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Gates Foundation program will issue home testing kits for Covid 19 in Seattle

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Re: Gates Foundation program will issue home testing kits for Covid 19 in Seattle

#71

Low cost home testing kits can go beyond SARS-COV2 and track other diseases all from the safety of your home. Why go to the hospital where you could possibly be infected by other people with infectious diseases or infect the people around you. Personally, if it is low cost enough that I don't need to use health insurance then I am all for it. Health insurance is good enough until surprise they don't want to cover you…

> Health insurance is good enough until surprise they don't want to cover you or you get surprise bills in the mail from the hospital. Constantly amazed this can be a thing in a first world country. Can this actually happen?

My mom had a very mild form of breast cancer 10 years ago, caught in the earliest stages and hasn’t reappeared since. Last year, her oncologist had to get creative with billing codes, because the insurance company changed mom’s coverage so that yearly screening was no longer “preventative“, and thus not covered. No warning, just a huge bill when she went to pay the copay and leave. The insurance is through her job as a teacher in a large county, and is generally a very comprehensive plan. It would be a gold plan of some sort through an Obamacare exchange. Never underestimate the callousness of the American health system.

Re: Gates Foundation program will issue home testing kits for Covid 19 in Seattle

#72

Korea is doing drive-through testing with results available in three days. [1] That the US is still at the level of doing testing in a private and haphazard fashion is effectively criminal and seems likely to have a serious impact fairly soon. The US had a difficult time even testing all the workers at the nursing home in Washington where 11 people died.[2] [1] https://news.sky.com/story/coronavirus-south-korea-uses-…

I think this epidemic will expose a lot of weaknesses in public health sector globally. Hopefully, we will learn valuable lessons, but I wished we didn't have to learn them at the cost of losing numerous lives.

Re: Gates Foundation program will issue home testing kits for Covid 19 in Seattle

#73
post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ah, a little explanation would help

Feudalism is an pre-industrial, primarily agrarian system of socioeconomic relations in which peasants farm land controlled by nobility in exchange for military protections. In Feudalism, the single incentive for the nobility to protect the peasant is the exchange value of the product of the peasant’s labor. Feudalism is best known for it’s lack of democratic relations.

Don’t understand its connection to your grandparent comment

Re: Gates Foundation program will issue home testing kits for Covid 19 in Seattle

#74
What’s the point of testing? There is no treatment. So knowing you have it or not is pointless. If you have it, and it’s serious, you’ll seek medical attention regardless of whether you know it or not.

When you see the ridiculous on hand sanitizer and toilet paper, even if there was an over the counter version, you wouldn’t be able to find one in the store.

Re: Gates Foundation program will issue home testing kits for Covid 19 in Seattle

#75
I feel torn posting this, but it seems like the US president is truly trying to go against the country's interests at every turn. The only non malicious explanation I can come up with for the covid response is a gamble in the hopes that somehow the economy will tank less if the outbreak is marginalized.

So far: lack of testing, lack of screening at intl airports, lack of quarantine for the latest cruise ship, constantly decrying "it's no big deal". Also influencing the cdc, not letting the actual experts handle the situation, cutting their budget, and telling the head what they can and cannot say in press conferences.

The US is on track to be steamrolled by this disease.

Edit: there are currently only 164 recognized cases, but spread among 19 states, and 110 have unknown cause. Source: cdc, updated March 7.

Re: Gates Foundation program will issue home testing kits for Covid 19 in Seattle

#76
post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Health insurance is good enough until surprise they don't want to cover you or you get surprise bills in the mail from the hospital. Constantly amazed this can be a thing in a first world country. Can this actually happen?

Not only can happen, this is often what happens by default. You go to a doctor, then the doctor and the insurance have several months of ping pong during which you get about half a ream of "This is not a bill" documents that show a different set of things with different dollar amounts every other cycle, and then eventually you get an actual bill for the largest amount. If it's wrong, you can spend another year fighti…

combine that with frequently incompetent medical coding, and your insurence ends up not covering stuff they would otherwise cover 100%. my wife is on 3-way phone calls between the billing dept and insurance every month fighting incorrect bills from 6 months ago that did not arrive until 3 months later. she is now basically a better medical coder than the provider. it's a fucking circus designed to make patients pay through attrition alone - it eats away at your morale and free time.

Re: Gates Foundation program will issue home testing kits for Covid 19 in Seattle

#77

From what I’ve seen, a lot of the false negatives with these tests comes from the fact they require two swabs (nose and throat) that must be performed thoroughly/correctly in order to get a viable sample. I wonder how home testing will impact efficacy.

Source please, couldn't find this information anywhere saying this.

Re: Gates Foundation program will issue home testing kits for Covid 19 in Seattle

#78
post #74

What’s the point of testing? There is no treatment. So knowing you have it or not is pointless. If you have it, and it’s serious, you’ll seek medical attention regardless of whether you know it or not. When you see the ridiculous on hand sanitizer and toilet paper, even if there was an over the counter version, you wouldn’t be able to find one in the store.

[deleted]

Re: Gates Foundation program will issue home testing kits for Covid 19 in Seattle

#79

This is very admirable of Bill, but it seems odd that the world's biggest economy is reliant on hand-outs to keep its citizens healthy.

To me, it seems odd that government would have a monopoly on anything in health care. Non-profits can play a very valuable role in exposing inefficiencies in large bureaucracies.

Re: Gates Foundation program will issue home testing kits for Covid 19 in Seattle

#80
post #74

What’s the point of testing? There is no treatment. So knowing you have it or not is pointless. If you have it, and it’s serious, you’ll seek medical attention regardless of whether you know it or not. When you see the ridiculous on hand sanitizer and toilet paper, even if there was an over the counter version, you wouldn’t be able to find one in the store.

"Whats the point of testing if you are a healthy 20 year old caring with 85 year olds"

This sums up the silicon valley mindset for EVERYTHING. If you find it hard to understand what I am meaning the be worried.

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