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We’re working on 1M Covid-19 testing capacity per day

billiontoone.com

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Re: We’re working on 1M Covid-19 testing capacity per day

#61

Post by csomar »

thoraway1010 wrote: post #40

Scaling a static website involves far less technical knowledge than scaling a high politics / moderate complexity scientific process. The website looks terribly designed from a scaling standpoint. Have you run even a basic google pagespeed on it? Why no cache TTL on the custom TrueType font? Why no CDN backing? This is a bit random, but if you have a "proud" web developer who "knows best" find someone with no pride w…

The skills required for these fields are very different. They hired someone to do it.

Re: We’re working on 1M Covid-19 testing capacity per day

#62

Post by dang »

treis wrote: post #24
dang wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's obviously not what he said. Please stick to the site guidelines: " Have curious conversation; don't cross-examine. " " Please respond to the strongest plausible interpretation of what someone says, not a weaker one that's easier to criticize. Assume good faith. " https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

What's the stronger interpretation?

That he was simply making a claim about what their initial data show. That is not a claim to perfection. Indeed, the whole point of saying 'initial' is to leave open the possibility that later data show something different.

Re: We’re working on 1M Covid-19 testing capacity per day

#64

Post by devy »

dvdt wrote: post #2

I'm the co-founder and CTO at BillionToOne. I'm happy to answer any questions here. I've also posted a slightly more technical explanation of how the test works and why it can scale here: https://twitter.com/dtsao/status/1247642005510873088?s=21 Edit: Since our site seems to be overwhelmed at the moment, here's a recap: We’ve been working hard at BillionToOne on a new COVID-19 test that scales testing to everyone in…

Hi David, what about Rosche Cobas 6600/8800 high-throughput diagnostics machines? Are they using the traditional RT-qPCR assay? How can they are able to test 400k samples per week?

https://diagnostics.roche.com/us/en/news-listing/2020/roche-...

Re: We’re working on 1M Covid-19 testing capacity per day

#65

Post by dang »

zepto wrote: post #20
dvdt wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thanks for letting me know about the site! This is a test to see if someone has a current COVID-19 infection. The antibody tests (serological) tests are also important, but since it is estimated that only ~1% of the US has previously contracted COVID-19, it will be a while before serological testing becomes useful at a population level. Our initial data show no false-positives and no false-negatives out of all specim…

Dismissing the value of serological testing seems like a self-serving move. Such tests are immediately of very high value because they allow us to understand immunity to Covid-19, and to actually validate the estimates of cases amongst those who haven’t sought treatment. These are both of huge value regardless of the percentage of the US population estimate to have previously contracted Covid-19. By all means market…

The parent post wasn't edited.

Re: We’re working on 1M Covid-19 testing capacity per day

#66

Post by freepor »

dang wrote: post #54
freepor wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wait, are you saying that you actually edited the text of someone's comment?

I do that occasionally when coaching YC startups with their HN launches ( https://news.ycombinator.com/launches ), which this is a variant of.

So, you have explicit permission to do this ahead of time, from the user?

Re: We’re working on 1M Covid-19 testing capacity per day

#68

Post by loeg »

sgw928 wrote: post #48
tbenst wrote: post #10

Thanks for your efforts! Inspiring to see our broader community spring into action. I was part of a volunteer team that tested 3400 people on Friday/Saturday in Santa Clara country for COVID-19 antibodies [1]. It took a team of 100+ volunteers 10 hours / day just to collect samples. Stanford, for example, has plenty of automated testing capacity, and even reagents. IMHO, the limiting factors are not that we need new…

The situation is similar in WA state, where the current bottleneck is specimen collection, as there is a shortage of swabs, vials, PPE and personnel. This results in large amount of existing lab capacity, such as at UW Virology labs, not being used. Skipping RNA extraction definitely helps with expanding lab capacity in places where that's the current bottleneck, but isn't the most pressing thing in WA.

The other bottleneck in WA is that the state's multimillion dollar, IBM-contracted data collection program can't keep up ingesting a few thousand records a day.

Re: We’re working on 1M Covid-19 testing capacity per day

#69

Post by dang »

freepor wrote: post #66
dang wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I do that occasionally when coaching YC startups with their HN launches ( https://news.ycombinator.com/launches ), which this is a variant of.

So, you have explicit permission to do this ahead of time, from the user?

I don't make them sign a contract or anything. It's part of the coaching that we do with YC founders on HN (example here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22808556). Most of that is at https://news.ycombinator.com/launches. We act as the editors of those posts and work closely with the founders for quite a while beforehand. Today was different, but it's a similar relationship.

I wouldn't make a major edit without letting them know. In the present case, I just let the whole community know, because the edit was a substantial one. Had it been a trivial one, I wouldn't have bothered. The priority is interesting discussion, not punctilious bookkeeping, and you can't necessarily have both.

In the flurry of these threads, the founders are focused on responding to substantive questions. That's what they should be doing: satisfying community curiosity in their area of expertise. It's my job, not theirs, to prevent the discussion from getting derailed by things like the unfortuitous use of a buzzword which they have no clue the community has been tired of hearing for years already.

If the users weren't YC founders that we have an explicit coaching relationship with, I'd always consult with them before offering help. That would happen by email. By the way, if anyone wants this sort of coaching, we're happy to help as much as we can via hn@ycombinator.com. I give this sort of advice to startup founders, project creators, and article authors all the time, and everyone is welcome to it. Just don't worry if you don't hear back right away. The inbox has gotten to the point where it piles up regularly.

Re: We’re working on 1M Covid-19 testing capacity per day

#70

Post by lelandbatey »

treis wrote: post #51
scrollaway wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They say they have not had false positives or false negatives. If that's not a lie, then that's not a lie. It does not mean the test is perfect, but it likely means the false result rate is low.

Im not sure what you think the stronger interpretation is?

I believe that Scrolloway is saying that the "strongest plausible interpretation" of this statement from the OP:

> Our initial data show no false-positives and no false-negatives out of all specimens assayed.

Is:

> the false result rate [of the test] is low

While you originally responded to the statement from the OP with:

> [You're saying that] your test is perfect? Color me skeptical.

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