Integrated controller simplifies power design for smart devices

STMicroelectronics’ VIPer222 controller simplifies converter design and reduces the external bill of materials in smart devices.

from Electronic Products Technology Center Articles https://ift.tt/3bWEKEL

Thermal jumper reduces component temperature by over 25%

Vishay’s ThermaWick thermal jumper chip removes heat from electrically isolated components, enabling higher power handling or longer useful life.

from Electronic Products Technology Center Articles https://ift.tt/2USETn8

Non-isolated DC/DC converter delivers high efficiency

CUI has introduced its first four-contact, surface-mount, non-isolated DC/DC converter, which delivers high efficiency up to 95% in an ultra-compact package.

from Electronic Products Technology Center Articles https://ift.tt/2x96qaA

Silicon Labs launches PoE portfolio

Silicon Labs has released a complete PoE portfolio designed to simplify the addition of 90-W power sourcing equipment and powered devices, enabling PoE-powered 5G small cells and digital buildings.

from Electronic Products Technology Center Articles https://ift.tt/3aSCTkj

Tuesday CoronaBuzz, April 7, 2020: 40 pointers to new resources, useful stuff, research news, and more.

Tuesday CoronaBuzz, April 7, 2020: 40 pointers to new resources, useful stuff, research news, and more.
By ResearchBuzz

Starting tomorrow the New Resources section will be divided into MEDICAL/HEALTH, EDUCATION/ENTERTAINMENT, and OTHER as it’s getting too unwieldy. Wash your hands and stay at home as much as you can. Please be careful. I love you.

NEW RESOURCES

Georgia Tech: Filtration Engineers Offer Advice on Do-It-Yourself Face Masks. “A new website (https://ift.tt/3aRENlc) has been created to bring together recommendations and templates for making face masks. The website provides guidance for making unsewn, sewn, glued, or 3D-printed face masks. The recommendations resulted from consulting with a team of experts in materials, chemical and mechanical engineering, filtration processes, and production design.”

Trussville Tribune: New website created to help Alabama small businesses get information on loans, tax relief programs and more. “A new website created by the Alabama Small Business Commission was unveiled on Monday in an effort to provide small business owners with one-stop information throughout the coronavirus pandemic, state Lt. Gov. Will Ainsworth announced.”

CNBC: From daily dance parties to rediscovering love letters, a new website is documenting life under lockdown. “People’s experiences of life with their partners, children, parents — and themselves — are being documented online as populations around the world self-isolate or keep their distance from others to reduce the impact of the coronavirus. And it’s proving a big hit as it taps into people’s curiosity about what happens in the lives of others.”

Los Angeles Times: To aid coronavirus fight, The Times releases database of California cases. “In an effort to aid scientists and researchers in the fight against COVID-19, The Times has released its database of California coronavirus cases to the public.To follow the virus’ spread, The Times is conducting an independent survey of dozens of local health agencies across the state. The effort, run continually throughout the day, supplies the underlying data for this site’s coronavirus tracker.”

ABC News: Disney launches new free website for families in quarantine. “Parents, rejoice: A new website to entertain your children is here! The Walt Disney Company is launching DisneyMagicMoments.com, a home for some of the best Disney content, stories and resources – for free – for kids, families and fans to fill their time.”

My Central Oregon: New Website Helps Oregonians Impacted By COVID-19 Navigate State Services. “SEIU 503 launched a new website today to help Oregonians impacted by COVID-19 get the help they need and put food on the table. GetHelpCOVIDOregon.org connects all Oregonians to services like unemployment benefits and the Oregon Health Plan.”

KOB4: UNM launches tool that tracks COVID-19’s economic impact. “The University of New Mexico launched a new tool to track how coronavirus is impacting the state’s economy. The tool is called the economic dashboard and is intended to give critical data on New Mexico’s economic trends during the pandemic. The collected data includes information on statewide infections, oil and gas production and unemployment figures.”

Norwegian SciTech News: Fast-moving information on a fast-moving virus. “Medical researchers worldwide are racing to find treatments and vaccines to combat the coronavirus pandemic sweeping the globe. A new website offers up-to-date summaries on available and emerging options against COVID-19.”

GlobeNewswire: Healthwise Offers Free Shareable Coronavirus Resources (PRESS RELEASE). “There is still much the medical community does not know about COVID-19, and misinformation can create panic and interfere with public health efforts to manage the outbreak. Healthwise has created English and Spanish versions of several free resources on the symptoms, prevention, and treatment of COVID-19. Once downloaded, these resources can be printed out, emailed, texted, embedded on a website, or posted on social media.”

Spotted on Reddit via IFTTT: Reddit Covid-19 AMA Database. From the GitHub page description: “A collection of over 1,000 AMA questions and answers on COVID-19 from various experts, professionals, and journalists. If you find it helpful, star this repo!” The GitHub page itself offers you ways to download the data, but also links to a Web-based database of the questions if you’d rather just browse.

