Wall Observer BTC/USD - Bitcoin price movement tracking & discussion

[rolling]

Not to put too fine a point on it, but if you don’t have medical insurance in the US, the cost of a Coronavirus test is $3,200.  

Poor people who can’t afford health insurance aren’t going to get tested in the USA.  

According to this: https://www.factcheck.org/2020/03/covid-19-tests-dont-cost-over-3000/ , that is not true.


Also, from https://www.ahip.org/keeping-americans-safe-from-coronavirus-covid-19/

What to Know About Treatment and Coverage

    At this time, the CDC is the only facility equipped to test for COVID 19, or to designate other laboratories to do so. The CDC is not billing for testing for COVID 19, so patients will not incur costs when tested by the CDC.

Ok - according to your link the test is free.  But it costs $3200 to visit a doctor to get the free test. Am I reading that correctly?

The test (as of now) is free.  I am pretty sure $3200 is not representative of what a US citizen typically pays for a doctor visit.

One anecdotal instance of how much someone spent on emergency care really should not be misrepresented as 'the cost of a Coronavirus test [in the US]', especially since it may discourage those who think they may need to be tested from doing so.

The first thing you have to know about the US is that a large portion of the population has no health insurance, does not go to the doctor, and has probably only seen a doctor a few times in their lifetime.

They don't have a doctor, don't really know where to find one on short notice, and aren't going to wait for an appointment if there is something so extreme as to get them to see a doctor. They only use emergency rooms for care, and some never intend to pay. Hospitals know this, which is why they charge $3000 for a visit to the emergency room (this is a real number btw from personal experience taking an ex girlfriend). Their collection department is hoping to get a 10% return on the amount they bill through collection agencies.

[1713296445]

1713296445

[1713296445]

1713296445

[1713296445]

1713296445

[Elwar]

If you're not on the verge of death, there's no need to go to a hospital.

Fix a broken bone or whatever...

Most of the time going to the hospital is worse for you than staying home and taking care of yourself.

[JSRAW]

Take my advice for free, i don't use it anyway..........

[El duderino_]

Dildo, dildo, dildo

[HairyMaclairy]

Coronavirus may be getting weaker due to evolutionary pressure - aggressive quarantining of patients who become very sick

https://academic.oup.com/nsr/advance-article/doi/10.1093/nsr/nwaa036/5775463?searchresult=1

[xhomerx10]

(if it's not too personal)?

For educational purpose..

Raja and me comes from the same region, where we have no such thing called personal space etc. I appreciate your politeness but you can ask him or anyone from Indian Subcontinent (if you know them) directly without any filter.

I can imagine what his friend asking him about this flu... Bencho, jinda hai abhi tak? Sisterfucker, you are still alive?

 That's awesome!  I'd never heard that before.  I called one of my indian co-workers sister-fucker tonight.  He laughed and laughed and asked me where I heard that.  I'm keeping my sources secret!
Merit you when I get some.

[VB1001]

Bitcoin Optech

This week’s newsletter describes a proposed update to BIP340 schnorr keys and signatures, seeks feedback on a proposal to improve startup feature negotiation between full nodes, examines a suggestion for a standardized way to prevent hardware wallets from using corrupt nonces to leak private keys, and links to an analysis of the properties necessary in a hash function for taproot to be secure. Also included are our regular sections for release announcements and notable changes to popular Bitcoin infrastructure projects.

https://bitcoinops.org/en/newsletters/2020/03/04/

[somac.]

Coronavirus may be getting weaker due to evolutionary pressure - aggressive quarantining of patients who become very sick

https://academic.oup.com/nsr/advance-article/doi/10.1093/nsr/nwaa036/5775463?searchresult=1

A lot of mights and mays in that. Can't wait till we get some solid research papers out on this.

[Lambie Slayer]

Coronavirus may be getting weaker due to evolutionary pressure - aggressive quarantining of patients who become very sick

https://academic.oup.com/nsr/advance-article/doi/10.1093/nsr/nwaa036/5775463?searchresult=1

The grave is an airtight quarantine. It probably just wasnt that strong to begin with, just tons of cases never got tested for or diagnosed. But it was strong enough to send money printers into panic printing mode, which works for me.

