• Aceticon@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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    4 hours ago

    Her con was that her company had machines that could do all the analyzing automatically in seconds, it wasn’t than blood analysis had predictive value for at least some diseases.

    I don’t think that even back then anybody disputed that at the very least doing DNA sequencing of the cells found in blood could predict the likelihood of certain diseases for a person, as the concept of some people having a genetic predisposition for certain diseases was already accepted at the time.

    The scam was the “magic” machine that could do it fast and cheaply, not the concept that it can be done.

    • ExLisper@lemmy.curiana.netOP
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      4 hours ago

      Actually the scam was that the machine was able to do it from a pinprick blood sample. The idea was that you would take the blood sample yourself, directly at the pharmacy. No doctor appointment and nurse needed. That’s why the idea was valued at billions.

      And she looks funny in this picture so I 100% stand behind this meme.

      • Aceticon@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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        54 minutes ago

        Let me be more precise: the Defrauding Of Investors for which she was convicted in Court was that her company was getting people’s blood samples and claiming to be analyzing them on their own special machines, whilst in reality they were sending those samples to labs to be analyzed in the traditional way and their machines never worked.

        Maybe amongst her various claims she made one as you said (frankly, I don’t remember anymore), but that was not what landed her in jail, hence I only mentioned the machines as being the scam.

        I supposed one could say both things were elements of her con, even if only one of those amounted to Fraud.

      • stray@pawb.social
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        3 hours ago

        I think the meme is good either way. I think we’ll eventually have the capability to do such testing simply and quickly, and she’ll still be a loser for having lied about it and scammed people.

  • 58008@lemmy.world
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    7 hours ago

    Has anyone ever seen Liz Holmes and Mark Zuckerburg in the same room together? 🤔

    • mic_check_one_two@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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      5 hours ago

      Elizabeth Holmes, the former CEO of Theranos. She was sentenced to prison for defrauding investors. She started making claims that she could do exactly what the headline says. She claimed that current blood panels (which usually require a vial of blood for each test) were insufficient and outdated, and that her company could predict or diagnose a ton of diseases and disorders with only a pinprick of blood. She said that her company was already in the final stages of the research, and used those claims to entice investors. She said that her company was going to be on the forefront of a medical revolution, and investors were clambering to get in before they hit the market.

      It turns out she was full of shit, was lying through her teeth, the technology didn’t exist, and they couldn’t diagnose anything with the tiny amount of blood she claimed. Medical professionals had been screaming about the fraud for a long time, but techbros and billionaires were happy to continue jumping on the bandwagon because she kept promising results in the near future. When the fraud finally came to light, Theranos’ valuation went from ~$9B to $0 basically overnight. It was a massive “she stole from billionaires, so we’re making an example of her and actually prosecuting the white collar crime that never gets prosecuted” court case that started way back in the mid 2010’s. It only recently wrapped up a few years ago (I think in late 2022 or early 2023?) and she’s still serving time.

      • Herr_S_aus_H@lemmy.zip
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        7 hours ago

        They said they could do it. They charged people money to do this, when in fact they could not do this.

        • VinnyDaCat@lemmy.world
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          3 hours ago

          She didn’t have to tell people this either. She could have easily kept advertising the project, building up hype for it and lying about how close they were to completing the tool without ever announcing it as completed.

          You can lead investors on like that. Unless the fraud is completely exposed many investors will often continue to invest in these projects out of fear of missing out.

    • marcos@lemmy.world
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      7 hours ago

      She took millions of investment to make a company that sells “do it at home” blood tests. She never could actually do the tests work, but was trying to sell them anyway, and taking more money by telling investors they worked.

      • OhShitSon@lemmy.zip
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        7 hours ago

        and talking more money by telling investors they worked.

        So that’s why she’s in jail, because she fucked the investors, not for selling a fraudulent product.

        • marcos@lemmy.world
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          54 minutes ago

          Yes. I’m not sure she even sold anything (honestly, I didn’t look at it close enough to discover at the time). But I’m pretty sure she is in jail for fucking he investors.

  • rafoix@lemmy.zip
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    15 hours ago

    Every scientific article with “could” in it is bullshit.

    I could have a twelve in cock in my pants.

  • ClockworkOtter@lemmy.world
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    12 hours ago

    What they aren’t saying is that you need a mass spectrometer to be able to analyse the pinprick of blood.

  • halcyoncmdr@lemmy.world
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    16 hours ago

    There were plenty of articles claiming similar for her dogshit. Where’s the peer reviewed studies?

    • cRazi_man@europe.pub
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      14 hours ago

      You think news headlines are concerned with inconvenient shit like evidence?

      • halcyoncmdr@lemmy.world
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        16 hours ago

        Of course not. Just pointing out that it’s probably bullshit just like previous similar claims. The exact thing its making fun of.

      • SeductiveTortoise@piefed.social
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        13 hours ago

        I mean, they really should be. Imagine how much better everything were if news outlets could be hold responsible for spreading lies.

        • stray@pawb.social
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          13 hours ago

          I recently watched an educational video for young students where they said something like “Journalists are usually sources you can trust because if a journalist lies they will lose credibility and their job,” and I don’t think we’re living in the same reality. Just because a particular news source doesn’t publish blatant falsehoods doesn’t mean they don’t lie by omission or use manipulative wording, and that’s not even getting into the ones that make money expressly off lying. I think maybe they don’t want to teach people to question state propaganda.

    • stray@pawb.social
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      14 hours ago

      The article doesn’t seem to be selling any particular technology, but rather sharing information on the fact that the research is currently in progress.

      https://archive.ph/Yv7GN

      The concept of identifying risk factors via blood sample has always been a good one. I’m not a scientist or medical professional, so I just assume the reason we’re not sequencing everyone’s genome is that it’s not currently a good use of medical resources. I can’t recall the name of this woman or her product, but my recollection is that she was claiming something currently impossible, not theoretically impossible.

    • unexposedhazard@discuss.tchncs.de
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      16 hours ago

      Her thing was supposed to work basically instantly, in a small box without a lab. This doesnt say anything about how that blood sample is actually tested.

      • ch00f@lemmy.world
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        7 hours ago

        Came in here for this.

        Being able to do this at all is challenging, but building something the size of a bread machine that can be operated by anyone and maintains sterility on its own is something else.

  • Th4tGuyII@fedia.io
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    14 hours ago

    Could” is doing about as much lifting in this article as Atlas lifting the world.

    I’m holding my reservations until something actually comes along

  • gray@lemmy.ml
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    14 hours ago

    Genetic testing often requires very little blood, other tests may require much more. It is not like you could do all kinds of tests with a pinprick.