Tech Voice Africa: Hacklab Foundation Launches Open Database to Facilitate COVID-19 Combat Project Collaboration. “The Hacklab Foundation has launched an Open Database to facilitate the collaboration between teams, individuals and organizations working of projects aimed at alleviating COVID-19 in Ghana. This open database will address the challenge of project duplication, access to financing and speed to market. Funding organizations can quickly browse through projects and reach out directly to collaborate. Countries seeking similar innovations to combat COVID-19 can also reference this database for free.”

Northwestern Now: New planning tool to help states estimate ventilator needs. “Northwestern University engineers have developed a new model to help U.S. states allocate and share ventilators and other life-saving resources in the fight against COVID-19. Preliminary results from the computational model are available as an interactive online procurement and distribution planning tool that acts as a central hub for information about each state. Users can visit the site to see which states have or need resources, such as ventilators and hospital beds. They also can explore model recommendations for ventilator allocation and sharing from the national stockpile.”

Northeast Ohio Medical University: Pharmacy Facebook Group Advocates On Covid-19 Prescriptions. “A Facebook group with more than 30,000 members is helping pharmacists, pharmacy techs, managers and students pull together to find solutions to the new challenges of operating during the COVID-19 pandemic. Jaclyn Boyle, Pharm.D. (’12), associate professor of pharmacy practice in the Northeast Ohio Medical University College of Pharmacy, and Carl Palladino, a second-year pharmacy student, manage the group, called ‘Pharmacy Staff for COVID-19 Support.'”

USEFUL STUFF

The Verge: Disney is releasing a series of adorable new Frozen shorts, made completely at home. “Just in case Frozen 2 on Disney Plus isn’t enough to keep kids entertained while they’re stuck at home, Disney animator Hyrum Osmond and actor Josh Gad have teamed up to produce a new series of shorts available on YouTube.”

Motley Fool: Nike Offers Free Digital Exercise Service. “Nike has decided to make its online library free for anyone who wants to access it. It’s a move the company says was inspired by the ways ‘people make sport a daily habit, even in the most challenging of times,’ according to a web post…. NTC offers a library of over 185 workouts that range from 15 to 60 minutes.”

ArtsHub Australia: Digital art guide to beat coronavirus closures. “The world may be in lockdown, but self-isolation doesn’t mean we have to stop experiencing art. Despite COVID-19 closures, Australian art is finding new ways to go viral. Artists, museums, galleries, institutions, and more are exploring innovative ways to reach audiences, spreading some timely comfort and unity. Below is our ever-growing list of Australian art ready for you to discover. Some events free, some are ticketed but we encourage you to make a donation to these and other organisations if you enjoyed their performances.”

CNET: K-12 online classes and activities to continue education at home during coronavirus. “Here are several free or discounted online learning resources for pre-K-12 students to complete from home to keep up the learning (and to save you from yet another viewing of Frozen 2 on Disney Plus). If you’re looking for even more, this post also has an extensive list of education companies offering free subscriptions due to school closings.”

TimeOut: You can now learn German online with a world-leading cultural institute. “Guten Tag! If your German knowledge ends there, then you’ll be glad to know that the world famous cultural association, the Goethe-Institut, is moving all of its German language courses online in response to the Covid-19 crisis which has shuttered its in-person tuition.”

TechCrunch: Creative ways to host a virtual birthday party for kids. “Social distancing requirements amid the COVID-19 pandemic may have canceled kids’ birthday parties, but parents are finding new ways to take the celebrations online. While video chat apps like Zoom, Google Hangouts or FaceTime are an option for gathering kids together in the virtual space, there’s still the challenge of what to do once there. A few companies are working to solve this challenge for parents who are looking for ideas to make their child’s birthday special in the time of COVID-19.”

UPDATES

FOX Illinois: Illinois State Museum collecting COVID-19 stories. “The Museum wants Illinois residents to share stories that reflect their experience during the COVID-19 pandemic, for the benefit of future generations. The stories will be collected through the Illinois State Museum’s Share your Story: Illinois in the COVID-19 Pandemic collecting initiative.”

City A.M.: Pressure builds on social media firms to stamp out ‘crazed’ 5G conspiracy theories. “Social media firms are under fierce pressure to stamp out misinformation about 5G amid fears the spread of conspiracy theories is putting lives at risk. Phone masts have been set alight in locations across the UK due to posts circulating online falsely claiming that there is a link between mobile phone technology and the coronavirus outbreak.”

Reuters: Pope starts fund to help poorer countries deal with coronavirus. “Pope Francis has started an emergency fund to help areas affected by the coronavirus in developing countries, the Vatican said on Monday. It said in a statement that the pope had designated $750,000 of funds at his disposal as an initial contribution. He has asked Church entities and dioceses to contribute as they can.”

France24: Medicine shortage looms over coronavirus-hit Europe. “While the world waits for a coronavirus vaccine, medicines used to deal with the symptoms of the disease are increasingly in critically short supply in Europe, the worst-hit continent. From sedatives needed to intubate patients struggling to breathe to anti-malarial drugs heavily backed by US President Donald Trump, the COVID-19 pandemic is eating up stocks.”

