We're All Doomed!™ (the Conquest, War, Famine, and Death Thread)

[Mickey107]

Seriously I think it’s a cold or allergies but I can’t get a test because I’m not sick enough.

We gotta remember, colds and the yearly flu virus are high at this time of year too. Allergies are starting. Some people are allergis to grass
growing and even more when it gets cut.

[Per]

Seriously I think it’s a cold or allergies but I can’t get a test because I’m not sick enough.

We gotta remember, colds and the yearly flu virus are high at this time of year too. Allergies are starting. Some people are allergis to grass
growing and even more when it gets cut.

Finnish football star Jari Litmanen had that problem, and because many of the more effective allergy medicins qualify as doping there was a period each year in early summer when he basically had a choice between not taking his Mëds and be too sick to play or taking his Mëds and not be allowed to play...

I think today there are some Mëds that are allowed if a medical doctor confirms that they are necessary for the patient's well being.

[Per]

This pandemic is putting a bright shining light on the problems with the highly fragmented health care in the USA.

A recent study by the University of Chicago shows that 44% of Americans avoid going to the hospital when sick for financial reasons.
28 million Americans lack health insurance and even among those insured, the co-pay can easily amount to thousands of dollars if you need hospital care.

Some 3-5% of those infected with covid-19 require intensive care.
A recent cost estimate says the average cost per day for intensive care in the USA average is roughly USD 11,000.
If your co-pay is 20% that's USD 2200 per day.

25% of the US work force has no right to paid sick leave. This leads to an incentive to carry on working even when you're ill.
Especially in low paying jobs, many cannot afford to miss a full week of work if they want to be able to pay rent and bills.

All these leads to a high risk that many people who get the virus will not be identified and not seek or get the care they need.
And those that do seek care may see their finances obliterated and find themselves deep in debt.

Add to this that the Trump administration last year passed legislation that made undocumented immigrants and foreign residents with temporary visas uneligible for publicly financed health care.

The effect of this is that many foreigners in the USA will go untreated if contracting the disease, and thus foment the spread.
I mean, society benefits from all carriers of infectious disease being identified and treated, and this legislation has the exact opposite effect.

Yeah. It's a mess.

[Chef Boi RD]

This pandemic is putting a bright shining light on the problems with the highly fragmented health care in the USA.

A recent study by the University of Chicago shows that 44% of Americans avoid going to the hospital when sick for financial reasons.
28 million Americans lack health insurance and even among those insured, the co-pay can easily amount to thousands of dollars if you need hospital care.

Some 3-5% of those infected with covid-19 require intensive care.
A recent cost estimate says the average cost per day for intensive care in the USA average is roughly USD 11,000.
If your co-pay is 20% that's USD 2200 per day.

25% of the US work force has no right to paid sick leave. This leads to an incentive to carry on working even when you're ill.
Especially in low paying jobs, many cannot afford to miss a full week of work if they want to be able to pay rent and bills.

All these leads to a high risk that many people who get the virus will not be identified and not seek or get the care they need.
And those that do seek care may see their finances obliterated and find themselves deep in debt.

Add to this that the Trump administration last year passed legislation that made undocumented immigrants and foreign residents with temporary visas uneligible for publicly financed health care.

The effect of this is that many foreigners in the USA will go untreated if contracting the disease, and thus foment the spread.
I mean, society benefits from all carriers of infectious disease being identified and treated, and this legislation has the exact opposite effect.

Yeah. It's a mess.

But universal health care is communism, Per. That’s all the Americans need to know. Stop hitting us with the cold hard facts!

[Per]

Norway and Denmark have closed all schools. The head epidemiologist in charge of Sweden's fight against Corona is against it. In part because there has not been any cases so far that have been contracted in schools in Sweden, and also not a single child under the age of ten has been reported to have died  from the Corona outbreak anywhere.

But mainly, closing the schools would mean lots of doctors and nurses would have to stay home from work to take care of their own perfectly healthy children, which would cause severe problems in the hospitals.

He does not rule out closing schools in the future, if there are specific schools where the virus starts to spread, but that's something we have to deal with if and when that happens. At this point it is more important that the hospitals get to keep their staff.

