Coronavirus Sars-CoV-2/Covid-19 Megathread

[Syt]

There's a rumor that Austria will close the Italian border and block all flights to/from Italy starting tonight.

[crazy canuck]

Another article to calm alarmist Fears

https://www.cbc.ca/news/health/coronavirus-canada-death-1.5491907

Huh.

The percentage of people who die from the illness is currently estimated at upwards of 3.4 per cent, according to the World Health Organization, which is significantly higher than the seasonal flu at less than one per cent.

It is so hard to get a good estimate at the lethality of this thing.

Did you skip over the paragraph immediately above the one you quoted out of context

"More than 80 per cent of COVID-19 infections are estimated to be mild, meaning symptoms are manageable and not life-threatening, compared with 15 per cent that are severe and five per cent that are critical and require ventilation.

and then the part immediately after the part you quoted out of context

"The majority of people who get this infection have mild disease and recover," said Dr. Jocelyn Srigley, a physician and clinical assistant professor with the department of pathology and lab medicine at the University of British Columbia.

"It's not unexpected that we would see patients in those age groups dying of this disease and it's similar with many other infections that with age your chance of dying from it goes up."

Canadians need to understand that the vast majority of us are going to manage well if infected with the illness, with most not even requiring hospitalization, says infectious disease physician Dr. Isaac Bogoch at Toronto General Hospital.

"We know this COVID-19 infection can disproportionately make individuals who are elderly and individuals with chronic medical conditions more sick, but we also know that almost any infection or condition can make that population more ill as well," he said.

"It's not surprising, but it's still sad, and I think people should be mindful that we can expect to see more cases like this — this is not going to be a unique case."

Executive summary to put the part you quoted in context.

Covid has a very high mortality for old people - 80+

Like lots of other things.

[celedhring]

Requirements to get sick pay reduced for those with Covid-19 or quarantined. Essentially you'll get 75% of your wage from day #1.

Is this opposed to the usual 100%? Or opposed to nothing?

It ramps up. Usually is 60% from day #4, and ramps up to 75% the longer you're sick.

[celedhring]

I'm confused too.  Is sick pay provided by the state in Spain?

Yes.

[crazy canuck]

Requirements to get sick pay reduced for those with Covid-19 or quarantined. Essentially you'll get 75% of your wage from day #1.

Is this opposed to the usual 100%? Or opposed to nothing?

Not sure about Spain, but here an employee can apply for short term sick benefits paid for by the government but there is a waiting period - I suspect what is happening is Spain has a similar program but has eliminated the waiting period.   May happen here as well to calm fears and allow employees to stay home if they think they are sick with the virus.

edit: my surmise was accurate

[Sheilbh]

All events gathering more than 1,000 people forbidden in areas with high incidence of Covid-19 in Spain. Smaller venues will still have to cut their capacity to 1/3 in order to comply with safe distance recommendations.

Requirements to get sick pay reduced for those with Covid-19 or quarantined. Essentially you'll get 75% of your wage from day #1.

Interesting here that a lot of private companies appear to be trying to get ahead of the news/bad pr/government pressure.

So various banks have announced mortgage payment deferrals and additional credit for people as needed (e.g. increasing the ATM withdrawal limit, refunding on credit card fees and emergency extensions of credit card limits). And several gig economy firms have announced they'll be introducing sick pay for their "workers" - this will have an impact because when it comes to employment law my understanding is judges take a "if it walks like a duck and talks like a duck approach".

Interesting comment from Layla Moran (running to be Lib Dem leader) which feels a bit targeted at folks like me who feel we should be doing more:

Layla Moran
@LaylaMoran
There is a lot of chatter about the UK not being draconian enough to contain coronavirus. I urge people especially with blue ticks to not undermine scientists. We have to trust them now. Unless your blue tick is there because you are an epidemiologist, please stop
Thanks to those sharing interesting and informative sources on this thread. I am also happy to collate questions and put them to the Chief Medical and SoS. By the way I will point out that if such measures as closing schools is what they advocate I will be fully behind it.
As to trust. Yes indeed. I don't trust the Government either. But I do trust the scientists they are listening too. But what the Gov have done prior is soliciting this reaction. It goes to show how important gaining trust before a crisis is. The boy who cried wolf etc.

I feel a little bit seen.

Also any idea what South Korea did because they are also seeing reductions in cases? Was it mainly mass testing plus limited social distancing or is there more to it?

Latest UK update is that we're up to 373, and six have died. It still looks like the sort of spread you'd expect with no particular hotspots

[Valmy]

Executive summary to put the part you quoted in context.

Covid has a very high mortality for old people - 80+

Like lots of other things.

Yes I read that and yes I understood the context. I was not even talking about that context but the overall lethality of the virus over a large population, which is a big part of the concern about the virus. Whether the overall lethality is 1% or 3.5% is a big deal if this thing is going to soon be all over my country. How does your context clarify that? It doesn't at all.

I do live with my mother-in-law and am very close to my parents and have many older friends so even this context is not very reassuring to me. I do care about people who are not me.

[Admiral Yi]

Yes.

What a weird set up.  So like if you call in sick for one day you get a separate check for that one day?

[celedhring]

Yes.

What a weird set up.  So like if you call in sick for one day you get a separate check for that one day?

No, minimum is 4 days (this has been removed for covid-19). But yes, the government pays you during that time, but less than your usual wage. Your GP also needs to sign it off.

[Grey Fox]

Yes.

What a weird set up.  So like if you call in sick for one day you get a separate check for that one day?

It's just state provided insurance.

[celedhring]

Yes.

What a weird set up.  So like if you call in sick for one day you get a separate check for that one day?

It's just state provided insurance.

Yi has issues wrapping his head around socialism. 

[celedhring]

Looking at our data, which is starting to have a rather sizable sample size (), 8% of those sick have required ICU beds. 2.2% mortality rate so far.

[Admiral Yi]

Yi has issues wrapping his head around socialism. 

It's just an alien concept to think of sick days the same as temporary unemployment.

Wouldn't it be weird to you if you became temporarily unemployed during national holidays and vacations, and those days were paid by the state?  It's the same for me with state paid sick days.

[Admiral Yi]

What are blue ticks Shelf?

[Tamas]

Hertfordshire 16
Kensington and Chelsea 13
Devon 13
Hampshire 10
Barnet 8
Southwark 8
Brighton and Hove 8

Guess where I work.