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Comment by ChrisCinelli | Hacker News Reader

Up to 1 week ago in California they did not let you test people that did not have contacts with people that were tested positive to COVID-19 or that have travelled in counties that have the virus.

I know a person in Menlo Park that the whole family "had CODVID-19 symptoms" (Stanford doctor's word) and they were diagnosed with viral pneumonia but they were refused of being tested (after asking permission to the CDC) and sent home asked to be in "isolation and do not tell anybody because it may spread panic." The first person to get it in the family was one of the child in school that started have symptoms at the end of Jan.

I supposed that they were not the only ones.

Even nurses dealing with patients were refused to be tested according to this video: https://youtu.be/DiqVCQv__pE

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That was a CDC-imposed policy, to be clear.

https://www.nbcnews.com/health/health-news/after-missteps-cd...

And more on that:

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/10/us/coronavirus-testing-de...

I am not sure this is or was the policy nation wide but I have mixed feelings on how useful it may have been. I understand that more panic would make things worse in the hospitals in areas that were not prepared for massive outbreak but on the other side I wonder if somebody may have taken it a little light.

For example in the family of the person I know the youngest kid just cough a little for few days and never had a fever.

If a young child is the first person in a family being infected, you may think it is nothing serious and they may still send the kid to school.

It also did not help people making an informed decision about travelling in the area where supposedly only a handful of people had the virus.

Was it Steve Wozniak?

https://twitter.com/stevewoz/status/1234887637845983233

Nope. As far as I know he does not live in Menlo Park.

It's not a person that is well known like Wozniak.

If, for any reasons, conteining panic is the the goal, it does not surprise me that they would not ever want "Steve Wozniak victim of COVID-19" in the headlines.

Totally tangential, but is he actually well-known outside tech circles? Everyone knows the name Jobs, but Wozniak?

Depends on how "deep" the tech circle you are referring to is.

I bet a tech enthusiast will definitely know Wozniak, even if they don't work in tech. If anything, I bet Wozniak is way more known among the general populace than Satya Nadella or Sundar Pichai (Microsoft and Google respectively), despite their respective companies being widely known among the general populace.

Persol used his face for a major ad campaign in Tokyo, so it must be for a reason. https://media.boingboing.net/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/unna...

> The first person to get it in the family was one of the child in school that started have symptoms at the end of Jan

When you say "get it", do you mean viral pneumonia or coronavirus ?

San Mateo County's dept of health web page currently indicates 9 cases. All adults, no children. https://www.smchealth.org/coronavirus

because they were unable to get tested.

That's literally the point. Tests are getting refused so someone (like yourself) can respond with "But so-and-so says there are only X cases!!!!!"

This isn't an accident.

The diagnose was just "viral pneumonia" and they were refused the test for COVID-19.

If they do not want to increase the number of people infected of coronavirus, they will probably give you a diagnosis of "viral pneumonia" and refuse to test you so you cannot be counted in the coronavirus toll.

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