Remdesivir seems to shorten covid hospital stays and may save lives

Covid hoaxes are using a loophole to keep spreading—even after being deleted 

The Download Your daily dose of what’s up in emerging technology 04.30.20 Good morning! Today: promising results from a placebo-controlled remdesivir trial, and how conspiracy posts are using a loophole to keep spreading, even after they've been deleted. Get your friends to sign up here to get The Download every day. Remdesivir seems to shorten covid hospital stays and may save lives   The news: Dr Anthony Fauci, head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, has announced that covid-19 patients who received the antiviral drug remdesivir recovered 31% faster, in 11 days instead of 15, in a placebo-controlled trial carried out by his agency. “Even though it doesn’t seem like a knockout 100%, it is a very important proof of concept. What it has proven is that a drug can block this virus,” Fauci said. There were also signs the drug reduced the chance of dying from covid-19, but that data was not as definitive. The death rate for patients who got the drug was 8%, versus 11.6% for those who didn’t. Caveats: The clinical data still has not been published, and a new report from China saw no benefit in severe cases. But if the new findings hold up, remdesivir will quickly become the mainstay treatment for covid-19. Emergency approval by the FDA is likely, and you can expect a huge scramble by Gilead, remdesivir’s manufacturer, to make enough of the medicine. What next: Huge questions now surround issues like how to distribute doses fairly, and what the medicine could cost. An explosive debate over who gets the drug, including what countries get the limited supplies, seems unavoidable. More study is also needed to pinpoint the optimal dose and the types of patients who benefit most. Read the full story. —Antonio Regalado Covid hoaxes are using a loophole to stay alive—even after being deleted Since the onset of the pandemic, there has been a disconcerting explosion in “zombie content”—posts that have been deleted on the original site, but preserved on the Wayback Machine, explains Joan Donovan, director of the Technology and Social Change Research Project at Harvard Kennedy’s Shorenstein Center. For example: Facebook placed a fact-checking label on a link suggesting China is hiding important information about covid-19. The label limits how many people see it. While that version failed to spread fake news, a version of the page saved on the Internet Archive’s Wayback Machine absolutely flourished on Facebook. Facebook has since placed a fact-check label over the link to the Wayback Machine link too, but it had already been seen a huge number of times. What this shows: Some people use the Internet Archive to evade blocking of banned domains in their home country, but others are using it to get around fact-checking and algorithmic demotion of content. A large proportion of the Facebook shares are to right wing groups and pages in the US, many of which are private, meaning researchers can only get a glimpse at how big a problem “hidden virality” really is. Read the full story. 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.)   + The British Museum has put most of its collection—over four million objects—online.   + Imagine how great it must be to be locked down in a pub.   + Belgians are being asked by the government to eat fries twice a week to deal with a potato surplus. I think it’s only fair we do the same, out of solidarity.  The top ten must-reads I’ve combed the internet to find you today’s most fun/important/scary/fascinating stories about technology. 1 Researchers are hunting for invisible traces of covid-19 in cities The data they collect will help to inform us how to reopen safely. (Wired $) 2 Facebook claims its new chatbot beats Google’s as the best in the world The question is, how do you stop it being bigoted, or making stuff up? (TR) 3 It’s impossible to say when the pandemic will end This is not a comforting thought, but it’s true all the same. (The Verge)   + We’re not going back to normal. (TR)   + Why it’s so hard to wrap your head around it all. (The Atlantic)   + There’s a lot about covid-19 we still don’t know. (New Yorker $)   + The virus may keep coming back every year. (Bloomberg $) 4 Over half of Americans are unwilling to use a contact tracing app This is a problem, considering these apps rely on adoption by the majority of the population. (WP $)   + The rush to build apps to manage the virus could ultimately do as much harm as good. (NYT $)   + Apple and Google have released the first version of their exposure notification API. (TechCrunch) 5 We’re starting to unravel the mystery of the virus’s origin It is very likely to have started in bats, but the journey to pandemic remains unclear. (The Economist $) 6 How the UK fluffed its response to the coronavirus outbreak The virus was allowed to spread unchecked in March while the government panicked and dithered. (The Guardian) 7 Spit tests might be better than nasal swabs Just as accurate, and a lot easier (and less painful) to administer. (NYT) 8 The pandemic has caused a huge spike in hate speech online Anti-Chinese racism and anti-Semitic conspirary theories are rife, fuelled by fears over 5G and the virus. (New Statesman)   + Twitter is making it easier for researchers to study the public conversation around covid-19. (TechCrunch) 9 Elon Musk has been dangerously erratic during the coronavirus crisis If we all agree to ignore him, do you think he might just...stop? (WP $)   + His latest tantrum was over the Bay Area lockdown. (Buzzfeed) 10 Amazon bought thermal cameras from a blacklisted Chinese company It’s legal, but… eek. (CNBC)   + Amazon is cracking down on internal communication to try to head off worker activism. (Recode) Are you intellectually curious? Tech obsessed?  We are too. Subscribe to MIT Technology Review today for an insightful and discerning look into the technology for the future without getting bogged down by the jargon.  Quote of the day “It’s basically like having someone standing over your shoulder staring at your screen the whole time.” —Takashi, a high school student, tells The Verge students hate creepy new online exam proctoring measures. Top image credit: DOUG MILLS (NYT) | GETTY Please send fries 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? 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This one could save some lives about the Red Cross. This one is a plasma cure link.