Wednesday, April 15, 2020

Coronavirus News (42)



The IRS just launched ‘Get My Payment’ portal for tracking your stimulus check status: https://www.irs.gov/coronavirus/get-my-payment
WHY ROLLING CORONAVIRUS PATIENTS ONTO THEIR STOMACHS IS SAVING LIVES "WE'RE SAVING LIVES WITH THIS, ONE HUNDRED PERCENT."
IRS launches portal to get your stimulus check if you don’t file taxes: https://www.irs.gov/coronavirus/non-filers-enter-payment-info-here

Here’s how healthcare workers avoid bringing coronavirus into their homes. (Wired)
Coronavirus is making people delay or avoid healthcare, which could lead to a surge of worsening health issues down the line. (Vice)
What we’re really talking about when we talk about ventilators. (ProPublica)
The pandemic has turned grocery shopping into an intense and frightening experience. (The Boston Globe)

STIMULUS CHECKS MAY BE DELAYED AS TRUMP REQUIRES U.S. TREASURY TO PRINT HIS NAME ON THEM
Trump's name will be added to stimulus checks
WHO says it regrets Trump's decision to halt funding, but remains focused on coronavirus response
New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo orders all people to wear face coverings in public
Peaks for California hospitalizations, deaths could come this weekend, L.A. mayor says

Bill Gates: Entire country needs to shut down for 6-10 weeks to effectively fight coronavirus
If you’re a gig worker, freelancer or self-employed, here’s how you can get unemployment benefits
'The world needs WHO': Bill Gates slammed Trump for halting the $400 million in US funding for the World Health Organization in the middle of a pandemic
Bill Gates says Trump's decision to halt WHO funding is 'as dangerous as it sounds'
Why Isn’t Bill Gates Running the Coronavirus Task Force?
Is the Reason Coronavirus Seriously Sickens Some and Spares Others in Our Genes?

Coronavirus Is Changing How We Live, Work, and Use Tech—Permanently Even the most efficacious of nations seem to be simultaneously confused and exasperated, with delayed responses revealing incompetence and inefficiency the world over. ........ we’ve effectively hit a “fast-forward” button on many tech trends that were already in place. From remote work and virtual events to virus-monitoring big data, technologies that were perhaps only familiar to a fringe tech community are now entering center stage—and as tends to be the case with wartime responses, these changes are likely here to stay. ......... We’re currently in the epicenter of the biggest remote-work experiment in history, not to mention remote learning. Tools that let us digitally communicate and collaborate, like Slack, Zoom, and Dropbox, are enabling unprecedented remote work. .......... the explosive growth in video conferencing tool Zoom (the app was downloaded 343,000 times in one day alone), which grew from a $9 billion IPO less than one year ago to a peak in March of a whopping $44 billion market capitalization. .........

Virtual reality offers a compelling alternative to video calls, allowing people to feel like they are in the same space together—a clear win for the environment and a better use of time.

......... we’ll see a renewed emphasis on VR programs to help with everything from socialization to mental health support. ...........

Covid-19 highlights the potential demand for telemedicine, video conferencing, and virtual reality worlds, which will all require a 5G-scale internet upgrade.

......... Toronto-based health monitoring AI platform BlueDot beat both the WHO and the CDC to the punch, warning about the Covid-19 spread in early January, a whole nine days before the WHO released a statement. It then correctly predicted the path of transmission across several cities. ............ in China, where “privacy” is barely a word in the common vernacular, these tactics managed to almost zero out the virus’s exponential growth, so the West is beginning to listen up. ............ The French government had to warn citizens that cocaine could not protect them from the coronavirus. Hundreds of Iranians died from bootleg alcohol poisoning following online claims that it cured coronavirus, and the National Security Council had to debunk myths of a nationwide quarantine. Officials are blaming social media for all of the above. ............. A new consortium including IBM, Oracle, and the World Health Organization are collaborating on an open-data hub called MiPasa that will use blockchain technology to check the veracity of data concerning the coronavirus pandemic. .........

doctors can remotely monitor five different vital signs for 72-hour periods, and can auto-diagnose 19 different conditions with the help of AI and machine learning.

........ to support the acceleration of drug development, AI could manage initial drug discovery in two ways: 1) screening through millions of chemical compounds for potential drugs in simulation tests far faster than any human could; and 2) identifying targets that new drugs can latch onto to make people less sick or to slow the spread of disease. ............. to support the acceleration of drug development, AI could manage initial drug discovery in two ways: 1) screening through millions of chemical compounds for potential drugs in simulation tests far faster than any human could; and 2) identifying targets that new drugs can latch onto to make people less sick or to slow the spread of disease. .......... Forget “move fast and break things”; tech is now focused on

"move fast and make things.”

