I am living in the middle of the emergency over coronavirus in Finland. Due this reason the update cycle to make posting to this blog could be slowed down.
The Finnish government announced on Monday nationwide school closures in order to help prevent the spread of coronavirus. Read more on the following aricles:
Finland closes schools, declares state of emergency over coronavirus
https://yle.fi/uutiset/osasto/news/finland_closes_schools_declares_state_of_emergency_over_coronavirus/11260062
Daycare centres are to stay open but parents were asked to keep their kids home if possible. The government also published a 19-point list of emergency legislation that takes effect on 18 March.
Coronavirus latest: 359 cases confirmed in Finland, S-Group shuts its Helsinki eateries, bankruptcy fears mount
https://yle.fi/uutiset/osasto/news/coronavirus_latest_359_cases_confirmed_in_finland_s-group_shuts_its_helsinki_eateries_bankruptcy_fears_mount/11249610
Here is a link to an earlier post related to Coronavirus:
https://www.epanorama.net/blog/2020/02/12/mobile-trends-2020-mwc-canceled/
1,657 Comments
Tomi Engdahl says:
Reuters:
A look at South Korea’s Epidemic Investigation Support System, which uses cellphone location and credit card data to trace the movements of COVID-19 patients — SEOUL (Reuters) – When a man in Seoul tested positive for the new coronavirus in May, South Korean authorities were able to confirm …
How South Korea turned an urban planning system into a virus tracking database
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus-southkorea-tracing/how-south-korea-turned-an-urban-planning-system-into-a-virus-tracking-database-idUSKBN22Y03I
When a man in Seoul tested positive for the new coronavirus in May, South Korean authorities were able to confirm his wide-ranging movements in and outside the city in minutes, including five bars and clubs he visited on a recent night out.
The fast response – well ahead of many other countries facing outbreaks – was the result of merging South Korea’s already advanced methods of collecting information and tracking the virus into a new data sharing system that patches together cellphone location data and credit card records.
The Epidemic Investigation Support System (EISS), introduced in late March, effectively removed technological barriers to sharing that information between authorities, by building on the country’s ‘Smart City’ data system.
That platform was originally designed to let local authorities share urban planning information, from population to traffic and pollution, by uploading data in Excel spreadsheets and other formats. Now it forms the foundation for a data clearing house that has turbocharged South Korea’s response to the virus.
While personal location and credit card data has been available for use by South Korean health investigators for years, previous systems required physical paperwork to request the data before it was uploaded to analytical software. That took investigators about two to three days to gather a patient’s personal data to trace their contacts.
The new system digitizes the entire process, including the requests, and can reduce that time to less than an hour, officials say. Investigators can use it to analyse transmission routes and detect likely infection hotspots.
The system is still reliant on humans operating it to approve and upload data, which can lead to delays. And in some cases, concerns over privacy and security have led to access being so restricted that some local officials said they had to rely on old-fashioned methods.
The phone’s location data showed he was a teacher at a private academy, where subsequent contact tracing and testing revealed at least 30 other people had been infected, including some of his students and their parents.
“There were limitations to the system,”
The EISS allows an authorised investigator to log in to a secure web portal and send information requests about specific confirmed cases. Police agencies must approve requests for location data from three telecommunications operators, while the Credit Finance Association handles approval for information from 22 credit card companies.
When a request is approved, designated officials at the companies receive alerts on their phones and computers. They then upload individuals’ data in an Excel spreadsheet.
The investigator then has temporary access to the information to conduct analysis. There are usually more than 10,000 location data points for each person in a typical 14-day period being analysed, according to the KCDC.
An EISS web portal seen by Reuters showed an interactive map displaying patient movements, with each location data point indicating whether it was collected via credit card or cellphone.
South Korean officials told Reuters that data on almost every person confirmed to have the virus is entered into the system to allow cross-referencing and analysis of likely hotspots. The KCDC declined to say how many people’s data has been collected in all.
People do not have any choice whether their data is collected and accessed, but officials told Reuters that authorities notify anyone whose information is gathered and that all the data will be deleted when the virus is contained.
“Such information should only be used for crises like infectious diseases,”
Tomi Engdahl says:
Elements of the New Normal
https://www.marketviews.com/etf-global/elements-of-the-new-normal/?utm_source=dianomi&utm_campaign=auto_ads
Monday, April 27, 2020– After a rocky start as a result of a massive oil sell-off, stocks rallied later in the week, led by the technology sector. Still, markets ended this roller-coaster week slightly down, snapping 2 consecutive weeks of gains.
Tomi Engdahl says:
European countries mull reopening borders
https://www.bbc.com/news/live/world-52803180
Now playingNow playing video ‘I see a lot of people, I don’t see any masks’ from BBC
‘I see a lot of people, I don’t see any masks’BBC
Tomi Engdahl says:
Coronavirus: WHO halts trials of hydroxychloroquine over safety fears
https://www.bbc.com/news/health-52799120
Testing of the malaria drug hydroxychloroquine as a possible treatment for coronavirus has been halted because of safety fears, the World Health Organization (WHO) says.
Trials in several countries are being “temporarily” suspended as a precaution, the agency said on Monday.
It comes after a recent medical study suggested the drug could increase the risk of patients dying from Covid-19.
President Donald Trump has said he has taken the drug to ward off the virus.
The US president has repeatedly promoted the anti-malarial drug, against medical advice and despite warnings from public health officials that it could cause heart problems.
Hydroxychloroquine is safe for malaria, and conditions like lupus or arthritis, but no clinical trials have recommended its use for treating Covid-19.
The WHO, which is running clinical trials of various drugs to assess which might be beneficial in treating the disease, has previously raised concerns over reports of individuals self-medicating and causing themselves serious harm.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Coronavirus: Call for clear face masks to be ‘the norm’
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-52764355
It’s now part of daily life for many of us – struggling to work out what someone in a supermarket or at work is saying when they’re wearing a face mask.
But for people who are deaf or have hearing loss, masks can prevent them understanding anything at all.
“I can hear one or two words but it’s random, it makes no sense… When someone is wearing a face mask I’ve lost the ability to lip read and I’ve lost facial expressions – I have lost the key things that make a sentence.”
It is a problem she shares with the some 466 million people around the world who, according to the World Health Organization, have disabling hearing loss.
Standard face masks, which have become widespread as countries try to stop the spread of coronavirus, muffle words and obscure the mouth.
