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Comment by ip26 | Hacker News Reader

This is depressing. Single use disposable. Full of copper, gold, tungsten, halfnium. Will leach poison into the ground. Some of the most advanced technology of our age. Use it once, toss it in the trash.

Meanwhile the paper versions work just fine.

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The optics on this seem to indicate that it is just a lateral flow test of some kind.

It's not even different. Instead of having to interpret a couple lines you have software interpret the strip and tell you over bt on your phone. So much tech for so little.

For an app that displays positive or negative, wouldn't it be cheaper/easier to use image processing to detect lines on the test?

Some tests do that but then you end up with a limited list of phones where the camera has been qualified. Better to go all the way to an eye-readable test.

In the Lucira test is a bit more justifiable it's a full molecular test, with built in controls, better accuracy than lateral flow. The optics is pretty neat too:

https://aseq.substack.com/p/inside-the-lucira-check-it-covid

Another view is that it's a great illustration of the relative price trends in the last 50 years. Healthcare has gone way up in price, and tech way down. What was a supercomputer 50 years ago is now a small fraction of the cost of a chemical test (which requires FDA approval).

We've made significant advancements in catalytic converters over the last decade and many waste management centers are able to incinerate much of the trash without the toxic emissions. They can then use magnets and eddy current separators to extract nearly all the metals out of the resulting ash.

This is new to me. But even if it's true, it still requires a lot of energy to produce the chip and then apply the waste management you mention.

The best waste is the one that does not exist.

In Europe a COVID19 quick test is 1-2 USD. This is 20-40 USD? For a device you only use once.

Why is there any kind of market for this?

Quick self-test is 8€ here in Belgium. Are we being ripped off?

Sounds like it.

Last I paid was 1.75 euro in DM (Germany). I remember buying them at 0.99 in LIDL.

In the UK, you can get free 7-packs of LFTs from most big pharmacies or online from gov.uk.

https://www.gov.uk/order-coronavirus-rapid-lateral-flow-test...

Although it looks like you need a (free) "collect code" at the moment (because we ran out a couple of weeks back, IIRC.)

https://test-for-coronavirus.service.gov.uk/collect-lateral-...

Prices have gone up sharply since the fourth wave in Europe. I remember seeing self-tests for 0.85 in summer. Now they‘re going for 3.00 bucks or so.

It is the new toilet paper ...

I've seen them at Colruyt for 3,50EUR, the rack is usually empty though, but I've heard most supermarkets sell them at this point.

A little googling around European online pharmacies says yes.

Is it because it is covered by health insurance? Might as well get the expensive one if I get it reimbursed ...

Home COVID tests are not generally covered by health insurance.

same reason there is a market for similar "high tech" pregnancy tests: people will pay more for something they feel is higher value, and price itself is an indicator of higher value.

If you read the full Twitter thread they explain that paper doesn’t work for everyone (the color blind and the incompetent, for example.) There is a use case, it just might not be for you.

The Abbott test has two lines separated… if two then positive, if one then negative. You don’t even need to tell the colors apart.

You do, however, need color vision to tell that the control line changed from blue to red (which the instructions tell you to do to verify that the test is working correctly)

Every Covid self test I've ever used had two red lines for postive and one red line for negative. Why are there tests out there that need color vision?

Every test I've done (provided for free on the NHS, btw) has just been two red lines.

The control line doesn't show up until the buffer solution has wicked along the test strip, so the verification is "does the line next to the letter C show up?"

Yes, but the parent was writing about the Abbott Labs BinaxNOW test, specifically (which I have also used).

The directions indicate to verify that the blue control line is present prior to adding the swab, and that the test should not be used if the blue line is not present.

You can verify this for yourself by downloading the official instructions here: https://www.fda.gov/media/141570/download

That's not true for every test, the one I just used begins with no line and then a line appears. So you don't need color vision. You do still need vision, but it's hard to use a COVID test otherwise.

Sure, but the parent specifically referenced the Abbott test. And the Abbott test instructions tell you to discard and not use the test if the blue line is not present.

See pages 6 and 7: https://www.fda.gov/media/141570/download

That is something your phone can do for you without the need for a disposable chip

The use case is valid but the solution is completely overkill.

You could do this with an analogue circuit and two LEDs.

> Will leach poison into the ground.

Electronics must not be disposed with general waste, I'd imagine all Western municipalities have special recycling programs for electrical devices. Not sure if they'd be that happy to receive used covid test kits though.

About 42% of e-waste is recycled in the EU and about 15% in the US. Even those numbers don't reflect reality since a large percentage of "recycled e-waste" is shipped off to poor countries where it may or may not be strip of some parts before being dumped.

They do, except many don't use them as much and is quite common to find electronics on the containers.

And they are crying about semiconductor shortage, and blah blah...

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