[lrpublic]

Quotes from the article:

“It’s easy to fall into dystopian visions of the future — a world shut down by one virus after another”

“It doesn’t have to be that way. ..... Ubiquitous screening is the key.”

The approach is interesting and the possibility of eliminating large scale spread of covid, flu and others is attractive.

However the idea of requiring a saliva swab from every visitor to an office or event has the potential to create an equally terrifying dystopian future where those samples are used to collect and use other data (DNA for example).

How long before screening companies offers to provide free screening and access control systems in return for anonymised data?

This kind of solution needs to have very well thought out privacy rules supported by strong and enforceable legislation to protect the individuals rights.

[arendtio]

Reminds me of that access control system in the movie Gattaca, where you had to give a blood sample ;-)

https://i.pinimg.com/736x/ac/aa/b0/acaab01e6647159309f680844...

[manmal]

An easy fix would be to require that all saliva samples are disposed of into the same container, mixing all samples of all tested persons.

[londons_explore]

Or you do the test yourself, and just show the already-completed test to the guy at the office door, and keep the test hardware, just like you currently show but keep an ID badge.

Sure, some people could fake the test, but for this approach to work, all that matters is that most people don't fake it.

[lrpublic]

Perhaps, but if you think about how systems like this work today, for example scanning ID at the entrance to a nightclub or bar.

One way something like this is likely to be implemented is by validating a ticket or access card/token with a saliva swab. This is just too easy and attractive an opportunity for data collection to be passed up by some operators with business models that monetise the data as a revenue source.

[Aeolun]

The swab could be ok, but I’d get really annoyed if entering any place required me to wait around for 10 minutes.

[klenwell]

My Millennium Prize challenge for those clamoring to reopen the economy is: How do you reopen Disneyland? (I think Disneyland was even referenced in the article.)

That's a giant social space people would be clamoring to go to. But given Disneyland's mystique and raison d'etre, the logistics right now are impossible.

I don't know how viable the solution proposed here actually is. The skeptics here raise some good points.

But if this solution turned out to be proven, I expect Disneyland would be one of the first places where it was deployed at scale. If we trusted the technology, I'm pretty sure both you and I would be happy to wait 10 minutes to get in. A free COVID screen as part of your price of admission. (It's interesting to consider how they would handle people who failed the screening. A balloon and hauled away in a cheerful corporate van? Maybe Disney starts running COVID resort sanitoriums?)

I also imagine Disney is one of the few organizations out there that could get the queuing sorted out. And I suspect that would be as important as anything. Once perfected, it could serve as a model for others.

[vlasev]

Waiting in line for a venue can easily take 20-30 minutes. So why not deploy this to places like this. You get the test done while waiting in line at no extra time cost to you. So you wouldn't even be waiting 10 min to get in. That's already something you do.

[bluescrn]

At attractions and large events, maybe an app (or just a database linked to some sort of ID) to prove a person has passed the screening that day (or recently enough), so it doesn't all need to be done at the attraction/event itself?

For this purpose the screening would probably have to be carried out at locations that could confirm the sample came from the right person at the right time.