Posts
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WHO assembly passes a resolution to investigate global pandemic response
20 May, 2020
Member states have backed a resolution strongly supportive of the World Health Organization, after Donald Trump issued a fresh broadside against the UN body, giving it 30 days to make unspecified reforms or lose out on US funding. None of the WHO's 194 members states raised objections to the resolution brought by the EU on behalf of more than 100 countries. The resolution backs the WHO’s leadership and said there needed to be an investigation into the global response to the coronavirus pa... -
A rapidly deployable individualized system for augmenting ventilator capacity
20 May, 2020
Strategies to split ventilators to support multiple patients requiring ventilatory support have been proposed and used in emergency cases in which shortages of ventilators cannot otherwise be remedied by production or procurement strategies. However, the current approaches to ventilator sharing lack the ability to individualize ventilation to each patient, measure pulmonary mechanics, and accommodate rebalancing of the airflow when one patient improves or deteriorates, posing safety conce... -
Animal source of the coronavirus continues to elude scientists
20 May, 2020Computational models, cell studies and animal experiments are being used to pinpoint the viral host that kicked off the pandemic.
As a growing number of countries push for an independent investigation into the origin of the COVID-19 pandemic, many scientists around the world are already trying to uncover when, where and how the new coronavirus got into people.
Finding the source is important for preventing further reinfection, but scientists’ investigations — which include modelling... -
Serology for SARS-CoV-2: Apprehensions, opportunities, and the path forward
20 May, 2020
Serological testing for SARS-CoV-2 has enormous potential to contribute to COVID-19 pandemic response efforts. However, the required performance characteristics of antibody tests will critically depend on the use case (individual-level vs. population-level).
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'Hubs of infection': how Covid-19 spread through Latin America's markets
19 May, 2020
Authorities have struggled to enforce social distancing at the trading centres. At one Lima market, 79% of vendors had coronavirus.
Four out of five merchants at a major fruit market in Peru have tested positive for coronavirus, revealing shocking levels of infection – and prompting fears that Latin America’s traditional trading centres may have helped spread Covid-19 across the region.
Seventy-nine per cent of stall-holders in Lima’s wholesale fruit market tested po... -
Prevalence of obesity among adult inpatients with COVID-19 in France
19 May, 2020
Most people who develop COVID-19 after severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection present with paucisymptomatic and non-severe disease. However, approximately 20% of patients develop severe COVID-19 requiring hospitalisation, including 5% who are admitted to the intensive care unit (ICU). The ongoing COVID-19 outbreak has led to an unprecedented health crisis. Hence, it is crucial to identify individuals who are susceptible to developing severe COVID-19 and cou... -
Coronavirus vaccine from Moderna appears safe, shows promise in data from eight people
19 May, 2020
Moderna Inc’s (MRNA.O) experimental COVID-19 vaccine, the first to be tested in the United States, produced protective antibodies in a small group of healthy volunteers, according to very early data released by the biotech company on Monday.
The data comes from eight people who took part in a 45-subject safety trial that kicked off in March. The Moderna vaccine is one of more than 100 under development intended to protect against the novel coronavirus that has infected more... -
Sony AI and avatarin to cooperate on remote control robots
18 May, 2020
Sony AI Inc and avatarin Inc, an ANA Group company, have reached a basic agreement to work together to develop next-generation remote control robots by combining the AI and robotics technology of Sony AI with avatarin's avatar (remote control robot) technology.
Next-generation avatar robots are expected to play a central role in situations where autonomous robots have barriers to safe and cost effective deployment, and where it is difficult for people to perform physical tasks. Alo... -
Sony AI and avatarin to cooperate on remote control robots
18 May, 2020
Sony AI Inc and avatarin Inc, an ANA Group company, have reached a basic agreement to work together to develop next-generation remote control robots by combining the AI and robotics technology of Sony AI with avatarin's avatar (remote control robot) technology.
Next-generation avatar robots are expected to play a central role in situations where autonomous robots have barriers to safe and cost effective deployment, and where it is difficult for people to perform physical tasks. Alo... -
New Artificial Intelligence Diagnostic Can Predict COVID-19 Without Testing
18 May, 2020
Researchers at King’s College London, Massachusetts General Hospital and health science company ZOE have developed an artificial intelligence diagnostic that can predict whether someone is likely to have COVID-19 based on their symptoms. Their findings were published on May 11, 2020, in Nature Medicine.
The AI model uses data from the COVID Symptom Study app to predict COVID-19 infection, by comparing people’s symptoms and the results of traditional COVID tests. Researchers say thi... -
How 3D Printing Is Accelerating The Coronavirus Test Race
18 May, 2020
As the novel coronavirus spread rapidly across the United States this March, testing was lacking. While there were many problems, one simple one was a lack of test swabs. These nasopharyngeal swabs go into patients’ noses to grab a sample to test. To scale up testing, the country needed tens of millions—or perhaps hundreds of millions—of them. One major solution emerged: 3D printing. In this video, we look at how the country’s biggest 3D printing companies rushed to design and manufacture...