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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

#141

Post by claudeganon »

peter303 wrote: post #134
djsumdog wrote: post #88

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think part of it may be intentional. No matter what, and the end, you will get accurate numbers for death, and there's not much that can be done for viral infections, other than cancelling large events and other means of transmission. Some can't be avoided though (elections are happening in the US). Could the CDC intentionally be avoiding increasing testing to avoid panic? If the numbers are to be believed, no matt…

No, the CDC created a defective first kit, delaying EFFECTIVE national testing a month. Congress should investigate the reason for this failure. We'd be far ahead if we bought test from Germany or Korea. NPR had a story about genomics lab that repurposed some of it research equipment to provide some testing resources. Apparently about 70 other labs, including Gate's, did similar and provide backup resources. But a mo…

The US also explicitly rejected the working German tests, adopted by the WHO, and continued pursuing their own kit, even after they failed the first go around, putting ourselves even further behind:

> But German researchers were devising their own test, which was quickly adopted by the World Health Organization for distribution around the world.

After the C.D.C.’s version turned out to be flawed, the agency continued to pursue it, despite the fact that another diagnostic test was already in wide use.

With F.D.A. approval, the agency could simply have embraced the test used by the W.H.O., Dr. Mina said. The government could do so even now.

“It’s just a very American approach to say, ‘We’re the U.S., the major U.S. public health lab, and we’re going to not follow the leader,’” Dr. Mina said.

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/02/health/coronavirus-testin...

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

#142

Post by theseadroid »

djsumdog wrote: post #88
joe_the_user wrote: post #43

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 part of it may be intentional. No matter what, and the end, you will get accurate numbers for death, and there's not much that can be done for viral infections, other than cancelling large events and other means of transmission. Some can't be avoided though (elections are happening in the US). Could the CDC intentionally be avoiding increasing testing to avoid panic? If the numbers are to be believed, no matt…

You are the problem the virus is not under control right now. What background do you possess to make such claims? What scientific references can back up your no-matter-what? You might be expert in other fields but that doesn't give you the qualifications to decide matters on public health. No I'm not here to present evidence that what you said is not true. I'm just angry. You might be intelligent, you might be following the news for all those days. And that won't make you qualify to make public health claims. It's almost like in any climate change discussion someone would say: change of climate will benefit certain species obviously. It sounds logical, yet just a shitty conjecture.

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

#143

Post by nl »

partiallypro wrote: post #87
joe_the_user wrote: post #43

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-…

Everyone keeps pointing to the lack of availability of kits in the US without mentioning the reason. The reason is that the CDC created its own kits instead of using the WHO kits. Why did they do that? Because the WHO kits were inaccurate. Accurate diagnoses happened only ~60% of the time, basically a coin flip. In China the tests were becoming such a problem, now they basically just count anyone with symptoms. That'…

The links you posted don't back up your summary.

The "livescience" link is a confusing story which seems to be talking about the US, CDC test: Last week, the CDC had begun to ship about 200 testing kits to labs across the U.S. and 200 more to over 30 other countries so that more facilities could conduct testing for the new coronavirus.... The CDC is working closely with the states to correct the issues in the testing kits, Messonnier said.

The BBC link is about the WHO test, says no one knows what is going on but gives multiple possible explanations:

  One possible explanation is the tests are accurate and the patients do not have coronavirus at the time of testing

  Alternatively, there could be a problem with the way the tests are being conducted... There has also been some discussion about whether doctors testing the back of the throat are looking in the wrong place. 

  A final option is the RT-PCR test for the new coronavirus is based on flawed science....  if there is a poor match between the primer and the virus in the patient, then an infected patient could get a negative result.
The Propublica link is about the CDC test: The CDC designed a flawed test for COVID-19, then took weeks to figure out a fix so state and local labs could use it.

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

#144

Post by officialjunk »

wintorez wrote: post #72
joe_the_user wrote: post #43

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.

what is scary to me is that the average american seems to be ignoring this and are more scared of lice and bedbugs, which are not lethal. telling folks to treat this as worse than lice and bedbugs, has worked in waking up some of my acquaintances. i think because it triggers more of an emotional response, though just a guess.