But now charities and manufacturers alike are coming up with a solution.
Main dans la Main (Hand in Hand), an association which supports deaf and hearing impaired people in Chevrières, northern France, is among the organisations around the world that have created a mask with a transparent window.
“The basic aim of these transparent masks is to allow deaf and hearing impaired people to read the lips of someone speaking to them,” Kelly told the BBC.
“But they are also very useful for autistic people, people with learning difficulties and small children who might be scared of masks or need to be able to see facial expressions.
“In any case, a transparent mask allows you to see each other’s smiles, and at this sad time this could not be more important.”
Unlike some companies around the world – in Scotland, the US and Indonesia, for instance – Kelly and her mother are not able to produce their masks on a commercial basis.
Instead, they are advising people on how to make their own and there are multiple guidelines online to help. Their top tip is to use a little washing up soap to stop the plastic screen fogging up.
But one setting where homemade masks are not suitable – but where both PPE and communication are vital – is in hospitals.
There is just one company in the US that has secured Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval to make clear masks for clinical use.
Five hundred of these masks are being used at Brigham and Women’s hospital in the US city of Boston. At the moment they are being reserved for staff to wear when they are speaking to patients with hearing loss, or vice versa. Sign language interpreters, who use facial expressions and lip movements alongside body movements to create more complex and culturally rich signs, also wear them.
n the UK, eight charities have written to NHS bosses calling for clear masks to be commissioned, warning of “potentially dangerous situations” arising from communication problems. NHS England has not yet responded to the letter, or to the BBC’s request for comment.
But deaf workers say these workarounds are not always suitable for sensitive or emergency situations.
“As masks become more widespread in the community – it’s going to get harder and harder,” Dr Izagaren says.
“I’m worried the public are going to get more and more frustrated and there will be more discrimination towards the deaf community.”
Tomi Engdahl says:
Seth Colaner / VentureBeat:
An overview of how governments around the world are using smartphone data, apps, drones, facial recognition, and AI to track COVID-19 and surveil citizens
The technologies the world is using to track coronavirus — and people
https://venturebeat.com/2020/05/18/the-technologies-the-world-is-using-to-track-coronavirus-and-people/
Now that the world is in the thick of the coronavirus pandemic, governments are quickly deploying their own cocktails of tracking methods. These include device-based contact tracing, wearables, thermal scanning, drones, and facial recognition technology. It’s important to understand how those tools and technologies work and how governments are using them to track not just the spread of the coronavirus, but the movements of their citizens.
in a global pandemic, that careful manual method cannot keep pace, so a more automated system is needed.
That’s where device-based contact tracing (usually via smartphone) comes into play. This involves using an app and data from people’s smartphones to figure out who has been in contact with whom — even if it’s just a casual passing in the street — and alerting everyone who has been exposed to an infected individual
But the devil is in the details. There are obvious concerns about data privacy and abuse if that data is exposed or misused by those who hold it. And the tradeoffs between privacy and measures needed to curb the spread of COVID-19 are a matter of extensive debate.
The core of that debate is whether to take a centralized or decentralized approach to data collection and analysis. To oversimplify: In either approach, data is generated when people’s phones come into contact with one another. In a centralized approach, data from the phones gets uploaded into a database, and the database matches a user’s records with others and subsequently sends out alerts. In a decentralized approach, a user’s phone uploads only an anonymized identifier, other users download the list of anonymous IDs, and the matching is done on-device.
The advantage of decentralization is that data stays private and essentially unexploitable, and users remain anonymous. Centralization offers richer data, which could help public health officials better understand the disease and its spread and allow government officials to more effectively plan, execute, and enforce quarantines and other measures designed to protect the public.
But the potential disadvantages of centralized data are downright dystopian. Governments can exploit the data. Private tech companies may be able to buy or sell it en masse. Hackers could steal it.
And even though centralized systems anonymize data, that data can be re-identified in some cases. In South Korea, for example, a failure to keep contact tracing data sufficiently anonymous led to incidents of public shaming. An Israel-based company called the NSO Group provides spyware that could be put to such a task. According to Bloomberg, the company has contracts with a dozen countries and is embroiled in a lawsuit with WhatsApp, accused of delivering spyware via the popular messaging platform.
That’s not to mention various technical challenges — notably that Apple doesn’t allow the tracking apps to run in the background, as well as some Android bugs that contact tracing app developers have encountered. To obviate some of these issues, Apple and Google forged a historic partnership to create a shared API. But the debate between centralized and decentralized approaches remains riddled with nuance.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Dean Takahashi / VentureBeat:
Startup Genome study finds global VC funding fell 20% since the onset of COVID-19 in December 2019
Startup Genome: Global VC funding dropped 20% since coronavirus crisis began in December
https://venturebeat.com/2020/05/20/startup-genome-global-vc-funding-dropped-20-since-coronavirus-crisis-began-in-december/
Tomi Engdahl says:
People Who Have Had Mild Covid-19 Appear To Have Some Immunity
https://www.iflscience.com/health-and-medicine/people-who-have-had-mild-covid19-appear-to-have-some-immunity/
Even people who experienced mild symptoms of Covid-19 could still have acquired immunity for several weeks or more, according to a new study in French healthcare workers. The news is promising as it suggests mild Covid-19 cases might hold some protection against re-infection, but it’s worth remembering that immunity can be a very fiddly and fickle thing, especially when it comes to this new and little understood virus.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Here’s how #COVID19 will impact the #environment, transportation, the deployment of #autonomousvehicles, and social engagement, and leave us increasingly #isolated
COVID-19: Our new normal
https://www.edn.com/covid-19-our-new-normal/?utm_content=buffer5c914&utm_medium=social&utm_source=edn_facebook&utm_campaign=buffer
even after an effective novel coronavirus vaccine is developed and widely deployed (assuming the virus doesn’t evolve in response), and contact tracking and tracing (by humans and/or automated and claimed-anonymous systems) is in place, some things we’ve done pre-pandemic will (IMHO) never return to “normal.”