Lifehacker: Google Maps Now Shows Nearby Takeout and Delivery Options. “Ordering in or picking up dinner? Google Maps has been updated with two search filters that highlight nearby takeout and delivery options. The new search options are officially available on Android and iOS in the US, Canada and France, but users in other countries have also reported seeing the feature, so it might be worth checking regardless of where you live.”

SOCIETAL IMPACT

Business Insider: Activists fighting coronavirus-driven hate crimes are rallying on social media to turn masks into a symbol, rather than a target in racist attacks. “Activists against COVID-19-related hate crimes are leading a social media campaign using images of people in masks to fight back against attacks on Asian-Americans, which Congress and the FBI say are increasing.”

New York Post: ‘All Rise’ on CBS plans coronavirus episode filmed using social media. “CBS drama ‘All Rise,’ from Warner Bros. TV and CBS TV Studios, is returning to production for a virtually-produced timely episode influenced by the COVID-19 pandemic, social distancing and its impact on the criminal justice system. There will also be references to the show characters’ personal lives and how they are affected by the health crisis.”

London Free Press: As infections balloon, coronavirus squeezes Europe’s armed forces. “Military forces across Europe have scaled back operations and imposed stricter rules on personnel to try to stem the spread of the coronavirus among staff who often live and work in close quarters, making them more vulnerable to infection.”

Plastics Today: COVID-19: Materialise, ‘Maker Army’ Deploy 3D Printing to Mitigate Device Shortages. “The COVID-19 pandemic has been a once-in-a-lifetime wake-up call for the world, as hospitals wrestle with shortages of critical medical equipment and healthcare professionals potentially face the grim prospect of rationing medical care. It’s a scenario that sadly we have seen played out in emerging economies over the years, but not in the most prosperous, technologically advanced economies the world has ever known. In time, we will draw some hard lessons from this calamity, but, first, we must deal with the crisis at hand. We have reported on various initiatives that companies and organizations large and small have taken to meet immediate needs over the last few weeks; here are two more examples of creators, in this instance in the 3D-printing space, stepping up to help.”

Vulture: How to Produce a Late-Night Show During a Global Pandemic in 6 Steps. “Most of the shows are operating at as close to full-strength as technology and social distancing allows, an impressive feat considering how many moving parts it takes to get them on the air when times are normal. Curious to learn more about the myriad ways show production has adapted during our global catastrophe, Vulture caught up with writers and producers from The Tonight Show, Late Night, Desus & Mero, Full Frontal, and The Daily Show.”

RESEARCH

Johns Hopkins University: Johns Hopkins Taps Twitter to Measure Success of Social Distancing. “A team lead by computer scientist Mark Dredze created the Twitter Social Mobility Index by measuring public geotagged data from Twitter, tweets to which users attach their current location, from March 16 to March 29 and compared it to similar data from Jan. 1, 2019 to March 16, 2020. They found that movement of Americans during the COVID-19 outbreak dropped significantly — to just 52% percent of what it had been. In some states, people’s movement did not change as much but in others, particularly those with firm social distancing measures in place, the reductions were much more dramatic.”

Dayton Daily News: UD grad licenses UD tech to quickly spot COVID-19 in X-rays. “It didn’t take long for the University of Dayton to agree to license a new technology to a software company led by a UD grad for the fight against the coronavirus. Software developed by a University of Dayton Research Institute scientist to speedily diagnose COVID-19 has been exclusively licensed by South Carolina software development company Blue Eye Soft, UDRI said Monday.”

New York Daily News: Social media, spreading contagion: Twitter and Facebook are making the coronavirus pandemic worse. “It’s not news that social media platforms like Twitter and Facebook can be hotbeds of rumor and misinformation. Spend anytime online, and there’s a friend of a friend retweeting some implausible bit of Kardashian news. But the COVID-19 pandemic is showing that information on social media is particularly unreliable, a crapshoot of so-called advice that can have disastrous effects on public health.”

Carnegie Mellon University: Facebook and Carnegie Mellon Team To Gather COVID-19 Symptom Data. “Some Facebook users will now see a link at the top of their news feed that will lead them to an optional survey operated by Carnegie Mellon. Information from the survey will be used by CMU for its pandemic forecasting efforts and also will be shared with other collaborating universities. Aggregate information from the survey will be shared publicly.”

FUNNY

Bustle: How To Play Social-Distancing Bingo On Instagram. “For the people who have been scouring social media looking for things to keep them entertained while practicing social distancing, you can add a cute new trend to your list: Bingo. OK, Bingo might not sound like the most exciting activity in the world, but a new social distancing Bingo has been trending on Instagram and can be pretty fun to try. Not only does it let you show your Insta followers how you’ve been keeping busy while in quarantine, but it also lets you partake in a sort of communal activity. In this version of Bingo, everyone wins!”

