Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation Promises Home-Testing Kits for Coronavirus (seattletimes.com) 66
An anonymous reader quotes the Seattle Times:
Testing for the novel coronavirus in the Seattle area will get a huge boost in the coming weeks as a project funded by Bill Gates and his foundation begins offering home-testing kits that will allow people who fear they may be infected to swab their noses and send the samples back for analysis. Results, which should be available in one to two days, will be shared with local health officials who will notify those who test positive.
Via online forms, infected people can answer questions about their movements and contacts, making it easier for health officials to locate others who may need to be tested or quarantined, as well as to track the virus' spread and identify possible hot spots.
Initially, the lab will be able to conduct about 400 tests a day, eventually expanding to thousands of tests a day, said Scott Dowell, leader of coronavirus response at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. The project is ramping up as quickly as possible, but it's not clear exactly when it will launch, he added. Among other things, software needs to be upgraded to handle the expected crush of requests, and a detailed questionnaire finalized for people who request tests. "Although there's a lot to be worked out, this has enormous potential to turn the tide of the epidemic," Dowell said.
The article points out that the kits "will reduce the need for sick people to visit a doctor's office or clinic, lowering the chance of exposing others."
The foundation has already committed up to $100 million to the global response to COVID-19, including up to $20 million to accelerate international efforts to control the spread, up to $20 million to help partners in sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia strengthen their response, and up to $60 million to kick-start the development of vaccines and treatments.
Via online forms, infected people can answer questions about their movements and contacts, making it easier for health officials to locate others who may need to be tested or quarantined, as well as to track the virus' spread and identify possible hot spots.
Initially, the lab will be able to conduct about 400 tests a day, eventually expanding to thousands of tests a day, said Scott Dowell, leader of coronavirus response at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. The project is ramping up as quickly as possible, but it's not clear exactly when it will launch, he added. Among other things, software needs to be upgraded to handle the expected crush of requests, and a detailed questionnaire finalized for people who request tests. "Although there's a lot to be worked out, this has enormous potential to turn the tide of the epidemic," Dowell said.
The article points out that the kits "will reduce the need for sick people to visit a doctor's office or clinic, lowering the chance of exposing others."
The foundation has already committed up to $100 million to the global response to COVID-19, including up to $20 million to accelerate international efforts to control the spread, up to $20 million to help partners in sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia strengthen their response, and up to $60 million to kick-start the development of vaccines and treatments.
Good idea but... (Score:3)
Re: (Score:2)
Now sick people are all going to be handling mail, which I assume gets mixed in with other mail.. or am I missing something?
From the 2 hour delivery time for the kits, I'm guessing UberCorona will be doing the delivery and pickups.
FDA Changed a Policy (Score:2)
The FDA used to require an Emergency Use Authorization. [fda.gov]
That has been waived and private labs are allowed to move forward with Test Kits.
Re: (Score:2)
That would be great if it only lasts that long. But there are lots of reliable sources that say it can last for up to 7 days on plastic. Maybe you are thinking of the flu, since those numbers do apply to the flu.
Re: (Score:1)
You dumb fuck, you were here last week when we were linking the study saying 8+ days on plastic at 50% humidity.
That's how aliterate you are; even when you're spood-fed the data, you can't read it. You can only spew your own original "research."
Re: (Score:2)
No, not even if they were aliterate asshole aardvarks.
Re: (Score:2)
Yes. What you are missing is that COVID can survive for only about 30 minutes on a dry absorbent surface like paper or cardboard and for less than two hours on a non-absorbent surface like plastic.
Fake news and dangerous. Mod down. See sibling comments.
Re: (Score:3)
It's been reported that Covid-19 can survive up to three days on hard surfaces, from multiple sources...
Re: (Score:2)
Oh noes. It's much better sick people go out in public areas and sit around infecting everyone else in the queue at their local GP's office.
Bill cares... (Score:4, Interesting)
Bill Gates lives in the state that has had the most deaths from COVID-19 (Washington). Plus he's getting up there in age, making him a potential death statistic if the virus reaches him. Being an atheist, he doesn't get the benefit of eternal life in heaven -- when he dies, that's it, he's dead, kaput, finished!