In part this will be because people will remain wary of congregating in close proximity, especially with strangers. And in larger part, this will be because the social distancing we’ve been compelled to undertake (by political and peer pressure, along with regulatory threat of prosecution if we do otherwise) will become the new norm.
pretty much nobody’s flying
As shelter-in-place restrictions start to lift, even assuming that folks’ infection concerns diminish (unlikely), ongoing pressure to maintain six-foot (or more) spacing in order to keep the curve flattened and avoid overwhelming health care systems will remain for quite some time. This means no more people packed like sardines in airplanes; one person per multi-seat cluster (two total per row, three per row for wide-body planes). The same goes for buses, trains, subways, and other forms of mass transit; don’t even get me started on cruise ships. That means we’ll need to put more planes, buses, trains, and subways into service
yes we’ll start taking destination vacations again, but we’ll get to those destinations in personally owned vehicles, and we’ll only share them with family members and trusted friends
at the shipping industry; I’ve already discussed the reliability, cost, and other benefits of autonomous trucks versus human-driven ones
Do Los Angeles residents appreciate the haze-free views of recent times, when they’re able to go outside and enjoy them, that is? You bet. Will they vote with their wallets to keep those views even after restrictions ease
the slow fade-out of movie theaters and now COVID-19 has pounded a few more nails into their coffins; studios are releasing new films directly to streaming providers
I’m highly confident that the promoters will declare the concerts indefinitely postponed versus definitely canceled, thereby precluding refunds
Tomi Engdahl says:
Plexiglass is a hot item all of a sudden, as the need for social distancing and protection has increased. That’s meant a huge uptick in business for Columbus, Ohio-based Plaskolite.
The Market For Plexiglass Is Booming–And The Nation’s Largest Manufacturer Says It’s Here To Stay
http://on.forbes.com/6186GEYmr
Plexiglass is a hot item all of a sudden, as the need for social distancing and protection has increased. That’s meant a huge uptick in business for Columbus, Ohio-based Plaskolite.
The rush of calls started in mid-March. As the coronavirus pandemic logged its first thousand cases in the United States, hospitals were in desperate need of face shields for protection. So manufacturers turned to Plaskolite, the nation’s largest manufacturer of thermoplastic sheet, the glass-like material needed for the production of face shields.
“There were practically no face shields in the country; the supply was just not there, so there was a major, major rush to manufacture the product,” says Mitch Grindley, Plaskolite’s executive chairman. “Clearly, the need outweighed anything else that we were running at the time, so we took two of our plants, adjusted our lines and started cranking them out as fast as we could.”
A couple of days later, Grindley says, the rush was amplified. But, this time, it was orders for clear acrylic barrier sheets that were piling in. One of the first big orders came from Walmart, which needed the sheets installed between cashiers and customers. Coffee shops and small restaurants quickly followed suit. And all told, orders are up six-fold since March, Grindley says. “It basically has not stopped.”
Demand for face shields could normalize by the end of year, Grindley says, but he’s not so sure the booming market for acrylic barriers will wind down anytime soon. In addition to the surge in demand from restaurants, retailers and offices that are slowly opening up, Grindley says more use cases and interested buyers keep popping up as nonessential businesses across the country also begin to reopen.
“Every day I come in and hear about a new application,” he says. Plaskolite is now manufacturing clear barriers installed between booths and tables at restaurants, shatterproof partitions to separate bus drivers from boarding passengers and “barrier stations” for employers to safely take workers’ temperatures at the start of shifts. The products have already made their way into retailers, casinos and courtrooms, and Grindley says he’s also received proposals for barriers between seats in movie theaters, airplanes and even dentist offices.
Tomi Engdahl says:
The experience of the Ebola outbreak in 2014 is helping African countries plan their response to COVID19. This is #ChangingLives http://wrld.bg/nias50zMYWj
https://www.worldbank.org/en/news/feature/2020/04/03/in-the-face-of-coronavirus-african-countries-apply-lessons-from-ebola-response?cid=ECR_FB_worldbank_EN_EXT_ChangingLives
Tomi Engdahl says:
The Philippines Now Has the Most Number of COVID-19 Cases in Southeast Asia
https://www.esquiremag.ph/politics/news/philippines-highest-sea-a00304-20200413
Tomi Engdahl says:
Horowitz: The CDC confirms remarkably low coronavirus death rate. Where is the media
https://www.conservativereview.com/news/horowitz-cdc-confirms-remarkably-low-coronavirus-death-rate-media/
Most people are more likely to wind up six feet under because of almost anything else under the sun other than COVID-19.
The CDC just came out with a report that should be earth-shattering to the narrative of the political class, yet it will go into the thick pile of vital data and information about the virus that is not getting out to the public. For the first time, the CDC has attempted to offer a real estimate of the overall death rate for COVID-19, and under its most likely scenario, the number is 0.26%. Officials estimate a 0.4% fatality rate among those who are symptomatic and project a 35% rate of asymptomatic cases among those infected, which drops the overall infection fatality rate (IFR) to just 0.26% — almost exactly where Stanford researchers pegged it a month ago.
https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/hcp/planning-scenarios.html
Tomi Engdahl says:
Nyt tulivat viralliset ohjeet maskin ostoon – antimikrobisina markkinoitujenkaan tehosta ei ole varmuutta
https://www.iltalehti.fi/kotimaa/a/d2c3cacd-d0eb-4223-8d66-62d0d232ab52
Turvallisuus- ja kemikaalivirasto (Tukes) muistuttaa, etteivät niin sanotut ”kansanmaskit” suojaa ihmisiä tartunnoilta.
Turvallisuus- ja kemikaalivirasto (Tukes) on saanut kuluttajilta paljon yhteydenottoja kansanmaskeista, joita markkinoidaan virheellisesti hengityksensuojaimina, Tukes kertoo tiedotteessaan.
Kansanmaskeissa ei saa olla väitteitä, että kansanmaskit suojaisivat käyttäjäänsä virustartunnoilta.
Kansanmaskin tarkoituksena on suojata muita ihmisiä käyttäjän pärskeiltä. Jos käyttäjällä on virustartunta, kansanmaski voi vähentää pärskeiden leviämistä ympäristöön ja suojata muita virustartunnalta. Kansanmaski ei kuitenkaan suojaa itse käyttäjää virustartunnalta.
Hengityksensuojaimet puolestaan suojaavat myös käyttäjäänsä virustartunnalta. Hengityksensuojaimille on huomattavasti tiukemmat vaatimukset kuin kansanmaskeille. Kansanmaskeja koskevat yleisten kulutustavaroiden vaatimukset.
