Good morning! Today we're talking to the scientists who don't want to wait for an official vaccine—so they're taking their own. And we're looking at the aftermath of another conspiracy video going viral on social platforms (it doesn't help when the president tweets it either.) Get your friends to sign up here to get The Download every day.
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Some scientists are taking a DIY coronavirus vaccine, and nobody knows if it’s legal or if it works
 Preston Estep was alone in a borrowed laboratory, somewhere in Boston. No big company, no board meetings, no billion-dollar payout from Operation Warp Speed, the US government’s covid-19 vaccine funding program. No animal data. No ethics approval.
What he did have: ingredients for a vaccine. And one willing volunteer.
Estep swirled together the mixture and spritzed it up his nose.
Nearly 200 covid-19 vaccines are in development and some three dozen are at various stages of human testing. But in what appears to be the first “citizen science” vaccine initiative, Estep and at least 20 other researchers, technologists, or science enthusiasts, including George Church, the celebrity geneticist at Harvard University, have volunteered as lab rats for a do-it-yourself inoculation against the coronavirus. They say it’s their only chance to become immune without waiting a year or more for a vaccine to be formally approved.
Harmless as the experimental vaccine may be, though, whether it will protect anyone who takes it is another question. And the independent researchers who are making and sharing it might be stepping onto thin legal ice, if they aren’t already. Read the full story here.
—Antonio Regalado
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How covid-19 conspiracy videos keep getting millions of views
The news: The ongoing battle between social-media companies and covid-19 misinformation pushers stepped up again this week thanks to a new viral video.
The blowback: The video’s false claims led to removals on Facebook, YouTube, and Twitter. Donald Trump Jr.’s Twitter account was temporarily limited after he shared it, and a retweet by the president himself was deleted. By the time that happened, however, the video had already been seen by millions of people.
The success of America’s Frontline Doctors and Plandemic, another covid-19 conspiracy video, show how challenging it is to combat a misinformation ecosystem that has remained largely unchecked for years. Why is this happening now? Read the full story here.
—Abby Ohlheiser
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Podcast: Deep Tech
In 2017, municipal organizations in Toronto tapped Google’s sister company Sidewalk Labs to redevelop a disused waterfront industrial district as a high-tech prototype for the “smarter, greener, more inclusive cities” of tomorrow. But within three years the deal had collapsed.
Journalist Brian Barth says the Sidewalk fiasco symbolizes the contrast between Silicon Valley’s hard-charging, individualist, libertarian ethos and a Canadian business style that emphasizes collaboration, respect, and social responsibility. In this edition of Deep Tech, Barth talks about the tensions that led to Sidewalk Labs’ departure and the strategies Canadian CEOs are following to build a more open and inclusive tech sector. Listen to the latest episode here.
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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 What to watch for in today’s Big Tech CEO hearing in Congress
Bezos, Cook, Pichai, and Zuck will all be keeping damage to a minimum. ( Wired)
+ Here’s what you need to know. (NPR)
+ And here’s what they’ll have to answer for. (Protocol)
+ A lot will depend on how the committee uses follow-ups. ( OneZero)
+ How the bosses will invoke the American Dream as a defense. ( FT $)
+ For example, Bezos will say Amazon is the quintessential American company. ( CNBC)
2 The mystery of why some people keep testing positive for covid-19
We’re still learning about how long it lasts inside the body. ( Elemental)
+ Here’s how the coronavirus could dodge some treatments. ( NYT)
+ What Vermont might teach the US about fighting coronavirus. ( New Yorker)
3 How Google weights its search results towards answers from… Google
For one in five searches, external sites don’t even show up on the first page. ( The Markup)
4 The owner of WeChat thinks deepfakes could actually be good
Tencent is feeling pretty optimistic—but then it would. ( TR)
5 Scientists have revived 100 million-years-old microbes from beneath the sea
I think I’ve seen a film about this before. ( Science)
6 Drugstore chain Rite-Aid deployed facial recognition in hundreds of stores
And it was largely in non-white neighborhoods. ( Reuters)
+ How citizens can hijack surveillance tech for the public good. ( OneZero)
+ Pollution is killing Black Americans. One community fought back. ( NYT Magazine)
7 Many TikTok stars are jumping ship over privacy concerns
US rival Triller might be one of the main beneficiaries. ( LA Times)
8 How Facebook’s AI “Red Team” tries to hack its own programs
Machine learning systems are easily confused, poor things. ( Wired)
9 Gene therapy has helped a boy with muscular dystrophy walk again
The technique could help thousands of children in similar positions. ( NPR)
+ Check out our issue on hyper-personalized medicine from last year.
10 The end of open-plan everything
Personal space is suddenly back in style, funnily enough. ( The Atlantic)
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“From brave students in Hong Kong to brilliant cypherpunks in San Francisco, there is not a day that passes without individuals searching for the means to restore and improve the systems that govern our lives.”
Edward Snowden explains why he’s feeling optimistic in his introduction to a new book by Cory Doctorow, excerpted in Wired.
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