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Comment by jcadam | Hacker News Reader

My family just got over some sort of respiratory bug that had most of us sick last week. This morning I awoke to find that 2 cases of this thing have been identified in my area. Huh.

We most likely just had a cold. Most likely.

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Go for testing. The virus is still present (but not contagious anymore) some time after you recover.

Risk assessment says not to set foot in a medical facility right now unless I'm actively dying, thank you very much.

I don't know where you live but here in UK if you ring 111 and say you suspect you might have the virus they will send someone to drop a testing kit through your letterbox and take it back for testing. No need to go anywhere.

EDIT:

Updated my bad currency exchange math. Thanks, mprev.

In the US, you have to go to a doctor or hospital, hope your insurances covers it, or else you’re out $3000 (£2300).

Minor point but I'm glad to say $3k is more like £2,300.

Then stay at home. If you're sick, refusing to get tested and continue to live like everything is fine you're actively and willingly spreading a deadly virus.

Be calm, I'm all better.

Being calm and following health organizations guidelines (or even common sense) aren't mutually exclusive.

The current guidelines are to test only those with respiratory symptoms who have also traveled to certain countries recently.

Resources are limited, having everyone with a minor case of the sniffles rush the hospitals all at once doesn't sound like a good plan.

The guidelines are also to notify the authorities and to self quarantine if you suspect you could have it, which you just self confessed.

> having everyone with a minor case of the sniffles

But that's exactly what the virus will be for the vast majority of us, the whole point of getting tested is traceability and knowing that you should self quarantine as to not expose people at risk.

edit: and btw that's how they discovered the first case in Berlin. https://translate.google.com/translate?sl=de&tl=en&u=https%3...

> The young man's infection was only discovered because the Berlin Charité also tests the new virus Sars-CoV-2 as standard with every influenza test.

This just shows how bad the US is at handling the situation. In Germany you get tested as soon as you have any symptoms, in the US CDC refuses testing even if you're showing all the symptoms.

why would s/he pay $3000 to get tested for something s/he already recovered from?

https://twitter.com/NickKristof/status/1234140218023989253

This is plain ridiculous. It's like the US is 50 years late on social/health/worker conditions. Mandatory paid sick leave sounds like a win/win thing no matter how you look at it.

> The U.S. is the ONLY wealthy nation that doesn't guarantee all workers paid sick leave, paid family leave & health coverage. This means many workers go to work sick

Don't blame the US. Here in Germany, its 300 EUR out of pocket to get tested (source: tagesspiegel from a few days ago, a story about a guy in Berlin, returning from a trip to Italy and wanting to get tested before getting together with his wife and kids. Doctors didn't want to see him, and the only clinic that was willing to do the test would charge 300 EUR. Public health insurance doesn't pay. Private health insurance probably would though, but it sounded the like he had just public).

If this spreads in the US, dark days are ahead. Many people refuse to go to the doctor because they cannot afford it. A valuable lesson may soon be learned that when everyone has healthcare we are better as a whole. But, COMMUNISM IS BAD, YOu SoCIalIst. /s :|

Exactly. Why are you even paying taxes?

Online people report the CDC test is free.

https://www.reddit.com/r/China_Flu/comments/fc265u/covid19_t...

The $3000 figure seems only sourced from Business Insider, not exactly the paragon of ethical journalism.

Not really, according to this article:

https://www.miamiherald.com/news/health-care/article24047680...

Fun fact: a used PCR machine is only $2500. And if the prices on tests kits out of asia are accurate... You could literally test yourself in your own home for that price. And then you could test a thousand of your friends. If you wanted to

Tampa? That one has me perplexed as, if I read right, those two didn't even travel. That would indicate an unknown carrier, meaning our own guesses of number of cases is probably way off.

Eh, one had traveled to Italy recently, the other is UNK. I've been surprised Florida didn't come up sooner, given all of the tourism here (and winter is tourist season).

Thanks for the correction, I see that now. I had the same thought, especially for Orlando. Here's hoping we handle it well. An outbreak here would likely be far deadlier than most other states, if not all.

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