81–90 of 563 posts
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And all this for a virus that kills around 1% of the people who get it, and the majority of them are retired. Future generations will look at us and wonder how we were this stupid.
According to the WHO, around 14% of cases require hospitalization. Is 14% a big enough number for you? https://www.who.int/docs/default-source/coronaviruse/clinica...
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Would you have a link to more reading from that economist about this?
Not really, sadly. I just heard him on an internal conference call we have twice a week, so don't really have a link to provide but don't think he's published his views in writing just yet. I expect a lot of similar predictions to come out now that the unemployment claims number is out (as of ~1 hour ago) For general views of very smart people on the economy and markets, I recommend Bloomberg Surveillance every morni…
Unemployment benefits have been significantly expanded under the Coronavirus aid bill. The benefit amounts will sound small if you're living in an expensive city like SF or Seattle, but $600/week from the federal government and a similar amount from state unemployment insurance means that unemployment benefits can pay up to an equivalent of $50-60K/year right now. That goes a long way in most parts of the country, es…
What will the employees, in the US at least, do for health insurance? A pandemic is when you need it. These employees will be strained to pay for COBRA. I fear that we will see revolutions in countries where this is not contained, from either a health or economic perspective. An old saying is that you should buy stocks when there is blood in the streets. I hope that doesn't become literal.
Strongly agree that health care coverage is a major concern. We have a long way to go toward an ideal situation.
Sadly, many of the people who are first to be laid off are least likely to have employer-sponsored insurance benefits in the first place (hourly jobs). If they already had ACA-subsidized healthcare plans, nothing really changes for them.
For everyone else, there are some mitigating factors:
COBRA coverage has a grace period following termination. If you opt in to COBRA coverage during this grace period, the coverage is retroactive up to your date of termination. Please check with your insurance, but I believe the minimum grace period is 30 days, although I've personally seen higher numbers listed in my plans.
Many insurers have indicated that they will waive costs for COVID19 testing, and some have even waived copays for COVID19 treatment. I expect we'll see more pressure on this as time goes on.
This is a good time to remind everyone that a job less event triggers a special enrollment period for the ACA. Visit healthcare.gov to evaluate your insurance options. COBRA isn't the only option.
Unemployment benefits have been significantly expanded under the Coronavirus aid bill. The benefit amounts will sound small if you're living in an expensive city like SF or Seattle, but $600/week from the federal government and a similar amount from state unemployment insurance means that unemployment benefits can pay up to an equivalent of $50-60K/year right now. That goes a long way in most parts of the country, es…
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To Software Engineer, lvl 3 support, Data Scientist, etc. Roles that they would almost certainly fail in without previous experience.
One of the requirements for unemployment benefits is that you are actually looking for work and can proof a certain number of applications per week. It makes sense to just randomly apply as long as the applications count towards the minimum number needed to stay eligible.
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And all this for a virus that kills around 1% of the people who get it, and the majority of them are retired. Future generations will look at us and wonder how we were this stupid.
It kills 1% if ICU care is available. It kills a lot more if the healthcare system is overwhelmed. Look at Spain or Italy. Case fatality rate is around 10%. Letting it run its course it needs to infect 60-70% of the population before herd immunity kicks in. 1% of 60% of the population of the US is 2 million people. World-wide you're looking at 45 million people for a very optimistic scenario. The numbers could easily…
Italy is treating every single patient with high standard healthcare. They did not reach the "0 free ICUs" moment yet.
What we can say as of today is that the high number of deaths do not depend on overwhelmed hospitals, but likely just because there are A LOT of covid patients. Also a greater average age and the fact that older people are much more integrated in the society played a role affecting mortality, but still those are only theories and we can't say how much they affected the total.
I hope that tech industry employees do not feel immune to this. I encourage you to take a look at your customer base and think very critically about where that money is actually coming from.
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To what type of positions ? So like a barber for a random secretary or mail room etc? Or just all up and down the chain
To Software Engineer, lvl 3 support, Data Scientist, etc. Roles that they would almost certainly fail in without previous experience.
Could be a cause.
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One of the requirements for unemployment benefits is that you are actually looking for work and can proof a certain number of applications per week. It makes sense to just randomly apply as long as the applications count towards the minimum number needed to stay eligible.
I am aware of this, but that doesn't mean people should waste others time, and if it gets bad enough I am going to put automation in front of it. Everyone loses in these scenarios.