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The U.S. Food and Drug Administration issued Emergency Use Authorization to Illinois-based medical device maker Abbott Labs on Friday for a coronavirus test that delivers positive results in as little as five minutes and negative results in 13 minutes, the company said.
The company expects the tests to be available next week and expects to ramp up manufacturing to deliver 50,000 tests per day.
"I am pleased that the FDA authorized Abbott's point-of-care test yesterday. This is big news and will help get more of these tests out in the field rapidly," FDA Commissioner Steve Hahn said in a statement. "We know how important it is to get point-of-care tests out in the field quickly. These tests that can give results quickly can be a game changer in diagnosing COVID-19."
Scott Gottlieb, former FDA commissioner, echoed Hahn's comments on Twitter, calling the development a "game changer." Gottlieb also said it's "very likely" that we'll see additional approvals of point-of-care diagnostics behind this one, extending testing to doctor offices across the U.S.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday March 30 2020, @04:33PM (3 children)
Arm chair doctors spew personal opinion as fact; everyone else wishes the arrogant twats would stop being ignorant blowhards. Not news to anyone, editor declined submission.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday March 30 2020, @06:27PM (2 children)
Yeah, let's trust the real figures, directly from the CDC.
Most recent figures of COVID-19:
140904 cases diagnosed
2405 dead
https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/cases-updates/cases-in-us.html [cdc.gov]
Most recent figures for the seasonal flu:
400000 hospitalizations at minimum
24000 at least dead
https://www.cdc.gov/flu/about/burden/preliminary-in-season-estimates.htm [cdc.gov]
Happy to provide.
(Score: 2, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Monday March 30 2020, @07:44PM (1 child)
You're comparing a known disease to unknown, and then you're comparing numbers from the last month or so to the entire flu season.
You have highlighted exactly why no one should listen to your opinion, or anyone else who wants to claim this pandemic is a nothing-burger. Your point is dumb anyway, because the flu kills lots of people we shouldn't do anything about a new more lethal virus? Rhetorical question, you're an idiot who is buying the "save the economy" freakout from all the billionaires that don't want their profits to suffer.
The scariest thing for the oligarchs is that everyone might realize how unnecessary this profit machines are and how skewed our societies priorities have become by allowing the oligarchs to put profits above human life. Gobsmacking dumb.
(Score: 0, Disagree) by Anonymous Coward on Monday March 30 2020, @09:00PM
I did not post any opinion, I posted the most recent numbers that the organization of our government tasked with disease response has. While it is true that the flu season has been tracked since October, Covid-19 has been in transmission since at least January.
If there is anything I would want to say, it is that even an average seasonal flu is on track to beat Covid-19 in number of lives lost, now that we are approaching the end of cold season.
The economy has been shut down for 3 weeks already, and today we had like 20000 new cases? In a country of 400 million, so far 140000 in total diagnosed and only 2500 in total dead?
I guess you're one of those salaried middle class people on a staycation. You may not (yet) worry whether your next paycheck is going to come. Look around and I'll bet you see many of the people that used to serve you now ejected onto unemployment payments. The upcoming $1500 government checks probably won't last you and your family very long.
99% of the people will be fine from the disease. The worst we can do is shut down the world and imperil millions of workers and businesses in a misguided attempt to protect a few 100k that are likely to die soon of another disease anyway.