
South Korea's drive-through testing for coronavirus - helloworld
https://www.npr.org/sections/goatsandsoda/2020/03/13/815441078/south-koreas-drive-through-testing-for-coronavirus-is-fast-and-free
======
ghevshoo
The situation in Stockholm, Sweden right now is:

“You who have symptoms similar to coronavirus will not be tested in the
future. This applies regardless of whether you have been in the areas that
were previously exposed to infection or had close contact with someone you
know is ill in covid-19.”

There are no test kits. Hospitals have run out of face masks. And it’s only
just getting started here.

~~~
MaCorona
One could built UV-Lightmasks.

A transparent hose, add UV-LEDS to sterilize the flowing air. Dry the air at
the start with silica gel. All that is needed then is a battery.

The silica gel can be heated every once in a while to loose any moisture bound
it and sterilize virus particles attached to it.

~~~
steve_adams_86
You'd need a specific wavelength (265nm seems to be the standard) and they get
pretty expensive. A UV LED from adafruit or sparkfun will probably not be
sufficient.

At a glance they sell LEDs around 400nm which from my cursory reading wouldn't
be effective for what you're imagining.

Not to say this would never work. Just that you would need special parts that
are less common and more expensive by orders of magnitude.

I've also read that sterilizing very fast moving air doesn't work well. It
seems HVAC systems use extremely intense light order to be effective in these
conditions, which a small LED (or a few) wouldn't accomplish.

------
helloworld
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."

~~~
malandrew
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
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.

~~~
tathougies
I mean, the CEO and the employees are literally part of the free market.

~~~
Swenrekcah
Sure, but he’s saying it wasn’t market forces that motivated them but their
sense of civic duty.

That is something that “the market” often lacks in their relentless pursuit of
shareholder value.

~~~
tathougies
> That is something that “the market” often lacks in their relentless pursuit
> of shareholder value.

This is nuts. The market doesn't pursue shareholder value. Corporations do.
However, the market, which consists of consumers and small producers as much
as corporations, certainly does not always, as is seen in consumers (and
frankly corporations as well) oftentimes irrational behavior.

~~~
Swenrekcah
I concur that my statement is not entirely accurate, but if we apply the same
nuance to the general sentiment I was replying to, surely we will conclude
that we should absolutely not rely upon “the market” to prepare for and carry
out disaster response.

------
itcrowd
_The_ questions to ask for any test:

\- What is the false positive rate?

\- What is the false negative rate?

\- Considering the above, what is the efficacy of mass testing?

(Not saying it is or isn't effective, hard numbers are necessary)

~~~
sho74
Yup I have been wondering about this too. If my community has 10 beds and 2
docs what is anyone supposed to do if there are 100 positives?

Other weird thought I had was how does security deal with some lunatic who
gets tested positive and runs around infecting others...just walks into some
critical hub like a hospital and pat's everyone on the back.

~~~
mattnewton
> Yup I have been wondering about this too. If my community has 10 beds and 2
> docs what is anyone supposed to do if there are 100 positives?

Pick the 10 most likely to develop complications due to age or comorbidity and
quarantine the rest so that you don’t get 200 more next week. We’re still in
the “stop the bleeding” phase of treatment.

~~~
scrollaway
Triage usually dictates that the ones most likely to die from the illness,
especially if they're old, get lower priority than those that can be treated
at a greater success rate, and who are more likely to live longer and
healthier as a result.

This is the procedure at most hospitals. You give the beds to those who need
them, and are most likely to "make good use" of them (= not "waste" them by
likely dying anyway; sorry for the atrocious wording)

~~~
mattnewton
Sure; the idea is that testing allows officials to make decisions about how
best to use the resource you have, both in terms of hospital beds and
quarantine.

------
dba7dba
I don't have the link but I read Seegene is providing about 80% of the
coronavirus test kits used in Korea currently.

1\. CNN article (March 12, 2020) on Seegene
[https://www.cnn.com/2020/03/12/asia/coronavirus-south-
korea-...](https://www.cnn.com/2020/03/12/asia/coronavirus-south-korea-
testing-intl-hnk/index.html)

The CNN text article is actually pretty good article and also the video is
good. The company reports they used AI to speed up the development. They were
able to accomplish it in 2 - 3 weeks with a few people instead of 2 - 3 months
with many more staffers getting involved.

From the CNN article

 _The firm is making about 10,000 kits a week and each kit can test 100
patients. So it is making enough to test one million patients each week, at a
cost of under $20 per test._

Seegene is now looking to export of the excess capacity to 30 countries
including Germany and Italy.

2\. Below is 2017 video of a mini-seminar of Seegene's solution platform at a
trade show.
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RKL5D19r6t8](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RKL5D19r6t8)

The last part shows that they have a software solution for helping faster
diagnosis.

As a layman, I felt Seegene's product focus is on getting as many tests done
as possible by using following: \- One test vial can test multiple issues \-
Integrating barcode/software to allow faster diagnosis

3\. I frankly don't understand why FDA can't approve Seegene's product into
US. It's not like people will be injected with liquid/medicine.

