Topic: Corona Virus Panic/Discussion Thread

@themcnoisy I think that would do more harm then good though and put the country into a state of panic. Such drastic measures are not needed for every workplace.

@JohnnyShoulder Yup, I don't think there would be any harm in enforced leave or keeping it as an option for the future. 2 weeks would weed out the carriers imo.

I'm just worried as we are so mobile and interlinked in the uk.

Just had a job cancelled because my electrician cant get into a flat because the occupier is isolating due to her tutor having the virus. I think this makes me the first on Push Square to be directly impacted by the virus wooooooooo what do I win?!

@kyleforrester87 We’ve bought this cool looking outfit to try on for your stay at Pushsquare. Here, put it on. [stands away in corner]

@Jaz007 Gunna send that to the electrician tbh.

The funny thing is he was going in to fix the smoke alarms, there is probably a higher risk of her dying in a fire than there is her actually having the virus and then dying from it.

@themcnoisy As far as I'm aware, I do not think that is an option that the government is even considering at the moment. Things would have to get considerably worse for to be even an option.

But they do have plans if that were to happen, I just do not think we are anywhere near that level yet.

@Ralizah Don’t you have some form of statutory sick pay. In the UK you get a £93 per week when you’re off sick. For most things it starts on the fourth day but the UK government have announced that coronavirus isolation is from the first day.

@Ryall You might be surprised by the number of things the working poor in the U.S. go without.

Anyway, there's no federal requirement for paid sick leave. A lot of upper-middle-class, full-time workers do enjoy it as an arrangement with their employer, but this usually leaves out unskilled and poor workers who are stuck in dead-end jobs.

A few states do require it. For reference:

That looks problematic @Ralizah

I wonder whether your government will be smart enough to realise that if it need to poor to isolate themselves they need to pay them enough whilst they’re doing it so that they don’t starve in a process.

Probably in the form of a one off payment for coronavirus self isolation rather than a wider reform of sick pay. Disease pandemics affect the rich to.

Normally the argument would be it’s cheaper to pay people to isolate the it would be to treat the additional cases in hospital if they didn’t but since you don’t have socialised medicine I guess that argument doesn’t stand up.

@kyleforrester87 you get to have coronavirus and let us know how you get on. Stream it and make mullah.

@themcnoisy oh man it’s gunna kick my ass so hard if I do get it, combined with the meds I’m on. Just a regular cold is pretty bad.

@kyleforrester87 Pfft... I work in a hospital that's had a confirmed case.

The US could be a perfect storm of people not being able to afford the time off and not being able to get treatment either. One of the first people to come back from China got a bill for $3,500 just to get tested. Even with insurance, he still had to pay $1,000 out of pocket.

The big issue for the NHS will be logistics. If a chunk of staff are all off ill, it'll be a disaster. If you then add to that widespread school closures meaning people have to stay home with their kids then it's a massive headache on how to keep things going.

It's that scenario that's more likely to cause the big problems rather than being overwhelmed by massively ill people in my opinion.

i'm just back from the netherlands, where they got their first cases of covid-19 the day before i left. i did wonder about the passport self-scanners they use at schiphol, and all those italian passports that might have gone into them.... i think i insulted a korean girl in the queue in the bijenkorf department store's restaurant in the hague who was wearing a huge mask. either that, or my dutch has really gone to the dogs and she barely understood a word i said. which is entirely possible. i saw on tv an interview with a japanese physician who claimed the number of cases has been woefully underestimated, due to the lack of proper testing.. he thought the number in japan could be in 10000s, rather than the 200-odd that was reported.

Not sure if this is still the case but the last I heard was that it may take 12-18 months to develop a vaccine.

@moatclunk I will be incredibly impressed if they find a cure to this as I can’t think of s single virus that has a “cure”. Treatment for viral infections is mostly symptom control. Things like tamiflu only help decrease symptoms if given early enough. Vaccines are the best thing we have for viruses but don’t expect one of those any time soon.

@Kidfried To spread the virus of course. It's all a bit too coincidental if you ask me..!

@moatclunk stop reading the Daily Mail, friend.

Read a couple of reports from recovered patients who had covid 19. It sticks around for approximately 3 weeks and leaves you more or less bed ridden for 2 weeks with pneumonia. Hardly being able to breathe. Both cases were under 30 years of age.

Sounds absolutely horrendous.

I've also read a couple of reports (very early doors with this report) which have stated it has morphed into 2 varying strains, one which is more aggressive person to person but less deadly and the original virus. The differing strains are noted a few times in relatively solid articles, so hopefully if its the second strain more people will get it, but the likelyhood of getting over covid 19 will be better.

@themcnoisy You stop reading daily mail, too!

Woah the USA has 160 cases.

9 recovered
11 dead

Wtf.