Yeah, we’re spraying everything down with starsan. I debated going with powdered brewery wash which eats protein, a quick rinse, then starsan, but felt like that was overkill.
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I can’t stop thinking about these field hospitals cities are building and how patients are going to get fucked because McCormick Place, the Javits center, Central Park, etc. are not in-network hospitals on anyone’s insurance.
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Thank you @Mariposa <3 I hope you are doing well. I think about you every morning and send you a little zap! of energy…I hope you’ve been feeling it! <3 <3 <3
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Fwiw I think many insurers are waiving all out of pocket costs for coronavirus treatment. I know mine is (UHC) and they’re not a tiny company.
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Huh, apparently mine (Cigna) just announced that yesterday. Only through May 31 though, so I guess I had better hurry up and catch it. /s
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On the one hand I want to say “Good!” but on the other it’s really the absolute least they could fucking do.
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Though, it’s a moot point if we’re unable to get tested, yeah? They’d need the positive test, which is still pretty hard to get.
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You’d have to see the fine print on your insurer’s statement. I assume there is like six pages of fine print.
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I think even with the testing shortages, they’re testing people who need hospital care. So if it’s bad enough to rack up medical charges that you want waived, it’s bad enough for a test.
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This ^ it’s a good thing that they’re reserving tests. My very high risk friend got a test immediately, her boyfriend who she lives with was not given one and was told to assume he’s positive if she’s positive.
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God, I really hope that all of this is a major wakeup call that our healthcare system needs to be completely blown away and built new so that this kind of thing is never a concern again. It is so enraging to me that we are worrying about costs (totally a legit worry given the system!) during a damned global pandemic.
Going to go beat my head against a wall to feel better.
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Getting more personal for my family.
One of my cousins (high level nurse, I know she has several certs and a PhD) is front-line in her city. A niece is a RN with a high-risk pop but currently not frontline. One of my cousins in NYC almost certainly has it based on symptoms but not sure if she has been able to be tested or not. Currently not hospitalized.
One of my favorite authors and his wife both likely have it but have been waiting nearly a week for test results to confirm. Not sure if they are hospitalized or not.
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I just posted this in a journal but was wondering if some of the data people here have thoughts about the University of Washington model that lots of people have been citing:
My impressions: 1) seems way more mild than many others in terms of the peak being over quite soon and total numbers of deaths being low, 2) has some factual errors (says schools in Maine haven’t closed) and 3) has changed pretty dramatically over the past few days without showing you a track record of what the changes are (good that they are updating, but bad that they don’t have a record of changes). Also if you compare their prediction of hospitalizations to what states are currently reporting, their estimate is dramatically higher than current real life (NY currently is reporting 13k hospitalizations for March 30th and the model is predicting almost 40k).
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the images of central park really hit me
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I think the model accounts for all hospital beds needed for all purposes – not just Covid-19 beds. You still have people needing hospitalization for heart attacks, strokes, car accidents (though those numbers are probably way down with the mobility restrictions), etc.
As with any model it will have its flaws, but as I understand it this one has been very helpful in getting officials and citizens to modify behavior. It may be a blunt instrument that overshoots at times, but we need that now.
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At least here, the field hospitals are under hospital umbrellas. That’s how they’re staffing them, too. So if that hospital is in your coverage, their field hospital is too.
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I thought that too, but the box above the graph specifically says “resources needed for COVID patients.”
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I have Vague Economic Worries which occasionally morph into Vague Disaster Scenarios.
I usually deal with this type of worry by drowning it with information but no one really knows what’s happening, so I no longer have reliable information to drown my worries in.
Ugh.
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Jesus, I just about jumped out of my skin. My phone is always silent - not even vibrate - while I am working, but it just went off LOUDLY. It was an emergency alert. I of course totally freaked out.
The alert read “State needs licensed healthcare workers to sign-up at IllinoisHelps.net to fight COVID-19.”
Which, yes, that’s important, but way to freak everyone out as we assume something else horrible just occurred.
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I ran to the little market by the el to grab a few essentials since it was pointed out to me that tomorrow is when SNAP benefits come out so the stores will be packed with folks who might be less able to protect themselves.
And this total JACKASS goes into the market ahead of me, she’s just standing right there inside the door. Not buying anything. So I step off the curb and am standing practically in the street waiting for her to move so I can socially distance myself when I go in and grab what I need. She stands there and stands there… and then leaves without buying anything. She was just chatting up the cashiers who I guess she knows? Talking and laughing.
The cashiers were at least taking this seriously. Masks and gloves. And they did seem to be trying to stand as far away from her as the very small store allowed. They had serious masks on. Like, they had filters of some sort in them. I don’t know what an N95 mask looks like so I just googled and that looks pretty close to what they had. Why do they have them when hospitals do not? I mean, I am glad they are safe, but hospitals are having shortages!
I am just full of WTF right now. We are going to have to isolate even longer if people do not start taking this seriously. I would also like to know why it is always me who crosses the street when people are approaching me. There are way fewer people out than normal. WAY fewer. But the people who are out are still squeezing past each other.
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