~~~
ecf
For #3, it’s because the contract for making the official test for the US is
going to be awarded to a friend of someone in the committee, and they have to
wait for said friend to have tests ready.

------
ck2
Korea gear approach:

[https://media.npr.org/assets/img/2020/03/13/gettyimages-1205...](https://media.npr.org/assets/img/2020/03/13/gettyimages-1205553157_custom-5c12d569a8ea0724b74b972034ad3ba5b62557e7-s1200-c85.jpg)

Europe (and likely USA)

[https://static01.nyt.com/images/2020/03/12/upshot/12up-
healt...](https://static01.nyt.com/images/2020/03/12/upshot/12up-
healthcovid/merlin_170345880_ab07006f-7c0f-49c4-938d-f6850badf9a9-jumbo.jpg)

Leaning into the car with facemask down. Should end well.

------
ck2
I wonder if Walmart completely thought out what is going to happen when they
turn their parking lots into drive-up testing, implying that every sick person
with a fever is going to be in a Walmart parking lot soon.

~~~
claudeganon
With exponential growth of the disease, lack of testing, and poor healthcare
infrastructure in the US, that would’ve happened anyway when people needed
groceries. I guess they decided they might as well cash in on some testing
stations.

~~~
blhack
Are they cashing in somehow? Or do you mean cashing in in the sense that they
have a massive, existential financial interest in this going away as quickly
as possible?

~~~
claudeganon
Details of the arrangement aren’t clear. They’re stock shot up about ten
points after the announcement though.

~~~
jcheng
The stock market as a whole was up 10%.

------
ta999999171
Will Korea sell us tests?

Will anyone? Has this been discussed anywhere?

~~~
claudeganon
The administration turned away from the German designed/WHO standard tests
everyone else is using, so I don’t think any international ones are FDA
approved.

Today’s presser sure gave me the impression that the delay in testing was so
they could roll out this nebulous private-public partnership drive through
testing and I guess boost CVS’ stock price or something.

~~~
xienze
> they could roll out this nebulous private-public partnership drive through
> testing

Realistically, how would you envision tests on this scale being performed? In
theory, it’s a great plan. Pretty much everyone in the US is close to a
Walmart/CVS/Target. Drive up, get swabbed, check results online. Fast and
minimal human interaction. The implementation remains to be seen but I can’t
imagine the alternative of having everyone rush doctor’s offices and hospitals
working very well.

~~~
claudeganon
How they’re being performed in South Korea or any other country that’s doing
tests at scale? American exceptionalism falls apart when countries around the
world are outperforming your response.

~~~
2snakes
According to the record by Mark Green from Tennessee, the test that South
Korea is using was denied because of inadequacy by the FDA in the USA, and
that test will not even be used for emergency purposes.

[https://www.c-span.org/video/?470277-1/federal-health-
offici...](https://www.c-span.org/video/?470277-1/federal-health-officials-
testify-coronavirus-outbreak-response&start=3811#)

------
ggffryuuj
I just finished listening to a veteran virologist give a 2 hour interview.
It’s being blown way out of proportion. Nobody under the age of 9 has died,
period. Under the age of 30 your mortality probability is vanishingly small.
It’s only a threat to people who have a compromised immune system because of
age, diabetes or something like that. This is nothing like the Spanish flu.
Unlike influenza viruses, these viruses don’t mutate in a way that would cause
their recurrence every year. The chances of a more deadly strain popping up
are extremely small.

I listened to trump address the nation in the rose garden live today. The npr
correspondent confidently said that this virus “isn’t going away.” It’s a flat
out lie and hysteria.

~~~
DeepThoughts
Would love to see your sources. I’m shocked there are still people like you
claiming this is all an overreaction while the smart folk are all bracing for
impact.

You gotta get it together man, this is bigger than anything you’ve ever seen
in your life. If we’re very lucky it’ll be bad in the coming weeks and months,
if we’re not it’ll be much much worse.

