outbreak! (ebola, sars, coronavirus, etc)

seems... bad? idk

does he mean tested positive? or the test itself cost 1400??

n/m i read the article now and i'm fucking furious
https://www.miamiherald.com/news/health-care/article240476806.html

cryingeagle.jpg

Azcue got unwelcome news in the form of a notice from his insurance company about a claim for $3,270.

In 2018, President Donald Trump’s administration rolled back Affordable Care Act regulations and allowed so-called “junk plans” in the market. Consumers mistakenly assume that the plans with lower monthly costs will be better than no insurance at all in case of a medical catastrophe, but often the plans aren’t very different from going without insurance altogether.

Hospital officials at Jackson told the Miami Herald that, based on his insurance, Azcue would only be responsible for $1,400 of that bill, but Azcue said he heard from his insurer that he would also have to provide additional documentation: three years of medical records to prove that the flu he got didn’t relate to a pre-existing condition.

these motherfucking jackals, man. they should hang their heads in shame. the adjusters, their bosses, the advertising agencies who accept their business. ruining people's lives and literally pushing people closer to death out of fear of bankruptcy. and our broken healthcare system will probably god forbid make any serious outbreak in the united states absolutely impossible to contain because nobody will be able to afford the goddamn tests.

$1,400, that sounds about right. after all, Aspirin goes for about $10/pill in the US healthcare system, bandages are $25 each, leasing an examination table is $200/hour, then you've got the sanitary paper they put on the table (also $200/hour), and that doesn't even include maintenance fees and taxes.

but let me be clear: we have the greatest healthcare in the world and nothing can be changed, especially not the underlying costs for medical procedures

medicare 4 all those left alive after the ravages of the pandemic

I didn't even know the specifics when I made that last comment about healthcare. But considering people who are shot in mass shootings are basically left on their own I figured the US is just kind of live free or die (hard with a vengeance) about this too.

They've been doing what now? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-74AGwwl-oc

seems legit

There's probably an awful epidemic in Iran (despite no reports to WHO) per Dr. Campbell.

Reportedly, Khamenei and conservatives held that reports of disease were liberal party attemps to suppress voter turnout in the 21 February legislative election.

That's my biggest concern, that so many places must be either underreporting or not reporting at all.

where will you be staying in hawaii? last report i saw was that 62 people were self monitoring.

Maui. But I'm not worried about the island, I'm worried about the airplane. Then again, it seems like my immediate family has been traveling so much these days it's probably too late to worry about airplanes.

I'm also going to Maui in a couple weeks, I'm currently more anxious about being away from home for 9 days and being in close quarters with my partner's parents than about coronavirus, but I'm starting to be anxious about coronavirus too!

Can be successfully treated with fresh pineapple, iirc.

oh at least it will be less dense in maui.

I am totally wearing a mask and purelling everything on the plane when I have to fly next ( i have 28 hours of travel time to look forward to).

In May 2018, Trump ordered the NSC’s entire global health security unit shut down, calling for reassignment of Rear Adm. Timothy Ziemer and dissolution of his team inside the agency. The month before, then-White House National Security Advisor John Bolton pressured Ziemer’s DHS counterpart, Tom Bossert, to resign along with his team. Neither the NSC nor DHS epidemic teams have been replaced. The global health section of the CDC was so drastically cut in 2018 that much of its staff was laid off and the number of countries it was working in was reduced from 49 to merely 10.

https://foreignpolicy.com/2020/01/31/coronavirus-china-trump-united-states-public-health-emergency-response/

good luck usa

whoops

In Iran it is being reported that the deputy health minister has tested positive for coronavirus. According to the semi-official news agency ILNA, the spokesman for Iran’s health ministry confirmed in an interview with state television that Deputy Minister Iraj Harirchi has been infected and is now under quarantine.

I heard now even the coronavirus has coronavirus

I recall thinking a while back 'jesus, what if the ebola scare had happened while Trump was in office?'. I guess we're going to basically find out, huh.

ebola has a 50% mortality rate, compared with 1-2% for this thing, so not exactly

Yeah, and the thing is, as far as I can tell, in the end it's still just basically the flu. And the flu already kills millions each year. It's a far cry from ebola, which has you, like, bleeding from your eyes, ears and nose, among other symptoms.

