UK Halts Hydroxychloroquine Trial, Calling It ‘Useless’ for Covid-19 Patients

An anonymous reader quotes Reuters: British scientists halted a major drug trial on Friday after it found that the anti-malarial hydroxychloroquine, touted by U.S. President Donald Trump as a potential “game changer” in the pandemic, was “useless” at treating COVID-19 patients. “This is not a treatment for COVID-19. It doesn’t work,” Martin Landray, an Oxford University professor who is co-leading the…

2020 Coursera Virtual Conference: Reflections and Resources

By the Coursera Conference Team The Coursera Conference is an opportunity for our global community to engage around innovative teaching and learning experiences. This year, after careful consideration for the growing concerns surrounding the spread of COVID-19, the Coursera Conference transitioned from a two day, in-person event to a free, fully virtual experience focused on […]
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Robert May, Former UK Chief Scientist and Chaos Theory Pioneer, Dies Aged 84

Pioneering Australian scientist Robert May, whose work in biology led to the development of chaos theory, has died at age 84. The Guardian reports: Known as one of Australia’s most accomplished scientists, he served as the chief scientific adviser to the United Kingdom, was president of the Royal Society, and was made a lord in 2001. Born in Sydney on January…

Helping Companies Respond to Employee Well-Being and Digital Readiness during COVID-19

By Leah Belsky, Chief Enterprise Officer, Coursera The spread of COVID-19 has profoundly affected the way companies operate. In a matter of days, organizations around the world transitioned millions of employees to remote working to keep their communities safe. How businesses respond during this crisis will have a lasting impact on employee engagement, productivity, and […]
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10 More Virus Researchers Say ‘Virtually No Chance’ Coronavirus Escaped From a Lab

Long-time Slashdot reader Charlotte Web writes: “Virus researchers say there is virtually no chance that the new coronavirus was released as result of a laboratory accident in China or anywhere else,” writes NPR, citing “10 leading scientists who collect samples of viruses from animals in the wild, study virus genomes and understand how lab accidents can happen.” NPR reports: “All of…

Latest online courses in data science, tech, and health in 2020

With new courses launching every week, there’s always something to explore. These new courses cover everything from using TensorFlow to deploy machine learning models to the tools public health experts use to mitigate the spread of infectious diseases. What will you learn next?  Data Science TensorFlow: Data and Deployment Specialization by deeplearning.ai  Industries all around […]
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What’s new on Coursera for Business – March 2020

By Kyle Clark, Senior Skills Transformation Consultant As our Chief Enterprise Officer Leah Belsky wrote to many of our customers last week, the spread of coronavirus (COVID-19) has profoundly affected our work – and our lives. At Coursera, we’re grateful for the opportunity we have to continue to serve businesses, universities, and governments during this […]
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The Story of The Doctor Who Ordered America’s First Covid-19 Lockdown

Long-time Slashdot reader bsharma shared the story of doctor/public health officer who “went first,” ordering America’s very first coronavirus lockdown in six counties on March 16th after the identification of only the 7th known case of Covid-19 in the United States. The Bay Area Newsgroup reports that on January 31st, Cody’s cellphone rang at 6:49 a.m. “You’ve got your first positive,”…

How to model a pandemic

Behind every government announcement, there is an army of epidemiologists predicting how the virus will spread, and how to beat it. Source: https://earthsky.org/human-world/how-to-model-a-pandemic…

NYT Investigates America’s ‘Lost Month’ for Coronavirus Testing

The New York Times interviewed over 50 current and former U.S. health officials, senior scientists, company executives, and administration officials to investigate America’s “lost month” without widespread coronavirus testing, “when the world’s richest country — armed with some of the most highly trained scientists and infectious disease specialists — squandered its best chance of containing the virus’s spread.”
With capacity so limited,…