Metro: #HomeCouture is the latest DIY fashion trend doing the rounds on Instagram. “The hashtag #HomeCouture is the newest trend sweeping our social media feeds and involves taking high-end catwalk looks and recreating them with bits and bobs around the house.”

POLITICS AND SECURITY

NBC News: Texas teen faces terrorism charge for threatening to spread coronavirus, police say. “Police in Texas are searching for an 18-year-old girl who claimed in a series of Snapchat videos to have tested positive for and to be ‘willfully spreading’ the coronavirus.”

FBI: FBI Anticipates Rise in Business Email Compromise Schemes Related to the COVID-19 Pandemic. “Fraudsters will take advantage of any opportunity to steal your money, personal information, or both. Right now, they are using the uncertainty surrounding the COVID-19 pandemic to further their efforts. Business email compromise (BEC) is a scam that targets anyone who performs legitimate funds transfers. Recently, there has been an increase in BEC frauds targeting municipalities purchasing personal protective equipment or other supplies needed in the fight against COVID-19.”

CNN: Acting Navy secretary apologizes for calling ousted aircraft carrier captain ‘stupid’ in address to ship’s crew. “Acting Secretary of the Navy Thomas Modly apologized Monday night for calling the now-ousted commander of the USS Theodore Roosevelt ‘stupid’ in an address to the ship’s crew Monday morning. Modly told the crew that their former commander, Capt. Brett Crozier, was either ‘too naive or too stupid’ to be in command or that he intentionally leaked to the media a memo in which he warned about coronavirus spreading aboard the aircraft carrier and urged action to save his sailors, according to remarks obtained by CNN.”

Vox: Elizabeth Warren has a plan for this, too. “In January, Sen. Elizabeth Warren was the first presidential candidate to release a plan for combating coronavirus. In March, she released a second plan. Days later, with the scale of economic damage increasing, she released a third. Warren’s proposals track the spread of the virus: from a problem happening elsewhere and demanding a surge in global health resources and domestic preparation to a pandemic happening here, demanding not just a public health response but an all-out effort to save the US economy.”

Atlanta Journal-Constitution: David Perdue’s stock trading saw an uptick as coronavirus took hold. “U.S. Sen. David Perdue’s financial portfolio saw heavy trading during the month of March, a period during which Congress passed three different spending bills to address the spread of COVID-19 and the markets took a turn for the worse. The report lists 112 transactions, including 76 stock purchases costing as much as $1.8 million and 34 sales worth up to $825,000. Compared with the 26-month period before the coronavirus swept across America, Perdue’s portfolio activity has increased nearly threefold.”

CoronaBuzz is brought to you by ResearchBuzz. I love your comments, I love your site suggestions, and I love you. Feel free to comment, send resource suggestions, or tag @buzz_corona on Twitter. Thanks!

April 7, 2020 at 07:26PM
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Monday CoronaBuzz, April 6, 2020: 43 pointers to new resources, useful stuff, research news, and more.

Monday CoronaBuzz, April 6, 2020: 43 pointers to new resources, useful stuff, research news, and more.
By ResearchBuzz

Wash your hands and stay at home as much as you can. Please be careful. I love you.

NEW RESOURCES

Indulge (Indian Express): Isolation Cooks is a social media project chronicling our collective food journey in times of global isolation. “Cooking = coping. And that’s what inspired ‘Isolation Cooks’ – a social media initiative documenting what’s going on in kitchens around the world – as a window to how people are dealing with fears and anxieties in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic. Started four days ago, by a group of friends in India, working from home under the 21-day nation-wide lockdown, the idea we are told was birthed from a conversation in the kitchen.”

WACH: Clemson students launch website to help SC restaurants during coronavirus crisis. “‘Save Maps means, “Save Mom and Pop Shops,”‘ explained [Sudarshan] Sridharan, who is also the founder of Second Reality Interactive, INC. – a Virtual Reality start-up creating digital watch parties for eSports tournaments and live stream. ‘We’re an online directory that enables people to buy digital gift cards from their favorite restaurants in their community. The restaurants that don’t have the ability to sell gift cards online, we provide the infrastructure to do so.'”

PopSugar: Mattel’s Online “Playroom” Offers Free Activities, Games, and Parent Resources. “Although there are plenty of educational resources and movement and exercise videos available online for kids, toy brand Mattel wants everyone to remember that ‘Play is never canceled.’ Through its new website, Mattel Playroom, the brand is delivering free games, activities, coloring sheets, DIY projects, and more featuring favorite characters like Barbie, Thomas the Tank Engine, and American Girls (plus, there are a bunch of resources for parents and caregivers).”

Found in my RSS feeds: Covid19Conversations. From the front page: “Brought to you by the American Public Health Association and the National Academy of Medicine, this webinar series will explore the state of the science surrounding the current outbreak of COVID-19 in the United States and globally, with a focus on the emerging evidence on how to best mitigate its impact. Hear from trusted experts in such fields as public health, infectious disease, risk communication, and crisis standards of care.”