STM:n maskiselvitys julki – Vaikutus viruksen leviämiseen väestössä vähäinen tai olematon, ”kansanmaskeista” ei mitään näyttöä
https://www.iltalehti.fi/politiikka/a/7ce4dffd-75b3-4d0a-8bd1-10319d519280
Selvityksessä todetaan, että väestön kasvosuojusten vaikuttavuudesta viruksen leviämisen ehkäisystä yhteiskunnassa on hyvin vähän tutkimustietoa. Selvitystä varten tehtyyn järjestelmälliseen kirjallisuuskatsaukseen sisällytettiin kaikki satunnaistetut tutkimukset kodin ulkopuolella käytettävien kasvosuojusten vaikutuksesta pisaravälitteisten hengitystieinfektioiden leviämiseen väestössä.
– Tutkimusnäytön perusteella kasvosuojusten käytön vaikutus hengitystieinfektioiden leviämiseen väestössä on vähäinen tai olematon, Mäkelä kertoi.
”Heikkoa näyttöä”
Kaikki kasvomaskien hyötyjä tarkastelevat tutkimukset tehtiin kirurgisilla suojaimilla. Mäkelän mukaan niin kutsuttujen kansanmaskien eli kankaisten maskien käytön hyödyistä viruksen leviämisen ehkäisyssä väestössä ei ole olemassa lainkaan tieteellistä tutkimusnäyttöä.
Mäkelältä kysyttiin mielipidettä siihen, että EU-komissio on suositellut kasvomaskien käyttöä julkisessa liikenteessä, kun turvavälejä ei siellä voida välttämättä pitää.
– Aiheesta on vain heikkoa tieteellistä näyttöä. Maskit tuovat enemmän mekaanista uskottavuutta kuin todellista turvaa, Mäkelä katsoo.
Varhila kertoi, että palveluntuottaja voi velvoittaa maskien käyttöön, mutta silloin tuottajan täytyy pystyä maskeja tarjoamaan.
Näin esimerkiksi Finnair on toiminut. Finnairilla on toiveena, että matkustaja ottaisi matkalle mukaan sellaisen maskin, jonka matkustaja tietää omille kasvoilleen sopivan parhaiten. Kuitenkin maskeja on saatavilla myös lentokentältä.
Mekaaninen suorituskyky eri asia
Laboratorio-olosuhteissa kasvosuojainten on todettu ainakin jossain määrin vähentävän mikro-organismien leviämistä hengitysilman mukana.
Pohjola huomautti, että Teknologian tutkimuskeskus VTT on tehnyt toukokuussa julkaistun selvityksen erilaisten kankaasta tehtyjen maskien suodatuskyvystä.
Pohjola toteaa, että suodatuskyky riippuu materiaalista, ja kyse on teknisistä ominaisuuksista. Parhaimmillaan suodatuskyky voi olla jopa 80 prosenttia kirurgisen maskin suodatuskyvystä.
– Hengityssuojukset aiheuttavat myös aina hengitysvastusta, mikä voi aiheuttaa riskin suojuksen käyttäjälle tilanteessa, joissa käyttäjällä on hengitykseen vaikuttava tilapäinen tai pitkäaikainen sairaus, selvityksessä todetaan.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Tukes ohjeistaa: näin ostat kansanmaskin
https://tukes.fi/artikkeli/-/asset_publisher/tukes-ohjeistaa-nain-ostat-kansanmaskin
Tomi Engdahl says:
Covid-19 Raises Demand for Thermal Imagers and Detectors
https://www.eetimes.com/covid-19-raises-demand-for-thermal-imagers-and-detectors/
Thermal imaging and sensing technology will certainly be among the lines of defense against the Covid-19 virus, according to market research firm Yole Développement (Lyon, France), triggering a boom in the market for thermal technologies. Between 2019 and 2020, the thermal imager and thermal detector markets are projected to rise by 76 percent and 20 percent, respectively.
Automotive down, thermography and public surveillance up
The Covid-19 pandemic is reshuffling the cards. High-volume applications such as automotive and ruggedized smartphones, which were expected to boom, are showing signs of stagnation, especially as production shifts towards more cameras for fever detection applications. Based on industry indicators, Yole now predicts that thermal imagers will be a $7.6 billion market, up 76 percent year-over-year. Previous forecasts predicted a $4.5 billion market, up 8 percent year-over-year.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Kirsten Grind / Wall Street Journal:
COVID-19 Technology Task Force, an effort to let big tech companies assist White House’s pandemic response, beset by disagreements over privacy and other issues
Tech’s First Big Plan to Tackle Covid-19 Stumbles: ‘An App Is Not Going to Fix This’
https://www.wsj.com/articles/techs-first-big-plan-to-tackle-covid-19-stumbles-an-app-is-not-going-to-fix-this-11590757102?mod=djemalertNEWS
Effort to join Silicon Valley tech giants including Facebook, Google, Microsoft and Amazon with the White House to fight the coronavirus is faltering
A heralded effort to bring together Silicon Valley tech giants, investors and the White House on tools to fight the new coronavirus is fizzling.
In March, a cohort of influential technology leaders formed a task force to devise tech solutions for the pandemic, a signal that the nation’s innovation engine was kicking into gear.
Months later, the Technology and Research Task Force’s biggest plans, such as a hospital-bed tracker, contact-tracing tools and a project to ship Kindle devices to nursing-home residents, have failed to materialize amid what members say were disagreements over privacy and other issues. It has cycled through members and a leadership change, and some of the group’s biggest names, from Microsoft and Facebook to the White House, have dropped out or are playing minimal roles.
Members say that the experience has shown them that the tech industry can play an important supporting role as the world battles the coronavirus crisis, but technology alone won’t save the day.
“An app is not going to fix this,” said John Borthwick, a New York-based venture capital investor who is now leading the group.
The task force had been working with developers building contact-tracing apps, one of its goals. When Apple Inc. AAPL -0.10% and Google later announced their own effort to help track infected people on behalf of governments, some members say they were taken aback. Some questioned its effectiveness and the companies’ ability to keep user information completely private, members said.
The group is organizing a virtual “hackathon,” to drive interest in tackling the issue of social isolation, and is hosting a series of online events on contact tracing with public health officials and other experts.
As they brought together representatives from tech giants and government in March, task force members harnessed the “save the world” ethos that for years has defined Silicon Valley.
Everyone wanted to help. The biggest problem was managing the deluge of ideas pouring in from the tech community, members say.
