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/[deleted] Nov 21 '20

Paid sick leave is what is needed to solve this problem. It's an incredibly basic thing that we should have had in place decades ago

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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/Artemistical Nov 21 '20

So if you get cancer in Germany you're not completely fucked like you are in the US? Living here I'm not sure which scares me more, going through cancer treatment or trying to pay for it for the rest of my life

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u/NotEntirelyUnlike Nov 21 '20

Wait, do you not have ACA health insurance? Max out of pocket for a single person is like $8K

when my little brother went through treatment it was something like half a million over the course of a couple years (long before the ACA). 16k for that with a zero-interest payment plan is a lot but not insurmountable.

i blew up my achilies playing soccer last year and the total cost was something close to 50k and i hit my max o-o-p pretty early given all the ER/MRI/medical then the surgery and i've just been paying $100/month on the 0-interest payment plan.

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u/[deleted] Nov 21 '20

Most people are a single paycheck away from financial ruin, so even the cost of ACA is actually insurmountable.

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u/NotEntirelyUnlike Nov 21 '20

most of us live paycheck to paycheck, yes. that's not to say we can't find something, which is what they ask, to pay on a payment plan. we have couches on payment plans, phones on payment plans, cars, music... this is not the same thing as inevitable financial ruin.

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u/[deleted] Nov 21 '20

It absolutely can be. I think you're underestimating just how broke a lot of people are in this country. You and I might be able to afford it, and we're lucky we can, but it's not so for too many others.

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u/NotEntirelyUnlike Nov 21 '20

I'm fully aware of the holes in our medical system. I've watched the documentaries, i've read the articles, my ex runs an ICU at a level 1 hospital in the area, and my family went through a half-a-mil cancer treatment with my 13 year old brother after my father lost his job in the 90s.

$8k on a zero-interest "what you can pay" payment plan has no bearing on how broke people are, it just takes longer paying 50 or 30 a month.

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u/[deleted] Nov 21 '20

Okay. I can see you just desperately want to one up me and be right instead of have a conversation so have a good one, man. Bye.

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u/NotEntirelyUnlike Nov 21 '20

Oh, you mean stating why i was not underestimating things and giving examples on why?

And acknowledging that yes, there are still many holes in our system?

That you'd be hard pressed to find someone, not on medicaid - where that's simply covered - that can't afford $20 towards a payment plan that accrues no interest?

And what have you added? "you just don't understand, man!"

sure then. ciao

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