
Fremont Tesla workers tested positive for coronavirus days after plant reopened - ping_pong
https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2020/06/09/tesla-factory-coronavirus/
======
stellar678
It would be great if people writing articles like this (I hesitate to call
them journalists these days) could take the time to provide more context.

According to the county dashboard, Alameda County had 2,564 cases on May 20, 2
days after Tesla reopened: [https://ac-
hcsa.maps.arcgis.com/apps/opsdashboard/index.html...](https://ac-
hcsa.maps.arcgis.com/apps/opsdashboard/index.html#/1e0ac4385cbe4cc1bffe2cf7f8e7f0d9)

With a population of 1,671,000, that means about 0.15% of Alameda County
residents had been diagnosed with covid-19 at that point.

So we could reasonably expect 15 cases out of the 10,000 employees at Tesla's
factory.

Why the breathless article about 2 cases?

~~~
WetBurd
The original article is by a writer of the Washington Post. If this doesn't
count as journalism, I struggle to find examples that do.

The journalist spoke with two workers within the production facility. "One of
the workers said a supervisor confirmed two positive cases to a group at the
Fremont-based seat assembly facility" This is an example of just one
supervisor confirming two positive cases. It is likely that there are many
more.

Furthermore, "But because Tesla restarted production a week earlier, there
could have been cases that were never reported to the county because Tesla was
“not required to directly report known cases” before the agreement, county
officials said."

~~~
nwienert
We’re they confirmed _not_ positive before it reopened?

Otherwise, this literally means nothing.

~~~
rad_gruchalski
It means there is coronavirus at the Tesla plant. To give an example which way
it goes: in Poland, the virus appeared a few weeks ago between coal mines
workers. Yesterday there was a decision to temporarily shut 12 coal mines
down.

~~~
Anon4Now
> It means there is coronavirus at the Tesla plant

Possibly. The employees could have contracted the virus outside work.

~~~
rad_gruchalski
Yup. But they brought it into the factory. No? Or am I missing something?

~~~
Anon4Now
From the article:

> the company had reported several cases of the coronavirus, and the employees
> affected were told to stay home.

I'm self-employed and my little software company took a sharp hit with the
pandemic. Not being one to wait until all the money runs out, I took an
"essential job" stocking groceries at the nearby Walmart. Every day, before
employees can enter the store, they are screened. In the time I have been
there, several employees failed the screening and were sent home. Two of those
turned out to have the virus.

Tesla and other employers have similar screenings, so unless the employees
lied about being symptomatic, they should not have been among the workforce.
Add to that, the CDC just announced findings that non-symptomatic spread of
the virus was very rare.

------
andys627
> Musk went as far as to dare authorities to arrest him.

Is this referring to this tweet
([https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1259945593805221891](https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1259945593805221891))
that said "Tesla is restarting production today against Alameda County rules.
I will be on the line with everyone else. If anyone is arrested, I ask that it
only be me." ?

~~~
Google234
I’m curious if you think Tesla should still be closed now?

~~~
Shivetya
to the point that any business should be. as in, if they take reasonable
precautions I am all for any business being opened. it is far easier to
contain the issue in a factory floor than the supermarket many will be in on
their way home.

that is the lunacy of the closings, they lack logic, as in rules being used
and implied risk against other types of businesses opening have been glossed
over for those already deemed essential.

~~~
jlebar
> if they take reasonable precautions

Who decides what's reasonable? To me, "reasonable" might mean, "precautions
that minimize unnecessary risk to human morbidity and mortality". Even if we
were to agree on this, what do "minimize" and "unnecessary" mean? And how do
we take into account second-order effects, like, maybe my workplace is
primarily young people and there's relatively low risk of long-term harm, but
my employees might spread the virus in the community...

> it is far easier to contain the issue in a factory floor than the
> supermarket

Although this claim has some logic to it, I'm not sure it is actually true.
See the outbreaks at meatpacking plants,
[https://www.sltrib.com/news/2020/06/08/cache-valley-
providin...](https://www.sltrib.com/news/2020/06/08/cache-valley-providing/),
[https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/06/08/us/meat-
proce...](https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/06/08/us/meat-processing-
plants-coronavirus.html)

That's the thing about this novel virus. There is a lot of uncertainty.

These are all hard questions. I'm not pretending that health officials have
uniformly made the right call, or even good calls. I am saying that if you
think it's as simple as stating the policy "let anyone taking reasonable
precautions open for business", I have a bridge to sell you.

~~~
twblalock
> I'm not pretending that health officials have uniformly made the right call,
> or even good calls.

Good, then don't pretend that it's wrong to push back when health officials
inconsistently apply their rules and cannot justify them when challenged.

------
yegle
Washington Post actually have more details as to where this seat assembly
facility is:

The Washington Post: Tesla defied county orders so it could restart
production. Days later, workers tested positive for the coronavirus..
[https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2020/06/09/tesla-f...](https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2020/06/09/tesla-
factory-coronavirus/)

~~~
dang
We've changed the URL from [https://www.kron4.com/news/bay-area/fremont-tesla-
workers-te...](https://www.kron4.com/news/bay-area/fremont-tesla-workers-
tested-positive-for-coronavirus-days-after-plant-reopened-report/), which
points to this. Thanks!

------
WetBurd
It should probably be pointed out that the original article came from the
Washington Post:
[https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2020/06/09/tesla-f...](https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2020/06/09/tesla-
factory-coronavirus/)

Furthermore it is a extremely strong coincidence that this article comes out
five days after Musk seemingly randomly attacks Amazon:
[https://nationalpost.com/technology/elon-musk-amazon-feud-
je...](https://nationalpost.com/technology/elon-musk-amazon-feud-jeff-
bezos/wcm/18d36783-0b9d-485a-b077-f02450e9b269)

It certainly matches Musk's regular habit of lashing out at his critiques...

