Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

South Korea's drive-through testing for coronavirus

npr.org

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

51–60 of 135 posts

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

#51

Post by adventured »

chvid wrote: post #39
ghevshoo wrote: 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…

Given the massive explosion in cases in Denmark, going from 514 to 1573 in two days, closing the borders is probably wise. For a country with just 5.9 million people, that's a recipe for collapsing your healthcare system if the cases continue to increase like that for much longer.

There are not many medical systems on the planet that could handle that per capita case load increase in such a short amount of time (specifically the intensive care patients that will go with it in the coming days and weeks).

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

#52

Post by indecisive_user »

Nursie wrote: post #42
ghevshoo wrote: 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.

>anyone with symptoms to self isolate for a week, regardless of positive test.

In an ideal world we would already be doing this. I know that some people have to show up to work even if they're sick, but even at my job where we have unlimited sick leave, and are encouraged to use it, people still show up coughing and sniffling.

I don't get it.

If your employer encourages you to work from home when you're sick, and you're actually sick, please work from home! No one wants to catch your disease, whether it's Coronavirus or "just" the common cold.

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

#53

Post by earthtourist »

Nursie wrote: post #42
ghevshoo wrote: 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.

"the containment effort for individual cases is now over"

Most countries didn't even attempt containment, as far as I can tell. Leaders seem to have surrendered to mass infection at the opening of the battle.

It seems pathetic and criminally negligent. It's an intentional trade of hundreds of thousands of lives (potentially millions) in exchange for some unpredictable economic gain. This could conceivably make sense if an uncontained financial crisis would lead to even more human suffering than an uncontained infection.

But it seems that we're likely to end up paying in a massive number of lives and a massive amount of money. When an aggressive containment strategy might have cost us primarily in terms of money.

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

#54

Post by nabla9 »

ghevshoo wrote: 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.

Same in Finland, but there are exceptions. For example medical staff will be tested if they feel symptoms.

Otherwise healthy people should not go to hospital if they feel symptoms. For most people it's just a flu.

All events with more than 500 people are forbidden.

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

#55

Post by stefan_ »

earthtourist wrote: post #53
Nursie wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

"the containment effort for individual cases is now over" Most countries didn't even attempt containment, as far as I can tell. Leaders seem to have surrendered to mass infection at the opening of the battle. It seems pathetic and criminally negligent. It's an intentional trade of hundreds of thousands of lives (potentially millions) in exchange for some unpredictable economic gain. This could conceivably make sense…

I had a tweet from Flightradar24 show up on my timeline earlier:

https://twitter.com/flightradar24/status/1238102765081186306...

It kinda hit me immediately why this whole containment thing wasn't really working out. And this was March 12! How on earth do we tell people to not go outside, but months after it all started there are still thousands of airplanes flying.

Honorary mention for the countries that sent military transport airplanes to rescue 100 citizens from China like an asteroid was about to hit it and kept them in barracks for weeks, but have this kind of air traffic streaming in.

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

#56

Post by netsharc »

malandrew wrote: post #20
helloworld wrote: post #2

This is striking: "A nation of 51 million, South Korea has tested about 250,000 people since its outbreak began on Jan. 20, with a daily capacity of 15,000. It has conducted 3,600 tests per million people compared to five per million in the U.S."

The credit here doesn't go to South Korea's government but to a company called Seegene and it's CEO Chun Jong-yoon who directed the company to focus on COVID-19 testing on January 16th. They are the reason South Korea's CDC was able to ramp up 118 labs so quickly. It's making about 10,000 test kits a week and has been at the center of South Korea's testing strategy. The market is better at addressing problems than go…

Huh, I'm sure the FDA/CDC doesn't ban biotech companies from researching testing kits? You only need FDA approval if you're going to make it available to the general public.

SK is really lucky that they have that company who was focused on testing kits and even uses machine learning to quickly identify viruses. Why doesn't the US have such a company? Is it regulations? Surely not, when something like Theranos was allowed.

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

#57

Post by earthtourist »

stefan_ wrote: post #55
earthtourist wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"the containment effort for individual cases is now over" Most countries didn't even attempt containment, as far as I can tell. Leaders seem to have surrendered to mass infection at the opening of the battle. It seems pathetic and criminally negligent. It's an intentional trade of hundreds of thousands of lives (potentially millions) in exchange for some unpredictable economic gain. This could conceivably make sense…

I had a tweet from Flightradar24 show up on my timeline earlier: https://twitter.com/flightradar24/status/1238102765081186306... It kinda hit me immediately why this whole containment thing wasn't really working out. And this was March 12! How on earth do we tell people to not go outside, but months after it all started there are still thousands of airplanes flying. Honorary mention for the countries that sent milita…

Yeah, it explains why the testing isn't happening as well. Why bother doing surveillance testing if you've already surrendered to a 70% infection rate?

There's no point. Better to just let people come to the hospital if they absolutely need to, rather than risk people coming to the ER just because they tested positive.

It is possible that Italy has made a mistake in doing as many tests as they have. I'm not sure what the numbers are but it could be that the addition of infected-but-not-seriously-ill patients is a major problem.

So maybe this anti-surveillance testing approach does make sense once you've conceded the battle to contain the infection.

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

#58

Post by chvid »

adventured wrote: post #51
chvid wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

Given the massive explosion in cases in Denmark, going from 514 to 1573 in two days, closing the borders is probably wise. For a country with just 5.9 million people, that's a recipe for collapsing your healthcare system if the cases continue to increase like that for much longer. There are not many medical systems on the planet that could handle that per capita case load increase in such a short amount of time (spec…

Depends on why the increase in cases? Just because succesfully traced and identified a group of cases, it doesn't tell you anything about the growth in the true number of infected.

There are 10 people in hospitals in Denmark for COVID19. None dead.

By the publicised numbers Sweden is hit about the same as Denmark; yet they choose a much more moderate approach.

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

#59

Post by deepnotderp »

MaCorona wrote: post #10
ghevshoo wrote: 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 would probably be easier to deploy far-uvc or resonant microwave anti microbial systems.

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

#60

Post by apabepa »

Nursie wrote: post #42
ghevshoo wrote: 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.

I agree with this comment. I see it as pragmatic thinking not to test people at this point. It is a special situation, if you show any symptom of sickness just stay at home, it should be a no-brainer. What if you cough in public? Will you shout "IT IS JUST A COMMON COLD" and people will feel safe? Actually people who "just have a bit of a cold" should stay at home in normal circumstances too in my opinion. It might be OK for you to have a runny nose but some other poor guy might catch your cold and get it worse because of bad immune system. Its comes down to individualistic vs collectivist thinking and now might be the time to think about the greater good.
Post reply on HN