SAN FRANCISCO — The state of California has found a new vendor to take over 35 coronavirus testing locations that are now operated by health-tech company Verily, ending its partnership with the Google sister company. The California Department of Public Health confirmed Thursday that it has found a new company, OptumServe, to operate Verily’s state-partnered […]
Scientists from Johns Hopkins, Columbia and other leading American universities moved with rare speed when a Chinese virologist, Li-Meng Yan, published an explosive paper in September claiming that China had created the deadly coronavirus in a research lab. The paper, the American scientists concluded, was deeply flawed. And a new online journal from MIT Press […]
Getty Images Fitness apps have seen a steep rise in users during the pandemic. Strava, which now has 73 million users, said each month this year an average of two million had been registering with its app for the first time. The app uses global-positioning system (GPS) technology to record exercise, allowing users to compare […]
Getty Images An update to England and Wales’s NHS Covid-19 contact-tracing app is adding a way to apply for a £500 grant if it gives a self-isolation order. Until now, those on low incomes were only offered the payment if they had been told to stay at home by human Test and Trace operators. The […]
Dr. Li-Meng Yan wanted to remain anonymous. It was mid-January, and Dr. Yan, a researcher in Hong Kong, had been hearing rumors about a dangerous new virus in mainland China that the government was playing down. Terrified for her personal safety and career, she reached out to her favorite Chinese YouTube host, known for criticizing […]
By the end of March 2020, 32 out of 50 U.S. states were in lockdown — and on Sunday, March 29, there were more swipes on Tinder than on any other day in the app’s history. There’s no doubt the coronavirus pandemic is changing the playbook for dating in person, with online dating seeing a […]
VB Transform The AI event for business leaders Hosted Online July 14 – 17 Register Today After years of bad news, PC shipments saw growth in 2019, only to have the coronavirus pandemic cut the celebration short in Q1 2020. Now for some good news: the PC market grew between 2.8% and 11.2% in Q2 […]
Singapore’s TraceTogether Tokens are the latest effort to tackle Covid-19 with tech. But they have also reignited a privacy debate. The wearable devices complement the island’s existing contact-tracing app, to identify people who might have been infected by those who have tested positive for the virus. All users have to do is carry one, and […]
Virtual reality showed great potential for medical training well before the coronavirus pandemic, letting surgeons practice on digital patients while students experimented in virtual labs. As hospitals across the world rushed nurses and doctors into the fight against COVID-19, the United Kingdom’s National Health Service (NHS) invited VR training company Virti to join its innovation […]
With direct flights to Wuhan and a population of 24 million people living in densely packed cities, Taiwan’s coronavirus outlook seemed grave. But, to date, the disease has claimed just seven lives on the island, and it never went into full lockdown. Its leaders credit masks as playing a key role, but not for the […]
The tweet ricocheted around social media, retweeted more than 4,000 times. Musk, with his 35.6 million followers, replied to the tweet, calling the decision “insane.” He directed his comments to Amazon chief executive Jeff Bezos, who owns The Washington Post. “Time to break up Amazon. Monopolies are wrong!” Musk added. Within a few hours, Amazon […]
Zoom reported a blowout quarter on Tuesday after the videoconferencing tool experienced a massive uptick in usage during the coronavirus pandemic. The California-based company revealed this week that the February-to-April quarter — when virus-related lockdowns prompted companies, schools, friends, and family to communicate from home — saw Zoom rake in a whopping $ 328 million, […]
The team developing Switzerland’s coronavirus contact-tracing app says it has become the first to have launched a product incorporating a technology provided by Apple and Google. Members of the Swiss army, hospital workers and civil servants can now install the SwissCovid app ahead of a planned wider rollout. A Latvian coalition says it is running […]
Amazon says it will produce hundreds of thousands of face shields for medics and sell them at cost price in the US. The internet giant said engineers from its drone and hardware divisions had been tasked with developing the product. At first, it will sell them to healthcare professionals, before making them available to all […]
Germany’s forthcoming coronavirus contact-tracing app will trigger alerts only if users test positive for Covid-19. That puts it at odds with the NHS app, which instead relies on users self-diagnosing via an on-screen questionnaire. UK health chiefs have said the questionnaire is a key reason they are pursuing a “centralised” design despite privacy campaigners’ protests. […]