[Lambie Slayer]

via Imgflip Meme Generator

[Ibian]

not sure how to protect against the flu! does this count too?

I've heard several times the poverty level face masks, self or factory made make almost no difference.

Says who? Or, rather, does WHO say it?
If you don't have masks (or you have just 1.2% of what might be needed as we learned today) you would certainly say that they are not useful.
Anybody can see that all Chinese wear them ...and they seem to have new cases diminished (if you believe their numbers).
Independent variables or not?
I don't know.

Supposedly the virus is too small to be caught by the filter. Just goes right through.

As for the chinks, repeat after me: Communists Lie.

[Lambie Slayer]

https://www.latimes.com/science/story/2020-03-03/how-bad-could-coronavirus-outbreak-get

"It’s possible that fatalities were particularly bad in China because there are so many smokers there, and their damaged lungs made them more vulnerable to the coronavirus. In China, 52% of men and 3% of women are smokers. By contrast, 16% of men and 12% of women in America smoke.

Smoking is “a risk factor for almost any respiratory infectious disease,” said Dr. James Cherry, an infectious disease specialist at UCLA.

"Yang doesn’t think so. He said the experience in Wuhan might exaggerate how contagious the coronavirus really is.

The fact that the new coronavirus has been circulating in Washington state for weeks but had gone undetected for so long suggests that there have been more infections than official figures suggest, Cherry said. When those cases are taken into account, the death rate falls."

"The actual fatality rate for the new coronavirus may be quite a bit lower than 2.3% because people who are infected but experience only mild illness — or no symptoms at all — are massively undercounted, experts said. The true death rate could be as low as 0.2%, Yang said."


Probably just the flu times 2 bro. Hodl your coin while the money printers buy into the hype and hysteria.

All signs point to bullish.

[Ibian]

It's infuriating that all the worlds supposed experts are calculating the death rate wrong.

https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/

Recovered compared to infected. A 56% recovery rate. So a 44% mortality rate. And that is just as valid as what they are doing.

The correct calculation remains deaths/(deaths+cured). This is important.

[Lambie Slayer]

It's infuriating that all the worlds supposed experts are calculating the death rate wrong.

https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/

Recovered compared to infected. A 56% recovery rate. So a 44% mortality rate. And that is just as valid as what they are doing.

The correct calculation remains deaths/(deaths+cured). This is important.

Most of the people who got cured were never tested or diagnosed, so there is little value to worldometers stats. Everybody notices a death.

Nobodies notices or will ever know about the likely 100s of thousands of people who caught it, never had a symptom or just thought they had a cold, and were cured without any medical help. The immune system is the greatest doctor anyone has.

[OutOfMemory]

not sure how to protect against the flu! does this count too?

I've heard several times the poverty level face masks, self or factory made make almost no difference.

Says who? Or, rather, does WHO say it?
If you don't have masks (or you have just 1.2% of what might be needed as we learned today) you would certainly say that they are not useful.
Anybody can see that all Chinese wear them ...and they seem to have new cases diminished (if you believe their numbers).
Independent variables or not?
I don't know.

Supposedly the virus is too small to be caught by the filter. Just goes right through.

As for the chinks, repeat after me: Communists Lie.

The virus itself is too small, correct.
But it has to be bound to aerosols or droplets to be inhaled and that is where the mask actually works.
The handling of that mask is critical. You have to put it on/off using gloves, discard them with the mask immideately, wash your hands, wash your face.
Alternatively, treat the mask with UV-C light or ozone, this also takes the stink and it can even be re-used.
The mask is an additional security measure, not a remedy. It just lowers the risk to get infected, IF you take all the other measures to protect yourself serious, too.

[Ibian]

It's infuriating that all the worlds supposed experts are calculating the death rate wrong.

https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/

Recovered compared to infected. A 56% recovery rate. So a 44% mortality rate. And that is just as valid as what they are doing.

