Theranos Wellness Centers Aren’t Using “Nanotainers” at This Time

Theranos Wellness Centers Aren’t Using “Nanotainers” at This Time
techcrunch.com

The fact that they keep acting all shady doesn't bode well for their efforts to claim that the current criticism against their product and leadership is inaccurate or unfair.

In the current debacle, you again have all the classic ingredients in force: pride goeth before a fall, the extreme secrecy, the aristocracy > meritocracy, venture capitalists all wearing the VC equivalent of beer-goggles, the ignorance and laziness of tech media exposed. You even have a co-inventor who committed suicide and, for no obvious reason, Henry Kissinger is just hanging out.

The fact that Theranos aimed so high in its disruptive mission has come to bite it a bit...it's one thing to butt heads against government regulations when just making it easier for people to catch a ride or sleep on a couch. A lot different when you're allegedly subverting regulations explicitly constructed around human health.

Basically, there's popcorn for everyone.

1) Refusal to use the ground-breaking technology:

>Then I asked about what Theranos calls “nanotainers” or tiny vials that can give you test results with a single drop of blood.

>“Oh you have to order that separately,” she informed me. “We take those intravenously if you bundle a bunch of tests together.”

>[...]I then informed them I was a journalist and would like to take the test separately to test the technology. They told me I would still need to order it separately.

2) Sudden delays and bizarre excuses when you insist on using their ground-breaking technology and identify as a journalist:

> So I went to order it separately.

>That’s when things got weird. It took much longer to process this separate order at the counter. I was told it was because they had to manually type in my order on the other end.

>[...]I spoke with Chris, the Theranos manager, on the phone who informed me it was about supplies. Okay, but the people with the supplies to administer [the] test thought I could take it until management said they could not that day.

3) Extreme concern with following a central PR script when people ask questions:

>Then I walked myself back to the testing center and could overhear one of the women on the phone with management in a panicked voice telling them I was a journalist doing an investigative piece (I wasn’t, just curious as to how it worked).

4) Scouts that are instructed to alert central command whenever people start asking questions (edit: especially when that was during a patient consultation):

>I reached out to Theranos head of communications Brooke Buchanan for an explanation as well. She’d already been informed I was in the store today.

5) Insistence that you check only specific cases of their product:

> I was asked why I chose not to go to the Theranos main office in Palo Alto for a test instead [of the Walgreen's location the author went to].

Also -- just a personal observation -- the use of the phrase "at this time" strongly correlates with how badly someone wants you to stop asking questions (police officers citing you, HR employees with bad news, PR spokespeople in a bind, etc).