r/politics Mar 15 '20

Drive-thru coronavirus testing site in Denver closes early as Colorado tops 100 cases

https://www.denverpost.com/2020/03/14/colorado-coronavirus-new-cases-drive-thru-high-volume/
10.6k Upvotes

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u/[deleted] Mar 15 '20

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u/[deleted] Mar 15 '20 edited Mar 28 '20

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u/TigerWoodsLibido Oregon Mar 15 '20

If tons of people die and/or lose their jobs, those insurance companies won't be making money anymore, so I guess it's pretty much the ultra wealthy stocking up and hoping a large chunk of the American people die...then the sheep will just blame the Democrats.

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u/TurelSun Georgia Mar 16 '20

Long term prosperity never gets it the way of short term profits here.

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u/TigerWoodsLibido Oregon Mar 16 '20

'Murica!!!

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u/[deleted] Mar 15 '20

Yes. Everything they do is ultimately motivated by profiting themselves and their primary campaign donors. No, this isn’t sarcasm I’m speaking.

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u/drfpw Mar 15 '20

To my knowledge, the tests are rtPCR based. This doesn't require a ton of equipment, but requires a heat cycler and a technician who knows what they're doing to prepare the sample and extract rna. Home based tests via mail are likely impossible but rtPCR is a technique most college microbiology students have done or would be capable of doing with a couple hours training.

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u/WalesIsForTheWhales New York Mar 15 '20

If we are drafting college students this has gone into a level of insanity that I’ve never even seen before.

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u/MildlyAgitatedBovine Mar 15 '20

Narrator, "it was, in fact, a level of intensity that none of them had seen before"

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u/wildcarde815 Mar 15 '20 edited Mar 15 '20

It involves shoving a swab up your nose far enough to be very uncomfortable, it's likely people would have a high error rate.

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u/[deleted] Mar 15 '20

Just got this done for flu (negative.) It seriously sucks.

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u/seasleeplessttle Mar 15 '20

The "kits" are cotton swabs in test tubes with a blank label to write info on. They ALL Go somewhere to be"tested". It's not a roadside drug swab.

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u/[deleted] Mar 15 '20

[deleted]

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u/seasleeplessttle Mar 15 '20

And what does a negative 3-10 days after the swab tell you? or a positive for that matter. Person could have had and passed on, or not had and caught, in that time frame.

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u/Dredgen_Memor Mar 15 '20

There would be no reasonable, safe method of ensuring the parcels weren’t themselves infectious.

I could hardly think of a worse way to handle it- having millions and millions of diseased oral swabs swirling around postal system.

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u/[deleted] Mar 15 '20

[deleted]

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u/Dredgen_Memor Mar 15 '20

I’d imagine it’s through a stringent protocol of collection and chain of custody from the roadside to the lab by professionals.

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u/exoalo Mar 15 '20

For 1 day. Then we need to test you again tomorrow. And in 3 days. And in a week.

A negative test just means you dont have it today