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The Tale of Theranos and the Mysterious Fire Alarm

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Re: The Tale of Theranos and the Mysterious Fire Alarm

#31

Post by prawn »

hristov wrote: post #18

That is a heartening example of good journalism. But nevertheless, there is one thing that I did not like with the way Ms Gold handled the story. She had an idea in mind of what kind of story she was going to write, and when reality did not pan out according to her plan, she just decided not to write the story. If she had written about her experience she would have had a very important story and could have saved inve…

Or the investors could've delved deeper with their due diligence? Should a journalist be more useful to the public before they're a shortcut for people trying to make more money?

(Unless there were small time investors wrapped up in bigger funds who also should've done more research.)

Re: The Tale of Theranos and the Mysterious Fire Alarm

#32

Post by misiti3780 »

I have an honest question, what is the end game for Theranos employees. My understanding is the company is a complete fraud but yet if I go on linkedin they still have 200+ employees working there:

https://www.linkedin.com/search/results/people/?facetCurrent...

are all of these people going to be fired in the coming months or do investors think this is still a good idea but Holmes isnt going to be apart of it ?

Re: The Tale of Theranos and the Mysterious Fire Alarm

#33

Post by defen »

zer0day wrote: post #8

I started to write a thoughtful and balanced analysis of this article...but then I stopped myself. The reason I stopped myself is that I thought about all the journalists like this lady who played the same game with Theranos and continue to play similar games with all of the rotten corporate and government entities in the county. Then I started getting genuinely pissed off! What. the. f*ck did I just read? She openly…

She could have kept digging and probably ended up with a Pulitzer; instead John Carreyrou is going to get another one.

Re: The Tale of Theranos and the Mysterious Fire Alarm

#34

Post by wyattpeak »

pdonis wrote: post #26
zer0day wrote: post #8

I started to write a thoughtful and balanced analysis of this article...but then I stopped myself. The reason I stopped myself is that I thought about all the journalists like this lady who played the same game with Theranos and continue to play similar games with all of the rotten corporate and government entities in the county. Then I started getting genuinely pissed off! What. the. f*ck did I just read? She openly…

> This is everything wrong with American media in one article 100% agree. What she should have done was not cancel the feature, but write what actually happened--right after it happened, not now, when Theranos has already been outed as a fraud and she's just another one jumping on the bandwagon.

What story? "I went to Theranos, didn't get to talk to anyone who did the test, then there was a fire alarm"?

It all fits together quite nicely in hindsight when stuffed with a bunch of vague accusations and synthesis about motives, but I would have agreed with any editor axing the story at the time.

For the record, I assume her suspicions about people getting cagey, and maybe even the fire alarm, are quite right. But once again, hindsight.

Re: The Tale of Theranos and the Mysterious Fire Alarm

#35

Post by megablast »

zer0day wrote: post #8

I started to write a thoughtful and balanced analysis of this article...but then I stopped myself. The reason I stopped myself is that I thought about all the journalists like this lady who played the same game with Theranos and continue to play similar games with all of the rotten corporate and government entities in the county. Then I started getting genuinely pissed off! What. the. f*ck did I just read? She openly…

1. How do you think journalism works? They just wander around talking to people and come up with a story later?

Now I agree this story would have been great to come out earlier, but that isn't her decision.

You seriously have a childlike understanding of how journalism works.

How do you think developers work, they just write whatever they want to write, and someone will merge that code into a product?

Re: The Tale of Theranos and the Mysterious Fire Alarm

#36

Post by megablast »

pdonis wrote: post #26
zer0day wrote: post #8

I started to write a thoughtful and balanced analysis of this article...but then I stopped myself. The reason I stopped myself is that I thought about all the journalists like this lady who played the same game with Theranos and continue to play similar games with all of the rotten corporate and government entities in the county. Then I started getting genuinely pissed off! What. the. f*ck did I just read? She openly…

> This is everything wrong with American media in one article 100% agree. What she should have done was not cancel the feature, but write what actually happened--right after it happened, not now, when Theranos has already been outed as a fraud and she's just another one jumping on the bandwagon.

> What she should have done was not cancel the feature

Why do you imagine this is her choice? If you want to write a new feature to add voice control to an app, and your boss says no, we don't want that, do you go ahead and do it??

Re: The Tale of Theranos and the Mysterious Fire Alarm

#37

Post by incompatible »

CptFribble wrote: post #20

Here's something that Theranos was deliberately misleading about: how many tests can be done on one prick's worth of blood? Before the downfall, the website claimed that hundreds of tests could be performed with a single drop of blood. But, is that hundreds of tests on one single drop at once? Or is it one test per drop? Squeezing dozens of blood drops out of multiple pricks would not be easy or painless. Nowhere on…

Theranos was claiming amazing technical breakthroughs, but never published anything that would verify the claims. This was pointed out by a couple of researchers, Eleftherios Diamandis and John Ioannidis, in early 2015. https://www.vox.com/2015/10/31/9646356/theranos-peer-review-...

Re: The Tale of Theranos and the Mysterious Fire Alarm

#38

Post by bsder »

CptFribble wrote: post #20

Here's something that Theranos was deliberately misleading about: how many tests can be done on one prick's worth of blood? Before the downfall, the website claimed that hundreds of tests could be performed with a single drop of blood. But, is that hundreds of tests on one single drop at once? Or is it one test per drop? Squeezing dozens of blood drops out of multiple pricks would not be easy or painless. Nowhere on…

The problem, which people in medicine know full well, was the fact that blood is highly variable depending upon when and where you take it. It's why you have to take so much to get decent lab results.

A "fingerprick" was always going to be ferociously unstable.

It could have had value if taken repeatedly. I would be far more inclined to monitor myself if I had to only give a drop every 3-4 days. That way you could spot trends.

However, that was never going to produce a unicorn.

Re: The Tale of Theranos and the Mysterious Fire Alarm

#40

Post by pdonis »

wyattpeak wrote: post #34
pdonis wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> This is everything wrong with American media in one article 100% agree. What she should have done was not cancel the feature, but write what actually happened--right after it happened, not now, when Theranos has already been outed as a fraud and she's just another one jumping on the bandwagon.

What story? "I went to Theranos, didn't get to talk to anyone who did the test, then there was a fire alarm"? It all fits together quite nicely in hindsight when stuffed with a bunch of vague accusations and synthesis about motives, but I would have agreed with any editor axing the story at the time. For the record, I assume her suspicions about people getting cagey, and maybe even the fire alarm, are quite right. Bu…

> What story?

"The actual services Theranos appears to be providing to patients does not match the services Theranos claims to provide in its PR statements." That seems like (a) useful information to other potential Theranos patients, and (b) exactly the sort of information that "investigative journalism" is supposed to be providing to the public.

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