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The Word from Wuhan

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Re: The Word from Wuhan

#31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Deductible of several thousand per person in our household. Good ol’ HSA plan (our other options guaranteed higher spending than that every year on premiums). Bet your ass we’re not going to the hospital unless we absolutely have to. And we’re lucky enough to have insurance and the means to pay if we have to (though it’ll hurt a hell of a lot).

> Deductible of several thousand per person in our household Call your insurer. Many are waiving testing and treatment, including for HDHPs, in respect of SARS-Covid-2.

Not sure why you're being downvoted because that's what they've been announcing. Whether they uphold their agreement is a different story but this what we're being told by the insurers.

Re: The Word from Wuhan

#34

Expecting local officials to deal effectively with extraordinary circumstances is unrealistic. A wealthy populous nation should be able to support a team of national experts to assist in times and places of particular need, in a variety of fields including that of infectious disease. The system described in TFA seems rather more like a struggle among competing cults of personality. "Your mayor sucks! Now you will be…

Leadership is exactly about organizing groups of experts to fight against specific threats to the common good. The point isn't that local officials should have been working in the hospitals, it is that they should have been collecting the infectious disease experts and executing against a containment and mitigation plan.

Are you a "West Wing" fan?

The whole point of a unitary centrally-controlled state apparatus like that in China is that leadership of the type you describe does not exist. If it did exist, it would not exist locally. Local officials are to follow directions, which come from more central authorities. Sometimes they follow directions poorly, because they're more concerned with their personal well-being than that of their subjects. That's understandable, because those orders themselves came from the same motivation on their bosses' parts.

Am I criticizing the form of government that the Chinese people endure? Yes! It is much like most other forms of government endured by humanity.

Re: The Word from Wuhan

#35

You can count on the states that have an official number of infected people of about 100 to have about 10000. You can count on US states that have 0 cases for those to have about 1000. We've passed containment options when we didn't do anything about 2 months ago. People just don't go to the doctors, especially with the news of how people are being treated on the boats.

I figured there are probably a LOT of unreported cases in the US because most are not severe and never get diagnosed. But if that were true, we should see a small number of deaths all over the country rather than a few pockets of them.

Re: The Word from Wuhan

#36

You can count on the states that have an official number of infected people of about 100 to have about 10000. You can count on US states that have 0 cases for those to have about 1000. We've passed containment options when we didn't do anything about 2 months ago. People just don't go to the doctors, especially with the news of how people are being treated on the boats.

Deductible of several thousand per person in our household. Good ol’ HSA plan (our other options guaranteed higher spending than that every year on premiums). Bet your ass we’re not going to the hospital unless we absolutely have to. And we’re lucky enough to have insurance and the means to pay if we have to (though it’ll hurt a hell of a lot).

I'm on a HSA plan with an absurd deductible. The crazy thing is that the HSA plan is still cheaper given that my family does not have any critical event in the next three years. HSA was a great idea (one of my employer had low premium + low deductible + good HSA account subsidy). But way too many employers and insurance company abuse it where people are afraid of using their insurance because of the out of pocket cost.

Re: The Word from Wuhan

#37

>Teams of doctors arrived from every province in China to join the effort and an army of engineers was deployed to build two new hospitals in ten days. Millions of people watched the buildings go up. That's unbelievable. Where can I read or see more about that? EDIT: Found something https://www.cnbc.com/2020/01/31/pictures-china-builds-two-ho... I am still in disbelief.

https://youtu.be/XU9FVqwO4TM

Re: The Word from Wuhan

#38

You can count on the states that have an official number of infected people of about 100 to have about 10000. You can count on US states that have 0 cases for those to have about 1000. We've passed containment options when we didn't do anything about 2 months ago. People just don't go to the doctors, especially with the news of how people are being treated on the boats.

Not going to the doctors (unless you are a person at risk like and elderly person) is the smart move anyways. Here in Austria the current reaction for a patient testing positive at a doctors office is to close it down for two weeks. The official guideline when you suspect you have the virus is to call a number and a doctor will visit you.

Re: The Word from Wuhan

#39

>Teams of doctors arrived from every province in China to join the effort and an army of engineers was deployed to build two new hospitals in ten days. Millions of people watched the buildings go up. That's unbelievable. Where can I read or see more about that? EDIT: Found something https://www.cnbc.com/2020/01/31/pictures-china-builds-two-ho... I am still in disbelief.

Wendover Productions in the topic: https://youtu.be/3Sh7hghljuQ

Re: The Word from Wuhan

#40

You can count on the states that have an official number of infected people of about 100 to have about 10000. You can count on US states that have 0 cases for those to have about 1000. We've passed containment options when we didn't do anything about 2 months ago. People just don't go to the doctors, especially with the news of how people are being treated on the boats.

I figured there are probably a LOT of unreported cases in the US because most are not severe and never get diagnosed. But if that were true, we should see a small number of deaths all over the country rather than a few pockets of them.

I think you’re correct that the OP is overestimating somewhat. That said, it’s worth bearing in mind that not all deaths are recorded. You have to test for those too.

In places without testing there could be an uptick in unexplained pneumonia deaths. We don’t really have any overall stats on that. But this is fertile ground for an investigative journalist. Calling hospitals in places with little testing and seeing if they have anomalies.

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