
Coronavirus: Unexplained West Coast cases raise fears in US - pmoriarty
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-51685908
======
shadowgovt
This isn't surprising. American cities have a significant number of
undocumented people residing in them and the US government has done a great
deal to discourage those people from cooperating with government authority.
And since the disease doesn't have any obvious indicators to distinguish it
from a flu in the early stages, people will not risk deportation or separation
of their family over the possibility that they're bad cough might be COV. Any
attempts to track things like disease pathology through people who don't trust
the government is going to be difficult.

~~~
pmoriarty
Why should this have anything to do with people without documentation?

People in general just don't seem to be taking this very seriously, and I've
seen plenty of people who cough up a storm on the subway, in libraries, and
other places where people gather. People in general just aren't very
considerate and tend not to self-isolate.

One doesn't have to lack documentation or fear going to the doctor to act that
way.

Also, there just hasn't been a lot of testing for COVID-19 done in the US. So
even if you did go to the doctor odds are that you wouldn't get tested for
this disease.

~~~
shadowgovt
Undocumented people aren't the only ones who won't work with the government,
that is true.

They are a demographic heavily inventivized not to in a way other groups
aren't.

------
nabla9
Number of cases reported is partly function of tests performed.

US has tested something like 500 people and CDC can test only 400-500 samples
per day, UK has tested over 7000 people already, Italy almost 10k, South Korea
tests 10k per day and plans to increase it to 20k per day.

Nonsymptomatic people or people just mild flu symptoms will go on in the US
infecting others.

~~~
ksaj
"Nonsymptomatic people or people just mild flu symptoms will go on in the US
infecting others."

I believe this is part of why it spreads so swiftly. Even when people get the
symptoms under control, some of them seem to continue on as symptom-free
carriers for a while afterward. Being symptom-free doesn't equal being bug
free. I imagine it gives people a false sense of health, with an immediate
impact on those around them.

