Potential Game Changer for Covid (and sports)
‘The Food and Drug Administration on Saturday authorized emergency use of a new and inexpensive saliva test for Covid-19 that could greatly expand testing capacity.
The new test, which is called SalivaDirect and was developed by researchers at the Yale School of Public Health, allows saliva samples to be collected in any sterile container. It is a much less invasive process than the nasal swabs currently used to test for the virus that causes Covid-19, but one that has so far yielded highly sensitive and similar results. The test, which also avoids a key step that has caused shortages of chemical reagents used in other tests, can run approximately 90 samples in fewer than three hours in a lab, although the number can be greater in big labs with automation.’
For society as a whole, quick test results significantly improves the effectiveness of contact tracing, allowing us to identify clusters before they spread. For sports, it allows for significantly greater assurance that players on the court/field are not infected and also helps stop intra-team outbreaks before they spread.
The NBA helped fund the research and also participated in the testing.
August 16th, 2020 at 8:21 PM ^
"But muh freedomz!!!!"
This is wonderful news IF we can get same group of selfish idiots that refuse to wear masks to agree to get tested and then self quarantine if positive.
August 16th, 2020 at 8:25 PM ^
It's done, man. No putting this genie back in the bottle. I'm 100% convinced after reading the "school" thread a little while ago. We're all gonna get this shit.
August 16th, 2020 at 9:05 PM ^
I bought a bunch of N95 masks and surgical gloves when they finally became available (for 3x the pre pandemic price).
Not perfect protection, but with some diligence and a bunch of luck my family can avoid it until there's a vaccine.
People that have to work indoors or with the public are probably fucked though.
August 16th, 2020 at 9:12 PM ^
The gloves are a complete waste because the virus is airborne. Touching your face with gloves is the same as touching your face with your hands. Just saying. The masks, however, are the way to go.
As for “People that have to work indoors or with the public are probably fucked though,” what do you mean by fucked? This thing has a 99#+ survival rate. Almost half don’t even develop symptoms.
August 16th, 2020 at 9:17 PM ^
93% agreed on the gloves. Focus should generally be elsewhere.
August 16th, 2020 at 9:18 PM ^
I don't touch my face and I use hand sanitizer on the gloves before I remove them. OCD has come in handy this year.
Also how about a source on that survival rate? The last time I saw the math on total infections v total deaths it was in the 3.5% range. Not to mention the very serious health consequences that don't result in death. Like my cousin's stroke.
August 17th, 2020 at 11:48 AM ^
Distorted by unknown number of actual cases. 50% of cases are asymptomatic.
August 16th, 2020 at 9:46 PM ^
Yeah, we're well stocked on PPE as well, and use it. But eventually, 95% protection isn't enough. And most people don't have N95 masks, and still can't buy them (not real ones anyway). I have a source to get them, so my circle is covered.
August 17th, 2020 at 3:21 AM ^
And almost no one knows how to properly fit test and apply a N95 mask. There is also a fair number of people that cannot be properly fitted due to facial structure even with a close shave daily.
August 16th, 2020 at 8:25 PM ^
SalivaDirect is the brand name. The Loogie is the generic.
August 16th, 2020 at 8:27 PM ^
Everybody I've seen in public (here in rural VA) is wearing a mask and social distancing. This isn't the most liberal of locales in VA.
August 16th, 2020 at 8:52 PM ^
Eh count yourself lucky. A guy I work with decided to throw a birthday party for his wife. Roughly 60 people showed up and I was told roughly 75% weren’t wearing masks. They’re very much part of the “muh freedumbs” crowd. Others I know refuse to wear masks with the exception of places they’re required to by the business owner.
August 16th, 2020 at 9:01 PM ^
Where do you live?
August 16th, 2020 at 10:01 PM ^
Probably Hell. Hell, MI that is. Just an educated guess.
August 16th, 2020 at 10:30 PM ^
You, sir, are on a roll tonight. :-)
August 17th, 2020 at 4:56 AM ^
Well I live about an hour from where he does. He’s in the Livonia area.
