When is it time to panic

Whelp, 3 cases confirmed in Maryland.  We will see what happens in the coming days. 

I am mostly nervous because my 19 month old has had real struggles with respiratory illnesses and asthma. We almost wound up in the ER for RSV twice.  

Apexcarver said:

I am mostly nervous because my 19 month old has had real struggles with respiratory illnesses and asthma. We almost wound up in the ER for RSV twice.  

 

To hopefully slightly settle your nerves it seems like it is hitting young people in particular kids much less worse then say the flu.

Here is my big worry with the Coronavirus and the US. 45% of people don't have paid days off. 78% of people live paycheck to paycheck. 12% of people are underinsured. A vin diagram of those groups probably overlap heavily. Also a lot of those people I'd think work in the service industry. I am wondering how many people will go to work sick and expose more people to the Coronavirus.

In reply to Apexcarver :

I have been there and I'm rooting for yall to not get anywhere near this crud

93EXCivic said:

Here is my big worry with the Coronavirus and the US. 45% of people don't have paid days off. 78% of people live paycheck to paycheck. 12% of people are underinsured. A vin diagram of those groups probably overlap heavily. Also a lot of those people I'd think work in the service industry. I am wondering how many people will go to work sick and expose more people to the Coronavirus.

If it is any consolation, TSA agents tend to hit all three of those, and they are exposed/exposing themselves to travelers all over the world.

The trade show I was supposed to go to Vegas for on the 15th got canceled. That makes me pretty damn happy even though I am reasonably sure I could have made the trip and stayed safe. Spending a week hiding in my hotel room in Vegas wasn't going to be much fun, and avoiding crowds and travel is safer even if it was a fairly low risk.

Robbie said:

It might be helpful to spend some time thinking about what you can control and what you can't.

Yes still need to keep this in mind now that crazy people are running on water and toilet paper. Interesting that the top two concerns are drinking water and wiping ones self with quality TP. 

If you live with someone that has health challenges, I do, then focus on making it a new rule to disrobe outerwear and clean yourself before greeting anyone. I did that for over a year until he got more stable. I would get home from work and go straight to the bathroom, wash and change clothes before entering the living space. At work I stopped shaking hands and washed my hands so much I needed a tube of lotion on me at all times to keep my hands from bleeding. But if you need to keep home safe, do what you can. If someone with coronavirus sneezes in your face at Chipotle... well nothing you can do about that so don't worry about it.

I had a press trip rescheduled until summer. 

Duke said:

In reply to alfadriver :

Heheh, good one.

Just called RCI and asked about available upgrades... nothing doing, apparently the ship is almost sold out on our date.  Nothing available.  I may try again in a couple weeks but I'm not hopeful.  Thanks very much for your advice.

 

So Royal Caribbean just announced a new program called Cruise with Confidence- letting people cancel up to 48 hours in advance with a "full refund" in a future cruise credit.

Maybe give it a day or two, but I bet your will find upgrades.  Funny that the one I posted about before was cheaper today than it was when we upgraded.  Oh, well.  I guess we should check the next level up.

93EXCivic said:

Here is my big worry with the Coronavirus and the US. 45% of people don't have paid days off. 78% of people live paycheck to paycheck. 12% of people are underinsured. A vin diagram of those groups probably overlap heavily. Also a lot of those people I'd think work in the service industry. I am wondering how many people will go to work sick and expose more people to the Coronavirus.

No joke, not to mention how China showed VERY clearly what economic affects occur when large portions of your workforce gets sick. 

Man, remember when we all discussed public option in a topic? And all of us kinda agreed on similar things, and it just became a 20-pages of horror stories about insurance companies?

GIRTHQUAKE said:

93EXCivic said:

Here is my big worry with the Coronavirus and the US. 45% of people don't have paid days off. 78% of people live paycheck to paycheck. 12% of people are underinsured. A vin diagram of those groups probably overlap heavily. Also a lot of those people I'd think work in the service industry. I am wondering how many people will go to work sick and expose more people to the Coronavirus.

No joke, not to mention how China showed VERY clearly what economic affects occur when large portions of your workforce gets sick. 

Man, remember when we all discussed public option in a topic? And all of us kinda agreed on similar things, and it just became a 20-pages of horror stories about insurance companies?

Yep, we have now been waiting for 6 weeks for Optum to give us the $3k back into our HSA that they took out incorrectly.

93EXCivic said:

Here is my big worry with the Coronavirus and the US. 45% of people don't have paid days off. 78% of people live paycheck to paycheck.

I'm not sure of those statistics.  I'm seeing about 38M households living paycheck to paycheck out of a total of about 128M, or a rate of about 28%, not 78%. 

I'm also seeing about 34M workers without paid sick leave out of a workforce of 157M, or a rate of about 22%, not 45%.

THOSE ARE STILL LARGE NUMBERS, but not anywhere near as bad as your numbers make it seem.

In reply to alfadriver :

I was planning to try again after the 1st of April, maybe 2 weeks before sailing.  Thanks.

In reply to Duke :

The numbers looked off to me too, but consider that households with people living paycheck to paycheck might have multiple working-age adults sharing rent.  Probably a very significant percentage.

