Lots of insurance companies making testing “free” if your doctor says you’re at sufficient risk for the virus to justify a test. Here’s one such example:
Humana will waive out-of-pocket costs associated with testing for COVID-19 for patients who meet CDC guidelines at approved laboratory locations. This will apply to Humana’s Medicare Advantage, Medicaid and commercial employer-sponsored plans. Self-insured plan sponsors will be able to opt-out of the program at their discretion. The CDC continues to offer free testing for coronavirus. Telemedicine costs will be waived for all urgent care needs for the next 90 days; early prescription refills will be allowed for the next 30 days.
There are just not enough test kits right now, not even close to enough. How did 7-8 weeks goes by without someone sounding the alarm that we need to rush getting test kit ready and lab certified? That’s just boggle the mind.
The kits were ordered timely and came in. But there was a manufacturing screw-up and the delivered kits were faulty. How such a thing was allowed to happen, why no QC, I dunno. And nobody is assuming responsibility. I think, without really knowing, it was the CDC that messed up.
Yeah, the CDC wanted a fancier more all-inclusive test for several related viruses as well as this one and in the process, screwed up the primers for the PCR reaction so the first batch was unreliable. In addition, some red tape stopped others from making their own tests until recently. CDC has been behind the curve here for a while on this one, sadly.
I like his comedy but I gotta wonder about his priorities when this was their takeaway recommendation slide. Seriously, the only public health item was last on the list?
That video is a week old (plus another .5-1 week lag). What public health info was missing as of that time? There was no recommendation for social distancing of elderly/ vulnerable in US until last weekend and the cdc seems a pretty good direction to look for new information as opposed to Twitter. Mask shortages have been discussed as a large risk for healthcare workers if/ when the system is overloaded.
I actually see all four as directly public health items, I’ve encountered them all myself. Don’t be racist isn’t just a joke – lots justify not caring at all (washing hands, not touching face,
now social distancing for vulnerable) because they’re avoiding the Chinese tourists, which is the only risk they “see”. A relative brought up exactly that two days ago for why they didn’t have to otherwise care…
But that isnt being racist. It’s based on simply geography, not unfounded racial bias. It’s no different than being called a racist for saying the robber was a black man, when the robber was in fact a black man and you were merely describing the robber.
It may also be wrong, since most new cases are tagged with a “recent traveled to Italy”. But it’s still a geographical mistake unrelated to race.
Not really racist, but it is somewhat unfounded racial bias/misconception, you worded it better. It’s been encouraged by the non-science portion of “government” statements.
It would originally have been travelers that visited any of the initial areas, not just Chinese. But now (community transmission) it’s more anyone they came into contact with.
S korea maybe looks like it’s improving and they didn’t do mass lockdowns. China is down to handful of new cases a day (of course, only managed through the mass lockdowns).
S Korea is running 10k+ tests a day, though. We’d need 80k+ tests here to be a comparable level. Still unclear what will be the situation here in a few weeks. Presumably with no mass quarantines or lockdowns and continued minimal testing/ monitoring.
If I pass away on account of this damn virus it is the CDC I will blame with my last breath (I’m an older person with an underlying health issue which places me at even greater risk).
Apparently it wasn’t even money; it was just stupidity, bad science, maybe internal CDC politics. I blame Trump only in the sense that he has placed so darn much faith in the CDC. It’s like with Bush Jr. back when the intelligence community told him, beyond any doubt, that Saddam had WMDs. How many lives, young lives, did we lose because of that bureaucratic screw up? Trump is out there telling everyone America has the best health care, best preparedness, and so forth. BS What we have at the CDC is a bunch of idiots.
My suggestion is to rebrand the CDC, in the interest of accuracy. It should be called the CDS, the Center for Disease Spreading. With that new appellation they could justifiably lay claim to mission success!
Even if the virus went away tomorrow the bull market is not coming back for years.
Many oil, cruise, hospitality, and airlines companies will either be filing for bankruptcy or need a welfare program from Uncle Sam.
Companies that are having their cash flows interrupted will soon implement hiring freezes and layoffs. No way people are watching 20% of their 401k disappear in a matter of days and thinking “Wow this is a great time to go out and buy a new house and a car”. I think it is more like “I really need to save for a rainy day”.
Maybe he shouldn’t have hired a CDC director with the least public health experience of any director in history; someone who believes in “faith based” science. His history with the AIDS epidemic is repulsive. He wrote the forward for a book that said that AIDS was God’s judgment against gay people, but that’s nothing compared to his odious ideas that were actually implemented.
