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South Korea's drive-through testing for coronavirus

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Re: South Korea's drive-through testing for coronavirus

#41
post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The administration turned away from the German designed/WHO standard tests everyone else is using, so I don’t think any international ones are FDA approved. Today’s presser sure gave me the impression that the delay in testing was so they could roll out this nebulous private-public partnership drive through testing and I guess boost CVS’ stock price or something.

> they could roll out this nebulous private-public partnership drive through testing Realistically, how would you envision tests on this scale being performed? In theory, it’s a great plan. Pretty much everyone in the US is close to a Walmart/CVS/Target. Drive up, get swabbed, check results online. Fast and minimal human interaction. The implementation remains to be seen but I can’t imagine the alternative of having…

How they’re being performed in South Korea or any other country that’s doing tests at scale? American exceptionalism falls apart when countries around the world are outperforming your response.

Re: South Korea's drive-through testing for coronavirus

#42
post #5

The situation in Stockholm, Sweden right now is: “You who have symptoms similar to coronavirus will not be tested in the future. This applies regardless of whether you have been in the areas that were previously exposed to infection or had close contact with someone you know is ill in covid-19.” There are no test kits. Hospitals have run out of face masks. And it’s only just getting started here.

There are test kits in the UK, but the same policy applies.

Why?

Because it no longer matters, the containment effort for individual cases is now over. Now we move on to more mass actions to delay and slow the peak of the epidemic - anyone with symptoms to self isolate for a week, regardless of positive test.

Re: South Korea's drive-through testing for coronavirus

#43
post #5

The situation in Stockholm, Sweden right now is: “You who have symptoms similar to coronavirus will not be tested in the future. This applies regardless of whether you have been in the areas that were previously exposed to infection or had close contact with someone you know is ill in covid-19.” There are no test kits. Hospitals have run out of face masks. And it’s only just getting started here.

One could built UV-Lightmasks. A transparent hose, add UV-LEDS to sterilize the flowing air. Dry the air at the start with silica gel. All that is needed then is a battery. The silica gel can be heated every once in a while to loose any moisture bound it and sterilize virus particles attached to it.

You'd need a specific wavelength (265nm seems to be the standard) and they get pretty expensive. A UV LED from adafruit or sparkfun will probably not be sufficient.

At a glance they sell LEDs around 400nm which from my cursory reading wouldn't be effective for what you're imagining.

Not to say this would never work. Just that you would need special parts that are less common and more expensive by orders of magnitude.

I've also read that sterilizing very fast moving air doesn't work well. It seems HVAC systems use extremely intense light order to be effective in these conditions, which a small LED (or a few) wouldn't accomplish.

Re: South Korea's drive-through testing for coronavirus

#44
post #39
post #5

The situation in Stockholm, Sweden right now is: “You who have symptoms similar to coronavirus will not be tested in the future. This applies regardless of whether you have been in the areas that were previously exposed to infection or had close contact with someone you know is ill in covid-19.” There are no test kits. Hospitals have run out of face masks. And it’s only just getting started here.

Here in Denmark we have just shut our borders. You can no longer enter as Swede. We as nation put on extreme measures but there is no visibility. What is the true number of infected in Denmark? There is no sampling or systematic measurement going on. We probably know less than you guys in Sweden yet we choose the most extreme actions. We just had our PM go on national TV and call on all Danes to return to Denmark as…

Here in Denmark we have just shut our borders. You can no longer enter as Swede. > You can enter Denmark, if You have work permission (even if You are Swede). Many people travel and work this way...

Re: South Korea's drive-through testing for coronavirus

#45
post #11
post #6

The questions to ask for any test: - What is the false positive rate? - What is the false negative rate? - Considering the above, what is the efficacy of mass testing? (Not saying it is or isn't effective, hard numbers are necessary)

Yup I have been wondering about this too. If my community has 10 beds and 2 docs what is anyone supposed to do if there are 100 positives? Other weird thought I had was how does security deal with some lunatic who gets tested positive and runs around infecting others...just walks into some critical hub like a hospital and pat's everyone on the back.

> If my community has 10 beds and 2 docs what is anyone supposed to do if there are 100 positives?

Isolate those 100 people. Then use whatever methodology[1] your society uses to allocated hospital beds to the ones that will get sick enough to need them.

Just because you test positive doesn't mean you'll need a hospital bed.

Oh, and while you're at it, ban public gatherings, and close schools. Because if 100 people tested positive, there's probably another 200-300 people walking around, infecting others.

[1] First-come-first-serve, youngest-and-healthiest-first, whomever-can-pay-more are the most popular methodologies for this.

Re: South Korea's drive-through testing for coronavirus

#46
post #11
post #6

The questions to ask for any test: - What is the false positive rate? - What is the false negative rate? - Considering the above, what is the efficacy of mass testing? (Not saying it is or isn't effective, hard numbers are necessary)

Yup I have been wondering about this too. If my community has 10 beds and 2 docs what is anyone supposed to do if there are 100 positives? Other weird thought I had was how does security deal with some lunatic who gets tested positive and runs around infecting others...just walks into some critical hub like a hospital and pat's everyone on the back.

>lunatic who gets tested positive and runs around infecting others

It's happened. Criminal charges for assault probably work.

Re: South Korea's drive-through testing for coronavirus

#47
post #5

The situation in Stockholm, Sweden right now is: “You who have symptoms similar to coronavirus will not be tested in the future. This applies regardless of whether you have been in the areas that were previously exposed to infection or had close contact with someone you know is ill in covid-19.” There are no test kits. Hospitals have run out of face masks. And it’s only just getting started here.

One could built UV-Lightmasks. A transparent hose, add UV-LEDS to sterilize the flowing air. Dry the air at the start with silica gel. All that is needed then is a battery. The silica gel can be heated every once in a while to loose any moisture bound it and sterilize virus particles attached to it.

It seems more productive to hit the room with far UVC, and there are already some products that do that, not sure about scale though.

Re: South Korea's drive-through testing for coronavirus

#48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

With exponential growth of the disease, lack of testing, and poor healthcare infrastructure in the US, that would’ve happened anyway when people needed groceries. I guess they decided they might as well cash in on some testing stations.

You go in after hours when the risk of contact is minimal.

You really think they are going to bother to be open beyond 9-5 and maybe not even weekends?

Also with the air-conditioner on exhaust and the people taking swaps without protective gear, or even with, moving the virus from car to car so efficiently.

Look at this crazy photo: first guy is leaning into the car with facemask down. Totally going to happen at half the Walmarts.

https://static01.nyt.com/images/2020/03/12/upshot/12up-healt...

Re: South Korea's drive-through testing for coronavirus

#49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

it wasn't "the market" that solved this problem. it was the employees, including the ceo, at that company who felt a duty to the rest of the country, not to some market opportunity, that effected the result. bureaucracies, including corporate ones (see: innovator's dilemma), are typically not nimble enough to respond to rapidly changing circumstances. it's not a market vs government (false) dichotomy.

I mean, the CEO and the employees are literally part of the free market.

Sure, but he’s saying it wasn’t market forces that motivated them but their sense of civic duty.

That is something that “the market” often lacks in their relentless pursuit of shareholder value.

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