Tag: health care

Will the Pandemic Inspire Silicon Valley to Do Good?

The global pandemic “has stirred up a missionary zeal throughout Silicon Valley,” writes Bloomberg:
Apple and Google put aside a decadelong rivalry to form an alliance to track the spread of infections. Facebook and Salesforce.com are procuring millions of masks for health care workers. Jeff Bezos is donating $100 million and Jack Dorsey $1 billion. In other corners of the Valley, people…

University of Washington Lab Will Begin Testing of Thousands For COVID-19 Antibodies

GeekWire reports:
The University of Washington School of Medicine’s Virology Lab is reporting encouraging results from trial runs of a new test from Abbott Laboratories that detects the antibodies created by people who have had COVID-19, whether they knew they had it or not. “This is a really fantastic test,” Keith Jerome, who leads UW Medicine’s virology program, told reporters today. He…

Thousands of Techies in Locked-Down India Are Braving Coronavirus Daily To Keep the World Running

The world’s abrupt slowing down in the past few weeks may have introduced millions of Covid-19-wary professionals to the whole new paradigm of work-from-home. Yet, a third of India’s four million IT employees are still trudging regularly to the office even if mostly to make life easier for clients abroad. From a report: Every working day, these thousands risk contracting coronavirus,…

‘No Clear Evidence’ Hydroxychloroquine Works Against COVID-19

This week the Washington Post asked their “business of health care” reporter to explain the true status in the scientific community of hydroxychloroquine, an already-approved malaria drug also used to control inflammation in lupus and rheumatoid arthritis patients. “There is no clear evidence that the drugs work against the coronavirus,” he writes, “despite their use by hospitals and doctors in the…

Federal Support Ends For Coronavirus Testing Sites As Pandemic Peak Nears

An anonymous reader quotes a report from NPR: Some local officials are disappointed the federal government will end funding for coronavirus testing sites this Friday. In a few places those sites will close as a result. This as criticism continues that not enough testing is available. In the Philadelphia suburbs, Montgomery County has a drive-through site that has tested 250 people…

What the coronavirus does to your body that makes it so deadly

How the coronavirus infects and how it makes people sick. Source: https://earthsky.org/human-world/what-covid19-coronavirus-does-to-body-that-makes-it-deadly…

How the Rapid FDA-Approved Coronavirus Testing System Works

Tekla Perry writes: In 2001, a rapid, easy-to-use, PCR-based testing system for biological testing was still in prototype form when letters containing anthrax spores started arriving in the mailboxes of journalists and senators. Its creators at startup Cepheid quickly adapted it to test for anthrax, and now it is used to run that test as part of U.S. mail sorting systems….

Why Taiwan’s Coronavirus Response Is Among The Best Globally

Why does Taiwan have less than 400 confirmed cases of Covid-19? Taiwan’s experience with the 2003 SARS outbreak “helped many parts of the region react faster to the current coronavirus outbreak and take the danger more seriously than in other parts of the world,” reports CNN, “both at a governmental and societal level, with border controls and the wearing of face…

Coronavirus: Could Etsy Help Save the World?

Long-time Slashdot reader theodp writes: With the CDC now recommending wearing cloth face coverings in public settings, Etsy has called in the cavalry, encouraging additional sellers on its platform to start creating and offering face masks to help meet an already significant demand for fabric face masks. “We believe that the Etsy community is uniquely positioned to address this crucial need…