for a month ?

The WHO wants to know your location

[Earth;Earth]