The correct calculation remains deaths/(deaths+cured). This is important.

Most of the people who got cured were never tested or diagnosed, so there is little value to worldometers stats. Everybody notices a death.

Nobodies notices or will ever know about the likely 100s of thousands of people who caught it, never had a symptom or just thought they had a cold, and were cured without any medical help. The immune system is the greatest doctor anyone has.

Or the people who die at home and are not counted, in china especially, or the people who are counted as dying from a hundred other issues, or, or and so on.

As long as the official stats are what everyone is quoting, then we should at least calculate those numbers correctly.

[OutOfMemory]

It's infuriating that all the worlds supposed experts are calculating the death rate wrong.

https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/

Recovered compared to infected. A 56% recovery rate. So a 44% mortality rate. And that is just as valid as what they are doing.

The correct calculation remains deaths/(deaths+cured). This is important.

Most of the people who got cured were never tested or diagnosed, so there is little value to worldometers stats. Everybody notices a death.

Nobodies notices or will ever know about the likely 100s of thousands of people who caught it, never had a symptom or just thought they had a cold, and were cured without any medical help. The immune system is the greatest doctor anyone has.

True.
Actually people don't die because of the virus, but because of their immune reactions consequences.
If you have a weak system, it will over-react to the virus. If you have a strong system, it will react less or quicker.
A few exceptions to this rule, but it's mostly correct, imo.

I myself have a hyperreactive kind of immune response. I catch a small cold and feel ill for like a week or two, without fever. Don't know what that means in terms of health risk with nCoV, but my lungs and organs are healthy. And i'm within the "safe" age band, below 70yrs.
Children seem to get infected less or develop less severe symptoms, is this still true and what do the virologists say?

[nutildah]

Nutildah puts his dog hat back on... Bullish!

The hat is really well done and detailed, the finer points of which are lost on the avatar-size version. so I'm posting the original, full-size image here in all its glory.

[OutOfMemory]

Nutildah puts his dog hat back on... Bullish!

The hat is really well done and detailed, the finer points of which are lost on the avatar-size version. so I'm posting the original, full-size image here in all its glory.

You can bring out some more detail by adjusting the resizing parameters.
I suggest pre-sharpening (strong) before reducing size with dithering set to "preserve details"-like settings (presets in photoshop and the likes will do fine).
The current version is f*cking blurry.

[Lambie Slayer]

It's infuriating that all the worlds supposed experts are calculating the death rate wrong.

https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/

Recovered compared to infected. A 56% recovery rate. So a 44% mortality rate. And that is just as valid as what they are doing.

The correct calculation remains deaths/(deaths+cured). This is important.

Most of the people who got cured were never tested or diagnosed, so there is little value to worldometers stats. Everybody notices a death.

Nobodies notices or will ever know about the likely 100s of thousands of people who caught it, never had a symptom or just thought they had a cold, and were cured without any medical help. The immune system is the greatest doctor anyone has.

Or the people who die at home and are not counted, in china especially, or the people who are counted as dying from a hundred other issues, or, or and so on.

As long as the official stats are what everyone is quoting, then we should at least calculate those numbers correctly.

We have enough samples outside of China where we can be more certain the dead are counted properly. We only have one sample in the entire globe where an entire population was tested and we know what their mortality rate is. Thats the Diamond Princess. We know the rate of death for the 700 infected was .85 percent, and we know that this population was about 20 years older than a normal population of people bc cruise passengers skew much older.

This is the best evidence on the planet for a true mortality rate ceiling. Meaning the true mortality rate is no higher than .85, and almost certainly much lower in a normal aged group of people.

Until an entire town or village is tested, regardless of symptoms, or just a very large random population sample is tested, the Diamond Princess will remain the scientific gold (Bitcoin ) standard for a true mortality estimate.

Hopefully the money printers dont read WO and figure these secrets out or they will stop panicking and turn off the money printers.