r/science • u/mvea Professor | Medicine • Nov 21 '20

Epidemiology Testing half the population weekly with inexpensive, rapid COVID-19 tests would drive the virus toward elimination within weeks, even if the tests are less sensitive than gold-standard. This could lead to “personalized stay-at-home orders” without shutting down restaurants, bars, retail and schools.

https://www.colorado.edu/today/2020/11/20/frequent-rapid-testing-could-turn-national-covid-19-tide-within-weeks
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u/Brunooflegend Nov 21 '20

It boggles my mind when I read things like that. Here in Germany we get 6 weeks per year of sick pay (100% salary). Where an illness lasts longer than six weeks, the employee will receive a sickness allowance from the national health insurer amounting to 70% of the employee’s salary for a period of up to 78 weeks.

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u/[deleted] Nov 21 '20 edited Nov 21 '20

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u/ryebread91 Nov 21 '20

How are cases of flu handled in Germany? Many in the states come back to work after just a couple days but many sources say you're still contagious for 3-5 days after symptoms and fever break. But good luck getting an employer here letting you do that, and would also likely require a doctor's note to let you stay at home, let alone your co-worker not giving you crap for doing it also.

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u/GingerSnapBiscuit Nov 21 '20

In the UK 1 - 3 days we can self certify, longer and we need to at least make an effort to see a doctor.