Comment by tony101 | Hacker News Reader

Comment by tony101 | Hacker News Reader

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"Officials in Spain said testing kits it bought from a Chinese company had only a 30 percent accuracy rate, rather than the 80 percent rate they had expected."

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/27/business/china-coronaviru...

"Spanish medical experts, who have examined the 9,000 kits delivered last week, said they have only a 30 percent probability of detecting the virus."

https://www.voanews.com/science-health/coronavirus-outbreak/...

"The news comes following complaints from Spain that about 70 percent of the kits it purchased were too inaccurate to be used to diagnose patients who were sick and stuck in emergency rooms."

https://www.foxnews.com/world/china-launches-investigation-i...

"Up to 80 percent of the 150,000 portable, quick coronavirus test kits China delivered to the Czech Republic earlier this month were faulty, according to local Czech news site Expats.cz."

https://news.yahoo.com/china-supplied-faulty-coronavirus-tes...

It looks like the problem isn’t with the tests, but rather they are buying uncertified products.

From the first link,

> the company that made the test kits, Shenzhen Bioeasy Biotechnology, had not been on Beijing’s list of certified providers

> Spanish health officials said they bought the tests from an unnamed third-party distributor

Furthermore, the Spanish health officials used the test wrong,

> In a statement on social media, Bioeasy said that Spanish officials did not understand how to conduct the test and that it made videos and issued instructions to help them.

Exactly. The test worked very well in South Korea.

South Korea made their own kit if I remember correctly.

Why would South Korea use Chinese testing kits when they are at least 4 biotech companies making their own testing kits (and for exports)? South Korea companies developed testing kits almost as soon as the Wuhan virus became known and have been using their own in all domestic testings.

If I'm following this mess correctly, that list of certified providers didn't actually exist when Spain placed the order which would make it rather hard for them to make use of it.

Thanks for the links. I only have so much capacity for bad news. Had no seen these :)

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