This eerily reminds me of Enron.
Other than (potential) fraud, they have very little in common.
Theranos Is Subject of Criminal Probe by U.S
161–170 of 226 posts
Re: Theranos Is Subject of Criminal Probe by U.S
#162Here's a television parody I wrote about Theranos that ends right where this story begins... http://pricks.com
FWIW (a fleeting warm fuzzy at best, sadly) I'd give you an interview for a comedy writing room if I were in charge of that kind of thing. You ever listen to the Sam and Jim go to Hollywood podcast? Awesome stuff, not least because now they're showrunners for a major Steven-King backed television program and when they started they were just former Minnesotan restaurant owners who moved to Hollywood to try to become w…
This is great, I hadn't heard of it before.
Re: Theranos Is Subject of Criminal Probe by U.S
#163I think the reason we (maybe secretly) take so much satisfaction / schadenfreude at this story is that someone who was so hyped and the darling of Silicon Valley got so much funding and attention. While others who toil away on good ideas, without nearly so many connections and silver spoons, struggle to even get 1 minute of air time with the kind of funders and backers that she got. That, plus seeing the cluelessness…
It's satisfying to see enforcement against frauds, especially when they are so close to your own industry. I've seen people do sketchy stuff which seemed obviously wrong and publicly apparent for many, many years. Sometimes it finally catches up with them, but other times it does not, and they cash out, are rewarded, and praised by others who have great respect. That is deeply unnerving.
interesting point. enforcement came via government.
Re: Theranos Is Subject of Criminal Probe by U.S
#164Earlier quoted context omitted.
My post never said it would be cheap. It would ensure 1) everyone was covered and 2) less funds were skimmed out by health insurance companies, leaving more funding to be used for health providers. It would also help if a republican Congress didn't require Medicare to _not_ negotiate on drug pricing with for-profit drug companies. Way to leach off the public teat "small government party".
I prefer to make the distinction between Corporatism vs. Capitalism in these type of discussions. Corparatism, the big companies and governments as a symbiotic unit, not Capitalism is the problem. I have lived in Montreal with its public health care system for a year, and I now live in a rice farming village in East Java, Indonesia with their public healthcare system, and I grew up in Brooklyn, NY, so I speak from my…
This piece reminds me of the UNA-bomber pamphlets. The formatting is the best part of it :)
Re: Theranos Is Subject of Criminal Probe by U.S
#165Re: Theranos Is Subject of Criminal Probe by U.S
#166I think the reason we (maybe secretly) take so much satisfaction / schadenfreude at this story is that someone who was so hyped and the darling of Silicon Valley got so much funding and attention. While others who toil away on good ideas, without nearly so many connections and silver spoons, struggle to even get 1 minute of air time with the kind of funders and backers that she got. That, plus seeing the cluelessness…
It's also because she's blonde.
Re: Theranos Is Subject of Criminal Probe by U.S
#167I think the reason we (maybe secretly) take so much satisfaction / schadenfreude at this story is that someone who was so hyped and the darling of Silicon Valley got so much funding and attention. While others who toil away on good ideas, without nearly so many connections and silver spoons, struggle to even get 1 minute of air time with the kind of funders and backers that she got. That, plus seeing the cluelessness…
I take satisfaction in it because of her incredibly irresponsible conduct. Medicine is a serious field where failure can cost lives.
If your Twitter clone doesn't work, no one notices. If your "revolutionary" blood-testing device reports a false positive or false negative, it can lead to a misdiagnosis.
Re: Theranos Is Subject of Criminal Probe by U.S
#168I think the reason we (maybe secretly) take so much satisfaction / schadenfreude at this story is that someone who was so hyped and the darling of Silicon Valley got so much funding and attention. While others who toil away on good ideas, without nearly so many connections and silver spoons, struggle to even get 1 minute of air time with the kind of funders and backers that she got. That, plus seeing the cluelessness…
I think part of it is that the founder comes from a very well-connected family and her connections to institutional capital (Draper is a family friend; Lucas) and ridiculously high-level advisors in business (Oracle's Ellison) and the government (Frist) are not generally available to others.
That stuff would seem to make it all the more strange.
Was she "playing business" and got in over her head?
Was it just an outright scam?
Some people have said maybe those big name directors were brought in to grease the tracks as part of a deliberate scam. Who knows?
Maybe there will be some answers if this probe turns up anything.
Re: Theranos Is Subject of Criminal Probe by U.S
#169Earlier quoted context omitted.
My post never said it would be cheap. It would ensure 1) everyone was covered and 2) less funds were skimmed out by health insurance companies, leaving more funding to be used for health providers. It would also help if a republican Congress didn't require Medicare to _not_ negotiate on drug pricing with for-profit drug companies. Way to leach off the public teat "small government party".
I prefer to make the distinction between Corporatism vs. Capitalism in these type of discussions. Corparatism, the big companies and governments as a symbiotic unit, not Capitalism is the problem. I have lived in Montreal with its public health care system for a year, and I now live in a rice farming village in East Java, Indonesia with their public healthcare system, and I grew up in Brooklyn, NY, so I speak from my…
[deleted]
Re: Theranos Is Subject of Criminal Probe by U.S
#170Earlier quoted context omitted.
A lot of those molecules are bound up in cells, they are not freely diffusing in blood. Even those diffusing in blood are not uniformly distributed, blood is highly dishomogeneous.
Routine metabolic paneling and serology does test for molecules that are uniformly distributed in blood. I can't say it any plainer than that. Of course many possible testing targets are inside cells, but these tests were not claiming to look at any intracellular targets, at least as far as I know.
They weren't really clear about what tests they could perform with their technology, but they did say they planned on offering the "full range" of blood tests.