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Gates Foundation program will issue home testing kits for Covid 19 in Seattle

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Re: Gates Foundation program will issue home testing kits for Covid 19 in Seattle

#91

Post by [deleted] »

partiallypro wrote: post #87
joe_the_user wrote: post #43

Korea is doing drive-through testing with results available in three days. [1] That the US is still at the level of doing testing in a private and haphazard fashion is effectively criminal and seems likely to have a serious impact fairly soon. The US had a difficult time even testing all the workers at the nursing home in Washington where 11 people died.[2] [1] https://news.sky.com/story/coronavirus-south-korea-uses-…

Everyone keeps pointing to the lack of availability of kits in the US without mentioning the reason. The reason is that the CDC created its own kits instead of using the WHO kits. Why did they do that? Because the WHO kits were inaccurate. Accurate diagnoses happened only ~60% of the time, basically a coin flip. In China the tests were becoming such a problem, now they basically just count anyone with symptoms. That'…

[deleted]

Re: Gates Foundation program will issue home testing kits for Covid 19 in Seattle

#92

Post by nerdponx »

djsumdog wrote: post #88
joe_the_user wrote: post #43

Korea is doing drive-through testing with results available in three days. [1] That the US is still at the level of doing testing in a private and haphazard fashion is effectively criminal and seems likely to have a serious impact fairly soon. The US had a difficult time even testing all the workers at the nursing home in Washington where 11 people died.[2] [1] https://news.sky.com/story/coronavirus-south-korea-uses-…

I think part of it may be intentional. No matter what, and the end, you will get accurate numbers for death, and there's not much that can be done for viral infections, other than cancelling large events and other means of transmission. Some can't be avoided though (elections are happening in the US). Could the CDC intentionally be avoiding increasing testing to avoid panic? If the numbers are to be believed, no matt…

Could the CDC intentionally be avoiding increasing testing to avoid panic? If the numbers are to be believed, no matter what we'll see a sizable number of infected this year and risk losing many of the elderly.

This is the only logical explanation at this point. Or you can replace "avoid panic" with "avoid bad press for Trump".

Re: Gates Foundation program will issue home testing kits for Covid 19 in Seattle

#93

Post by scarejunba »

pengaru wrote: post #57
mrosett wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You realize that if someone gives away X dollars, it reduces their tax liability by <X?

I believe it's more nuanced than that. When you're a billionaire you're probably very diversified, and such foundations can serve as convenient vehicles for shuttling money between interests while giving a tax advantage and buying social favor, and who knows, you might manage to actually help some people along the way. Hypothetical example: Gates sits on the board of the medical company producing covid test kits and…

Here's something I could say about these accusations:

"Interesting, this sounds like something a Koch-funded hit-job on Gates would say. In fact, it also sounds like what a spokesperson for Big Hand Sanitizer would say. Or really, if you think about it, if there are aliens immune to SARS-CoV-2 who want to cleanse the earth, this is a reasonable first attempt as they gauge our reactions."

It is easy to generate adversarial hypotheses with non-zero probability. But that's not an intelligent way to live one's life. It leads to poor life outcomes if effort is not spent on those hypothetical outcomes proportional to their likelihood (and I suspect, in this case, merely stating the hypothesis has exceeded that effort threshold).

Re: Gates Foundation program will issue home testing kits for Covid 19 in Seattle

#94

Post by fancyfredbot »

offmycloud wrote: post #79
fancyfredbot wrote: post #22

This is very admirable of Bill, but it seems odd that the world's biggest economy is reliant on hand-outs to keep its citizens healthy.

To me, it seems odd that government would have a monopoly on anything in health care. Non-profits can play a very valuable role in exposing inefficiencies in large bureaucracies.

I don't think I implied governments should have a monopoly over health care? There are many other options. For example, I'm wondering why isn't health insurance covering testing? It'd save them money if it helped limit the spread of disease.

Re: Gates Foundation program will issue home testing kits for Covid 19 in Seattle

#96

Post by ajross »

glofish wrote: post #16
patmorgan23 wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is FUD. Comprehensive testing and isolation is the only thing that can contain a pandemic. There's so little data available every additional point is valuable.

testing should not be done Random Joe at home! there is tons of data, it helps no one when unqualified people add to the noise, you think it helps you, but the tragedy that it only makes things worse

There is literally almost no data. We are barely testing at all in the US. And even if we were, the goal here isn't good science, it's preventing deaths. People who get tested "random Joe" at home and get a positive result are less likely to infect others.

Re: Gates Foundation program will issue home testing kits for Covid 19 in Seattle

#97

Post by speedgoose »

tomcam wrote: post #73
extralegos wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Feudalism is an pre-industrial, primarily agrarian system of socioeconomic relations in which peasants farm land controlled by nobility in exchange for military protections. In Feudalism, the single incentive for the nobility to protect the peasant is the exchange value of the product of the peasant’s labor. Feudalism is best known for it’s lack of democratic relations.

Don’t understand its connection to your grandparent comment

He is comparing the society in USA where many people work hard for very few rich people which in return offer charity to feudal societies.

Re: Gates Foundation program will issue home testing kits for Covid 19 in Seattle

#98

Post by 29athrowaway »

mrosett wrote: post #34
29athrowaway wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sure. But foundations and philantropy also happen to be great for tax purposes.

You realize that if someone gives away X dollars, it reduces their tax liability by <X?

From an accounting perspective, sure. But you also gain influence, reputation and power.

Re: Gates Foundation program will issue home testing kits for Covid 19 in Seattle

#99

Post by DuskStar »

nerdponx wrote: post #92
djsumdog wrote: post #88

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think part of it may be intentional. No matter what, and the end, you will get accurate numbers for death, and there's not much that can be done for viral infections, other than cancelling large events and other means of transmission. Some can't be avoided though (elections are happening in the US). Could the CDC intentionally be avoiding increasing testing to avoid panic? If the numbers are to be believed, no matt…

Could the CDC intentionally be avoiding increasing testing to avoid panic? If the numbers are to be believed, no matter what we'll see a sizable number of infected this year and risk losing many of the elderly. This is the only logical explanation at this point. Or you can replace "avoid panic" with "avoid bad press for Trump".

"A US government agency massively dropped the ball" should always be a possibility to consider.

Hanlon's razor: "Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity."

Re: Gates Foundation program will issue home testing kits for Covid 19 in Seattle

#100

Post by anigbrowl »

craftinator wrote: post #67
jlarocco wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It happens all the time here; it's ridiculous. At my company's last benefits meeting (where they go over the yearly changes to our insurance coverage) a coworker described a situation where they had a surgery at an in network (accepted by our insurance) hospital, with in network surgeons and nurses, but was assigned an out of network anesthesiologist without his knowledge, and later got a giant bill for it (well over…

Maybe before a surgery, gather all of the hospital staff who are going to attend, and record a video while saying "I do not consent to working with anyone from out of network. If you are an out of network physician, I do not consent to be your patient." That ought to be interesting in court if they bill you. Really, the onus of responsibility is between your insurance company and the hospital (i.e. paying and billing…

Look up a legal concept called quantum meruit - you can be on the hook for things you didn't consent, on the grounds that your needs were not foreseeable and a reasonable person would have consented if they were conscious at the time. I am of course over-simplifying but HN isn't the place for a long discourse on medical litigation strategies.
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