~~~
ggffryuuj
I would love to see a source that contradicts what I said. My source is the
testimony of a virologist with 40 years of experience and other qualified
people. I’m sorry to be blunt but there simply isn’t anything to brace for.
The worst case scenario is that a very small number of people die before herd
immunity slows the spread to nothing, after which the virus will basically
disappear probably before we even have a vaccine for it. That’s what happened
with Zika and some others. That’s what’s going to happen here. The number of
people who die will be similar to deaths from the flu, car accidents and other
things. Can you offer a single substantive counter argument to anything I’ve
said? I will enjoy reading it.

~~~
jariel
" I’m sorry to be blunt but there simply isn’t anything to brace for."

This is appallingly wrong.

If you're commenting here on HN and referring to legit medical sources, then
you're also smart enough to see what has happened in Wuhan and Italy where
hospitals are completely overwhelmed, where triaging is leaving many people
_without any care_. Over 65? Comorbidities? Sorry, 'just die' or hopefully
not, is the medical response because they are overwhelmed.

That under 30 are less likely to die is irrelevant when most of the population
is >50 and the rate of spread, the severity of cases is such that health
services are completely overwhelmed.

Hospitals around the world are facing 'Denial of Service' attacks and
everything is crumbling.

The way to make this survivable is to control the spread of the disease so as
to make care available and give enough time for rapid trials etc..

"The worst case scenario is that a very small number of people die before herd
immunity slows the spread to nothing"

No! The 'worst-case scenario' is 10's of millions of infected, (possibly over
100 million in the US), 1000-to-1 infected to ventilator ratio, total and
complete overwhelming of US medical services, several million dead, 10's of
millions out of work and isolated for many weeks, unable to work, contribute,
teach, provide medical services, run the 'toilet paper factory', etc..

Literally the _worst disaster in US history_ \- worse than WW2 or the Civil
War (~2% death rate) in terms of domestic turbulence.

Now - add in how many people are going to die from 'regular things' because
the healthcare system is null.

~~~
ggffryuuj
Appalling. That’s so funny. The morbidity rate is far less than 3%. Most
people who get it probably don’t even realize they have it which makes the
numbers look worse than they are. Look I’m not saying nothing should be done.
If nothing were done the. We might see something that vaguely resembles what
you are describing. If people wouldn’t panic and if antibiotics were
prescribed remotely and if people did a few basic things like wash their hands
and stay at home if they have a preexisting medical condition, then basically
nothing would happen. The only one we don’t have is a lack of panic. People
are trying to see their doctors and get tests while they have no symptoms. I’m
sorry man but you’re wrong this time.

~~~
jariel
>>> "We might see something that vaguely resembles what you are describing."

No, there's a 100% chance we will see it if we don't take measures. _Watch the
news_ from Wuhan, Italy - it's apoplectic. It's really bad, and if they didn't
shut everything down, it would be a zombie movie.

We know that 'shutting things down' works because in China, the virus is
contained, at least for now and medical facilities are starting to be able to
cope.

>>> "The morbidity rate is far less than 3%"

Source? Because every credible source and the data coming out of various
countries puts the rate at somewhere near 3%, not 'far less than' 3%. Some
facts [1]

Even a 1.5% death rate is existentially problematic, we're still talking
_millions_ of people dead.

Moreover, if you bother to look at the data, you'll see that _morbidity rates
are a function of access to care_ , meaning that when Hospitals are
'overwhelmed' \- people die at much greater rates. In Italy, it's 5%.

But there's a bigger issue: 20% of people who get it requires specific medical
intervention, and at least 5% of them 'intensive care'. COVID is totally
overwhelming medical the medical system in 100% of the areas wherein the
contagion has let loose; people getting zero treatment, medical staff getting
infected, people dying in the hallways, in their homes.

FYI 20% of 330M Americans is 66M people, only a fraction of whom need to be
infected for 'zombie apocalypse' in the Hospitals, again: see Italy, Wuhan for
what will happen.

>>> Antibiotics?? Antibiotics are not part of this equation.

>>> "and if people did a few basic things like wash their hands and stay at
home if they have a preexisting medical condition, then basically nothing
would happen. "

No - absolutely not. Having a few people 'wash their hands' and having the
elderly 'stay home' will do very little to quash the pandemic.

The evidence from other countries is writ large, the variables are
established: extensive testing, restricted travel, social distancing,
isolation for any sick person, aggressive operational preparation by medical
staff, keeping social order, restriction on large scale events etc. etc..

This is the 'new normal' for at least a few months.

[1] [https://medium.com/@tomaspueyo/coronavirus-act-today-or-
peop...](https://medium.com/@tomaspueyo/coronavirus-act-today-or-people-will-
die-f4d3d9cd99ca)

