Abbott Launches 5-Minute Covid-19 Test for Use Almost Anywhere

bloomberg.com

55 points·rafaelc··7 comments

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22708535

Do we have any old Theranos machines we can repurpose?

great. give me precision, recall, and accuracy please.

Yep, I'm wondering the same thing.

With the sheer number of pharmaceutical companies jumping on this opportunity and desperately trying to be the first to market with a test, treatment or a vaccine, we the public absolutely need to know the efficacy of whatever is proposed. Especially in light of the fact that the FDA is currently under enormous deregulatory pressure.

The equipment is excellent for the other diseases it can test for. I think the numbers I saw earlier today were 95% sure for negative and well over 99% sure for positive, but I can't find that source back anymore. Numbers for this specific virus would be poorly understood, but ought to be similar to the numbers for other viruses.

non-paywall version:

https://www.nbcbayarea.com/news/local/fda-gives-the-green-li...

doesn't list absolute accuracy, but indicates the genome RNA can be identified in as short as 5 minutes, and 13 minutes can be "definitive".

it is built on an existing platform:

"The technology builds on Illinois-based Abbott’s ID Now platform, the most common point-of-care test currently available in the U.S., with more than 18,000 units spread across the country. It is widely used to detect influenza, strep throat and respiratory syncytial virus, a common bug that causes cold-like symptoms."

13 minutes for a "definitive" negative. So it's fast to detect high viral loads, but takes longer for smaller quantities.

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