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Comment by guilhas | Hacker News Reader

Even more must have been collected with PCR tests

Even if I was Dr Evil, with an evil medical degree from Evil University, I would think twice about starting my plan to capture the DNA of the public (mwahaha) by picking deliberately biohazardous samples.

Especially when you could just operate a chain of labs that run blood tests, and covertly sequence them on the side. Easier to scale, not reliant on something temporary like a pandemic, and probably has a more representative sample of the population than PCR tests.

I wonder if it would be feasible to just set up a toilet to provide genetic samples?

Or hoover the seats in a bus.

If you did start something like that you could call it Labcorp and make sure it’s the only game in town.

Not to be confused with labcore, the mad scientist aesthetic you'll be adhering to behind closed doors.

>by picking deliberately biohazardous samples.

why is that an issue? aren't villains known for their lack of care for their henchmen[1]? Also, apparently covid isn't really transmitted via physical contact[2], so operating such a lab probably isn't too dangerous. Finally, presumably there's PPE to protect against this sort of stuff, if you're not the type of villain that mistreats their henchmen.

[1] https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/BadBoss

[2] https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/more/science-and-r...

That would be "random fomites in the environment" not "PCR testing swabs with deliberately maximized chance of virus content"

Oh hey, I stand corrected.

https://inews.co.uk/news/covid-testing-provider-investigated...

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