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Comment by JamesBarney | Hacker News Reader

> The reason the tests were randomly taken from those at grocery and big-box stores is that these were people not isolating in their homes and presumably not at work and therefore not essential workers.

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I don't understand - essential workers still going to work also have to eat, and so go to grocery shops like other people.

The sampling location isn't meant to exclude essential workers, it's meant to avoid only sampling essential workers.

IE: if you measured at workplaces that would capture only essential workers, if you measure at people's homes during work hours, you get people who mostly are quarantining, if you measure at a grocery, you might get a mix of both, etc.

> isn't meant to exclude essential workers

But is specifically says

> and therefore not essential workers

It doesn’t say ‘not only’ - it says ‘not’.

> presumably not at work and therefore not essential workers.

"presumably" is the key word. They aren't saying "definitely".

I don't know what to make of that. I would expect people at work to have higher infection rate (not the least because many of these jobs involve contact with the population). It also filters out older and sick people. So intuitively I would expect to undershoot the actual rate.

I read it as people shopping, not people that work there. So folks who are out-and-about, but are not in the more likely to have it groups (healthcare workers or people working at the grocery store). You're right about older and sick people.

No that's what I meant. People shopping and therefore not at work. Therefore intuitively I would expect the population tested to be less contaminated than the population not tested (because at work).

People who work also shop. People who work in stores also shop in stores. At that time, they could be randomly tested like non-workers.

So workers are not excluded from study.

I’m an essential worker going to the grocery at 10am because there’s less people there. My hours are flexible at work and we’re set up to do staggered shifts to minimize number of people in the building.

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