The group soon ran into controversy: privacy. After seeing tech giants get hammered by regulators and lawmakers over data-collection practices pre-pandemic, conversations about tracking individuals’ virus exposure via cellphones and other initiatives got lost in policy and regulatory concerns.
Caroline Buckee, a Harvard University epidemiologist and early member of the task force, said weekly Zoom meetings devolved into long discussions about privacy implications and best practices for data.
“It was fragmented and it was unclear what the goals were,” Ms. Buckee said.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Talking Can Generate Coronavirus Droplets That Linger Up to 14 Minutes
A new study shows how respiratory droplets produced during normal conversation may be just as important in transmitting disease, especially indoors.
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/14/health/coronavirus-infections.html
Tomi Engdahl says:
First Human Trial for COVID-19 Antibody Drug Begins
https://spectrum.ieee.org/the-human-os/biomedical/devices/first-human-trial-for-covid19-antibody-drug-begins
Just three months after the start of the pandemic, drugmaker Eli Lilly has announced the first human test of an antibody treatment designed to fight the novel coronavirus.
The potential drug, developed by Lilly, Vancouver-based biotech company AbCellera, and the Vaccine Research Center at the U.S. National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, was identified by screening over 5 million immune cells in the blood of one of the first people in North America to recover after having contracted COVID-19.
The drug candidate is being tested in a randomized, placebo-controlled safety trial with 32 patients hospitalized for COVID-19 at major medical centers in the U.S.
On 25 February, the company received the recovered COVID-19 patient’s blood sample. With that sample, they set out to discover an antibody—a protective Y-shaped protein produced by the body to bind foreign substances such as viruses and bacteria, and neutralize them or recruit immune cells to destroy them. The specific antibody for which they were on the lookout would bind the outer spike protein on the new coronavirus, SARS-CoV-2, therefore blocking the virus from entering human cells and preventing infection.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Exclusive: Inside The Military’s Top Secret Plans If Coronavirus Cripples the Government
https://www.newsweek.com/exclusive-inside-militarys-top-secret-plans-if-coronavirus-cripples-government-1492878
Above-Top Secret contingency plans already exist for what the military is supposed to do if all the Constitutional successors are incapacitated. Standby orders were issued more than three weeks ago to ready these plans, not just to protect Washington but also to prepare for the possibility of some form of martial law.
Tomi Engdahl says:
The findings of this systematic review and meta-analysis support physical distancing of 1 m or more and provide quantitative estimates for models and contact tracing to inform policy. Optimum use of face masks, respirators, and eye protection in public and health-care settings should be informed by these findings and contextual factors. Robust randomised trials are needed to better inform the evidence for these interventions, but this systematic appraisal of currently best available evidence might inform interim guidance.
https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(20)31142-9/fulltext
Tomi Engdahl says:
Q&A: Coronavirus has shown the need for a global health system – but revealed its weaknesses too
https://horizon-magazine.eu/article/qa-coronavirus-has-shown-need-global-health-system-revealed-its-weaknesses-too.html#utm_source=share&utm_medium=Facebook&utm_campaign=post_coronavirus
We are seeing a failure of global health governance in response to Covid-19 because there are too many agencies with different interests, according Professor Colin McInnes, pro-vice chancellor at Aberystwyth University in Wales, UK, who says global institutions such as the World Health Organization and World Bank should stand together in crises.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Aaron Levie: ‘We have way too many manual processes in businesses’
https://techcrunch.com/2020/05/29/aaron-levie-we-have-way-too-many-manual-processes-in-businesses/
Box CEO Aaron Levie has been working to change the software world for 15 years, but the pandemic has accelerated the move to cloud services much faster than anyone imagined. As he pointed out yesterday in an Extra Crunch Live interview, who would have thought three months ago that businesses like yoga and cooking classes would have moved online — but here we are.
Levie says we are just beginning to see the range of what’s possible because circumstances are forcing us to move to the cloud much faster than most businesses probably would have without the pandemic acting as a change agent.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Wall Street Journal:
Overall, remote learning this spring didn’t work: schools disagree on fair student assessment, students lack equal access to technology, teaching got harder — The pandemic forced schools into a crash course in online education. Problems piled up quickly. ‘I find it hectic and stressful’
The Results Are In for Remote Learning: It Didn’t Work
https://www.wsj.com/articles/schools-coronavirus-remote-learning-lockdown-tech-11591375078?mod=djemalertNEWS
The pandemic forced schools into a crash course in online education. Problems piled up quickly. ‘I find it hectic and stressful’
This spring, America took an involuntary crash course in remote learning. With the school year now winding down, the grade from students, teachers, parents and administrators is already in: It was a failure.
School districts closed campuses in March in response to the coronavirus pandemic and, with practically no time at all for planning or training, launched a grand experiment to educate more than 50 million students from kindergarten through 12th grade using technology.
The problems began piling up almost immediately. There were students with no computers or internet access. Teachers had no experience with remote learning. And many parents weren’t available to help.
In many places, lots of students simply didn’t show up online, and administrators had no good way to find out why not. Soon many districts weren’t requiring students to do any work at all, increasing the risk that millions of students would have big gaps in their learning.
“We all know there’s no substitute for learning in a school setting, and many students are struggling and falling far behind where they should be,”
Already, school administrators are looking ahead to an uncertain fall, when many will be trying to apply lessons gleaned from the rocky spring to try to reopen classrooms, possibly using a mix of in-person and remote learning. To prevent a repeat of the spring disaster, some of them say, more students will need suitable electronic devices and internet access, and teachers will need much better training about how best to instruct from afar.
Preliminary research suggests students nationwide will return to school in the fall with roughly 70% of learning gains in reading relative to a typical school year, and less than 50% in math
Tomi Engdahl says:
Shutdowns Prevented Approximately 60 Million Coronavirus Cases In US, Study Shows
https://www.forbes.com/sites/tommybeer/2020/06/08/shutdowns-prevented-approximately-60-million-coronavirus-cases-in-us-study-shows/?utm_campaign=forbes&utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=social&utm_term=Gordie/#676f7264696
A pair of studies published on Monday by the British scientific journal Nature, found that shutdown orders helped prevent roughly 60 million Covid-19 infections in the United States and prevented approximately 3.1 million deaths across Europe.
