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Working From Home - Impacts of Coronavirus
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PlainName:
The numbers from different countries remain remarkably consistent: around 3% fatalities from the reported numbers. If people were hiding the sickness you'd expect the numbers to vary a lot more.

Further, from The Grauniad again:

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/mar/09/the-new-normal-chinas-excessive-coronavirus-public-monitoring-could-be-here-to-stay


--- Quote ---Over the last two months, Chinese citizens have had to adjust to a new level of government intrusion.

Getting into one’s apartment compound or workplace requires scanning a QR code, writing down one’s name and ID number, temperature and recent travel history. Telecom operators track people’s movements while social media platforms like WeChat and Weibo have hotlines for people to report others who may be sick. Some cities are offering people rewards for informing on sick neighbours.

Chinese companies are meanwhile rolling out facial recognition technology that can detect elevated temperatures in a crowd or flag citizens not wearing a face mask. A range of apps use the personal health information of citizens to alert others of their proximity to infected patients or whether they have been in close contact.
--- End quote ---

My emphasis - don't underestimate people telling on other people. It is, after all, how the Stasis and similar got along.

So, given the above, does anyone still want to guarantee that huge numbers in the likes of Wuhan are flying under the radar? Even knowing that actual experts that have gone and taken a look don't think so either?

(edit: as a side event, and not one to be taken TOO seriously, please, one wonders what the guarantee covers. Is it like when the politicos say "I take full responsibility" assuming just saying that lets everyone off the hook, because they never pay the fee of being responsible? So let's say it turns out that even a minor symptom gets caught by TPTB over there - the guarantee has failed and... what now?)
james_s:

--- Quote from: dunkemhigh on March 09, 2020, 04:07:37 pm ---So, given the above, does anyone still want to guarantee that huge numbers in the likes of Wuhan are flying under the radar? Even knowing that actual experts that have gone and taken a look don't think so either?

--- End quote ---

Absolutely. I would still bet money that there are large numbers of people who contracted the virus and recovered without getting tested, one can debate the magnitude but it is an absolute certainty they are out there. I know for a fact that I am not the only person who would treat it like any other flu and stay home to recover, I would only go to the clinic if I started to have difficulty breathing. Unfortunately there is no way to determine the true number, I do know at least one person I work with mentioned that she and her husband just got over some kind of flu a week or two ago which in retrospect sounds suspiciously like the coronavirus. A couple of weeks before that a friend of mine returned home to the UK from here and he was sick for over a week with something resembling pneumonia that could have also been this virus but since neither of them got tested we'll never know if that's what they had or not. I'm absolutely positive there are many more like them, I cannot possibly know the only 3 people out there.
SeanB:
4 in South Africa more confirmed, and the Dept of Health is in a tizzy, mostly because they normally are operating on the bad side of disaster, and primary health care is at best described as dysfunctional.  they have nominated a primary response hospital, hope they actually have told them, and that they actually have the medical personnel, supplies and training required. Hoping so, because for some strange reason, you cannot get waterless hand cleaner, disinfectant or masks and gloves at the moment. All sold out, just like in the US and Australia, but you can still get toilet paper, and of course there are no Tim Tams, but plenty of Marmite, Bovril and Redro, but, due to other reasons, no canned pilchards in chilli sauce with batch codes starting with ZZ.
Sal Ammoniac:

--- Quote from: EEVblog on March 09, 2020, 12:32:29 pm ---A couple of more schools in Sydney hit as predicted.

--- End quote ---

Schools are open in the summer in Sydney?
PlainName:

--- Quote ---I can stay at home and tell my employer that I'm sick, no matter what the sickness is.
--- End quote ---

Lucky you. For many, typically not those likely to be contributing to this forum, it's very much easier said than done.

For instance, here in the UK if you're part of the gig-economy (that is, pretty much any delivery driver, uber driver, deliveroo, zero-hour supermarket worker, online fulfillment centre worker, etc) if you're not at work you don't get paid. Even non-gig workers who usually get sick pay don't get it for the first three days. I think our kind and considerate government has just revoked that temporarily so you'll get sick pay from the first day, but only one gig-economy company has offered to cough for sick pay for their 'non-employees'.

OK, so suppose you're in the position where you will get sick pay. Just rubbed shoulders with the neighbours who have been back from a tour of the Far East for the past month. What to do? Maybe not actually have to make the decision so you phone 111 and tell them, and they say to self-isolate. Win-win! An 'official' stay at home you can present to your boss, and sick pay to boot.

Now, suppose nothing happens so after 2/3 weeks you go back to work. The day after you go back you get a bit of a cough and start feeling really bad... Can you take another two weeks off? If I were in that situation (that is, no having the luxury of choosing not to go in like you do) I would find it very difficult indeed to flip the switch unless a) I was convinced I have it, b) couldn't actually do the work, and c) I had an official acknowledgement that I have it.
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