[nck4222]

Interesting, as this means that China would be quarantining more people than "necessary", which would help slow the pandemic anyway. I can't imagine an asymptomatic person would put stress on the hospital system? But maybe I'm wrong there.

I am curious if this also could indicate a false-positive problem with non asymptomatic people as well.

False-positives are also why the CDC tests had to be shipped back, although that was because it was showing false positives in other diseases it was testing for, not COVID-19.

[gus_massa]

> I can't imagine an asymptomatic person would put stress on the hospital system?

If s/he is in the hospital in quarantine you must give blankets and food, probably a nurse to check the temperature and symptoms two or three times per day, a medical doctor one a day just to be sure. Perhaps a blood analysis from time to time?

Luckily you don't have to handle visitors because they are in quarantine. (Or there are some visits? What if one patient tries to escape?) You must give an official reports for the family. Now you can assume the patient can send a WhatsApp message to the family saying s/he is fine, but you need probably still an official report. Paperwork, there is also paperwork.

How isolated are them from each other. If they are all together, you can transform the overcrowded false positives in real patients.

[gpderetta]

why would an asymptomatic person be in an hospital? Even people with minor symptoms are asked to self quarantine at home pretty much everywhere.

[ineedasername]

In China, asymptomatic with a positive test result still put you in their make-shift hospital facilities.

[bluGill]

I'm starting to hear stories that the Chinese people demanded more quarantine than was needed. The problem got bad enough that the government decided to comply as it wouldn't hurt much more than the amount of quarantine was needed and might even help.

[Scarblac]

I really wonder how we're going to look back at this in a few years.

On the one hand, no matter what measures politics takes here (the Netherlands), every political party is clamouring for more. That suggests to me that we'll probably end up doing too much.

On the other hand, the scenes from Hubei and Italy are horrific, we're going to get them here as well, it could be far worse, we absolutely must act now.

On the third and fourth hands, the total number of deaths so far wouldn't even make a serious flu season in a single country, and fatality rates are all over the place depending on the country.

Very confusing. Still, better too much than too little.

[eveningcoffee]

Can you look up demographic of the infected people in Netherlands?

It can be that you have somehow managed to avoid infecting older generation. I have longer discussion about this here http://www.savespain.eu/italy-vs-germany

[ineedasername]

The thing is, if all these measures stop the spread, even if they were all justified, the outcomes are pretty much indistinguishable from an over reaction: both accurate response and over reaction have similar outcomes.