Emergency health measures implemented in six major countries have “significantly and substantially slowed” the spread of the novel coronavirus, according to research from a UC Berkeley team published today in Nature.
The estimates suggest that, without certain policies in place from the beginning of the pandemic in January through early April, there would be about 60 million more coronavirus infections in the U.S. and an additional 500 million total infections across all six countries.
On Monday, the total number of global Covid-19 cases surpassed 7 million, with over 400,000 dead (more than a quarter of those deaths have occurred in America).
A separate study, from epidemiologists at Imperial College London, also published Monday in Nature, estimated shutdown measures, such as lockdown orders and school closures, saved about 3.1 million lives in 11 European countries, including 500,000 in the United Kingdom.
“The last several months have been extraordinarily difficult, but through our individual sacrifices, people everywhere have each contributed to one of humanity’s greatest collective achievements,” said lead author Solomon Hsiang, director of Berkeley’s Global Policy Laboratory. “So many have suffered tragic losses already. And yet, April and May would have been even more devastating if we had done nothing, with a toll we probably can’t imagine.”
Tomi Engdahl says:
How New Zealand ‘Eliminated’ Coronavirus
https://www.forbes.com/sites/alexandrasternlicht/2020/06/08/how-new-zealand-eliminated-coronavirus/?utm_campaign=forbes&utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=social&utm_term=Gordie/#676f7264696
Due to a mixture of strict quarantine, travel restrictions and widespread testing, New Zealand has reported no new coronavirus cases for 17 days and has no active cases. The country plans to lift nearly all of its restrictions Tuesday.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Coronavirus May Have Been Spreading In China Last August, Harvard Research Suggests
https://www.forbes.com/sites/isabeltogoh/2020/06/09/coronavirus-may-have-been-spreading-in-china-last-august-harvard-research-suggests/?utm_campaign=forbes&utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=social&utm_term=Gordie/#676f7264696
Harvard and Boston researchers examined satellite data of parking lots across hospitals in Wuhan, alongside online search data on Chinese search engine Baidu for symptoms such as “diarrhea” or “cough”.
A rise in online searches for symptoms was spotted, alongside a sharp rise in hospital traffic, occurred in August last year, around four months before the virus became linked to a seafood market in the city.
The researchers say there was a “unique increase” in searches for diarrhea not seen in previous flu seasons, which the researchers say is a “more COVID-19 specific symptom and only shows an association with the current epidemic.”
Tomi Engdahl says:
Coronavirus spread by asymptomatic people ‘appears to be rare,’ WHO official says
https://edition.cnn.com/2020/06/08/health/coronavirus-asymptomatic-spread-who-bn/index.html
The spread of Covid-19 by someone who is not showing symptoms appears to be rare, Maria Van Kerkhove, the World Health Organization’s technical lead for coronavirus response and head of the emerging diseases and zoonoses unit, said during a media briefing in Geneva on Monday.
“From the data we have, it still seems to be rare that an asymptomatic person actually transmits onward to a secondary individual,” Van Kerkhove said on Monday.
“We have a number of reports from countries who are doing very detailed contact tracing. They’re following asymptomatic cases, they’re following contacts and they’re not finding secondary transmission onward. It is very rare — and much of that is not published in the literature,”
Tomi Engdahl says:
Lockdowns And Closures May Have Saved 3.1 Million Lives In Europe, Study Finds
https://www.iflscience.com/health-and-medicine/lockdowns-and-closures-may-have-saved-31-million-lives-in-europe-study-finds/
Lockdowns and other interventions to reduce virus transmission have saved more than 3 million lives from Covid-19 in 11 European nations, a team of epidemiologists has claimed. Like all modeling, the work rests on assumptions, some of which will certainly be controversial, but the onus is now on those who claim lockdowns were unnecessary to show where the modeling is wrong.
Through March, as nation after nation across Europe attempted to control SARS-CoV-2′s spread by closing institutions and issuing stay-at-home orders, everyone was flying almost blind. No one knew just how transmissible the virus was, nor what proportion of infected people would die.
Tomi Engdahl says:
COVID-19′s effects on consumer behaviour and businesses – Market research results, part I
https://www.columbiaroad.com/blog/covid-19s-effects-on-consumer-behaviour-and-businesses-market-research-results
Tomi Engdahl says:
How media worldwide are covering the coronavirus crisis
https://en.ejo.ch/ethics-quality/how-media-worldwide-are-covering-the-coronavirus-crisis
The crisis triggered by the coronavirus is presenting the world with unprecedented challenges. While borders are closing and ever more governments move towards declaring a state of national emergency, the European Journalism Observatory seeks to shed light on the media response to the crisis worldwide, both in countries that enjoy press freedom as well as states where media freedom is restricted.
Tomi Engdahl says:
3M files suit over third-party price gouging of N95 masks on Amazon
https://techcrunch.com/2020/06/09/3m-files-suit-over-third-party-price-gouging-of-n95-masks-on-amazon/?tpcc=ECFB2020
Amazon has promised vigilance against third-party price gouging since COVID-19 achieved global pandemic status. The company’s efforts have had mixed success, however, due in part to the sheer volume of vendors that utilize the company’s massive commerce platform. In a suit filed in California this week, 3M claims the seller was charging massively inflated prices for either damaged or counterfeit products.
“3M alleges that the defendants charged prices for the fraudulent respirators that exceeded as much as 20 times 3M’s N95 respirator list prices,” the company writes. “Amazon learned that the defendants misrepresented what would be delivered for these exorbitant prices, and that buyers had received non-3M respirators, fewer items than purchased, products in suspect packaging, and defective or damaged items. Amazon has blocked the accounts on its platform.”
N95 masks have become one of the most in-demand pieces of PPE during the ongoing crisis, due to their extreme filtration efficacy. The CDC recommends the respirators versus surgical masks, due to their ability to filter out small particles. The latter is mostly effective for large droplets and fluid.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Securing the new normal protecting the post Covid-19 world
https://blog.checkpoint.com/2020/06/09/securing-the-new-normal-protecting-the-post-covid-19-world/
Its only 20 weeks since the first lockdown measures were implemented
in Wuhan, in January 2020, but since then the emergence of the
Covid-19 pandemic has reshaped our entire working culture. The changes
were global, rapid and widespread, compressing several years worth of
IT changes into just a few weeks
Tomi Engdahl says:
Kolumni: Korona-aika muuttaa aivojemme toimintaa – vaikutukset näkyvät aivokuorella ja etulohkossa
https://www.iltalehti.fi/mielijamasennus/a/f2674c61-f830-47da-b2bb-b8f2df02ead8
Korona-aika ottaa aivoon, kirjaimellisesti. Kuluva ajanjakso vaatii aivoiltamme tavallista enemmän ponnistelua, kirjoittaa aivoasiantuntija, psykologian tohtori Mona Moisala.