I just meant more in terms of having an infrastructure capable of containing or limiting an epidemic.

Transmits a lot easier than Ebola (iirc isn’t there something about diseases that transmit easily being less deadly and vice versa? Where you get the worst possible mix is like a flu pandemic which transmits fast and hits hard).

Don’t all the asymptomatic and low-key infections suggest most people infected are experiencing mild cases?

good luck usa #26,974

We're so screwed pic.twitter.com/d19VvaLkHe

— Yakov "militarize the IRS" Feygin (@BuddyYakov) February 24, 2020

For the U.S., it’s not if but when, the C.D.C. says.

Americans should brace for the likelihood that the coronavirus will spread to communities in the United States, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention warned Tuesday.

“It’s not so much of a question of if this will happen in this country any more but a question of when this will happen,” said Dr. Nancy Messonnier, director of the National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases.

She said that public health officials have no idea whether spread of the disease to the United States would be mild or severe, but that Americans should be ready for a significant disruption to their daily lives.

“We are asking the American public to prepare for the expectation that this might be bad,” Dr. Messonnier said.

that link tracer posted above is recommended (https://foreignpolicy.com/2020/01/31/coronavirus-china-trump-united-states-public-health-emergency-response/)

In May 2018, Trump ordered the NSC’s entire global health security unit shut down, calling for reassignment of Rear Adm. Timothy Ziemer and dissolution of his team inside the agency. The month before, then-White House National Security Advisor John Bolton pressured Ziemer’s DHS counterpart, Tom Bossert, to resign along with his team. Neither the NSC nor DHS epidemic teams have been replaced. The global health section of the CDC was so drastically cut in 2018 that much of its staff was laid off and the number of countries it was working in was reduced from 49 to merely 10. Meanwhile, throughout 2018, the U.S. Agency for International Development and its director, Mark Green, came repeatedly under fire from both the White House and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo. And though Congress has so far managed to block Trump administration plans to cut the U.S. Public Health Service Commissioned Corps by 40 percent, the disease-fighting cadres have steadily eroded as retiring officers go unreplaced.

Public health advocates have been ringing alarm bells to no avail.Public health advocates have been ringing alarm bells to no avail. Klain has been warning for two years that the United States was in grave danger should a pandemic emerge.

...etc etc etc etc

btw, how is this going to kill me -- dehydration? fever? pneumonia?

Pneumonia, I think.

Poll

prob won't kill you also

no buboes, no pox, no credibility

I just got a pneumonia vaccine, will that save me?

nm, nothing to worry about

"We have contained this, I won't say airtight but pretty close to airtight." -- Kudlow, on @CNBC now.#COVID19

— Carl Quintanilla (@carlquintanilla) February 25, 2020

I am prepared for the expectation that this might be bad

it's kind of crazy that they aren't even testing for more in the US but i guess deductibles...

man, kudlow is dumb as rocks if he thinks we're containing this. who is he even listening to?

"We have contained this, I won't say airtight but pretty close to airtight."

I'm picturing him saying this while holding some sort of vacuum-sealed viral containment device that has sprung a leak and is hissing directly into his right eye.

kudlow's just trying to head off further panic on wall street. priorities!

who is he even listening to?

His associates, who are all Trump's "best people", who keep telling each other that the IMPORTANT THING in a situation like this is to avoid a PUBLIC PANIC, because that might cause stocks to fall and that would be BAD FOR THE ELECTION.

tbh i might be ready for the GMU professor's program of forced infection -- could stand to lose some weight, wouldn't mind some time off work, don't particularly care about living or dying

lol "airtight"

if i get coronavirus before i leave I am going to tell everyone I have cabernetmono.

My cold-bloodedly practical MD mom said the one good thing about it spreading is that it will also spread immunity.

Seems there’s a decent chance this could be Trump’s Katrina. Let’s hope for all our sakes it isn’t.

heh, was just musing along similar lines in the democratic primary thread

i think there's a very good chance it will be like a slow motion katrina for trump. they are so, so incompetent. incompetence + budget slashing + antigovernment (in a situation which begs for governmental leadership) + cynical motive to downplay severity for political reasons