Imbibe: New website to help people find local food and drinks deliveries. (This is for the UK.) “Social media strategist Charlotte Spencer is the mind behind Your Local Delivered, a free online platform that allows people to search local food and drinks businesses that are delivering during the lockdown The website went live last week and was developed in less than a week following the government’s lockdown announcement on 23 March. It lists on-trade venues such as pubs and restaurants, as well as bakeries and butchers.”

USEFUL STUFF

TimeOut: Hong Kong art galleries offering virtual tours and online viewing rooms. “Like many establishments in our city, Hong Kong’s art galleries have been hit hard due to the ongoing pandemic. Many shows have cancelled, postponed, and galleries have temporarily closed or have limited their on-ground visits to private viewing only. Some local galleries have turned online to deliver the viewing experience straight to your home.”

Casper Star-Tribune: Wyoming ramps up online educational lessons and activities for kids. “With schools closed across Wyoming, educators, museums, libraries and more are offering online educational lessons and activities for kids to do at home.” Lots of resources here.

New York Times: Film Treasures, Streaming Courtesy of the Library of Congress. “‘Sneeze’ is just one of many films that you can watch for free online courtesy of the Library of Congress, which partly acquires deposits through the United States Copyright Office. The biggest library in the world, it has an extraordinary trove of online offerings — more than 7,000 videos — that includes hundreds of old (and really old) movies.”

Mashable: How to live with anxiety disorders — and not develop one — during coronavirus lockdown. “As an agoraphobe (which for me manifests as a fear of crowds and public spaces) with social anxiety and panic disorder, ‘safer-at-home’ is what I was built for. What I wasn’t prepared for though was just how debilitating it would feel to watch my internal, irrational fears of imagined threats become everyone’s external reality in facing a very real threat. While the rest of the world is struggling to believe in this terrifying post-pandemic world, those of us with anxiety disorders are struggling to maintain our disbelief in the apocalyptic scenarios we’ve always been waiting for.”

QNS: Free and discounted online language-learning resources for kids amid coronavirus crisis. “With schools closed and students learning from home, a wide range of online language-learning resources are offering free or discounted courses to children of all ages. Resources like these, ranging from online tutors to video lessons to interactive games, can start your child on the path to advancing their skills in a foreign language or learning a new one from scratch!”

CNET: How to help restaurants, hospitals, people during the coronavirus outbreak. “You’re quarantined at home, but your community still needs help. An urgent shortage of N95 face masks in hospitals, stock in blood banks and volunteers for food banks is creating real road blocks for the first responders who are providing care and food to people in need during the coronavirus outbreak. Since many states are ordering or urging residents to stay home, knowing how to volunteer and donate is key.”

Quartz: How to read coronavirus news like a science writer. “If you’re being bombarded with facts about Covid-19 and aren’t sure whether to trust them, think like we do here at Quartz. Questioning new information with a measured sense of skepticism and a little digging can help you avoid taking in sensationalized information. The following is good advice not just during this pandemic, but any time you pick up the health and science section of a given publication.”

The Globe and Mail: A gym rat’s guide for staying at home during the COVID-19 pandemic. “When it comes to finding fitness information – or any information at all – the internet has always been a double-edged sword. Yes, there are all sorts of excellent pages curated by experts who know what they’re talking about. The opposite is also very much true. With no gyms to train at and no trainers to set us straight, what’s a poor ol’ quarantined soul to do? Rather than have you roll the dice and hope for the best, I’m going to share some of the best online fitness and health resources that I’ve come across, resources I direct all of my clients to whenever our sessions are on hold.”

CNET: The best kids TV shows to watch during quarantine. “Anyone who has looked after their own children for a long period of time understands this one simple fact: At some point you’re gonna have to plonk them in front of the TV for a while. So you might as well make sure they’re watching something good.”

MakeUseOf: Be Positive! 5 Good News Websites for Uplifting & Inspirational Stories. “These days, it seems like every news media outlet only reports on death, disease, and distress. While you shouldn’t shy away from harsh realities, the incessant bad news can affect your mental health. That’s when you should turn to these people who highlight the good. There are news websites, apps, podcasters, and YouTubers who focus on the steps taken for betterment. This includes small acts of goodness and kindness to large leaps that inspire you to fight the good fight.”

NiemanLab: Are you a local reporter doing data-heavy coronavirus reporting? This service will check your stats for free. “Coronavirus reporting is profoundly driven by numbers. Tests administered, cases diagnosed, deaths attributed; doubling speed, growth curves, R0; county data, state data, national data. It’s a lot. And as efforts to collect and organize this data — released under different standards and methods from jurisdiction to jurisdiction — have shown, the numbers don’t always say what you think they say.”

IanVisits: Help the National Archives uncover WW1 ships crew logs. “If you’re stuck at home and want to do something good, then the National Archives is seeking volunteers to help transcribe First World War Royal Navy service records for a free online database it is building. Service records for the First World War can provide information about individuals and their lives. However, as crew lists for ships and submarines during this period rarely survive, it is difficult for researchers to determine who was on a ship or in a certain battle together.”

