Hint: Go back and ask people who have been tested or hospitalized.
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Finally, Gov. Cuomo has directed hospitals to ask new coronavirus patients for some demographic and behavioral information such as their occupation, usual transportation mode and neighborhood.
Cuomo says the early results from this info-seeking initiative and the state’s antibody testing have provided some confirming data and some “shocking” revelations, including:
- 96% had an underlying health condition (a.k.a. comorbidity factors); new admissions were predominantly minority, predominantly older; 22% came from nursing homes.
- 66% of NY’s new coronavirus hospitalizations are people who are either retired or unemployed and not commuting to work on a regular basis … only 17% were employed.
- The majority of recently hospitalized coronavirus patients are people who say that they have followed the precaution of staying home.
- Only 4% in New York City said they had been taking public transportation.
- A low percentage of new hospitalizations were essential employees — nurses, doctors, transit workers, grocery store employees — who were getting sick at work.
- Sources: WSJ NY Daily News
Of course, these sample sizes are small and the results may or may not be projectably true.
The point is that “they” should have been recording this sort of information from the get-go.
The plan is to start asking a battery of questions when people are tested for the coronavirus (both diagnostic and antibody testing, I assume) and when they’re admitted to the hospital.
That’s fine, but I’ve got a better idea…
The Homa Files 