COVID19 Factors We Should Consider/Current Events

[Mark Rippetoe]

BIRTH OF A VIRUS … – Regie's Blog

[Yngvi]

The FDA, NIH and CDC have a combined budget of ~$50 billion annually.

It has taken them 3 months to develop and begin distributing a Covid-19 test. (A simple qPCR test that should cost less than 50 cents per kit to produce.)


Would anyone in their right mind ever consider giving more money to a private company that produced results so poor?

[johnst_nhb]

The FDA, NIH and CDC have a combined budget of ~$50 billion annually.

It has taken them 3 months to develop and begin distributing a Covid-19 test. (A simple qPCR test that should cost less than 50 cents per kit to produce.)


Would anyone in their right mind ever consider giving more money to a private company that produced results so poor?

Maybe I’m ignorant, hell, I am. But 3 months seems pretty quick when it comes to this stuff. And more importantly, where are you getting the 50 cents number?

[CommanderFun]

3 months IS quick as far as this thing getting across the world like it has. It's sneaky, and only China has had the most long term contact with it. But we can't trust their findings on anything worth a damn, since it's not out of the realm of possibility that they made it to begin with and it got loose due to their legendary diligence. For making and distributing a test? I don't know about that. I'm not an epidemiologist, or any sort of medical professional. But a test seems to have existed for some time, and it seems like major population areas should absolutely have gotten some. Instead, here in New York, JUST NOW are they finally able to test and turning up positives. That's insane, considering this bug has potentially been here for 2-3 months. Doesn't surprise me to see federal agencies overfunded for the work they do though. Whenever the federal government funds anything it ends up paying way too much for what we actually get from it. It just ends up being too big and with too many cracks the money leaks into.

[Nockian]

Capitalism, full fat, real laissez faire capitalism is the way forward. Absolutely right. However, not just because it incidentally produces better outcomes, but because it is the only moral political system in which it is practical for rational beings to live.

[jfsully]

Well, the second test kit may cost 50 cents, but the first one costs quite a bit more to design and test. How sensitive and specific should it be? How many similar coronaviruses should it identify as COVID-19 for the purposes of a “positive” test? They have to get this right, because unlike in China, our government agencies, as unwieldy and inefficient as they are, are still tenuously accountable to us. This is a major reason why the response to and the impact of this virus will be different here.

[Oso Rojo]

Plus add in the fact that after three months the test don't work correctly.
Coronavirus: US CDC finds some test kits sent to states are faulty

Why did the CDC develop their own test that tends to fail when WHO already had a working test? This doesn't create confidence in the CDC.

[Fulcrum]

And more importantly, where are you getting the 50 cents number?

that is a theatrical cost to have the test kits made








in China

[Yngvi]

This is not new or slow technology.

There are thousands of Ph.D students who could figure out how to do it effectively in about a week.

[johnst_nhb]

This is not new or slow technology.

There are thousands of Ph.D students who could figure out how to do it effectively in about a week.

Figuring out how to do it is not the hard or slow part.