The Lakers will test their entire team for the coronavirus, according to Brad Turner of the Los Angeles Times (Twitter link).
Four Nets players, including Kevin Durant, tested positive for the virus. Los Angeles’ last opponent before the league suspended the season was Brooklyn.
The Nets paid a private company to conduct the testing. Still, some are not thrilled with the NBA getting the testing while many around the country and world need it.
“We wish them a speedy recovery. But, with all due respect, an entire NBA team should NOT get tested for COVID-19 while there are critically ill patients waiting to be tested,” New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio tweeted. “Tests should not be for the wealthy, but for the sick.”
It’s likely that the Lakers will also pay out of pocket for the testing.
Is some private company hoarding test kits?
No welcome to free market capitalism for the right price you can get anything done way quicker and accessible than the public
If they are already sick, then what good will the tests really do them? The people that are asymptomatic and appear healthy are the ones that need to be tested so they can quarantine and not spread the bug. The ones that are showing symptoms should already be isolated regardless of what a test says.
Those that show symptoms need tested so that they can know if they have the virus and if so what people they’ve had contact with so they can get tested.
That’s what many people would like to do. The issue is who gets the test.
In the future, analysis should be available for anyone, due to the virus being easy to spot. That should be the goal– not keeping methods secret for “proprietary” reasons. There is no reason for such a policy of legal protection.
You know HE has it!
Will all due respect to the mayor. Every celebrity that goes public with having COVID is doing the world a service. It brings awareness to the public and emphasizes to them that people need to take quarantining seriously.
It’s all about da benjamins.
The rest of us can take a
dirt nap…..
After a little Internet sleuthing, there are a number of European companies that make test kits.
One in particular has made millions of kits.
If a private company was willing to pay a premium to test its employees… cool.
If that premium went into funding future manufacturing, even cooler.
I’m not saying that’s exactly how it happened, but… I’m not mad.
That you have to slueth is a mystery. Everything here gets guided to doctors who are apparently supposed to be the gatekeepers, keeping out hypochondriacs. Record-keeping?– not sure any but the broadest facts are being kept.
But people need to know.
I think Dr’s being gatekeepers is the right course of action. People in a panic will want to be tested constantly. Especially if the tests being administered by those doctors are free/subsidized.
I realize not everything will be ideal.
Well, Everybody can go to a Private lab and get a test. If your insurance don’t cover you, then you have to pay.