Over here in Norway, people who suspect Covid-19 are urged to call the doctor instead of visiting the emergency room. If there are any local phone numbers for information, I'd call those first. They'll give you a check-list of stuff to verify if you're even a candidate. And if you are, then most likely a health crew will come and visit you with tests. Note: How they go about this may be different depending on your local area's response plan for the disease, though, so listen to local media, or official announcements, or find official information online if you know where. Anyway, if you haven't visited areas known for having outbreaks, then you're most likely just suffering a regular flu. Media coverage of this thing really spreads more anxiety than it's worth. Even in China there's only cases in the tens of thousands, and China has a total population of 1.4 billion people, so the chance of you actually having it is still pretty small. ^^
> most likely a health crew will come and visit you with tests
Pahahahahahahahaha
I'm sorry, but that's not how things work here. A man in Miami had to pay $3000 for being administered a Coronavirus test. At a hospital he'd driven himself to.
Sounds like he is in a communist medical system. Pandemic prevention is something each person should price in, paying to test themselves individually, in a free market. Externalities are really just regulatory capture from being communist in one way or another, and don’t exist once truly free as in Ayn Rand. /s
Dude! I live in Norway! Bernie speaks highly of my country all the time! xD
On the other hand, even in the USA, it is in the interest of the state, and not least your many companies, to defend against this epidemic. Without workers, or much less customers, then I'm afraid a lot of companies are going to go bankrupt. Moreover, supply chains may break down, and you might see shortages. The implications are pretty serious, and so testing shouldn't be a matter of who can afford it. With such a disease, it's everyone's business.
You make the assumption that China's numbers are accurate. Given the obfuscatory nature of mandatory cremations and a ban on funerals, it's hard to imagine that China has been forthright about the statistics on its domestic outbreak.
You're probably right, though even if one million Chinese are infected (the official number is stell less than 100k), this still means that only about 0.7 per mille of the entire Chinese population are infected. The chance of contracting it even if you're in an outbreak area is still pretty small.
