Interesting article on the subway problem for reopening NYC.
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/03/nyregion/mta-subway-coronavirus.html
As a poster mentioned earlier, I also wonder why a good quality health insurance plan must be tied to an employer.
I don’t know what the answer to the health insurance question is but when it costs $1700 per month for a family of three on my H’s plan at work (Anthem) something is very wrong. Btw, the cost wasn’t that much cheaper for us if we did the ACA insurance with two low quality insurance companies bc Anthem pulled out of our state not too long after the ACA happened.
Because of this cost, I’m on my plan w/ D21 at my work and H is on his work plan alone, bc his small company will pay a portion of his cost but not if his family is included. It’s much more affordable for us this way. My elderly parents had a MedAdvantage plan that was great and very comprehensive but I’m not old enough for Medicare. One of the few times I wish I were older!
D1 and her H didn’t have to pay for their tests. When I called they said they weren’t collecting any fees. At Quest they are charging $119 if you don’t have a doctor’s prescription/referral.
FYI - they told me there was no wait up at 50th st. Out in Brooklyn there was a 20 min wait.
I don’t know what kind of testing they are doing. A friend of mine who got it done in FL said it was just a little prick of her finger, whereas they actually drew a vial blood from D1.
Today’s NYT also has an article written by a leading doctor saying that both the COVID diagnostic test and the antibody test have a far higher failure rate than the reported 30%, and are basically useless.
For folks interested, got an email from Costco. They’re going back to “normal” hours at most places; with 9-10M-F for folks 60+ or disabilities.
Check their website for more details. Masks required.
Unreliable tests are worse than worthless, they’re dangerous because people are making decisions based on faulty info.
@roycroftmom: can you share the link for the article?
It was in the print edition, first section, even page, below the fold. I don’t see it online yet, but if I do tomorrow I will post the link. The author was Harlan Krumholz, MD, the headline was “If you have corona virus symptoms, assume you have the illness”
The reason I’m talking about health insurance in my previous post is, if it weren’t for the need to have our health insurance divided up this way due to cost, we could afford for me to not work in my high risk job as H’s job is low risk in an office at a small company. We are debt free and have managed our finances well but need affordable health insurance.
I’m a middle-aged nurse in Cardiothoracic Surgery and exposed to intubating/extubating, TEEs, checking placement of double lumen airway tubes with a bronchoscope, etc. We get ONE N95 mask for the whole week!
Patients have a CV 19 test done within 72 hrs of their surgery but I don’t know the sensitivity of the test they took. I had to take one due to being very ill several weeks ago and my doc told me the sensitivity was only 65%; meaning over a third could test false negative! All this has me feeling very anxious, to say the least.
Started back in WWII as a way to get around wage and price controls. Why its still linked is a another discussion.
Well, you can count me as one – I love my medicare. Regular Medicare (part B) plus a Plan F supplement. No copays, no deductibles, no network restriction. And if I get sick with Covid and need to call an ambulance to take me to the hospital… Medicare will pay.
@bluebayou, thank you for the info and, yes, why it’s still linked is definitely another question.
The COVID diagnostic test has (reportedly) a lot of false negatives, but not false positives. That makes it far from useless: if it says a person has COVID, they do.
A test that has a lot of false positives and a lot of false negatives is useless. But a test that has lots of false positives and few false negatives, or lots of false negatives and few false positives, is very useful.
There are many COVID-19 diagnostic tests, so it’s hard to know the reliability and false negative/false positive rate of each.
Some of labs running the tests will report results to the state dept of health while others won’t.
I don’t really understand where there is a reference to just ONE diagnostic test, since I’ve heard of several different ones, even within our state.
Very sad story in the paper about a guy who died because hospitals don’t have enough dialysis equipment. (NYC area.)
I would prefer NYS to open after they figure out how to have enough dialysis and ventilators for everyone. I would prefer it to open in a way that we don’t have more cases of funeral home keeping bodies in unrefrigerated trucks that reek so badly the neighbors complain.
And I would prefer that the people who really need the jobs and especially those who can’t get unemployment get back to work.
I personally will not be comfortable dealing closely with clients until we have a better handle on how to treat this disease. (And I recognize that I am privileged not to have to work if I don’t want to, or to only take exterior jobs.)
Not all tests are created equal. Just saying. Can’t lump every test in the same bucket. It is important that the tests are administered and run by folks who know what they are doing and following the manufacturer’s protocol.
In the hospital setting, a patient with a false negative test is a danger to HCWs and other patients bc a CV 19+ or Rule Out CV 19 patient is handled in a very different manner.
For example, in our OR, we use a PAPR versus an N95 mask for a R/O or CV 19+ patient that is undergoing surgery and they are intubated in a negative pressure room before being brought back to the OR.
If your hospital is using a COVID test with significant false negatives, and isn’t taking that into account when treating patients, that’s pretty foolish.
whoops
Today at 9:28 pm
0 replies
Yikes:
"An Oklahoma city has reversed an emergency proclamation requiring shoppers to wear face masks due to threats of violence.
The city had required customers to wear masks in stores and restaurants. But the mayor quickly amended that policy on Friday afternoon after employees were “threatened with physical violence and showered with verbal abuse” in the span of three hours, Stillwater City Manager Norman McNickle said in a statement. There was one threat of violence using a firearm, he added."
Have to say I agree with this.
CNBC says:
Worldometer data shows:
Monday - 4/27 - 1383 deaths
Tuesday - 4/28 - 2470
Wednesday - 4/29 - 2390
Thursday - 4/30 - 2201
Friday - 5/1 - 1897
Saturday - 5/2 - 1691
Sunday - 5/3 - 1154
CNBC provided a link to a WHO report that did claim the 2,909 to be the tallied amount as of early Friday morning, maybe for Thursday but it’s hard to tell.
It’s possible WHO just summed differently than Worldometer, with some from one day being added to the next or previous. In other words, total deaths for a given week long window might add up the same. If they did, though, you’re still left wondering why one source would weight a daily tally with some from a previous day since the deaths had already occurred and been reported.
And why a news outlet would go with that method for their story.
Oh… how stupid of me… they had a point they wanted to make as to the error of not staying at home.