The first case only just made its way to our city a couple of days ago. We have been rather distracted of course by getting signatures and cheques. For context, our schools and daycares are still open, as are city rec centers, gyms, and public transit. Only yesterday did the province recommend no gatherings over 250 people. Perhaps we should have been quicker, but here we are.

Only 150 cases in AU at the time Tom Hanks and Rita Wilson got it. Only a thousand in the US when two NBA players got it. Only 150 in Canada when the Prime Minister's wife got it. Only 150 cases in Brazil when the press secretary got it.

These people certainly have more exposure to other humans than most people do. But not so much that they should be making up whole percentages of the infected population. I believe they are just well connected and wealthy and it's easier for them to get tested.

You can't have confirmed cases without testing. I've come to believe these confirmed case numbers may be having a negative effect on our understanding of the situation.

There are two sides of that coin.

One side: it's much more widespread than we realize.

Other side: it's much more mild and less fatal than we first thought.

A third side is a majority of the infections are still early stage, as was the case in Italy a couple weeks ago.

At the Friday press conference, they said that the LabCorp / LabQuest tests were testing about 2% positive. I don't have much of an insight to this, but isn't that weirdly low if it's truly everywhere? Especially if you factor in the limited testing and that testing will only be given to the more urgent high risk cases. 98% are just something else like the cold or the flu, or a false negative.

You’re assuming all deaths caused by Coronavirus are correctly identified as such. Sadly that’s almost guaranteed to not be the case.

The fatality number is irrelevant. We know it overwhelms health systems, and there's no ICU capacity to handle it.

That's all you need tk knoe.

> The first case only just made its way to our city a couple of days ago.

The first tested case. Given the delay between onset and diagnosis, + amounts of tests being actually done, + the couple days you mention, you may as well have over a thousand infected people in your city now, and you won't know until a) more tests start being made, or b) some of these people will start getting hospitalized in the next couple of days.

I am just super curious. Do your startup employees need physical infrastructure or deal with super confidential data that require them to be on site?

Do you not trust them the employees to work their part on their own?

They can work from home. But I'm learning from this thread, that being in a rather northern location where no one in the entire city has started working from home is not the norm. Again, it was only yesterday that the government gave any official guidance on travel or gatherings of people.

For so many reasons, selfish and not, you should target being ‘ahead of the curve’. Your government is not the oracle here. Later, you’ll be happy you acted earlier than others.

Move your employees to WFH now.

Ensure you all have the infrastructure at home to support being as effective as possible.

We have let everyone know they must start working from home, and we are purchasing proper audio equipment for our employees. This thread acted as a wake-up call. I fully admit we have had our head down. I have been dismissive in the middle of raising a seed round while running a company of 20 employees, with two very active boys at home. I have had no time to stay up to date on the world, and the general lack of action around me made me feel that it was something we had time to get to later. That is no excuse, only an explanation. I do sincerely hope that nothing negative comes out of our actions.

If your government gave no official guidance at all, then you would do nothing.

If other companies did nothing, then you would do nothing.

Interesting. Entrepreneurs are usually way more forward thinking.

Perhaps the difference is cultural. In my country we place a lot of confidence in the government and public health care system. We have been tested more in our province of <4 million than the entire US (x2). Additionally, we do not live in constant state of fear, we are comfortable, perhaps to our detriment in this situation, I fully admit.

I don't feel that snipe was necessary. I've expressed myself honestly, and no one acts perfectly in situations like this.

I'm not sure it was a snipe, because there's so often an emergency of some sort or other, causing us to lose focus on the big picture. The "one more thing" to do that will make everything all right.

Perhaps you should ask those people how they feel too!

Still, if there's a problem, perhaps they can get a ride on your high horse?