Duke said:

93EXCivic said:

Here is my big worry with the Coronavirus and the US. 45% of people don't have paid days off. 78% of people live paycheck to paycheck.

I'm not sure of those statistics.  I'm seeing about 38M households living paycheck to paycheck out of a total of about 128M, or a rate of about 28%, not 78%. 

I'm also seeing about 34M workers without paid sick leave out of a workforce of 157M, or a rate of about 22%, not 45%.

THOSE ARE STILL LARGE NUMBERS, but not anywhere near as bad as your numbers make it seem.

 

https://www.cnbc.com/2019/01/09/shutdown-highlights-that-4-in-5-us-workers-live-paycheck-to-paycheck.html Is where I got the paycheck to paycheck numbers.

And the paid time off from here. https://www.cnbc.com/2020/03/03/stranded-employee-is-coronavirus-issue-work-world-has-never-seen.html

I saw the second article first which cause me to do a quick google of the rest. Where are your numbers from? 78% on the paycheck to paycheck seemed fairly large to me tbh. 

This one had 74% of under $50k. 1 in 3 at 50-100k and 1 in 4 over 150k which seems a bit more realistic. https://www.marketwatch.com/story/a-shocking-number-of-americans-are-living-paycheck-to-paycheck-2020-01-07

In reply to 93EXCivic :

I googled a variety of statistics such as number of US households living paycheck to paycheck, number of households in the US, number of workers with no paid sick leave, total number of workers, etc.  I ran the calculations myself based on similar date ranges (all from 2019-2020).  Sources were the WSJ and a couple of US federal reports.

I've closed all the browser tabs but I can try to recreate it if it matters.

In reply to 93EXCivic :

The trick is, aren't the majority of workers in the US making under $50k?  I thought something like half made under $30k.

Duke said:

In reply to 93EXCivic :

I googled a variety of statistics such as number of US households living paycheck to paycheck, number of households in the US, number of workers with no paid sick leave, total number of workers, etc.  I ran the calculations myself based on similar date ranges (all from 2019-2020).  Sources were the WSJ and a couple of US federal reports.

I've closed all the browser tabs but I can try to recreate it if it matters.

 

Nah no worries. I maybe should of googled a bit more. But no matter the numbers they are high enough to cause significant worry.

93EXCivic said:

Here is my big worry with the Coronavirus and the US. 45% of people don't have paid days off. 78% of people live paycheck to paycheck. 12% of people are underinsured. A vin diagram of those groups probably overlap heavily. Also a lot of those people I'd think work in the service industry. I am wondering how many people will go to work sick and expose more people to the Coronavirus.

I don't think you should fear sick people choosing to go to work while they know they're sick. Working while symptomatic is obviously bad, but if you really want to be concerned, consider that It takes two weeks for symptoms to surface. That perfectly healthy looking person you just interacted with could have the virus and get you sick without either of you having a clue about it until symptoms surfaced later on. If they're showing symptoms, it's just easier for you to avoid them.

Duke said:

93EXCivic said:

Here is my big worry with the Coronavirus and the US. 45% of people don't have paid days off.

I'm not sure of those statistics.

I'm also seeing about 34M workers without paid sick leave out of a workforce of 157M, or a rate of about 22%, not 45%.

This also is a total number of workers without paid medical leave, which includes part-time workers who have a reasonable chance of coordinating time off for doctor visits with their work schedule.  Not 100% will have 100% flexibility, I get that, but there are openings on both sides of the equation.

Knurled. said:

In reply to 93EXCivic :

The trick is, aren't the majority of workers in the US making under $50k?  I thought something like half made under $30k.

But that's household median income, which can include more than one worker.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics says that the median income for an individual worker was $933/wk or $48,5XX annually as of Q4 2019

In reply to STM317 :

 The number I see bandied around is 40% of workers lack benefits, flexible schedules, or sufficient job security  to deal with illness.  I know my fellow school bus drivers none of them have benefits. Flexible schedules, or sufficient job security to deal with illness.  
We are 12 drivers down if every employee ( out of 229) showed up.  Forcing mechanics, office staff, even the boss and his wife have to drive.  
We are slightly better than most bus companies  because our pay is at the top of the scale and we drive new or near new buses. 
Three years ago I drove everyday even though I was diagnosed 6 times with pneumonia ( twice double pneumonia) I'm now working on 72. well past the age where I can just bounce back. And a fair amount of the drivers are near similar  age.  

Every day I have 529 potential walking Petri dishes climb on my bus. Some sent to school by parents who have no choice. For 8 hours or so those Petri dishes mix it up with each other. Lunch,  Gym,  in the hallway between classes, etc.  

now multiply that times all the school districts in the country  

Paycheque to paycheque has a couple of possible definitions, too.  I know families with two unionized working parents, and they take home six figures between the two, but have trouble paying me to fix their car.  I have survived the last few years on less than a third of that...but I'm self employed, so paycheques are a different thing for me.  I've also had years in six figures, and I haven't spent all that money yet, so... 

Minor win: My wife and I are absolutely crushing those median numbers!  *\0/*

Possible suck: I just booked the whole family for flights through ATL the weekend of 3/28.