........... making protective face shields, patient gowns, oxygen masks, and even ventilators, all on-demand .......... The potential speed and scale of 3D printed components was illuminated in Italy when engineers developed a replacement valve for respiratory aids. They were able to produce 100 within a day at a cost of a 2 Euros each, far cheaper than the $10,000 the valves typically sell for. ......... a forced metamorphosis ...... the political, cultural, and ecological landscapes are in “a cascade of tipping points.”

Old vaccines being tested against the new coronavirus
Global battle erupts as Trump pulls WHO funding over coronavirus response Democratic lawmakers in Washington as well as international bodies like the European Union condemned the move. ........ “While we may agree that the WHO has shortcomings that must be corrected, your attack on the global health organization can easily be seen as a deliberate but transparent effort to deflect responsibility for your own failures onto others,” Maloney and Lynch wrote, adding that Trump’s “attempt to blame the WHO for trusting China reflects an astonishing level of hypocrisy given your own fawning and widely publicized praise of President Xi Jinping and his government for their handling of this crisis.” ....... it defies logic to withhold support from the WHO at this pivotal moment—at the height of a global pandemic—when promoting the health of nations around the world is essential to protecting our own population and rebuilding our own economy.” .......... Sen. Ben Cardin, D-Md., blasted the president’s move as “irresponsible, irrational and simply the wrong thing to do.” Also late Tuesday,

the American Medical Association weighed in, immediately calling on Trump to reconsider his decision. ...... "During the worst public health crisis in a century, halting funding to the World Health Organization is a dangerous step in the wrong direction

that will not make defeating COVID-19 easier," AMA President Patrice A. Harris said .......... The European Union early Wednesday said Trump had “no reason” to freeze funding to WHO, especially at this critical stage of the COVID-19 pandemic .......... EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said the 27-nation bloc "deeply" regrets the suspension of funds and added that the U.N. health agency is now "needed more than ever" to combat the pandemic. .........

“only by joining forces can we overcome this crisis that knows no borders.”

.......... The United States is the WHO's largest single donor, and the State Department had previously planned to provide the agency $893 million in the current two-year funding period. Trump said the United States contributes roughly $400 to $500 million per year to WHO, while China offers only about $40 million. .......... “If you don’t want many more body bags you refrain from politicizing it — please quarantine politicizing COVID,” he told reporters, after Trump threatened to look at cutting funding to the organization. ........ Without unity we assure you even any country that may have a better system will be in more trouble .......... He went on to

urge a global response to the virus similar to the one that combated smallpox. "The United States and China should come together and fight this dangerous enemy, they should come together to fight it and the rest of G-20 should come together to fight it, and the rest of the world should come together and fight it," he said.

Trump’s Ego May Delay Your $1,200 Stimulus Check
CDC director says US should brace for second wave of coronavirus to hit next year
US faces an 'unprecedented' decline in oil production
Social distancing until 2022? It's possible without coronavirus vaccine, treatments, experts say
CDC, FEMA have drafted a national plan to reopen US, report says
CDC says more than 9,000 health care workers have contracted coronavirus
How Health Care Workers Avoid Bringing Covid-19 Home What do frontline workers do when they finish their shifts? Some have to isolate from their families to keep them safe.
WHY ROLLING CORONAVIRUS PATIENTS ONTO THEIR STOMACHS IS SAVING LIVES "WE'RE SAVING LIVES WITH THIS, ONE HUNDRED PERCENT."
Even People Without Coronavirus Are Getting Sicker Right Now The "collateral damage of COVID-19": People are delaying or avoiding healthcare from fear of the virus. It could lead to a surge of worsening health issues down the line.
OnePlus 8 Pro marks the improbable rise of the Chinese phone maker The upstart is succeeding where giants like Microsoft, Facebook and Amazon have failed.



Data show India’s coronavirus lockdown may not be working Besides causing massive supply-chain disruptions, the lockdown has internally displaced millions of people. ....... India entered the exponential phase, beginning March 4 or so, as captured by the straight line in the log of confirmed cases. Note that this exponential growth kicked in several weeks in advance of the lockdown ...........

The bigger problem is that a focus on the lockdown takes away from the crucial question of ramping up testing.

......... India has so far conducted over 200,000 tests as compared to a 100,000 per day in the US. ....... if we believe that infection rates are much higher than reported, it appears India missed a golden opportunity during the lockdown to build up its medical and public health capacity. .......... the lockdown, without an attendant public health response, has failed to live up to its billing



The Normal Economy Is Never Coming Back The latest U.S. data proves the world is in its steepest freefall ever—and the old economic and political playbooks don’t apply.......

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