New York Times: How to Thrive in Online Life. “I called — on Zoom, of course — Thomas Biery, a 24-year-old who works in marketing and has a second life streaming video games to his followers. While this extremely online life is new to me, Thomas has been living it for years. He assured me that we can sustain meaningful connections over broadband — and, forced into the virtual world, we might even become a more honest version of ourselves.”

TechHive: The best online film festivals and virtual art house movie screenings. “Luckily, SXSW isn’t the only cancelled film festival that’s going virtual. A variety of the biggest national and regional film fests are taking their programs online, while some of the best art-house theaters are offering virtual screenings of new releases and repertory classics.”

UPDATES

Variety: Craig Melvin to Anchor Special MSNBC Daytime Coronavirus Series (EXCLUSIVE). “Craig Melvin will take MSNBC viewers to live, on-location looks at various pandemic ‘hot spots’ as part of a new special series at the NBCUniversal-owned cable-news network that will air over the next two weeks.”

Mashable: Queen Elizabeth II delivers very British social distancing solidarity speech. “Queen Elizabeth II took decidedly rare action Sunday, delivering a televised speech to the United Kingdom and British Commonwealth. The 93-year-old monarch spoke about the need for solidarity and strength as the world battles coronavirus and feels the economic impact of social distancing. It was only the fourth such appearance during a time of national trouble she has made.”

New York Times: Facebook Hampers Do-It-Yourself Mask Efforts. “As health workers on the front lines of the coronavirus pandemic plead for personal protective equipment, volunteer efforts to create hand-sewn masks and deliver them to medical professionals have quickly sprung up across the internet. But those efforts were hampered by Facebook’s automated content moderation systems over the past week, according to sewing organizers who have used the social network to coordinate donation campaigns.”

Chalkbeat: NYC forbids schools from using Zoom for remote learning due to privacy and security concerns. “New York City has banned the video conferencing platform Zoom in city schools weeks after thousands of teachers and students began using it for remote learning. The education department received reports of issues that impact the security and privacy of the platform during the credentialing process, according to a document shared with principals that was obtained by Chalkbeat on Friday night.”

Neowin: SoundCloud will let musicians add a direct donation button to their profiles. “Musicians whose livelihood depends on live concerts and festivals are hurting as public gatherings have been indefinitely postponed due to the coronavirus crisis. In an effort to make up for the shortfall, SoundCloud is allowing artists to add a button to their profiles so that listeners can directly support their favorite musicians, according to Engadget. Once the button is clicked, users will be redirected to payment services like PayPal, Patreon, and Bandcamp.”

Neowin: YouTube will remove videos that claim 5G and COVID-19 are related. “YouTube has announced that it will delete videos from its platform if they promote the idea that there is a correlation between the spread of the COVID-19 disease and 5G networks, according to Business Insider.”

SOCIETAL IMPACT

New York Times: They Were the Last Couple in Paradise. Now Their Resort Life Continues.. “They were surrounded by a fleet of staff, who were stranded themselves, trapped in an eternal honeymoon in the Maldives. Their adventure continues.”

US News & World Report: US Allowing Longer Shifts at Nuclear Plants in Pandemic. “U.S. nuclear plants will be allowed to keep workers on longer shifts to deal with staffing problems in the coronavirus pandemic, raising worries among watchdogs and some families living near reactors that employee exhaustion will increase the risks of accidents.”

InDaily: Fighting COVID-19 isolation and frustration with craftivism. “An open-access Stitch & Resist project by Adelaide’s Centre of Democracy encourages people to pick up a needle and thread and cross-stitch messages about social and political issues – including the COVID-19 crisis.”

Sacramento Bee: Religious worship in the age of coronavirus: How centuries-old traditions are being upended. “As one of the holiest times of the year approaches for the world’s major religions and faithful believers like [Matthew] Yamzon, the coronavirus pandemic has upended traditions that houses of worship have relied upon for centuries. Some have scrapped all services in favor of online models using technologies like Zoom computer conferencing. Some are offering limited hours of prayer inside, while eliminating live celebrations of Easter.”

BBC: Coronavirus: Domestic abuse calls up 25% since lockdown, charity says. “The National Domestic Abuse helpline has seen a 25% increase in calls and online requests for help since the lockdown, the charity Refuge says. It received hundreds more calls last week compared to two weeks earlier, the charity which runs the helpline said.”

CNET: Robots replace university students in Zoom graduation ceremony. “Can’t be at a big life event because of the coronavirus? Send in the robots. These Japanese university students refused to let the coronavirus lockdowns get in the way of celebrating their graduation ceremony.”

Nieman Lab: No paywall in the chicken coop: A fast-food chain is paying to take down 16 Canadian newspapers’ paywalls this month. “Canadians will be able to keep abreast of the latest news for the next month, thanks to a sponsorship from Mary Brown’s Chicken & Taters, home of the Tater Poutine. This thing could have legs.”

