Jack Ma to send 500K coronavirus test kits, 1M face masks to US

[Leary]

Masayoshi Son wanted to give his home country Japan 1 million tests, and suffered a huge backlash on Twitter from people who said too many tests would "overwhelm the health system".

[1] https://www.businessinsider.com/masayoshi-son-breaks-twitter...

No good deed goes unpunished, i guess.

[uranusjr]

The news feel under-informed to me. Much of the backlash against Son is carried-over from his other comment to send free masks to medical personnel. People are “wondering loudly” where on earth does he get so many masks when almost literally nobody in Japan can buy any. Doesn’t his move make the problem worse? The test tweet is under similar fire. How is he going to “provide” these tests? Japanese people are not getting tests not because they cannot afford them, but there is not enough medical resource to run the tests. He offering free tests does not move the needle much, but on the other hand may disrupt the already short-handed medical personnel.

Son has long been criticised in Japan of deception via selective facts. The reputation may or may not be justified (he might just not be good at expressing himself and never felt the need to clarify), but his recent tweets are very on-brand with a bold claim and little detail, and it’s understandable for the Japanese to express the same doubts based on his persumed track record.

[wollstonecraft]

"Test kits" are just for sample collection. You still need throughput on a qPCR machine to get results.

[DarthGhandi]

Shouldn't there be hundreds of labs with these machines though?

The United States government spends far more on healthcare than any other nation on Earth. That's not including private health costs.

South Korea has the capacity to test 20,000 per day and has 1/6th the population.

[James_Henry]

This isn't correct. You also need the right primers/probes for the specific virus and controls to ensure accuracy of the test.

[t2riRXawYxLGGYb]

Power move or not, these are things the US desperately needs. Just accept the damn supplies, thank them, and try to do better next time.

[avocado4]

There's no shortage of test kits, there's a shortage of PCR lab capacity to process those samples.

Masks and ventilators would be a good thing to donate though.

[jariel]

Apparently, almost all of the world's saline bags were made in Puerto Rico, and a single hurricane disrupted this essential gear.

There have been longstanding concerns about strategic food - and even Oil supply, I don't see how the US or any nation can reasonably not have the domestic demand to meet an emergency.

China has been engaging in a form of systematic dumping on a variety of industries for quite a long time - most of us enjoyed the benefits of lower prices while local producers went out of business.

The nefariousness of their strategy is that it's often difficult to tell the difference between simple 'low-cost advantage' vs. actual dumping strategies, and who in the business world is going to argue against lower prices? Nobody.

The US military certainly wouldn't have 99% of their ammunition 'made in China', well, war is much more than bullets, moreover, there's much more to life than war ...

It's definitely time to have national regulations on a lot of such goods. A simple ban on the import of strategic goods would work really well - America is large enough that there'd be several domestic providers.

Americans would end up paying more for certain items, but does it really matter when the surpluses are so large? So it costs $4 per mask instead of $2? The price is not as important as availability. It would be a very natural and synergistic way to increase wages as well.

This could be done in concert with a few key allies on a product by product basis.

[alephnan]

The limiting factor right now is the availability of approved labs to perform the test

[jerkstate]

A big point of the Presidents address today was around relaxing regulations to help the response. So hopefully this will get sorted out.

[jacobwilliamroy]

Wow. Chinese citizen sends humanitarian aid to the U.S. What a queer situation.

[fairenough42]

Or a new normal? We'll see in the coming days and weeks how functional the US is.

[incompatible]

Seems strange that anybody would feel the need, given how the US is one of the richest countries, trumpets it's own abilities endlessly, and has an official policy of "America first".

I.e., it's surely capable of making its own virus test kits and face masks, if it could be bothered.

[olliej]

What will be more interesting is if they allow it in.

The US historically rejected aid from many other countries

[hkai]

Uganda sent aid to China as well. So what.

Literally anyone can send aid to anyone, often for political gains.

[MuffinFlavored]

How much do the test kits cost and how are they made? What materials? I read there are like, 3 key special materials involved?

How are they administered? I've Googled and haven't found a simple answer. Is it spit?

[UncleOxidant]

We could probably use some ventilators as well.

[woofie11]

Thank you. That's what I gotta say. Thank you.