Vaikka arki on edennyt koko kevään ja alkukesän ajan tylsien ja toisiaan muistuttavien päivien kavalkadina, aivoilla on ollut tavallista enemmän ratkottavaa.
Korona-aika on ollut aivoille erityisen väsyttävää aikaa. Vaikka arki onkin monella edennyt koko kevään ja alkukesän ajan tasaisen harmaana, tylsien ja toisiaan muistuttavien päivien kavalkadina, aivoilla on ollut tavallista enemmän ratkottavaa. Arkisetkin tilanteet, kuten yllä kuvaamani hissikohtaaminen, ovat näinä poikkeusaikoina saaneet aivot ylikuormittumaan ajatuksista.
Tomi Engdahl says:
The WHO Walks Back an Earlier Assertion That Asymptomatic Transmission is ‘Very Rare’
https://science.slashdot.org/story/20/06/09/194237/the-who-walks-back-an-earlier-assertion-that-asymptomatic-transmission-is-very-rare?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+Slashdot%2Fslashdot%2Fto+%28%28Title%29Slashdot+%28rdf%29%29
A top expert at the World Health Organization on Tuesday walked back her earlier assertion that transmission of the coronavirus by people who do not have symptoms is “very rare.” From a report:
Dr. Maria Van Kerkhove, who made the original comment at a W.H.O. briefing on Monday, said that it was based on just two or three studies and that it was a “misunderstanding” to say asymptomatic transmission is rare globally. “I was just responding to a question, I wasn’t stating a policy of W.H.O. or anything like that,” she said. Dr. Van Kerkhove said that the estimates of transmission from people without symptoms come primarily from models, which may not provide an accurate representation. “That’s a big open question, and that remains an open question,” she said.
Scientists had sharply criticized the W.H.O. for creating confusion on the issue, given the far-ranging public policy implications.
Surging Coronavirus Cases Push Latin America ‘to the Limit’
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/09/world/coronavirus-us-usa.html
The U.S. caseload, already the world’s highest, is approaching two million. A book about the fall of France in 1940 has become a hit during the pandemic.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Tech giants must open up about the coronavirus ‘infodemic’, say EU lawmakers
https://tcrn.ch/2YfOJ2M
Platforms still aren’t doing enough to tackle disinformation related to the coronavirus crisis, the European Commission said today.
In a Communication it is pressing tech platforms to produce monthly reports about their efforts in this area, asking for more detailed data on actions being taken to promote authoritative content; improve users’ awareness; and limit coronavirus disinformation and advertising related to it.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Covid nostra
The pandemic is creating fresh opportunities for organised crime
And governments are not paying attention
https://www.economist.com/international/2020/05/16/the-pandemic-is-creating-fresh-opportunities-for-organised-crime?fsrc=scn/fb/te/bl/ed/covidnostrathepandemiciscreatingfreshopportunitiesfororganisedcrimeinternational
Many countries have reported tumbling crime rates, as crooks, along with everyone else, have shut themselves away.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Coronavirus Will Wipe Out These Three Industries For Good
https://www.forbes.com/sites/stephenmcbride1/2020/05/11/coronavirus-will-wipe-out-these-three-industries-for-good/
From No. 1. to BANKRUPT. In less than two years.
But then disaster struck. After the September 11 terrorist attacks, air travel ground to a halt. Banc went from Australia’s most-exclusive restaurant, to bankrupt in less than two years.
I share this story because it drives home a powerful lesson in disruption. You see, my goal is not only to help you profit from disruption. You must also avoid being caught on the wrong side of it.
And that’s more important today than ever before. As I’ve been saying, we’re in one of the most disruptive periods in history right now. The coronavirus has come through and absolutely annihilated some of today’s biggest industries.
Take the airline industry, for instance. CNN reports global airlines could face a $113 billion hit from the coronavirus.
Boeing (BA) went from world-dominator to pleading for a bailout in a matter of weeks. But here’s the thing. We all know airlines will eventually bounce back when this pandemic is finally over. It’ll definitely be a long grind higher… but airlines will survive.
Others won’t be as lucky. Fact is, for many industries, this crisis will prove to be the final nail in the coffin. These industries will NEVER return to what they once were.
Knowing the difference between which ones will eventually come back—and which ones have been wiped out for good—is crucial right now.
Blacklisted Industry #1: Movie Theaters
Filmmaker Universal recently detonated a nuclear bomb in Hollywood. Its kids film Trolls 2 became the first mainstream movie to be released online, skipping movie theaters. Families can stream it at home for 20 bucks.
Disney followed suit, releasing its latest hit Onward “digitally” last Friday. This is FAR more disruptive than most folks realize.
And this isn’t a one-off. Universal said it would no longer give theaters an exclusive period after the lockdown ends.
My friends, this is the end for most movie theaters. Theaters were struggling before coronavirus. According to data from Box Office Mojo, in 2019, Americans went to the movies less than any time since the 1920s.
In fact, the world’s largest theater company AMC (AMC) entered bankruptcy talks earlier this week. AMC and its competitors have all plunged 75%+ in the past few years:
Blacklisted Industry #2: Department Stores
Macy’s (M) has crashed 60% since January. It’s now trading at an all-time low. In fact, it’s been beaten up so much that it’s been pulled from the S&P 500 Index! The company is now worth less than $2 billion—which is considered too small for the index.
Coronavirus will be the final nail in the coffin for those still standing. Thousands of shops simply won’t reopen their doors after the lockdown.
Coronavirus has opened the floodgates for online shopping. Retailers like Macys, Gap (GPS), Nordstrom (JWN), Kohl’s (KSS), Bed Bath & Beyond (BBBY), and Footlocker (FL) all look like they’re headed for bankruptcy.
Blacklisted Industry #3: Office Space Operators
Mark my words: Coronavirus is a game changer when it comes to working-from-home.
It’s changing an entire generation’s view on what can be done remotely. After months of working from home, folks will realize they’re just as productive.