BBC: Coronavirus: South African bride and groom arrested over ‘lockdown wedding’. “Married life got off to an unexpected start for a pair of newlyweds in South Africa when police showed up to the party. They had received a tip-off that the wedding in KwaZulu-Natal was happening on Sunday despite a nationwide ban on all public gatherings because of coronavirus. All 40 wedding guests, the pastor who conducted ceremony, and the newlyweds themselves were promptly arrested and taken to a police station outside Richards Bay.”

Poynter: As the U.S. prepares for its ‘hardest moment’ yet, a look at how we got here and the media’s role in the coronavirus pandemic. “There appears to be a struggle now because of mistakes made in the past. Which means any mistakes made right now could hurt the future. And that makes the media’s role all the more critical right now: to hold the powerful to account, while being sure to produce the most reliable information based on facts and science. So that’s where I’ll start with today’s newsletter — looking at how we got here and the media’s role in this crisis.”

RESEARCH

Stanford University: What Twitter Reveals About COVID-19’s Impact on Our Mental Health. “Stanford HAI junior fellow Johannes Eichstaedt is a psychologist who uses social media to understand the psychological states of large populations. He examined Twitter posts to learn how the virus and social distancing are affecting our anxiety and life satisfaction and how factors such our age, education, and hometown size can impact our emotions. The picture, he says, is grim. ‘We need to think about scalable mental health care,” he adds. “Now is the time to mobilize resources to make that happen.'”

News10: News10 Exclusive: Emerson College poll reveals the reality of coronavirus in New York. “News10 partnered with Emerson College to take your pulse with an exclusive poll about health, finances, and how our leaders are handling the outbreak. When asked, ‘When this is finally over, will your life return to the way it was before or not?’ More than half of you who responded, 54%, say life will never be the same.”

The Thaiger: Japan offers anti-flu drug Avigan for free to fight coronavirus. “Japan’s PM Shinzo Abe says Japan is offering the anti-flu drug Avigan free of charge to countries battling the Covid-19 coronavirus. The drug, developed by a group firm of Fujifilm Holdings, has shown early signs of being effective in helping to treat the virus.”

BusinessWire: Free Accelerated Data Transfer Software for COVID-19 Researchers (PRESS RELEASE). “High-performance data transfer software that can move files ranging from megabytes to terabytes among research institutions, cloud providers, and personal computers at speeds many times faster than traditional software…. Available immediately for an initial 90-day license; requests to extend licenses will be evaluated on a case-by-case basis to facilitate continued research.”

NoCamels: Israeli Hack Could Help Teams On COVID-19 Frontlines Produce Quick, Affordable Ventilators. “Amid a global shortage of ventilators – a potentially life-saving device for coronavirus patients in severe or critical conditions – an Israeli group made up of Air Force electronics experts, robotics specialists, and medical professionals has come up with an innovative hack that could help hospitals around the world produce them quickly and at low cost.”

NoCamels: Israel Adapts Military Radar Systems For Remote COVID-19 Patient Monitoring. “The Defense Ministry’s National Emergency Team at the Directorate of Defense Research and Development (DDR&D) said this week that the two systems, developed by Israeli defense company Elbit Systems and Elta (a subsidiary of Israel Aerospace Industries), were tested successfully under the medical supervision of doctors from the Beilinson – Rabin Medical Center. The systems use an array of radar and electro-optical sensors with which vital signs were measured and displayed on monitors for doctors in a sterile environment, allowing medical staff to avoid direct contact for risk of infection.”

POLITICS AND SECURITY

Make Tech Easier: Security Researchers Develop Tool that Harvests Zoom Meeting Info. “In light of the recent coronavirus pandemic, many people have been forced to work at home. When it comes to interpersonal meetings, companies had to find a solution that would allow them to teleconference for cheap. Zoom was one solution that was adopted and recommended the world over, to the point where Zoom is being used for both business and education. Unfortunately, Zoom isn’t very secure. Security researchers proved this by developing a tool that can harvest information from Zoom meetings.”

Associated Press: U.S. ‘wasted’ months before preparing for virus pandemic. “After the first alarms sounded in early January that an outbreak of a novel coronavirus in China might ignite a global pandemic, the Trump administration squandered nearly two months that could have been used to bolster the federal stockpile of critically needed medical supplies and equipment.”

New York Times: Official Counts Understate the U.S. Coronavirus Death Toll. “Across the United States, even as coronavirus deaths are being recorded in terrifying numbers — many hundreds each day — the true death toll is likely much higher. More than 9,400 people with the coronavirus have been reported to have died in this country as of this weekend, but hospital officials, doctors, public health experts and medical examiners say that official counts have failed to capture the true number of Americans dying in this pandemic.”

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April 6, 2020 at 06:20PM
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Sunday CoronaBuzz, April 5, 2020: 44 pointers to new resources, useful stuff, research news, and more.

Sunday CoronaBuzz, April 5, 2020: 44 pointers to new resources, useful stuff, research news, and more.
By ResearchBuzz

Wash your hands and stay at home as much as you can. Please be careful. I love you.