~~~
camjohnson26
It was completely predictable, one of the biggest TSLAQ voices on twitter
called this a few days ago in a high profile way. Whenever a news outlet
reaches out to Musk for comment on a negative story he goes on the attack.

------
twblalock
You could pick any large company that reopened and find instances of employees
who have the virus. Singling out Tesla is good for clickbait, but why should
the Tesla factory stay closed when bars and restaurants in California are
allowed to open?

This is the new normal. We can't stay in lockdown forever. Jobs deemed "non-
essential" by white collar professionals comfortably working from home are
pretty essential to the workers who have been stuck at home without an income.

Until a vaccine is developed, people will get sick even if they are social
distancing and wearing masks and their workplaces are doing the right things.
We shouldn't be shocked or outraged or self-righteous when that happens.
Society needs to accept that or we will never recover from the lockdowns.

~~~
xkjkls
Restaurants and bars in specific areas with specific precautions are allowed
to re-open. Musk re-opened his factory against the advice of local officials.

~~~
twblalock
And yet the local officials decided not to forcibly close the factory. They
could have looked good on TV taking Musk away in handcuffs, and it certainly
would have made a lot of people happy, but they didn't. There is a reason for
that.

Ultimately, local authorities couldn't make a compelling case that opening the
Tesla factory was risky enough to justify intervening. They had already
allowed a number of other businesses to open that were more dangerous in terms
of covid transmission than the Tesla factory and could also be called "non-
essential". Tesla was taking the same precautions that local authorities
recommended for other businesses they allowed to open.

------
aaron695
We complain about the media then upvote this junk.

Maybe we are the problem.

~~~
thephyber
Was there ever a time where you doubted that the demand for junk news was the
problem? I don't complain about "the media" because they are just following
the incentives their viewers leave for them. "The media" was never exclusive
to high brow, balanced journalism. It has _always_ included the tabloid rags,
celebrity gossip, useless trivia about sports, outrage inducing politics, etc.

Fact: National Enquirer has been A/B testing since the grandparents of the
founders of Facebook were in diapers.

------
nostromo
“If they'd cover it on TV news, it's probably off-topic.”

This is literally a local TV evening news story.

~~~
danso
The top story a few days ago – the humming Golden Gate Bridge (by a margin of
500 upvotes) – was heavily covered in the TV news:

[https://news.ycombinator.com/front?day=2020-06-06](https://news.ycombinator.com/front?day=2020-06-06)

[https://sanfrancisco.cbslocal.com/2020/06/06/wind-baffles-
on...](https://sanfrancisco.cbslocal.com/2020/06/06/wind-baffles-on-golden-
gate-bridge-creates-loud-humming-music-sound-heard-for-miles/)

I remember the local Bay Area station having the best coverage of the Mountain
View fatal autopilot crash, e.g. they talked to the family and found the
victim had reported several problems in the area before:

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16719736](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16719736)

~~~
luckylion
Probably. It's probably off-topic. Submitting whatever the evening news
releases is usually off-topic. There are exceptions, of course. Sometimes the
news does accidentally cover things that are interesting.

------
KKKKkkkk1
Here's an example of how workers were pressured to come into work:

 _The state approved Tesla to work. It 's the county that is concerned. But if
you decline to come to work, just know you will not receive benefits and you
will be unable to apply for unemployment since we have work available. We
can't force you to come in if you don't feel comfortable._

[https://twitter.com/PlainSite/status/1270110558071566337](https://twitter.com/PlainSite/status/1270110558071566337)

~~~
the_duke
> PlainSite affiliates may hold long/short investments in companies discussed.
> Not investment advice.

Interesting account there ...

~~~
KKKKkkkk1
The screenshot comes from a FOIA request from Alameda County.

------
trhway
something wrong with our civilization when some people have to go in for the
increased risk to their health for $15+ (and i guess it is even less than that
outside of CA) just to feed their families while we comfortably and safely sit
at home getting paid multiples of that and ride that great stock market.
Anyway, you should have seen packed restaurants' sidewalks this weekend. The
life is ready to come roaring back. It is pretty clear by now that nor the
inept governments, nor aliens are going to stop the virus.

Statistically the 2 cases at Tesla is an order of magnitude less than what
you'd expect giving the factory size (10000) and the population size of the
Alameda county (1.6M) and the infection rate there (4000).

~~~
gameswithgo
perhaps you can invent a society where the work needed to live can get done
without any humans doing work.

~~~
arcticbull
We're quickly approaching that. A few generations from now it'll just be the
robots - and us watching.

~~~
heavyset_go
Unless our descendants own those robots or there is a massive shift in who
controls productive property, our lineages will die off once they're made
permanently redundant and shut out from what those machines produce.

~~~
arcticbull
Almost certainly. Thing is, as countries develop, the birth rate drops off a
cliff. Canada's already at 1.5 births per woman. The US is only slightly
higher. As we make more robots, we'll make less humans. Society will be forced
to become dramatically different.

~~~
heavyset_go
We already have an abundance of resources, like food and land, yet we don't
efficiently allocate them such that they don't go to waste, leave people
hungry or leave people homeless. The only reason people without significant
assets can access food or land is because they're able to trade their time for
money. People who can't trade their time for money currently go hungry and
become homeless.

This is why I say that unless there is a significant change in control of
productive property, when that productive property deprecates human labor,
those who rely on trading their time for money will be in dire situations.

~~~
trhway
i don't want to scare you man yet you've just basically invented the Das
Kapital :)