Thus, it is in Bill's best interests for people to get tested and put themselves in quarantine so that the virus can't spread out and reach him.
YOU may not care, since you think COVID-19 will be no big deal, that you'll just get better on your own or that doctors will be available to save you, but OTHER people who are older, have other ailments, those that are trying to stay clear of this deadly virus for as long as possible who might be faced with overloaded hospitals that won't be able to accept them when they need care -- they don't have such luxury. For THEIR benefit, please, get tested and most importantly, self-isolate yourself when you turn up ill.
Re:Bill cares... (Score:4, Insightful)
Being an atheist, he doesn't get the benefit of eternal life in heaven -- when he dies, that's it, he's dead, kaput, finished!
I hate to break it to you, but it doesn't really matter what your beliefs are.
When you're dead, you're dead.
Fuck Musk. (Score:2)
Elon Musk made his fortune stealing from sex workers through morality clauses in the fine print of PayPal. He's a shitweasel of the lowest order, and nobody cares about his stupid drug trip.
Re: (Score:1)
Whether or not you believe in God, God believes in you. His penalties will apply regardless unless you accept His plan of salvation. It isn't just an eternal benefit plan.
Please stop with your horseshit and fairy tales.
If you want to know what happens after you die, go look at some dead stuff.
But let's suspend logic and facts and disbelief and pretend you're right. Can you answer any of these questions:
Can you play XBox in heaven?
Are there donuts?
How about sex? (Like, really kinky sex?)
Can you smoke pot in heaven? Drop LSD?
Is there music, like real music, not just gospel hymns?
Are there dogs in heaven?
What's the weather like there?
What will you do after the first 75 million
Re: (Score:1)
"Whatever you forbid on earth will be forbidden in heaven, and whatever you permit on earth will be permitted in heaven."
What if I don't forbid having sex with 10-year olds? Would that be permitted in heaven?
What if I don't forbid killing random strangers? Would that be permitted in heaven?
It sounds like there's donuts and kinky sex in heaven, according to you. And maybe kinky gay sex, since I don't forbid that here on earth. Have I got that right?
-
If you believe that God put us here for a reason, then cutting our time short by dying right now seems like an assault against God's will.
What a joke. Your all-powerful, omnipotent god is afraid of an "assault on his will" by me, a mere human? Is he that much of a snowflake? How could I do anything that would cause
Re: (Score:2)
If you permit these things, and you did somehow get to "heaven" where these things are now permitted because of your decisions, are you really in heaven? Or are you actually in hell?
The things you mention are all allowed in the bible. Heck, you can have sex with all your concubines AND your wives and it's all good. At least that's what the bible says.
And that's not even touching on the whole "slavery is okay" thing in the bible. How do you square that circle?
Re: (Score:2)
...crickets chirping...
Yeah, that's what I thought. Total silence because you're afraid. You don't want to have a hole poked in your god-bubble, do you?
Admit it- you're afraid to find out that I can actually do all sorts of things that your 'omnipotent' god can't do.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:1)
It is said that the container is only 640 kB in size
Re: (Score:1)
Re: (Score:2, Insightful)
Well, assuming you're under 50, don't have any preexisting condition like COPD, the question effectively boils down to this: why should you care about anyone else?
If you're, say, between the age of 30 and 39 and in good health, your chance of dying is about 0.2%. That's just a little bit larger than your lifetime chance of dying in a car accident. The difference is that coronavirus is contagious, and you can be part of a chain of transmission that reaches people who are a lot more vulnerable than you. Pe
Re: (Score:1)
Hospitals in parts of Italy have about a few weeks of still been able to still support that simple "go see a doctor" aspect of health care.
Great idea (Score:2)
People really do not like to go to doctors offices, so many will not - especially since in a fair number of people, the actual Covid symptoms could be mild but they would still be highly contagious. So best to make it as easy to know as possible if you should really avoid others.
But most everyone would be happy to take a test at home, and then they could figure out from there what made the most sense to do if they had it...