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

#145

Post by joe_the_user »

nl wrote: post #138
zaroth wrote: post #119

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Except these agencies have never had so much funding as they do now. Its hard to put a finger on exactly why they seem entirely incapable of fulfilling their central mission during this crisis. Why were the test kits botched? Why was testing so artificially limited? Why do the primers seem poorly designed? Why does the contact tracing seem to be so behind the ball? Etc. I think political finger pointing is easy and m…

Politico has a good piece[1], but with no real answers. But neither the CDC nor the coronavirus task force chaired by Vice President Mike Pence would say who made the decision to forgo the WHO test and instead begin a protracted process of producing an American test, one that got delayed by manufacturing problems, possible lab contamination and logistical delays. This seems to give some kind of explanation of what wa…

Yeah,

The thing is that Trump indeed seems to be following the standard corporate CEO script: "stop bad news by any means necessary, then sweep the rest under the carpet when the press isn't looking". But this doesn't quite for running an actual country /s/understatement.

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

#146

Post by pengaru »

scarejunba wrote: post #93
pengaru wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I believe it's more nuanced than that. When you're a billionaire you're probably very diversified, and such foundations can serve as convenient vehicles for shuttling money between interests while giving a tax advantage and buying social favor, and who knows, you might manage to actually help some people along the way. Hypothetical example: Gates sits on the board of the medical company producing covid test kits and…

Here's something I could say about these accusations: "Interesting, this sounds like something a Koch-funded hit-job on Gates would say. In fact, it also sounds like what a spokesperson for Big Hand Sanitizer would say. Or really, if you think about it, if there are aliens immune to SARS-CoV-2 who want to cleanse the earth, this is a reasonable first attempt as they gauge our reactions." It is easy to generate advers…

TIL a hypothetical example equates an accusation.

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

#148

Post by refurb »

zaroth wrote: post #119
sitkack wrote: post #101

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What the parent is referencing is the Republican strategy to defund government services, and then point to how ineffective they are, thus providing justification for privatization. https://arstechnica.com/science/2020/02/amid-coronavirus-out...

Except these agencies have never had so much funding as they do now. Its hard to put a finger on exactly why they seem entirely incapable of fulfilling their central mission during this crisis. Why were the test kits botched? Why was testing so artificially limited? Why do the primers seem poorly designed? Why does the contact tracing seem to be so behind the ball? Etc. I think political finger pointing is easy and m…

https://cdn.factcheck.org/UploadedFiles/cdc-budget.jpg

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

#149

Post by timmytokyo »

pneill wrote: 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.

1. To give epidemiologists and public health officials a better picture of how widespread the virus is. 2. To make it more likely that infected persons isolate themselves to avoid spreading the virus further.

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

#150

Post by refurb »

zaroth wrote: post #122
xenospn wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My friend paid his health insurance for years. Got diagnosed with cancer (leukemia). Hospital said treatment would cost $750k. Insurance told him to go fuck himself and isn't covering anything.

After ACA there are no lifetime maximums. If it’s an FDA approved treatment which he is eligible for (e.g. there are not other first line treatments which should be tried first) then AFAIK an insurance company cannot simply refuse to pay. Another option is to move to a Medicare expansion state and stop working, which will allow you to immediately qualify for free health care with generally some of the best coverage y…

Insurance companies are free to not cover an FDA approved product. CVS publishes a list every year, although they tend to either be the branded drug when a generic is available or a drug where there are as effective, but cheaper products are available.

It’s a cost versus benefit analysis and no different than what you see in single payer systems.

I will say from experience that oncology is one therapeutic area where payers wield much less control. Insurers don't like bad press and denying cancer drugs is a great way to end up in the NY Times. That said, if a drug is regarded as "experimental" (either the FDA hasn't approved it for that type of cancer OR there is limited data to suggest it works) they will say "no".

https://www.caremark.com/portal/asset/Formulary_Exclusion_Dr...

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