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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

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."

desert_boi 7y ago
It was announced that Idaho could test 800 to 1000 people. Not a day, total. The state has a population of 1.8 million people. It is the only state with no confirmed cases besides West Virginia, as of this morning. > It takes anywhere from hours to days to get test results. A doctor with a patient in Boise could have results in a matter of hours, because of proximity to the state laboratory. But samples that go to private labs in Utah and Washington take longer, due to shipping time and the hours it takes to run the tests. https://www.idahostatesman.com/living/health-fitness/article241141751.html https://www.idahostatesman.com/living/health-fitness/article...
- colmvp 7y ago
  Meanwhile in Oklahoma: > The coronavirus tests run on the Utah Jazz’s players and team employees came from a good portion of the state of Oklahoma’s supply. > The 50-plus tests that were run on the Jazz’s traveling party after Rudy Gobert tested positive for COVID-19 were from the state and not a private lab. And the number of tests run on Jazz players represents over half of the state’s daily peak capacity testing levels. > “We have the capacity to run about 100 tests a day and we have a number of test kits,” Oklahoma commissioner of health Gary Cox said at a Thursday news conference. “We're ordering additional reagents at the time. So, we have the current capacity I think for about 300 tests.” Oklahoma has had three positive cases of the virus so far with four still pending. Thirty-six tests have returned negative.
  - Mountain_Skies 7y ago
    State and municipal governments have invested heavily in professional sports teams with payback coming only via economic activity from their games being played. From the state's point of view, they're protecting their investment and trying to get it generating revenue again. Of course these "investments" in sports teams by state and local governments are about as logical as investing in lottery scratch off tickets but politicians love getting their governments entangled with the finances of the local pro sports team and being able to boast to sports loving voters that they're the reason why the town has a team.
malandrew 7y ago
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.
- clairity 7y ago
  it wasn't "the market" that solved this problem. it was the employees, including the ceo, at that company who felt a duty to the rest of the country, not to some market opportunity, that effected the result. bureaucracies, including corporate ones (see: innovator's dilemma), are typically not nimble enough to respond to rapidly changing circumstances. it's not a market vs government (false) dichotomy.
  - malandrew 7y ago
    > it was the employees, including the ceo, at that company that is the market doing its thing. The CEO made that decision 4 days before South Korea had its first case.
  - graeme 7y ago
    If you ban private companies from making tests, then people like that CEO are blocked from trying. The market is just shorthand for people.
  - tathougies 7y ago
    I mean, the CEO and the employees are literally part of the free market.
    - Swenrekcah 7y ago

desert_boi 7y ago

It was announced that Idaho could test 800 to 1000 people. Not a day, total. The state has a population of 1.8 million people. It is the only state with no confirmed cases besides West Virginia, as of this morning. > It takes anywhere from hours to days to get test results. A doctor with a patient in Boise could have results in a matter of hours, because of proximity to the state laboratory. But samples that go to private labs in Utah and Washington take longer, due to shipping time and the hours it takes to run the tests. https://www.idahostatesman.com/living/health-fitness/article241141751.html https://www.idahostatesman.com/living/health-fitness/article...

colmvp 7y ago
Meanwhile in Oklahoma: > The coronavirus tests run on the Utah Jazz’s players and team employees came from a good portion of the state of Oklahoma’s supply. > The 50-plus tests that were run on the Jazz’s traveling party after Rudy Gobert tested positive for COVID-19 were from the state and not a private lab. And the number of tests run on Jazz players represents over half of the state’s daily peak capacity testing levels. > “We have the capacity to run about 100 tests a day and we have a number of test kits,” Oklahoma commissioner of health Gary Cox said at a Thursday news conference. “We're ordering additional reagents at the time. So, we have the current capacity I think for about 300 tests.” Oklahoma has had three positive cases of the virus so far with four still pending. Thirty-six tests have returned negative.
- Mountain_Skies 7y ago
  State and municipal governments have invested heavily in professional sports teams with payback coming only via economic activity from their games being played. From the state's point of view, they're protecting their investment and trying to get it generating revenue again. Of course these "investments" in sports teams by state and local governments are about as logical as investing in lottery scratch off tickets but politicians love getting their governments entangled with the finances of the local pro sports team and being able to boast to sports loving voters that they're the reason why the town has a team.

malandrew 7y ago

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.

clairity 7y ago
it wasn't "the market" that solved this problem. it was the employees, including the ceo, at that company who felt a duty to the rest of the country, not to some market opportunity, that effected the result. bureaucracies, including corporate ones (see: innovator's dilemma), are typically not nimble enough to respond to rapidly changing circumstances. it's not a market vs government (false) dichotomy.
- malandrew 7y ago
  > it was the employees, including the ceo, at that company that is the market doing its thing. The CEO made that decision 4 days before South Korea had its first case.
- graeme 7y ago
  If you ban private companies from making tests, then people like that CEO are blocked from trying. The market is just shorthand for people.
- tathougies 7y ago
  I mean, the CEO and the employees are literally part of the free market.
  - Swenrekcah 7y ago