And two presumptive cases in Washington (Snohomish and King counties) just announced at an 8pm press briefing. One a high schooler with unknown origin. The other a person returning from Korea on Tuesday.<p><a href="https://www.oregonlive.com/health/2020/02/2-new-coronavirus-cases-in-washington-state.html" rel="nofollow">https://www.oregonlive.com/health/2020/02/2-new-coronavirus-...</a>
I think pretty much anyone that’s not living in an isolated part of the us should assume that it’s spreading near where you are.<p>The only reason we haven’t found cases in the us is that we haven’t been testing. There’s probably 100 people for every person that they’ve tested positive at this point, maybe more.
How does testing and quarantine work for people in the US who are not insured?<p>I am seeing stories around the web of people having to pay 2-3.000 USD for a test and also facing major bills for hospital quarantine?
With now 3 cases of unknown origin, it's pretty obvious that widespread community transmission is inevitable - because it's already happening.<p>SXSW is scheduled to start in Austin in 2 weeks. There will be tens of thousands of people flying into Austin, many of whom will be coming from places where coronavirus is circulating in the community. They will hang out with tens of thousands of <i>other</i> people from around the world, often in packed-to-the-gills music venues where they are at various levels of intoxication. They will all fly home to their places of origin a week later.
Some in WA too.<p>If you're a hot news junkie Reddit has a dedicated sub<p><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/coronavirus/" rel="nofollow">https://www.reddit.com/r/coronavirus/</a>
Live in the Portland area and am coming down with a bad cold that started this morning and is getting progressively worse. I know I’m in a state of paranoia, from checking the news too often, but I can’t help but to have fears of the worst.
So far it seems to be isolated to the west coast. Unfortunately I don't expect it to stay there. At some point (if not already happened), somebody will get on a plane headed to the midwest, south, or east coast and spread it.
I really don't get why people get so worried about this. Especially on a science oriented forum like HN.<p><i>At this moment</i>, even if we assume that there are 100 times more unreported cases than reported cases, the odds are so low that there is simply no reason to be worried, even if attending an international conference. It's true that people do get sick, and die, and it can happen to anyone. But people also get into all types of unlikely accidents, and we don't let this affect our daily life. Besides, symptoms are mild for most people. We're not talking about Ebola here.<p>I'm blaming the media. They make a "good" job at reporting each new individual case, making you feel that "this could be you" but IMHO this is noise. What I want to know is, how are countries prepared, what steps will be followed if this gets out of control, what is currently the probability of catching the virus, what do we know about the virus, how could the situation evolve in one week, one month and so on....<p>There are effective ways to mitigate the virus propagation other than canceling all events and stopping our economy, with all the adverse consequences we can imagine. For instance, starting by following the recommendations from health organisations. Such as stay home when showing symptoms, washing hands and so on. This is <i>not</i> followed by most people in Europe (and I suspect the US too). I see people coughing all the time in public transportation (compared with Asia where people wear masks).<p>EDIT: I'm not saying that we shouldn't be concerned or prepared, but I wouldn't go beyond the recommendations from the CDC, and I think that catching the virus <i>now</i> is extremely unlikely.
Wash your hands often, don't touch your face, and carry alcohol sanitizer. Maintain your mental health as well. Remember you have <i>far</i> less chance of catching this than the common flu, and most people will recover from both.
I live in the Portland area and I’m doing my very best to not panic. My family has stocked up on a couple weeks worth of food and medicine gradually over the last few weeks and we have an “earthquake kit” that we already had in place. I feel like we’re relatively prepared for a quarantine situation if it comes down to it.<p>The main reason I’m anxious, however, is that I have asthma and one of my biggest fears is suffocating to death. I remember going to the ER as a kid and blacking out because I basically stopped breathing. I still have nightmares about it.<p>This is not a great time for someone with anxiety. If you’re like me, please remember to take deep breaths, get enough sleep, and remember that in the vast majority of cases things will be okay.<p>But also please, please, please wash your hands.
I have a feeling that at this point more people have put more time into planning for zombie virus attacks than real actual virus attacks ... it may be we have to study zombie attack plans to figure out what to do next .....<p>In related news, apparently I don't have enough shotguns
At this point I wonder why won't the government mail everyone a N95 mask to slow down the spread. I mean IRS knows everyone address with the price of each mask of 65 cents it would be few million buck at the most. But would raise awareness across the US.