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Comment by vikramkr | Hacker News Reader

yes, the risk is low, and proactive action taken like this will help keep it low. The risk is low until it isn't - and suspending travel while suggesting vulnerable populations avoid coming in to work will help keep the risk as low as possible for as long as possible.

If you read ahead on the CDC summary page (https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/summary.html), you can see that they say that "It’s likely that at some point, widespread transmission of COVID-19 in the United States will occur."

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If you see the CDC as an authority then you'd also see Stripes policy as overkill since CDC isn't recommending people work from home or cancel travel within the US or restrict visitors to their offices.

The CDC does not really inspire confidence given the botched manner in which testing was conducted and the lack of strong leadership.

Who is a better authority?

Definitely the payments company with zero medical, specifically infectious pandemic training

The Hong Kong government has actually done a solid job so far, considering they share a land border and high speed rail system with China.

NPR made the case that Hong Kong sacrificed too much for containment, but the underlying message is that their containment is working.

https://www.npr.org/sections/goatsandsoda/2020/03/01/8103920...

Edit: HK center for health protection https://www.chp.gov.hk/en/index.html

At this point HK center for health protection doesn't have travel advisories for the US.

I wonder if such a strict shut down will be helpful. How long is it maintainable, and do they expect to remain virus-free after that? E.g. they quarantine a lot of people for 2-3 weeks, no one gets sick, they return to business as usual, and boom, a sick traveller (asymptomatic at the airport) infects a few people...

That is the thesis of the NPR article. Personally, I think minimizing disease is more important than minimizing economic loss.

I think it's pretty clear that the US government has an interest in downplaying the risks in order to buoy the stock market - government spokesmen have repeatedly told falsehoods[1] to try and calm the public. The CDC is much more independent and analytical than anything coming from the white house, but I still think it's fair to be skeptical, cautious and certainly a good idea for companies to get contingencies in order. One of Stripe's offices is in Seattle where they've had at least 6 Corvid-19 deaths.

1. Like that there are only 15 infected people and that number will only go down.

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