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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

#11

Post by sho74 »

itcrowd wrote: 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.

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

#12

Post by claudeganon »

ck2 wrote: post #9

I wonder if Walmart completely thought out what is going to happen when they turn their parking lots into drive-up testing, implying that every sick person with a fever is going to be in a Walmart parking lot soon.

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.

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

#13

Post by ArtDev »

claudeganon wrote: post #8
ta999999171 wrote: post #3

Will Korea sell us tests? Will anyone? Has this been discussed anywhere?

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.

I think the Trump administration saw the profit $$$ in test kits while ignoring the larger health and economic risks posed by a delay in testing.

Now, it is too late and Trump is too thick-sculled to admit he was wrong.

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

#14

Post by elorant »

sho74 wrote: post #11
itcrowd wrote: 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.

At the very least you can isolate those 100 people and their contacts instead of isolating the whole freaking county. Lockdowns work but there is a huge burden to the economy.

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

#15

Post by mattnewton »

sho74 wrote: post #11
itcrowd wrote: 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.

> 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?

Pick the 10 most likely to develop complications due to age or comorbidity and quarantine the rest so that you don’t get 200 more next week. We’re still in the “stop the bleeding” phase of treatment.

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

#16

Post by blhack »

claudeganon wrote: post #12
ck2 wrote: post #9

I wonder if Walmart completely thought out what is going to happen when they turn their parking lots into drive-up testing, implying that every sick person with a fever is going to be in a Walmart parking lot soon.

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.

Are they cashing in somehow? Or do you mean cashing in in the sense that they have a massive, existential financial interest in this going away as quickly as possible?

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

#17

Post by claudeganon »

blhack wrote: post #16
claudeganon wrote: post #12

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.

Are they cashing in somehow? Or do you mean cashing in in the sense that they have a massive, existential financial interest in this going away as quickly as possible?

Details of the arrangement aren’t clear. They’re stock shot up about ten points after the announcement though.

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

#18

Post by kevin_thibedeau »

claudeganon wrote: post #12
ck2 wrote: post #9

I wonder if Walmart completely thought out what is going to happen when they turn their parking lots into drive-up testing, implying that every sick person with a fever is going to be in a Walmart parking lot soon.

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.

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

#19

Post by scrollaway »

mattnewton wrote: post #15
sho74 wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

> 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? Pick the 10 most likely to develop complications due to age or comorbidity and quarantine the rest so that you don’t get 200 more next week. We’re still in the “stop the bleeding” phase of treatment.

Triage usually dictates that the ones most likely to die from the illness, especially if they're old, get lower priority than those that can be treated at a greater success rate, and who are more likely to live longer and healthier as a result.

This is the procedure at most hospitals. You give the beds to those who need them, and are most likely to "make good use" of them (= not "waste" them by likely dying anyway; sorry for the atrocious wording)

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

#20

Post by malandrew »

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 government and if the FDA and CDC hadn't gotten in the way in the US, our testing response would have been far better.

Seegene's kits test for all three marker genes and aren't even available in the US because it doesn't yet have FDA approval. At least 30 other countries are placing orders for Seegene's kits.

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