I hate all the cynics and conspiracy theories here. It's a generous move, and deeply appreciated.

Jack didn't spend that much money to be a douchebag. He spent it because this will save countless lives.

[tomohawk]

One of the reasons the US developed its own test was that the test that China was using had a 48% false negative rate. These are probably the same tests.

[rannn]

Yeah. The one CDC developed was faulty as well. That's why China is doing multiple tests on patients. As well as doing CT scans widely. https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-02-13/china-cor... US is just wasting time, period.

[AviationAtom]

Jack Ma seems like a pretty cool dude from what I know of him. I think he's kind of seen as their version of Elon Musk.

[_bxg1]

Seems like a power move to me. Painting a picture for the world of struggling U.S. institutions needing a Chinese billionaire's help to weather a crisis.

I'm not even sure it's incorrect.

[soneil]

He also sent similar to Iran, Italy, Japan, South Korea, and Spain - which makes it look a little less so, at least to my eye.

[tmotwu]

Because thats what matters to you? Were europeans sending aid to China a power move? It’s acceptable to send aid to each other, no matter who you appear to represent.

[blihp]

No one needs to paint a picture of our institutions struggling to the world... we've been doing a fine job of that ourselves. Had a U.S. company made the same gesture to another country, our media would be covering it as humanitarian aid or building goodwill. The fact is that we currently have an inadequate supply of masks and test kits so I think an appropriate response would be 'thank you' regardless of any potentially less than altruistic motives.

[ISL]

With great power comes great responsibility.

This is a global adversary, and a global response is required.

Perhaps when we dance this dance again, global health expertise and transparency will be the default from the beginning.

[celticninja]

The Chinese are people like you and me. Yes their government needs a lot of work, but people are people and we need to remember that more.

[pedroma]

China has rejected aid before from certain entities/countries. They obviously view foreign aid as a power move.

[avip]

This comment could be a-priori applied to any "Bob sends aid to Alice" case?

[remarkEon]

Yeah, it's a reminder of where we shipped our industrial capacity (both real and human).

[elliotec]

What an awful take. This is charity. Don't be such a cynic, especially when people do good things. We need more of that and less skepticism of it.

[josephorjoe]

It is not at all incorrect.

For whatever reason, the US lacks the ability and/or the capability of responding effectively to this crisis.

The assistance is valuable and should be respected and appreciated accordingly.

And if people in the US feel uncomfortable about what this assistance implies about the US -- well, there will be time to consider why that is so and what can be done about it at a future date.

[coenhyde]

US institutions are struggling! That is reality. Take your ego out of the picture and let Jack Ma save lives.

[m0zg]

Be that as it may, we should accept, and thank him for it. This is not the time for dick measuring contests, and our institutions that were supposed to deal with this (CDC/FDA) have objectively failed.

[o_p]

Yeah China bad USA good. If anything China has done much more to contain the virus.

[taiwanboy]

US ability to make and distribute medicine and medical supplies is falling apart and it’s a direct result of consolidation of supply chain and factories that make it. 4 power buyers buys control over 90% of generic drug for US. And probably similar percent for medical equipments.

Good news is that now all eyes are on the medical supply chains, and introduction of the medical supply drug act bill, we should see some supply chain move back to US.

Especially since Chinese government has threatened to withhold drug supplies to US https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politic... and has started a disinformation campaign suggesting US inserted coronavirus in Wuhan, brought up by the Chinese foreign ministry spokesman https://www.businessinsider.com/chinese-official-says-us-arm...

[zeroone101]

The issue isn't "test kits". Its labs to run the tests. It seems like the CDC and state governments are addressing that. Not really sure what this is trying to solve.

[ghouse]

Because when our social contract with each other fails, we rely on the generosity of the wealthy few to step in to assist.

[pl0x]

While this is a kind gesture it is likely propaganda and a power move.

[jorblumesea]

Political. The US doesn't need test kits and masks, it needs approval for labs and cutting bureaucratic red tape.

[yadongwen]

Pretty sure in a couple of weeks US will need masks and other equipment. China very likely is the biggest producer of masks and as the number of new cases drops to near zero they have the extra capacity to donate to the rest of world.