[ExI] Bill Gates on Covid: Most US Tests Are ‘Completely Garbage’

[spike at rainier66.com]

From: extropy-chat <extropy-chat-bounces at lists.extropy.org> On Behalf Of John Clark via extropy-chat



 

>>…I haven't seen such a test in a drugstore either, at least not in a drugstore in the USA.

 

> I don’t even know where I would get one. 

> Do you?

 

>…Yes I do. The European Union has approved and has been using three different rapid COVID-19 tests as early as March:

 

>…Why is the US so far behind on rapid testing for Covid-19? <https://qz.com/1889478/why-is-the-us-so-far-behind-on-rapid-testing-for-covid-19/> 

 

Well there ya go: order them from the European Union, problem solved.  Have you done it?  Neither have I.

 

Do you have a website where they are being sold?

 

I am not much of a believer in testing as a means of controlling covid because it isn’t fast enough even at 15 minutes, because we don’t have any way to compel everyone to take one.  We don’t have a good way to deal with false results, we don’t have a good way to enforce quarantine if positives are discovered.  We don’t even have a known way to prevent positives from using the virus as a weapon.

 

We are implementing fever-testing devices and masks over at the high school this week, but we might be fooling ourselves on the efficacy of that strategy.  Better than nothing I suppose.

 

> I know nothing and care nothing about the political leanings of Bill Gates,

 

>…Bill Gates has always been very diplomatic and apolitical (a bit too much in my humble opinion)… John K Clark

 

There is no too much in being too diplomatic or too apolitical, in my humbler than thou opinion.  John you should try it.  If you discover talent in those areas, go for the record in that: the grand championship of apolitical and diplomatic.  

 

If your results at the regionals look good, we can form a national diplomatic team for the big Apolitical Olympics, go for the gold in diplomacy.  We get Anders Sandberg and Eugen Leitl on our international apolitical relays, we would be a monster team.

 

Gates is influential because of his charity work.  I deeply admire that, and can relate to it.  

 

Testing our way out: I don’t think that will work, because not enough people will use it.  We can’t even get everyone to use vaccines that we know are effective and safer than not using it.  The fast kits are better than nothing of course, and I will use them once they show up or if I can order them.  Is there a site for the European kits?

 

We can recommend the tests, we can even give away the tests if we find enough money from somewhere.  But we can’t make the proles use it and we can’t force them into quarantine if they test positive.  We can’t even make them turn over their test results.

 

That deafening roar is the sound of thousands of atheists silently praying.

 

spike

 

 

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