August 16th, 2020 at 8:55 PM ^
Rarely since March have I not seen many people without a mask. This was after Fauci initially said you don't need one if you don't have symptoms. There are even people driving or outside alone wearing one which is bizarre. I can't wait for the future study on the actual positive case numbers etc. Maybe we will get the real truth.
August 16th, 2020 at 9:08 PM ^
Those people are using the masks properly. In order to avoid transmission, a mask must be put on correctly and removed carefully. People constantly touching their masks and taking them on and off are doing it wrong.
Mask goes on before I go in the store. Mask comes off when I get home.
August 16th, 2020 at 9:13 PM ^
Mine comes off when I get in the car. My one son wears his in the car on the way home.
August 16th, 2020 at 9:21 PM ^
I'd rather people err on the side of caution, but getting a big helping of virus after touching your mask after touching something else that someone else touched, well ... I'm a whole lot more worried about some unmasked cretin breathing in my vicinity.
August 17th, 2020 at 8:09 AM ^
I read that wearing a mask while driving is the leading cause of beta male syndrome.
August 17th, 2020 at 7:58 AM ^
Can confirm the mask and rural VA thing... Most people, now, are wearing masks everywhere, especially inside stores. There are still the occasional people that think they have a monopoly on the flag. And this is decidedly not a 'liberal' area of the state.
August 16th, 2020 at 8:47 PM ^
Stay in your basement until Sleepy Joe tells you it is safe to come out.
August 16th, 2020 at 8:55 PM ^
They aren't asking you to stay in a basement, they're asking you to wear a mask and try to keep your distance from people. Jeez
August 16th, 2020 at 9:03 PM ^
Trump apparently told Herman Cain it was safe to come out.
August 16th, 2020 at 9:25 PM ^
Sleepy Joe, is our only hope, Obi Wan.
August 16th, 2020 at 11:03 PM ^
Sleepy joe doesn’t have to say a thing since he isn’t the president who dropped the ball on pandemic response .
August 16th, 2020 at 9:05 PM ^
Is it fun just posting shit you know will get upvotes? This doesn't even really relate at all to the post.
August 16th, 2020 at 8:55 PM ^
How long until these new tests are available on a large enough scale to make a difference?
August 16th, 2020 at 8:59 PM ^
Instant accurate scalable testing is the single most important issue right now
August 16th, 2020 at 9:31 PM ^
You're right. That's why South Korea had that down by March. Also tracing and isolating.
Also, since I won't make a new post for it, cases in Korea have gone up. They reached triple digits (OMG!) for the first time since February or March. Conservative churches (shocker) have been protesting. There were a lot of people in central Seoul protesting on Saturday, although some things were unrelated, such as new housing legislation.
August 16th, 2020 at 11:31 PM ^
Yes, Korea's cases have been on the rise. So have Japan's and Australia and even New Zealand over the last week or so. Nothing like the US yet, but have you read what these places are doing to try to keep a lid on things?
I'm fine with 90% of the measures we've done here in the US, although I can do without the blatant lieing and scare tactics the lefties use to try to execute them. The crap these other countries do is truly totalitarian.
A month or so ago Australia locked down a whole public housing block with 500 or so police due to an outbreak. You could go in, but not leave. New Zealand is postponing their election due to less than a 100 cases.
You can only imagine how either of those would fly here.
August 17th, 2020 at 8:12 AM ^
I'll be more than happy to don a full hazmat suit to cast my ballot, if that's what it takes.
"...the blatant lieing and scare tactics the lefties use..."
LOL!!! The Liar in Chief... There is one person in our government who consistently, repeatedly, and daily lies through his teeth to this country - including to his supporters. This has been proven and verified ad-nauseam for four years. How anyone still believes anything from him is beyond my comprehension. That some people continue to believe the things he says is a statement as to how simple people are.
August 17th, 2020 at 10:09 AM ^
Dude, 4 years? Are you 20? Trump has been lieing since the 80s. I couldn't vote for him in 16 because I knew he was shyster from way back. That doesn't suddenly make it ok for the other side to be just as egregious.
August 17th, 2020 at 2:33 PM ^
Yes he was always a liar and con man. So then why do you repeat his talking points like “lying lefties.” You must already know his first go to tactic is to falsely accuse someone else of doing exactly what he is trying to get away with. And he knows if he repeats bull shit enough it eventually starts to sound like the truth. So get your shit together.