[Per]

But universal health care is communism, Per. That’s all the Americans need to know. Stop hitting us with the cold hard facts!

Just happy that Canada and Sweden have reasonably sound systems in place.

Hey, Cornuck, maybe it's time to head up to the Great White North?

[Topper]

The fucking cat just came home with 6 cases of kitty litter.

[5thhorseman]

The fucking cat just came home with 6 cases of kitty litter.

Is that for when you run out of TP?

[5thhorseman]

How come Doyle never got the virus living next door to Robert the pig farmer wet market?

In a month from now Doylet will be looking at his shit-stained hands thinking "this was all supposed to be over in a couple of weeks!".

[Hockey Widow]

The fucking cat just came home with 6 cases of kitty litter.

OMG My coffee is sharing my key board at this moment.

[Hockey Widow]

The UK won't make closures or enact restrictions because they want to develop a heard immunity so they want more people sick. They believe a second waive is coming in the fall and that this virus should plateau in about 14 weeks. By the time the second waive hits they think their population will have more immunities and better able to fight it. Whereas if they take the actions other EU countries are taking they will see a spike in cases and the system will get overwhelmed.

And yet Trump will still let all those Brits in!!

Sophie says hi btw.

[5thhorseman]

The UK won't make closures or enact restrictions because they want to develop a heard immunity so they want more people sick. They believe a second waive is coming in the fall and that this virus should plateau in about 14 weeks. By the time the second waive hits they think their population will have more immunities and better able to fight it. Whereas if they take the actions other EU countries are taking they will see a spike in cases and the system will get overwhelmed.

And yet Trump will still let all those Brits in!!

Sophie says hi btw.

Wow! I had to google that to believe it!

Sound like a pretty crazy strategy from the Brits, especially because (1) we don't know that we can even get herd immunity (we don't get it for the common cold, which is due to another type of coronavirus), and (2) the 2nd wave may be caused by a mutated form of the virus which doesn't exist yet or which only few people have been infected by as yet, so no herd immunity anyways. Too bad!

Their hospitals will surely be overwhelmed if they take no action to slow the spread. I think I need to buy more TP!

[Hockey Widow]

Boris is treating it like a cold or common flu, hoping it just runs its course and goes away. And it will. But the questions remains at what cost to people. Now I think a lot of what is being done now is too little too late. I think Italy is a total overreaction and not realistic for a country with so many borders to other countries. Now Portugal and Spain are following suit. I believe that what Europe is doing is trying to get a reduction in new cases to coincide with tourist season, sacrificing the shoulder season in its place.

School closures are controversial given the impact on child caring adults. While in Europe there are some restrictions internally, and while more is needed, how do you find a balance between what Itayl is doing and what the UK is not?

[Blob Mckenzie]

How come Doyle never got the virus living next door to Robert the pig farmer wet market?

In a month from now Doyle will be looking at the piss soaked chicken littles and laughing that it was all over in a couple of weeks.

[5thhorseman]

Boris is treating it like a cold or common flu, hoping it just runs its course and goes away. And it will. But the questions remains at what cost to people. Now I think a lot of what is being done now is too little too late. I think Italy is a total overreaction and not realistic for a country with so many borders to other countries. Now Portugal and Spain are following suit. I believe that what Europe is doing is trying to get a reduction in new cases to coincide with tourist season, sacrificing the shoulder season in its place.

School closures are controversial given the impact on child caring adults. While in Europe there are some restrictions internally, and while more is needed, how do you find a balance between what Itayl is doing and what the UK is not?

It's too late to contain it, but not too late to slow the spread. We need to slow it to lower the peak load on hospitals, staff, and equipment. If we can draw it out over a longer period of time, everyone can get a bed and equipment if they need it. Italy's hospitals were overwhelmed to the point of triage decisions on who gets a respirator/ventilator and who doesn't. This caused needless deaths which we want to avoid.

Unfortunately the US is going the way of Italy as they reacted late. I believe it's about a 10% hospitalisation rate, so for the US this projects to all hospital beds being filled by about May 10th. After that, you're fucked (unless you're rich).