House Visits? (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Wouldn't it be better to just have doctors make house visits for collections?
No. You don't need four years of college, four more years of medical school, and years of residency training, to stick a cotton swab up someone's nose.
Re: (Score:3)
Re: (Score:3)
Wouldn't it be better to just have doctors make house visits for collections? That way only one trained professional is exposed, who knows how to stay safe.
Good idea. Then they could spread the virus to the entire population.
Re: (Score:1)
DNA, privacy (Score:1)
What happens to my DNA? What else do they screen for besides Coronavirus? Is the data retained by B&MG foundation and/or affiliates after being provided to a local health care provider? I can't help but look for ulterior motives.
Re: (Score:2)
What happens to my DNA? What else do they screen for besides Coronavirus? Is the data retained by B&MG foundation and/or affiliates after being provided to a local health care provider? I can't help but look for ulterior motives.
From the article, there is some more data they want to collect:
"Via online forms, infected people can answer questions about their movements and contacts, making it easier for health officials to locate others who may need to be tested or quarantined, as well as to track the virus’ spread and identify possible hot spots."
Re: (Score:3)
Soo... you think that the B&MG Foundation is going to sequence their DNA, look for possible genetic markers for other illnesses, and then sell that data to Google in Facebook (in some sort pseudo-anonomous data aggregate, naturally, because of HIPPA rules) so they can target those folks with medication ads?
That's pretty evil. I'm amazed that someone else didn't already think of it.
Re: (Score:2)
For one lucky donor, they will have the honor of bearing a close resemblance to the new soldiers of the Republic, er, Empire.
Fuck tracking sites (Score:3, Insightful)
Re: (Score:2)
You can't read an article by the Seattle Times, because you don't know how to install uBlock or NoScript? Smart way to interact with the world, yeah.
Re: (Score:2)
It works fine with a blocker, what exactly is your complaint?
Re: (Score:1)
Re: (Score:2)
Chinese Culture is the Catalyst fo the Coronavirus (Score:2, Insightful)
Beijing should subsidize the development of the home-testing kits because Chinese culture is the catalyst for spreading the coronavirus.
In an opinion piece [nytimes.com] published by the New York Times, an economics professor at Yamanashi Gakuin University (in Japan) explains how behavior which is endemic in Chinese culture facilitated the new coronavirus' spreading beyond the borders of China. He wrote, "As far as the current outbreak goes, two cultural factors help explain how the natural occurrence of a single virus
Chinese Culture is the Catalyst ... (Score:1)
Re: (Score:3)
Chinese do eat a lot of things that seem strange to Westerners, but eating bats is pretty rare even in China.
As for the culture of punishing the messenger, yes that does seem to have played a role in a delayed response early-on. At the same time, though, their communist government was able to mount an effort at spreading the virus that would be simply impossible in pretty much any other nation on earth.
Whether their response was appropriate will probably be debated for eons (I'm not particularly a fan-- loo
Re: (Score:1)
there are positives and negatives about Chinese culture in the context of this disease.
I'll give you that when the CCP decided to act, they were decisive and made some bold moves. But the root problem here is the CCP's enthusiastic promotion [economist.com] of traditional Chinese medicine in the first place. They love to promote ancient Chinese culture and then take credit for it.
Re: (Score:3)
So a free virus scanner.. (Score:2)
So a free virus scanner. Now for a catchy name, like people defender.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Oh, okay (Score:1)
Just send my personal information and DNA to Bill Gates, and if they decide I have the virus, I can expect to be contacted by local officials. A plan with no drawbacks, besides the whole fucking thing.
400 tests a day is orders of magnitude too small (Score:2)
OK here is the thing. Most people who get covid-19 will experience nothing worse than a common cold. However, because we have no immunity to this virus, someone with covid-19 who doesn't self-isolate will infect a lot of other people, of which, on average around 15% will need hospitalization. Apart from the actual work of tracking and testing which appears to have worked in Japan, to make difference you would need to test everyone with a common cold. At any particular time, around 5% of the population will
I think I'll write a novel called Coronavirus. (Score:2)
Bad idea (Score:2)