What we know about the new covid-19 strain in the UK

This is the Stanford vaccine algorithm that left out frontline doctors  

The Download Your daily dose of what's up in emerging technology A new covid-19 strain 12.21.20 Good morning! Today: this is what scientists know about the new covid-19 strain circulating in the UK, we take a look at the Stanford algorithm that excluded frontline doctors from getting a covid-19 vaccine, and how technology can help us to feed the world, if we look beyond profit. Get your friends to sign up here to get The Download every day. What scientists know about the new covid-19 strain in the UK   What’s going on: The UK prime minister Boris Johnson announced on Saturday that the country was battling a new, faster-spreading, version of the coronavirus. Genomic researchers believe the new strain is causing half the cases in the UK, and may be up to 70% more transmissible. Not only does it have a lot of mutations, but several of the genetic alterations are predicted to make possibly significant changes to its spike protein, a part of the virus that plays a key role in infecting cells.  The response: The immediate result has been panic. Although there isn’t evidence the new strain is more deadly, a number of European countries have restricted travel to the UK due to the new strain. Over the weekend, medical experts sought to reassure the public that the new strain would not affect vaccination efforts, which began in the UK and the US this month. A race: The situation could prove to be a false alarm. Sometimes virus variants appear to seem to spread more easily, but in fact are being propelled by luck, like a super-spreader event. British teams and some abroad are racing to carry out tests to work out if the new variant really infects human cells more easily, and whether vaccines will stop it. Read the full story. —Antonio Regalado This is the Stanford vaccine algorithm that left out frontline doctors What happened: Physicians at Stanford Medical Center—many of whom work on the frontlines of the pandemic—found out that only seven of over 1,300 of them had been prioritized for the first 5,000 doses of the covid-19 vaccine, they were shocked. Then when they saw that people working from home were on the list, they were angry. Hospital leadership apologized for not prioritizing them, and blamed the errors on “a very complex algorithm.”  Hmm: Many saw that as an excuse, especially since hospital leadership had been made aware of the problem on December 15, and responded not by fixing the algorithm, but by adding two more resident names for a total of seven. Experts pointed out that people made these decisions. The algorithm just carried out their will. So what really happened? The algorithm is not that complex. It considers three categories to do with age, job role, and guidelines from the California Department of Public Health. For each category, staff received a certain number of points. Presumably, the higher someone’s score, the higher their priority in line. What these factors do not take into account is exposure to patients with covid-19. Read the full story. —Eileen Guo and Karen Hao Technology can help us feed the world, if we look beyond profit We won’t easily forget how we worried about food in the first days of the pandemic: empty shelves, scarce products, and widespread hoarding became an alarming reality around the world. While being reassured that the disruptions were “temporary,” Americans also heard troubling news about farmers plowing crops back into their fields, dairy farmers pouring milk into the sewers, meatpacking plants shutting down. Meanwhile, lines at soup kitchens and food banks grew. As it turns out, these failures derived from built-in features of our food system. It was cheaper to destroy crops than harvest and process them when bulk buyers like schools and catering businesses all but suspended purchases. Dairies set up for selling big volume weren’t equipped to shift their packaging machines to consumer-­sized containers. Meatpacking plants revved up to meet demand—a situation that required as many workers as possible to crowd in along processing lines. Predictably, many fell ill, and plants across the country were forced to shutter. The shock of the virus’s first wave exposed the inner workings of our interconnected system of food creation and delivery—and its weak spots—to many of us who’d never given it a second thought. That system is, of course, a result of decades’ worth of technological advances, from globe-spanning shipping and refrigeration networks to commodity markets (running on high-speed internet and massive cloud-computing infrastructure) that provide the capital to make it all run. There may yet be more unpleasant surprises in store for millions of people around the world as the pandemic plays out. But this moment offers us an opportunity to examine how we got to this point, and how to change things for the better. Read the full story. —Fabio Parasecoli This is the opening essay from the latest issue of MIT Technology Review, all about food. Read the full magazine, and if you haven’t already, you can subscribe to MIT Technology Review for the year for as little as $50. 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.)   + Take solace in the enormity of the universe. Look up to the southwest just after sunset. Jupiter and Saturn will appear the closest they have since 1623. (NYT $)   + It’s the Winter Solstice today! And because it’s 2020, you can watch a livestream from Stonehenge, where England’s pagans traditionally gather to celebrate.   + Who can resist a gingerbread house competition?   + Like Stefan (thanks for the suggestion!) I am thirsting after a visit to this cocktail bar, voted the world’s best, when it’s allowed again.    + The most popular recipes of 2020.   + Early humans may have hibernated. Can we take it up again please? The top ten must-reads I’ve combed the internet to find you today’s most fun/important/scary/fascinating stories about technology. 1 Moderna’s covid-19 vaccine is now being administered in the US Injections began on Saturday. (Reuters)   + Who has had the vaccine, and where do they live? (Bloomberg)   + Wealthy people are, inevitably, trying to jump the line. (LA Times)   + There’s a data gap when it comes to the vaccines and pregnancy. (Wired UK)   + Social media companies are failing to stop vaccine misinformation. (Recode)  2 The hack on the US, explained It’s one of the largest and most brazen hacks in American history. So what happens now? (Vox)   + More than one team was trying to hack SolarWinds. (Reuters)   + Hackers did a “dry run” of the attack last year. (Yahoo News)   + We’re learning more about the SolarWinds customers who were hacked. (Reuters)   + Trump’s downplaying it and claiming it wasn’t Russia. (NBC)  3 How to survive a Zoom Christmas 🎄👩‍💻 Bring a story. Failing that, bring a pet. (The Guardian)   + How “Zoom” became the word of the year. (FT $)   + Federal prosecutors say a Zoom executive worked with the Chinese government to surveil users and disrupt video calls. (WP $)   + Zoom cookery classes might be a fun idea to get you through the winter. (Wired $)   4 Dozens of Al-Jazeera journalists phones were allegedly hacked with spyware Software made by NSO Group strikes again. (The Guardian)   + Inside NSO, Israel’s billion-dollar spyware giant. (TR)  5 Nature is not healing Pollution is still a huge problem. (The Verge)   6 How China censored the coronavirus Orwellian is the only word for it. (NYT $)   7 The US drone industry is being thrown into disarray Another victim of sanctions. (FT $)   8 How movie theaters will survive 🍿 There won’t be as many of them. But those that make it through should be way better. (Quartz)   9 What to do with your tech before you die Yes, it’s morbid. But we all need to think a lot more seriously about our digital legacies. (WSJ $)   10 How to use math to win at board games 🎲 Vital intel. Do not share. (Wired UK) Quote of the day “So many of us are constantly trying to contain our rage.” —Londoner Liz Izen speaks for much of the UK in an interview with The Guardian about the government's decision to impose a last-minute lockdown in the capital and southeast England. Top image credit: Associated Press Please send gingerbread 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 Intelligent computing Join us virtually | February 10-11, 2021 Follow us: MIT Technology Review One Main Street Cambridge, MA 02142 Want to change how you receive these emails? +You can *update your preferences or *unsubscribe from this list.  Subscription Information This email was sent to Webmaster220 Bible Study Blog   *the blog owner has deleted the hyperlink intentionally