This is just a press release, but assuming this works well, this is a nice step forward. Hopefully this is one of many moves forward that help us get testing to everyone that needs it, and eventually to those that don’t appear sick so we can chart a reasonable path forward by knowing who is infected.
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Abbott Labs does a lot of stuff. They have developed quite a bit over the years. Various antiseptics, anesthetics, heart repair, cardiac valve devices and pacemakers, various diagnostics, the first HIV blood test, Humira, treatments for Parkinson’s, and many other things.
And of course as we know, they have been at the forefront of developing diabetes tech devices for many years, such as blood glucose testing and CGM. A big part of their business for those years has been from the diabetes tech. I’ve been using various Abbott blood glucose meters for decades, since the mid-90’s I think. I have probably given them close to 100,000 drops of my blood.
So in a way, we can all stake a small claim that we are part of what enables this sort of innovation to happen.
Cheers to Abbott and cheers to the many who have given their blood to help this sort of inovation.
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NOTE: I just had a post deleted. I guess I made the mistake of naming a politician who must remain nameless. OK, so here is my post with all offending names removed. Hopefully this one will work.
That’s impressive. So if this happens next week then maybe it will only be a month before UNNAMED-POLITICIAN’s statement will be true that “anyone who needs a test can get one”. Especially impressive since UNNAMED-POLITICIAN specializes in saying things that are not only untrue when he says them, but will never be true ever .
You didn’t have a post deleted. If you look at the action taken above, your post was not deleted but rather moved to the poltics subcategory where all political discussion is expected to take place. You are free to discuss anything you like about any politician there, but not in our non-politics area. This board was created and is expected to be a place of discussion about diabetes. While we appreciate that politics has a place in this discussion, we ask that it be done in the category. You can follow the link above to find your post.
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Additionally, if you are interested in understanding where we are and not just talking about politicans, while our testing situation wasn’t the best from the start, Abbott and the other testing labs that are bringing online the ability to do 100,000 tests a day is a pretty good start. As of 10 days ago we were in 5th place in terms of total tests with China excepted:
And just below France and Finland in tests per capita:
Not ideal, but not exactly the emergency those trying to make a political statement would have you believe. Additionally, with the ability to test 100,000 people a day starting this week, I suspect we will soon be much higher in the rankings. However I doubt we will top the UAE for tests per million people.
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Yes, thanks to the likes of Abbott, Cepheid and a number of private labs, we are finally ramping up testing in a significant way … and that is certainly a MAJOR improvement!!!
However, without making any political inferences, failures and delays at the CDC and FDA delayed the testing ramp -up by at least a month. I think that we can all agree that we would be SO much better off if we had the daily testing capacity that we have on essentially April 1 as of March 1.
Stay distanced people!
John
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Can’t agree more that I wish we were farther along. But we aren’t. And I look forward to the post mortem when all the dust settles down. Hopefully we will learn as a country how to handle these things better. If not, well we will be doomed to rinse and repeat.
All true! But at this point, ALL of us have an important role to play:
Stay isolated, stay healthy, and stay out of the ER!!! The more we can do that, the more N95 masks, gloves, and respirators we can save for NYC, NJ, LA (both NOLA and CA), and all of the other hot spots that desperately need them.
Thanks,
John
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Let me start by saying that this isn’t some hypothetical political pxssing match for me, as you are implying. My father is 91 and living in upstate New York. My sister lives in Manhattan, in the lower West side, the current US epicenter. And my wife grew up in New Orleans and has seven brothers and sisters living in uptown New Orleans. Two of my wife’s brothers are undergoing cancer treatment, one for multiple myeloma, one for prostate. These siblings are all in their 60’s. When I watch what is happening and going to happen in these cities, it is personal. Very personal.
I hope Abbott’s test kits work. It will be wonderful when there will eventually be enough tests that all people who need tests will be tested. Without sufficient testing, we are still flying blind about how big this problem is and how fast it is growing. To be clear, there are still not enough tests, and only the sickest who are being admitted to hospitals are being tested. I know for a fact that is the case right now in New Orleans. So it really ticks me off when I see some idiot pretending that there have been plenty of tests for weeks, trying to convince us that the truth is “fake news”. Just today at the press conference we were told that “hasn’t heard about testing for weeks”. Hello? Really?
When we first heard we had enough tests it was a complete fantasy. Are we doing better than we were a month ago, sure. Better than ten days ago, sure. Maybe this really will be fixed in ten more days. But it isn’t fixed yet. And it is still a huge problem.
I didn’t say it wasn’t a problem. I just choose not to blame someone. If you want to blame someone, go for it. Nothing stopping you. If you would like to blame it on a political figure, please do it in the appropriate section. I personally like to look at the bright side of things. If that bothers you I am sorry.
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