They’ll question why they need to commute to the office every day. And working remotely, say, two or three days a week will become the new normal.
Here’s the thing. It’s not that offices will be totally empty. But the number of folks working from home is going to surge. And when 30% of your office is empty every day, CEOs will look to cut rents.
Buying up swanky offices in cities like New York and San Francisco has been a sure bet for decades. This trend will reverse as remote working “sticks” long after coronavirus.
Tomi Engdahl says:
The World’s 25 Richest Billionaires Have Gained Nearly $255 Billion In Just Two Months
https://www.forbes.com/sites/jonathanponciano/2020/05/22/billionaires-zuckerberg-bezos/#19bf25b07ed6
The super rich are a whole lot richer than they were two months ago. Twenty five of the wealthiest people on Forbes’ list of the world’s billionaires are worth a whopping $255 billion more than when the U.S. stock market hit a mid-pandemic low on March 23.
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://www.iflscience.com/health-and-medicine/us-hits-2-million-covid19-cases-amidst-fresh-warnings-the-pandemic-isnt-over-yet/
Tomi Engdahl says:
“Institutional racism is a public health issue. Police brutality is a public health issue.”
Will Protests Increase the Spread of COVID-19?
https://spectrum.ieee.org/the-human-os/biomedical/ethics/will-protests-increase-spread-covid19-coronavirus
As thousands of individuals continue to gather in U.S. cities to protest racial injustice, computer scientists whose models predict the spread of COVID-19 are considering how these mass gatherings might affect the rate of disease transmission.
Public demonstrations began in Minneapolis after George Floyd, a black man, was killed 25 May by Minneapolis police officers.
The gatherings follow nearly three months of lockdowns and careful social distancing intended to slow the spread of the novel coronavirus, which causes the respiratory disease COVID-19. People have been avoiding their families and friends in an effort to do their part to flatten the curve.
Protests, by nature, starkly contrast with those social distancing efforts. But for many people, the need for protests outweighs the risks—the consequences of not doing something about discrimination are greater than the consequences of the pandemic. That puts disease modelers in the position of considering the amount of viral transmission the protests are likely to cause.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Google is placing ads next to COVID-19 misinformation on conspiracy sites
https://www.fastcompany.com/90514329/google-is-placing-ads-next-to-health-misinformation-on-conspiracy-sites
Ads for organizations such as One Medical and UNICEF are showing up on sites that publish fake information about COVID-19 and vaccines, helping those sites monetize their content—while making money for Google.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Global Pollution Maps Show Differences In Air Quality During COVID-19 Lockdown
https://www.iflscience.com/environment/global-pollution-maps-show-differences-in-air-quality-during-covid19-lockdown/
Tomi Engdahl says:
‘Doomscrolling’ can break your brain. It can also be a force for good
https://www.fastcompany.com/90514867/doomscrolling-can-break-your-brain-it-can-also-be-a-force-for-good
Endlessly binging on bad news in your social feeds is unhealthy. But it’s become a galvanizing force for protests against police brutality.
The world as we knew it is ending. A global pandemic has killed 404,000 people worldwide, including 114,000 in the U.S. The lockdown to prevent the coronavirus’s spread has resulted in at least 36 million people losing their jobs. And amidst this chaos, widespread protests are once again exposing the rot of structural racism in the United States.
Whether you’re scrolling through your social media site of choice, such as Facebook, Twitter, Reddit, or Instagram, or simply engaging with all the bad news on your favorite news source’s website for long periods of time, doomscrolling isn’t platform specific. And its roots extend back past the internet to the rise of the 24-hour cable news cycles, where it first became possible to gorge on depressing news on an endless loop.
After being first mentioned on Twitter in 2018, the term doomscrolling has become an increasingly popular way to describe the obsessive perusal of social media or news that for many has been sparked by the fear and anxiety around the coronavirus.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Face Masks May Be The Key Determinant Of The Covid-19 Curve, Study Suggests
https://www.forbes.com/sites/alicegwalton/2020/06/13/face-masks-may-be-the-key-determinant-of-the-covid-19-curve-study-suggests/?utm_campaign=forbes&utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=social&utm_term=Valerie/#76616c657269
As states reopen amid the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic, many are documenting still-rising levels of new cases. This is partly, or largely, due to bad pandemic-time behavior—that is, not wearing masks and not social-distancing. Even in New York, which has done so well in reducing its numbers, people are getting weary and a little sloppy with protections. A new study out in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences finds that among all the strategies for reducing transmission, wearing a face mask may be the central variable that determines the spread of the virus.
“Our analysis reveals that the difference with and without mandated face covering represents the determinant in shaping the trends of the pandemic,” the team, from Texas A&M University, the University of Texas at Austin, California Institute of Technology, and the University of California San Diego, write in their new paper.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Coronavirus survival comes with a $1.1 million, 181-page price tag
https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/inspiring-story-of-seattle-mans-coronavirus-survival-comes-with-a-1-1-million-dollar-hospital-bill/
Tomi Engdahl says:
Norway pulls its coronavirus contacts tracing app after privacy watchdog’s warning
https://tcrn.ch/30QFzwm
One of the first national coronavirus contacts tracing apps to be launched in Europe is being suspended in Norway after the country’s data protection authority raised concerns that the software, called ‘Smittestopp’, poses a disproportionate threat to user privacy — including by continuously uploading people’s location.
Tomi Engdahl says:
How A Filmmaker Got The No. 1 Movie In America During A Pandemic
https://patch.com/new-york/westhampton-hamptonbays/how-filmmaker-got-1-movie-america-during-pandemic
Yes, movie theaters are still closed. But one enterprising filmmaker has the #1 film in the US. And his story is better than any script.
Tomi Engdahl says:
UK gives up on centralized coronavirus contacts tracing app — will “likely” switch to model backed by Apple and Google
https://tcrn.ch/310CAlr
Tomi Engdahl says:
Beijing uses phone data to round up 350,000 people for coronavirus testing, and installs facial recognition checkpoints at apartment complexes as 21MILLION are put under lockdown
https://mol.im/a/8434489
The market is where the new outbreak, of which there have been 158 confirmed cases so far, started
A city official said 355,000 people had been identified for testing using ‘big data’ but did not say how
Residents have also been urged not to travel outside Beijing and thousands of flights have been cancelled