
Coronavirus testing using binary search method - SailingSperm
Would getting fluid samples from 2 groups of say 50 people, combining the samples and testing that, then keep halving and testing recursively the groups  that return positive, be a viable way of testing large sums of people with far fewer tests than individual person by person tests.<p>I&#x27;m not very familiar with all the tests run, but surely something like this could be applied to the antibody one?<p>Would love to hear if anyone with more knowledge of the testing process and capabilities could give their thoughts...
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danieltillett
Yes. There are a whole lot of approaches that are far more efficient way of
doing pooled tests.

There have been around half a dozen pre-print papers published on this concept
in the COVID-19 section of biorxiv in the past couple of weeks [0].

0\.
[https://connect.biorxiv.org/relate/content/181](https://connect.biorxiv.org/relate/content/181)

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redis_mlc
Testing in the US is a waste of time because of our lack of coordination, and
the very contagious nature of corona.

What point is there in testing somebody if they can catch it on the next trip
to the grocery store? Do you test them after every grocery run?

Let nature run its course, like every other flu season.

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MiroF
This kills considerably more people than the flu, please stop making the
comparison.

