Batu, Illac, Miravalles, Romeo, Ureta

Article Critique
on
A Pooling Test for Increasing COVID-19 Testing Capacity and Cost Saving

This paper criticizes the journal article, A Pooling Test for Increasing COVID-19
Testing Capacity and Cost Saving that was published in the year 2020 (volume one,
issue number two) by the Journal of Reasearch High School. Eric Xu of Torrey Pines
High School is the writer of this eight-page article. This paper was able to achieve its
aims to enhance the test capacity and save test costs in 50%-80%.

The objective of this study is to emphasize the importance of how a strong test
capacity is a fundamental, and how it is an important parameter to track the pandemic.
The method used by the researchers is a pooling test with a half-interval search
method, it is proposed to enhance the test capacity and save test costs. Moreover, the
half-interval search splits the test into halves wherein each half will be tested separately.
The researchers claimed that in a case study of 100 patient sample pool with the
positivity rate of 5%, suggested by WHO for sufficient tests, the test volume could be
reduced to 20-50 from 100. Their findings would be that the test cost could be saved by
50-80%.

To start off - the author's thoughts, ideas, and message can be clearly seen even
when reading the article's title. He had also provided enough explanation, and
references in order to back up his claims. His reasoning is sound enough, and are
believable. This study has particularly, a lot of information despite the pandemic, he
gathered a lot of data or information even in this kind of situation. Each page has given
us valid explanations and data. In his words, he has given us a thesis statement that
provided us with facts and supported his claims of saving 50-80% of tests costs. The
methodology of the article is appropriate for the study to use the pooling test with half-
interval search method. As it, as he claims, will enhance the test capacity and would
even help save tests costs. It is also worth noting that the articles which the author took
his references from are all recent studies, and are all related to the topic. In the United
States, there are a lot of people who got infected by the virus, a normal medical practice
will test the patient individually which may take a long time. However, when they used
the pooling test method they can know if the patient is positive or not with COVID, they
can easily track how many got infected with the virus and get them in quarantine. Half-
interval search begins by dividing one group of patient into two - this two separate
groups are constantly dividing until the positive sample is identified. In the article, the
researcher said that if we go along with the recommendation of WHO we can track
more cases of COVID and stop the growth of the virus. The Python program examines
how many times a split is required to observe all the positive patient sample; they then
tally the test number during the process. By the increasing pandemic, they come up with
the pooling test which save tests cost. The entire test number in the pooling test will
depend on the positivity rate and the distribution of the positive sample in the pool.

The writer stated his thesis statement explicitly by giving facts on his research. It
said that a higher possibility of 50-80% of test cost could be save from the result of case
study of 100 patient pool sample with a positivity of 5% that was suggested by WHO.
The COVID-19 is rapidly spreading all over the world. The country of United States is
leading the existence of the most COVID-19 confirmed cases around the world. The
thesis assumptions are to is to find out if different ways to get rid of the virus are
effective. As you can see in the diagram, it generates a Phyton program wherein they
are optimizing the pooling of all possible experiments to know what are the possibe
findings. The writer also assumed that if we applied the pooling test, it could increase
the percentage of being saved from 10% to 20%. And if we follow the suggestion of
WHO to reach the positivity rate of 5% with more tests, we can track more cases of
COVID-19 and stop it from occurring. Thus, the percentage of cases of COVID-19 will
decrease. It is explicitly discussed by explaining the methods of it. This work will
contribute a great deal to the crisis that we are currently living in and i think that the
researcher is smart. It will help other researchers and scientists to give ideas and find a
way on how to lessen the cases of COVID-19 that is happening around the world. It
would be much easier for them to find a cure for COVID-19. Millions of people's lives will
be saved because of this research. As you can see, the main problem in this work is the
COVID-19 and the increasing cases of the virus. COVID-19 is spreading all over the
world and is causing a serious pandemic. It reached more than 18 million people that is
infected and more than 691,000 people who have died worldwide and it is still
increasing. The writer presented his data using chart and bar graph to see if the
experiment is effective and if it is works as he assumed. He also used Python program
which stimulated to be saved and used two types of distribution called collective and
even distribution as a method in his research. Using chart and bar graph as a tool to
present data will help the readers understand the research better. The research is long
but he did clearly state his work which made me amazed. His idea will help the people
to stop the COVID-19 from spreading which can lead to flattening the curve in graph of
COVID-19 cases.

To conclude, the methods that the researcher has used to find out the different
aspects of the pandemic the whole world is facing right now is clearly very efficient and
effective. Even going as far as presenting a flowchart of the different effects of the test
given to each participant and successfully separating and dividing the different kinds. It
has clearly presented all the data and the possible cure that countries may use as a
temporary alternative while waiting for the approved vaccine. However, a country will
only do better as the governments who leads them are doing the best, they can lead the
people well. If they themselves do not believe in such pandemic as COVID-19, then
there will of course be complications, despite having a solution to lessen the growing
number of COVID cases, as the government refuse to believe in its outrageous effects
and death rate. This research is also proof that there are some things that can be done
whilst living inside a pandemic, there is no such thing as impossible; even phrases such
as “waiting for the vaccine before taking action” has become redundant as there is
already a presented temporary solution that may lessen the death rates and numerous
COVID cases. All in all, the research is extremely helpful as it presented data that is not
only very recent and applicable to what we are going through these past months (and
months to come). The researchers have presented every data clearly with similar
researches to back up their collected data. It is not only helpful to those who need a
solution for the pandemic, but it is also helpful upon educating others regarding the
subject of COVID. It is no longer a mystery for people to know about others who refuse
to believe that masks are indeed life savers. These are one of the main reasons why the
United States is the country with the largest number of confirmed cases as the president
himself do not believe in the existence of the pandemic, only believing it after testing
positive of the said disease. With this research, more people will become aware of how
an alternative way of mass testing is indeed helpful and will cause good results rather
than a waste of time and money.

Reference:

Xu, E. (2020). A Pooling Test for Increasing COVID-19 Testing Capacity and

Cost Saving. Journal of Research High School, 1(2), 1–8. https://4de89ea7-

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