How the coronavirus took advantage of humanity’s essential weakness

Will we be social distancing until 2022? Hopefully not 

Sponsored by IBM The Download Your daily dose of what’s up in emerging technology 04.15.20 Good morning! Today: we preview a new edition of the magazine dedicated to covid-19, and the likelihood social distancing could last until 2022. Get your friends to sign up here to get The Download every day. How the coronavirus took advantage of humanity’s essential weakness Covid-19 has exposed a paradox: we are so tightly interconnected that a virus can reach each one of us, yet so insular that we cannot conceive of what happens in one place repeating itself in another. As countries close their borders, hoard supplies, and throw blame at each other, the world risks becoming more insular still, further hampering global efforts to limit climate change. And yet our latest special issue of MIT Technology Review, on covid-19, is not unremittingly bleak. As we scrambled to produce pieces that would not feel dated by the time you read them, we realized that most of them were stories of hope amid the gloom: Herculean efforts to find a drug; scientists and technologists from all disciplines lending their expertise to the fight; blueprints for reopening society, rethinking data privacy, restarting the economy, redesigning mental health care, and safely holding an election; lessons to be learned from countries that have tackled their outbreaks more successfully; and stories of preparedness and resilience in isolation. Read our full special issue on how we're navigating a world re-shaped by covid-19. Will we be social distancing until 2022? Hopefully not  The news: A new modeling the spread of covid-19 in the United States says that “prolonged or intermittent social distancing may be necessary into 2022.” WHAT: Yes, the date is startling. Most of us are hoping for some relief far sooner than that. But we shouldn’t fixate on a number that makes for an arresting headline. Instead, we should focus on the may. The substance: The study by researchers from Harvard’s school of public health is the first major one to use data from two other closely related coronaviruses, OC43 and HKU1, to predict how covid-19 will behave. If covid-19 behaves similarly, summer will significantly slow its spread—but not enough to stop it.  Winter threat: There’s also a risk that prolonged social distancing over the summer would prime a worse outbreak in the winter of 2020-21, because there would still be lots of people who hadn’t yet had the virus. The model suggests immunity lasts about a year, but it doesn’t consider how aggressive contact tracing might suppress the virus’s spread, for example, or how people might react differently to infection. With so many unknowns, there is no reason to believe with confidence that it has to take until the summer of 2022. Read the full story. —Konstantin Kakaes We can still have nice things A place for comfort, fun and distraction in these weird times. (Got any ideas? Drop me a line or tweet 'em at me.)   + Someone bought some giant fake teeth for fun...and their dog stole them.   + Hate to break it to you, but basically you just shouldn’t even try to cut your own hair.   + Want a thoughtful gift to give your kid, while giving money to a good cause? Get Henry and Ashlee to write a personalized story for them.   + Six hours of sheep grazing. So relaxing.   + Scratch your travel itch from home by visiting one of these 52 places.   + What to watch, depending on your mood. Sponsor Message See Why We’re So Highly Rated The IBM Cloud is the cloud that’s open, secure, and built for business. It’s also the cloud that’s leading the way. Check Gartner Peer Insights to see why customers rate IBM Cloud above AWS, Google Cloud and Microsoft Azure over the last 12 months, as of February 28, 2020. *Gartner Peer Insights reviews constitute the subjective opinions of individual end users based on their own experiences, and do not represent the views of Gartner or its affiliates. Learn more here. The top ten must-reads I’ve combed the internet to find you today’s most fun/important/scary/fascinating stories about technology. 1 General Motors is about to start shipping its first ventilators It’s been contracted by the US government to deliver 30,000 by the end of August. (Ars Technica) 2 This simulation demonstrates why social distancing matters And why it makes sense to wear a mask. (NYT $) 3 Why simply waiting for herd immunity to covid-19 isn’t an option Waiting for enough people to catch the coronavirus could take a very long time.(TR) 4 The six things California must do before restarting its economy  For starters, it needs to ramp up testing and contact tracing. (TR)   + Don’t ask when this will “end.” The real question is “where do we go from here?” (The Atlantic)  5 How coronavirus almost brought down the global financial system It’s always scary when you realize the extent to which money is just a collective delusion. (The Guardian) 6 How Apple and Google are tackling their covid privacy problem Their contact tracing system will only work if they can convince enough people to trust them. (TR)   + Why it won’t be enough to stop the virus, even if it works. (Wired $)   7 On hold? You’re not alone 📞 There have rarely been so many people trying to get help from so few customer service workers. (WP $) 8 Unemployment checks are being held up by ancient IT systems This is what happens when states are starved of the funding they need to modernize. (The Verge) 9 Trump cut US payments to the World Health Organization His administration’s push to cut funding to the WHO pre-dates this pandemic, though. (AP) 10 Half a million Zoom accounts are for sale on the dark web This is why reusing the same password for everything is such a bad idea. (NBC)   + Zoom burnout is real. (OneZero $) Pair business concepts with tech trends Where should you invest your time and money to prepare for the digital future? Get a holistic view of where the economy is heading paired with case studies from companies to help you chart your strategy for 2021 and beyond. Register today to secure your early bird discount. Quote of the day “Tbh, I’ve sort of run out of things to say … But here’s a photo showing I’m alive and healthy.” —Justin Blomgren inadvertently captures the odd, transitional situation influencers find themselves in, Wired reports. Top image credit: Getty Images Please send sheep to hi@technologyreview.com. Follow me on Twitter at @charlottejee. Thanks for reading! —Charlotte Was this newsletter forwarded to you, and you'd like to see more? Sign up for free Get unlimited access to online stories. Subscribe to MIT Technology Review today. *View this in a browser You received this newsletter because you subscribed                                                    *Edit email preferences   |   *Unsubscribe from all emails Follow us: MIT Technology Review One Main Street Cambridge, MA 02142

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