Why Denmark’s “corona passport” is more of a promise than a plan

India is betting on glitchy software to inoculate 300 million people by August 

Sponsored by Citrix The Download Your daily dose of what's up in emerging technology Are vaccination passports coming? 02.10.21 Good morning! Today: the world's eyes are on Denmark as it embarks on a plan to build immunity passports, and India is betting on glitchy new software over tried-and-tested methods to inoculate 300 million people by August. Get your friends to sign up here to get The Download every day. Why Denmark’s “corona passport” is more of a promise than a plan     What’s happening: Denmark says it will launch a “corona passport” app in three to four months. The promise is huge—it could put restaurant meals out, nights at movie theaters, and even massive music festivals within reach once again. However, the Danish government has released few details of its plans, and it has not even issued a call for tenders yet. The app may also do more than just contain an individual’s vaccination status—business leaders are pushing for it to treat covid negativity or prior infection on an equal footing with immunization.   The prospects: Technologically, the passport isn’t terribly complicated. IBM claims it could have a pilot passport ready to go within a week. And if any country can build this, Denmark can, thanks to its centralized health information and single online identity authentication system.  But hang on: The biggest problems for the passport will be the same horny health and ethical issues that have stymied similar certification efforts around the world. Even with a high degree of effectiveness, for example, vaccines leave a significant segment of the inoculated vulnerable to infection. And if it's to be used for international travel, Denmark can't act alone. Read the full story. —Lisa Abend India is betting on glitchy software to inoculate 300 million people by August What’s happening: India, which has had the second-highest number of covid-19 cases in the world, has launched one of Asia’s most ambitious vaccination drives, aiming to inoculate 300 million people by August. To make it happen, the government is using a vaccine management system called Co-WIN. For now, the focus is on getting 30 million healthcare and frontline workers vaccinated. However, multiple technical glitches with the system mean that the number of people being vaccinated in India is already significantly lower than was hoped. A common problem: India’s difficulties aren’t unique—other countries are experiencing trouble distributing covid vaccines, including the US. China also seems to be falling behind on its internal target of inoculating 50 million people by February 11. But a glitchy rollout for India’s health-care professionals and frontline workers could indicate that the country isn’t prepared for the much larger task ahead.  A painful irony: Of all the major countries to roll out vaccines, India could have planned the smoothest, most time-tested process, because the behemoth task of mass vaccination isn’t something new. Each year, it administers vaccines against polio and measles to 55 million infants and pregnant women by visiting each home and making a list of who needs the shots. India may yet have to fall back on these old, proven door-to-door methods if it wants to reach its vaccination targets. Read the full story. —Varsha Bansal 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.)   + Cats are getting really talented these days. Some of them are even lawyers. (Thanks to Will for Margaret Atwood's perfect response to this.)   + Photos of some of the most beautiful places on earth.   + Try making some dumplings at home.    + An ode to bubble tea. (New Yorker $)   + You might think your partner's great, but have they secretly built you an office?!?!   + A tumblr page dedicated to control panels.   + A man lost his wallet, and it was returned to him...53 years later.   + A bear broke into someone's home and played the piano. Sponsor Message The Green Future Index 2021 The Green Future Index is a ranking of 76 leading countries and territories on their progress and commitment toward building a low carbon future. It measures the degree to which their economies are pivoting toward clean energy, industry, agriculture, and society through investment in renewables, innovation, and green finance. Experience the interactive index now. The must-reads I’ve combed the internet to find you today’s most fun/important/scary/fascinating stories about technology. 1 Why is the most vaccinated country on earth seeing cases rise? Israel demonstrates why relying on vaccines alone is not currently a viable strategy. (NY Intelligencer)   + Japan is going to discard millions of doses of the Pfizer vaccine due to a syringe issue. (The Guardian)   + How to master vaccine appointment websites. (WP $)  2 One person may have changed the course of the pandemic Mind-blowing. (Wired UK)     + We will probably never reach herd immunity. (The Atlantic)   + A guide to rapid tests. (Nature)   + People with dementia are far more likely to catch and die from covid-19. (Forbes)   + The UK's covid-19 app has prevented 600,000 infections. (FT $)  3 Another conspiracy theory video is going viral It's basically Plandemic 2.0. And it's racked up at least 20 million views already. (Media Matters)   + The WHO is trying to fight misinformation on social media. How's that going? (NPR)   + WHO investigators deem it "extremely unlikely" that covid-19 started in a lab. (Gizmodo)  4 Let's put Jeff Bezos' $193 billion fortune into perspective 💸 If you had made $200,000 every day from Jesus' birth until now, you still wouldn't have as much money as him. (The Verge $)   + The bill for Amazon's bigness is about to become due. (NYT $)   + Inside the unionization push for Amazon workers in Alabama. (The Verge)  5 The Indian government reckons it can replace Twitter Presumably the founders of "Koo" are more willing to bend to its will. (Quartz)   + Twitter has suspended over 500 accounts to comply with India's government's demands. (TechCrunch)   + The company grew last year. (BBC)   + Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey wants an app store for social media algorithms. (The Verge)  6 How video dating in the 70s paved the way for apps today 📼💑 Nothing is ever truly new. (Vox)   7 LA cops seem to have found a way to stop citizens filming them Slightly pathetic but also just… downright rude. (Vice)   8 Water systems are scarily vulnerable to hackers Many have just one IT person. (NBC)   + Why was the US so unprepared for the SolarWinds hack? (WP $)  9 Inside Apple under Tim Cook Underestimate him at your peril. (Bloomberg $)   10 It's 25 years since Deep Blue beat Garry Kasparov at chess ♟️ Just think of all the games AI has beaten us at since. (Slate) Future Compute, our virtual cloud and computing conference, kicks off today!   We're bringing you a full roster of cloud computing experts all in one place. Join them as they reveal the real-world opportunities, lessons learned, groundbreaking work, and how to apply a growth mindset to capitalize on all that intelligent computing has to offer. We're down to the last few hours to join. Hurry, Future Compute is happening soon! Purchase your ticket now. Quote of the day “At first I was worried about it, but then I realized as it was going viral if the country could take a moment to laugh at my cat moment at my expense, I’ll take it. We’ve had a stressful year.” —Presidio County attorney Rod Ponton tells the Washington Post how he feels about accidentally signing onto Zoom at work using a cat filter. Top image credit: MARTIN SYLVEST | RITZAU VIA AP Please send dumplings 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