The trial of former Theranos COO Ramesh “Sunny” Balwani has been delayed over issues that somebody beforehand within the federal courtroom had been a detailed contact of somebody who examined optimistic for covid-19, in response to a report from the Wall Street Journal.

Balwani’s path was scheduled to begin in San Jose on Wednesday however U.S. District Judge Edward Davila introduced that an unnamed one who was current throughout jury choice had been involved with one other unnamed one who had lately examined optimistic for covid-19. It’s not instantly clear if the primary unnamed individual had been chosen to serve on the jury.

Elizabeth Holmes, the founding father of Theranos, was already convicted of 4 counts of fraud for mendacity to buyers about her bullshit blood testing firm and is scheduled to be sentenced in September.

Balwani’s trial had been delayed repeated over covid-19 issues, not in contrast to the trial of Holmes, however there was one more wrinkle added lately that held up Balwani’s day in court docket: Too many potential jurors had apparently seen the Hulu sequence ‘The Drop Out” about the entire Theranos mess.

From the Wall Street Journal:

Opening statements in Mr. Balwani’s trial had been pushed again already this week due to prolonged juror questioning. Part of the problem, significantly for the protection, was that many jurors mentioned they’d adopted Ms. Holmes’s intently lined trial within the information, and a few mentioned they had been conscious of the responsible verdict in her case and of her romantic relationship with Mr. Balwani.

Many mentioned they’d watched a lately launched tv sequence based mostly on Theranos on streaming service Hulu—which has had quite a few commercials on social media and elsewhere.

Balwani is performed by Naveen Andrews within the Hulu eight-episode restricted sequence, which has already aired 4 episodes. The subsequent episode will likely be obtainable on Hulu beginning at the moment.

Balwani was COO of Theranos from 2009 till 2016 when issues began to come back crashing down and other people had been asking laborious questions on whether or not the corporate’s know-how really labored as marketed. Spoiler alert: It didn’t.

The U.S. has seen a gradual decline within the variety of covid-19 instances over the previous few weeks, although numbers are nonetheless comparatively excessive in contrast with many different international locations. The U.S. noticed 45,162 new instances and 2,228 new deaths from the illness on Wednesday. Over 967,000 Americans have died from covid-19 for the reason that begin of the pandemic.