August 17th, 2020 at 10:43 AM ^
And of course no response on the important parts of my post, just deflecting to who is lying more.
We couldn't do what is needed to contain the Covid here even in your wildest socialist fantasies. That is not how America is wired. We aren't these other countries, with the positives and negatives that go with it.
The unemployed Hot Topic Associates and Longhorn servers who make up BLM would no more tolerate police locking down a public housing tower in Chicago any more than confederate flag wavers are going to tolerate being told to wear a mask when they don't have a Covid case within 50 miles of them. Both are part of who we are, and it's fine!
If we get a vaccine, great. I doubt it, I think you people watch too many hero movies. But in the meantime scaring people to death is stupid. Get back to living life, take reasonable precautions and stop canceling everything fun because you are scared.
August 17th, 2020 at 2:44 PM ^
It’s sounding like you are a denier of the facts and of our abilities to act to contain things. Your repeated accusations that “lefties” are all “scared” brings up the irony that psychologically “denial” is a response to fear and anxiety. And that all these “deniers” who wear their masculinity on their sleeve are actually responding from a place of fear. It is a reaction to the uncertainty of the virus and the inability to control it. That is also why we see a rise in the proliferation of conspiracy theories during times like these.
People who understand the science or believe respected scientists recommendations are going to follow their advice not from a place of fear. They are acting rationally. Yet its ironic that those who deny the facts and who accuse others of being scared are actually the ones who are scared.
Happy to provide references but you can google it.
August 16th, 2020 at 10:01 PM ^
Agree. The CDC, FDA, and other bureaucracy has prevented this, as well as the obsession to get results from a lab.
August 17th, 2020 at 7:25 AM ^
And who is in charge of the CDC and the FDA? The guy who has made statements like “"If we stop testing right now, we'd have very few cases, actually,". When organizations leaders don’t believe in the mission, the mission suffers.
August 17th, 2020 at 9:00 AM ^
Testing creates cases something something my hair.
America hired a criminal salesperson to be president. We have what we deserve.
August 16th, 2020 at 9:03 PM ^
Blech. Fuck everything. Shit is smeared over every goddamn thing. No hope anywhere. Just selfishness and hatred.
August 16th, 2020 at 9:16 PM ^
If we can get to ten million tests a day, hotel vouchers for all positive cases to quarantine, AND a publicly searchable database of potential infection points, then I'd feel alright about college football and in-person school.
If.
August 16th, 2020 at 10:06 PM ^
Your goalposts are pretty unreachable. We don’t need all of that to resume normalcy.
August 16th, 2020 at 9:25 PM ^
This would be huge if all three of cheap, available and fast came through. General question that I haven’t seen much in the news on, does early detection for an individual positively impacted outcome at all? Obviously, it’s helpful for isolation and contact tracing to slow spread, but I mean for the individual that tests positive. If someone is diagnosed early are there treatments, remedies or even behaviors that can improve one’s outcome?
August 17th, 2020 at 10:37 AM ^
My sense unfortunately is that at this point it’s mostly about reducing spread, not helping the infected individual.
August 16th, 2020 at 9:31 PM ^
Not only that, the MyPillow guy has gotten oleander approved for over the counter sale! Cures Covid-19 in two days!
Are you ready for some football?!?!
August 16th, 2020 at 9:35 PM ^
Who the hell is buying all of those damn pillows is what I want to know? How often do people get new ones? I've been using the same pillow for at least a decade.
August 16th, 2020 at 9:40 PM ^
If you find a pillow you like, never replace it. It could be decades before you find one one you like.
Speaking from experience.
August 16th, 2020 at 9:57 PM ^
Right?
I used the same goose down pillow, made by my uncle (RIP) at a factory in Chicago, for most of my life. It was perfect.
Naturally that company went "bankrupt" to kill their pension obligations and move their machines to Mexico.
Took me years to find a good pillow because I sure as fuck wasn't buying one from those cunts.
August 16th, 2020 at 10:34 PM ^
Are they still in business making pillows? If yes, what's the name so I can avoid them.