None of the people I mentioned admit to any symptoms at all. Perhaps they had good reasons to be tested. They certainly had preferential access to tests if they were able to do so in the absence of symptoms. It is not necessarily a bad thing to have “role models” discussing self-isolation.
I mentioned elsewhere that The Economist (Economist.com) has a good review on medical progress from previous coronavirus scares.
There is a very good chance, that much like existing cold and flu viruses, warmer, wetter weather(ie Spring) may start to reduce it’s transmission rate in the Northern Hemisphere, where the majority of the cases are.
Perhaps geography is a factor. Most of the people you listed appear to have been tested outside of the United States in countries like Australia, Brazil, and Canada.
I just read that museums are reopening in China and Japan. Mentioned it to my medical wife, who said “Well, of course. People are getting better there as the virus runs its course.”
I had no idea. I was afraid that’d be months away! So even if it’s months away for Europe and the USofA, there IS light at the end of the tunnel.
So it’s not quite the Black Plague!
It could be. But in Canada testing has been fairly slow and restricted to symptomatic people. Our town just opened a “testing site” and I still think you need a history of exposure, fever or relevant symptoms. But it is naive to expect prominent people could not be tested if they wanted the test, and I do not know their reasons or the geographic details.
It takes time to get and distribute tests, and it is not wrong to prioritize more urgent cases and discourage well people from going to hospitals just to get a test. Because plenty of people would. That said, I think the data from wider testing would offer some reassurance.
These really are helping. Thanks so much to all of you!
My brother works in the grocery business (warehouse) and business is booming for them. My boyfriend works at Penske truck leasing and they’re busy too (turning around trucks that are driving more miles than usual).
I might take on a third job and do stocking at my local grocery store if my brother can get me in.
A study out of Italy found 50-75% of cases are asymptomatic. They tested everyone in a town to identify who had it and found most had no symptoms.
I hope that is true, because that means even if 100 million people in the US get it, 50-75 million will have no symptoms. Which will spread the disease, but those 2-3% death rates are probably based on people with more serious symptoms. Hopefully the total death rate is a small fraction of 1%.
I’m assuming the death rates being quoted are from people on the sicker end of the spectrum.
Hopefully we may get out of this with only a few hundred thousand deaths in the US, instead of a few million.
I’m not sure what global numbers are, in guessing around 30-50% of the world will be infected as I think that’s what is predicted for the US.
You’re in Washington? As in, the Dist. of Colum.?
Your own home-town rag, WaPo, has this article today (March 16):
Neighborhood groups across the Washington area are forming militias of caring and help, Petula Dvorak, Washington Post, March 16, 2020.
Our local school district is using the school buses to deliver food to students who rely on school meals. The plan is to deliver two meals to each such student.
And for those without internet the buses will deliver written assignments as well as a cellular-based internet modem.
If nothing else this epidemic is making the community more aware of how important the schools are in providing more than just an education.
Only day one of our semi-quarantine in Los Angeles. (SO BORED ALREADY!) But, at least gas stations are open! Ralphs! Drive-thrus!
And today after my work shift from home ended, what did I do for fun? I went for a drive! 
Sounds so funny to me. No one ever goes for a drive for no reason nowadays. It was poring rain. I didn’t care.
When we start going back to work in offices and going to bars again, we’ll have tons of actual green-colored foliage with all this rain!
I think I’m going to buy a soymilk machine and start making soymilk again.
~VOW
Tomorrow, I shall make yogurt.
Just for clarification-apparently Tom Hanks had symptoms, with low-grade fever and muscle aches. I don’t know if he had known exposure, which might be enough to qualify for testing in the US. Idris Elba had no symptoms so did not qualify for testing in the US despite having a known exposure.
No, I’m in Washington state. Right now I wish I were in DC. I think they have fewer cases, and those “militias of caring” sound great!
The experts are saying 60% of the global population will get the virus. I’m guessing people who live in very remote areas and on some islands will be spared. But it’s good to know so many people will be asymptomatic.
Wow, it wasn’t until the third reply that this turned to Trump-bashing. You people are slipping!
Well, it’s just that so many of us didn’t want to be the first to say the obvious quiet part out loud.
Yeah, emissions of GHG and other air pollutants are way down in countries that have lockdowns. Unfortunately, this is likely to be shortlived. And the recession is going to hurt the continued adaption of green technologies.
Except that apparently they can pass it on even though they don’t have symptoms. 