What you need to know right now about the coronavirus—where it’s at and how to avoid it

What you need to know right now about the coronavirus—where it’s at and how to avoid it

 © Photo: Getty Images/ PredragImages coronavirus precautions

There are currently five confirmed cases of the novel coronavirus in the U.S. All five people recently traveled to Wuhan, the city in central China, which is the epicenter of the outbreak. And while the outbreak is rapidly spreading within China and to other countries, the CDC says the risk to Americans is very low.

"We are fortunate in that the virus did not originate here, or get imported here, before it was determined how it was occurring," says Arnold S. Monto, MD, professor of epidemiology and global health at the University of Michigan. "We can institute control measures which the people in China, where it originated, were unable to put into effect early enough to prevent spread."

At least 100 people in 26 states who may have the virus are being monitored by the CDC. So far, CNN reports that roughly 25 of them were found not to have it. Over 4,500 people around the world have contracted the virus, and just under half of the total cases are in the Hubei province of China, where Wuhan is located. All coronavirus-related deaths (106, so far) happened in China. Symptoms can include fever, coughing, and shortness of breath.

Dr. Monto has served as an adviser for WHO, consulted with the U.S. Department of Defense on communicable diseases, and visited Beijing during the SARS outbreak in 2003. He adds that SARS, which is also a coronavirus, was controlled not with a vaccine, not with an antiviral, but with public health measures. And it was totally eliminated.

He adds that SARS, which is also a coronavirus, was controlled not with a vaccine, not with an antiviral, but with public health measures. And it was totally eliminated.

"That was something we did not really predict, and suggests that the virus was not well-adapted to humans, coming from animals," he says. "And we would hope that the same situation applies here."

Leana Wen, MD, a visiting professor of health policy and management George Washington University, says the most important things Americans can to do protect themselves is heed travel warnings, and avoid non-essential travel to China. Dr. Wen, who is also the former president of Planned Parenthood, says that while global concern around coronavirus is necessary, Americans should focus their attentions closer to home.

"Americans need to keep in mind that there is a virus right here in our country, that will sicken and kill," she says. That virus is influenza, which causes the flu.

The CDC estimates that this flu season, more than 15 million people have gotten the flu. It has lead to over 140,000 hospitalizations and between 8,200 and 20,000 deaths. Dr. Wen says it's not too late to  get the flu vaccine, and urges people to so.

To prevent the spread of any virus that is spread person-to-person, Dr. Wen recommends washing your hands frequently with soap and warm water, cleaning communal surfaces, avoiding touching your nose, mouth and eyes, staying  home when you're sick, and avoiding those who are sick.

Sorry to break it to you, but sweating out a cold isn't a thing. But if you still want to workout, here's how to tell if you're too sick.

Here's Why Sonos Customers Were Angry About Plans to End Product Updates

Sonos (NASDAQ:SONO) sure has a funny way of showing customer appreciation, as it manages to anger them at every turn. 

After riling everyone up over its trade-in program for first-generation wireless speaker equipment that required customers to "brick" the old stuff by launching a self-destruct mechanism that renders the devices inoperable forever, Sonos caused the mob to grab their torches and pitchforks again by announcing support for legacy components was coming to an end.

Although the trade-in program hubbub seemed much ado about nothing, the latest kerfuffle was a master class in how to alienate your customer base. The tech support plans Sonos unveiled contained something to upset old and new customers alike. 

Image source: Getty Images.

A built-in sunset clause

Virtually every tech company has some planned obsolescence built into their products. Microsoft, for example, just ended support for its 10-years-old Windows 7 operating system, while Apple regularly introduces its latest version of products and quietly stops supporting the oldest versions. Maintaining support for equipment that's a decade old can become impossible as technology advances. 

In Sonos' case, the legacy products such as the original ZonePlayers, Connect, Connect:Amp, and the first-gen Play:5 had "been stretched to the limits of their memory and processing power." The company is proud its equipment lasts so long -- with 92% of the products it's ever shipped still in use -- the products are just too outdated to be functional with the newest components. 

It wasn't so much ending support that customers found outrageous, it was the details of how Sonos planned to achieve it.

Pay me now or pay me later

Sonos made it sound as if every legacy product would eventually stop working. It said customers could still use their old equipment if they wanted, but the "overall functionality of your sound system will eventually be disrupted."

Instead, Sonos helpfully told them they could use the trade-in program to receive a 30% discount on new equipment.

To make matters worse, Sonos said if customers had a mix of both older and new products in their home, the two systems would no longer be compatible and customers would have to choose which one they preferred. If they opted to maintain the older components, then Sonos would stop supporting the new products, too.

Customers were essentially being forced to upgrade their systems one way or the other, and they were not happy. CEO Patrick Spence was forced to issue a mea culpa. "We heard you," he wrote on the company blog. "We did not get this right from the start."

Taking one step back

While Sonos is still going forward with its plans to end support for old products, Spence made clear the legacy products "will continue to work as they do today. We are not bricking them, we are not forcing them into obsolescence, and we are not taking anything away." Basically, if customers like their old equipment, they can keep their old equipment.

And for those customers with both old and new components, Sonos says it is working on a plan to split its network so new components can continue receiving updates while the legacy equipment will remain in its current state. More details will follow in the weeks ahead.

For a company that had made a series of smart moves over the past year to become more competitive with low-cost systems on the market while retaining its high-end audiophile appeal, this was a very tone-deaf exercise. 

Obviously Sonos wants its customers to upgrade to its newest equipment, both for the improved experience they'll receive from the latest hardware and to boost sales.

