Good morning! Today: why tech didn't save us from coronavirus, how genes from covid-19 survivors could help, and the UK has abandoned its current contact tracing app. Get your friends to sign up here to get The Download every day.
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Why tech didn’t save us from covid-19
Dashed hopes: Technology has failed the US and much of the rest of the world in its most important role: keeping us alive and healthy, writes David Rotman. Our most effective response to the outbreak has been mass quarantines, a public health technique borrowed from the Middle Ages. Nowhere was the technology failure more obvious than in testing, amplified by a splintered and neglected system of collecting public health data.
Why?: The problem goes deeper than the current administration’s inaction. A once-healthy innovation ecosystem in the US, capable of identifying and creating technologies essential to the country’s welfare, has been eroding for decades. Much of the US’s manufacturing has gone overseas. Government-funded R&D in the US has dropped from 1.8% of GDP in the mid-1960s, when it was at its peak, to 0.7% now. And private innovation—which focuses on what’s lucrative rather than what’s groundbreaking or useful—hasn’t filled the gap.
What’s next: The test of the country’s innovation system will be whether over the coming months it can invent vaccines, treatments, and tests, and then produce them at the massive scale needed to defeat covid-19. Read the full story.
Read the rest of the latest edition of MIT Technology Review here and subscribe.
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Here’s how genes from covid-19 survivors could help you
A new approach: There’s a new method for battling covid-19. It involves isolating genetic material from survivors and injecting it directly into others, lending them protection against the pathogen. DNA-encoded antibodies have shown promising results in animals. In humans, genes injected into the arm or leg would convert the recipient’s muscle cells into factories to make antibodies against the virus. That could provide temporary immunity or lessen the severity of the disease for those already infected.
Where we’re at: No DNA-encoded antibody against covid-19 has yet reached human tests, but laboratory experiments have started. Unfortunately, this approach is likely to come too late to make a big difference to this pandemic, but it could be hugely helpful for the next one. Gene therapy offers a way to skip the complex and costly manufacturing of delicate antibodies and avoid the uncertainties involved in vaccines. The advantage is that it’s faster and cheaper. However, the drugs must be produced in specialized bio-manufacturing facilities, which could limit their availability. Read the full story.
—Antonio Regalado
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The UK is abandoning its current contact tracing app for Google and Apple’s system
What this means: All contact tracing apps work on the same premise: they log when two people (that is, their cellphones) have been near each other for an extended period of time, allowing an alert to be sent to people if someone they have been in close contact with is diagnosed with coronavirus. The UK’s U-turn means its developers are switching the app’s back-end software rather than fully redesigning it, so the interface for users won’t change. The significant difference is that the app will be decentralized, storing data on people’s phones rather than uploading them to government servers.
Everyone’s a critic: The UK’s centralized approach had been criticized by privacy, security, and technical experts on the grounds that it would not work unless it was running constantly in the foreground, and that it could break the country’s data protection laws.
No silver bullet: Both the UK’s now-abandoned app and the Google/Apple model rely on Bluetooth signals to figure out who’s been near each other and for how long. It’s a simple idea but a very complex and technically difficult task. Things like walls, human bodies, or interference from other phones can throw the signal off, rendering the data useless. Read the full story.
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We can still have nice things
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The top ten must-reads
I’ve combed the internet to find you today’s most fun/important/scary/fascinating stories about technology.
1 Coronavirus antibodies may only linger for two or three months
That doesn’t necessarily mean immunity disappears. ( NYT $)
+ Why are cases rising in Florida? ( Slate)
+ Covid-19 was circulating in Italy as far back as December, a sewage study suggests. ( Bloomberg)
+ Evidence is starting to suggest the virus might be seasonal. ( Wired $)
+ Minnesota’s protests don’t seem to have worsened the virus’s spread as much as feared. ( Wired $)
+ How many people have had coronavirus so far? ( New Scientist $)
2 Australia is experiencing a huge cyber attack from a state-based group
It’s targeting all levels of government and parts of the private sector. ( ZDNet)
+ The attack should be a wake-up call, say security experts. ( The Guardian)
3 Facebook has taken down Trump ads for using Nazi imagery
The inverted red triangle was used by the Nazis to label communists. ( The Verge)
+ Twitter labelled one of Trump’s tweets as containing a doctored video. ( WP $)
+ Facebook settled with moderators who got PTSD, then increased the amount of traumatic content they had to look at. ( The Intercept)
4 Multilateralism is the only way out of this pandemic 🤝
Governments have repeatedly refused to cooperate, and we are all paying the price. ( Foreign Affairs)
+ The countries that have done best are places where people trust their governments. ( Wired $)
+ The US/China tech war is a bigger risk than coronavirus, according to an EU chief. ( Reuters)
5 The world has six months to avert climate catastrophe, says an energy expert 🌎
If emissions rebound post-lockdown, it will be a disaster. ( The Guardian)
+ Disaster fatigue is a real problem—and coronavirus could make it worse. ( Earther)
6 Apple’s App Store is coming under fire
Phrases like “highway robbery”, “extractive monopoly” and “gangsters” are being used. ( The Verge)
7 France’s top court has struck down most of a new hate speech law
It would have forced tech companies to pay hefty fines for failing to bring down offending posts within 24 hours. ( WSJ $)
8 Online drug markets are booming
Dealers report sales have gone up by around 25% during lockdown. ( Vice)
9 Hearing a lot of fireworks recently? You’re not alone 🎆
Just what our nerves need. ( Slate)
10 Check out this amazing new map of the universe 🌌
The data comes from an X-Ray telescope that’s 1.5 million kilometers from Earth. ( BBC)
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“I personally think testing is overrated, even though I created the greatest testing machine in history.”
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