Revenue grew 11% last year to $1.26 billion generating a 28% increase in adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization of $89 million. Both are comfortably ahead of its stated objective of seeing 10% revenue growth and 20% adjusted EBITDA growth.

But now it has created a fissure with its customers that could cause a backlash against Sonos over the long run.

Fool me twice

Consumers don't really expect to receive support forever, but neither do they anticipate the equipment they buy will be turned into expensive paperweights if they don't participate in a company's revenue-generating schemes. 

That it appeared Sonos was actually forcing them in that direction may very well make consumers leery of buying its equipment in the future. It also undoes a lot of the investor goodwill it had generated by making sound decisions to grow.

What to Do When a Friend Owes You Money and Hasn't Paid Up

Conventional wisdom says that you shouldn’t loan money to friends… but anyone who tells you that has clearly never tried to book an AirBnb for eight people who live in different states, or asked a waiter to split a bill five ways. At some point or another, you or your friends will owe each other money. Ideally, this will be resolved quickly: you will send a Venmo request, they will accept, life will go on. But of course, that won’t always be the case. In instances where things are more complicated, here’s how to handle it.

Follow up about the money they owe first, assuming good intentions.

If someone has owed you money for two months, it’s easy to get very worked up about what a bad friend they are. But so often, the person has just forgotten about the situation entirely, and would be mortified to know you were stressed about bringing it up to them.

So give them the benefit of the doubt and approach them with an open, neutral tone. If the socially acceptable padding of a few days has gone by when you make this ask, giving them a firm deadline a few days out is a nice thing to do. So you could say, “Hey, I’m not sure if you saw my Venmo request from Monday for the Airbnb, but would you mind accepting that?”

Call out the fact that it’s becoming A Thing.

If you’ve already asked a few times and they’ve definitely not forgotten about it, you don’t need to take them at their word when they swear that they’ll pay you back tomorrow. It’s totally reasonable to ask them what their deal is.

What to say:

“I hate to keep bugging you about this, but I really need to be paid back for the drinks from last month. I’m not sure what’s going on, but can you just Venmo me right now?” (A good option if the conversation is happening in person.)

“Hey, when we talked the other day, you said you’d pay me back on Friday. We’ve been going back and forth about this for weeks now… what’s going on?”

Ideally, the person will be honest with you about what is going on—maybe they got hit with some unexpected expenses, or a check they were waiting for didn’t arrive—and you can figure out a plan for them to pay you back.

If they continue to be cagey about it or blow you off, you’re absolutely justified in continuing to bug them about it. It’s extremely OK to want your money back! If someone tries to dodge your request with a shamey, “It’s just $20, chill,” you can say something like, “If it’s just $20, then why won’t you give it back?” You don’t have to drop the subject to keep the peace (or ever loan them money ever again).

If you don’t agree on who owes what, be direct, but keep an open mind.

There are a surprising amount of gray areas when it comes to money owed within friendships. (Look at r/AmItheAsshole, where a lot of questions deal with money *maybe* owed.) Maybe a friend spilled wine all over your couch and you want them to pay to have it cleaned, or they decided to go over the agreed-upon budget when booking something and you don’t want to pay them.

Cases like these can be tricky, but if you approach them in good faith—firm, but still open and cautious—you’re more likely to get what you want (or at least get closer to what you want). Here’s what to say in some of those moments.

If your friend ruined something of yours:

“I know you didn’t mean to drop pasta all over my top when you borrowed it, but it’s currently unwearable and I was hoping you could [pay for the dry cleaning/pay to replace it/pay half of the cost of replacing it]. Thoughts?”

If your friend went way over your agreed-upon budget when booking something:

“Hey, we agreed on $75 max for these tickets, not $125. I really wish you’d asked me before you’d bought the more expensive ones, because I would have said I wasn’t OK with that. I’m going to Venmo you for the $75 we agreed on, but I’m really not cool with paying the extra. Does that make sense?”

If your friend borrowed something of yours ages ago and still hasn’t returned it:

“Hey, I know I’ve been asking about getting my leather jacket back from you for a while now, and at this point, I’m sort of assuming something happened to it and you didn’t want to tell me. If that’s the case, I’d really like to replace it sooner rather than later; is it cool if I Venmo request you for the $150?”

If you told a friend “Oh, you don’t have to pay me!” when you agreed to do them a favor and you now… regret that decision:

“Is it too late to take you up on your offer to pay me for [dog-sitting/photography job/helping you move]? I know I said it was no big deal when we first talked about it, but I’m realizing now that it’ll be more [time/energy/complicated/expensive] than I had initially thought, and it actually would be really helpful if you were willing to offset those costs.”

If they simply disagree, you’ll have to decide whether it’s worth pushing the issue, if there’s a way to compromise, or if you’re OK with just taking the L. You might decide that $25 or $50 isn’t worth a big to-do with a close friend… but if it’s an acquaintance who stiffed you, or $1,000 is at stake, that might be an entirely different story. If it’s part of a bigger pattern of inconsiderate behavior, or they are being particularly thoughtless, it’s absolutely OK to be upset or frustrated, and to not let it go immediately.

If things go badly, use the experience as data for the next time.

Never saying anything is the stuff long-simmering resentments are made of. Having meaningful friendships and living in a society means occasionally pushing through your feelings of, Ugh, I don’t WANNA, and doing things that really suck in the moment.

If they react badly or you discover you’re on wildly different pages when it comes to money stuff, that’s still very good information to have! It’s good to recognize that this friend who you adore in a lot of ways is not a person who you want to book an Airbnb with or lend your clothes to ever again.

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