NEW RESOURCES

Found in my Google Alerts: Designers Against Coronavirus. From the front page: “Designers Against Coronavirus is a digital archive created and curated by CaroselloLab that shows the emergency we are facing through the eyes of designers, illustrators and creative studios from all over the world.”

GameSpace: Family Video Game Database Launches – Get The Kids Back On The Computer!. “This new database might still be in its early stages but features a whole host of games that present more than just a faceless zombie or a trash-talking 13 year old from another time zone. Instead, you will find information on how to tame gaming. There are several subcategories of suggestions including a range of fitness games, some of which you’ll find on our fitness game guide, as well as educational games and ideas for titles that are likely to calm the noise levels in the room.”

EurekAlert: Rice University emergency ventilator plans now online. “The plans for Rice University’s ApolloBVM, an open-source emergency ventilator design that could help patients in treatment for COVID-19, are now online and freely available to everyone in the world. The project first developed by students as a senior design project in 2019 has been brought up to medical grade by Rice engineers and one student, with the help of Texas Medical Center doctors. The device costs less than $300 in parts and can squeeze a common bag valve mask for hours on end.”

Archinect: AIA publishes COVID-19 database to share best practices in hospital conversion design. “The American Institute of Architects (AIA) is currently assembling a database containing information on the health care facilities, both traditional and temporary, and the design professionals around the world mobilizing in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Last week, AIA announced the creation of an internal COVID-19 task force that seeks to provide expert advice on how existing buildings can be rapidly converted for temporary hospital use.”

EurekAlert: BU creates database to track states’ coronavirus policies. “Researchers and students at the Boston University School of Public Health (BUSPH) have created a COVID-19 US state policy database, tracking steps that each U.S. state has taken to curb the spread of the new coronavirus and when those steps were implemented.”

Your Central Valley: Gov. Gavin Newsom announces new website accepting medical donations. “On Saturday, during a daily briefing on the response of COVID-19 Governor Gavin Newsom, announced a new website that is accepting medical donations.”

Minnesota: Governor Tim Walz Unveils Data Dashboard, Outlines State’s Priorities in Responding to COVID-19. “Governor Tim Walz today unveiled a new State of Minnesota COVID-19 dashboard that tracks the virus in Minnesota and provides the latest available data on available ventilators, ICU beds, personal protective equipment (PPE), and testing. The dashboard will be updated daily and is available at https://mn.gov/covid19/ .”

Tricycle: Buddha Buzz Weekly: Dharma Relief Raises Money for US Hospitals. “Karunavirus—as in karuna, the Sanskrit word for compassion—is a new website that hopes to highlight stories of compassion in the news. Launched in mid-March by volunteer charity organization Service Space, the website hopes to shine a spotlight on uplifting stories in the coronavirus era, without ignoring the widespread reality of the mass suffering caused by the pandemic.”

The National: ‘People want a cultural outlet’: Lebanon’s Dalloul Art Foundation launches digital archive amid coronavirus outbreak. “As more countries go into lockdown and governments implore their citizens to remain at home amid the coronavirus pandemic, arts organisations around the world have leapt into action, offering a different kind of outlet to millions. In Lebanon, the Ramzi and Saeda Dalloul Art Foundation is one of them. Its website went live two weeks ago, several months earlier than originally planned, granting free access to thousands of artworks and extensive information about hundreds of artists from the Arab world.”

University of Washington: New online course explores COVID-19 pandemic. “A new course from the Department of Global Health at the University of Washington Schools of Public Health and Medicine will explore the 2019 coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic. Course topics range from coronavirus testing and COVID-19 vaccine development to the pandemic’s social and economic implications. The seminar series will run from April 13 through May 18, and include lectures from the UW’s top experts on infectious diseases and pandemic preparedness. The course is open to UW graduate and professional students for one credit and seminars will be available for the public via a video recording.”

Wyoming Tribune Eagle: New website lets untested residents report experiences with COVID-19. “With the launch of a new website earlier this week, any Wyoming residents who experiences COVID-19-like symptoms and are unable to get testing will be able to be heard. The site…, a volunteer open-source project, allows individuals to report their symptoms, experience and, optionally, contact information, which will be sent to the Wyoming COVID-19 Task Force and Gov. Mark Gordon.”

Broadway World: Metropolitan Opera Launches Weekly Free Student Streams. “On April 6, the Metropolitan Opera will launch Free Student Streams, a new program of free opera streams for students and teachers worldwide during the health crisis. Drawing from the Met’s extensive online library of operas and curricular materials designed to align with the Common Core Standards, and incorporating new live virtual conversations with Met artists and educators from the company’s national education program, the initiative has been designed as an ongoing cross-curricular offering at a time when schools are closed and online classwork has increased dramatically.”

USEFUL STUFF

BBC: Coronavirus: Fake and misleading stories that went viral this week. “We’ve all been there. A coronavirus post that could be true and sounds about right, but how do we know it’s accurate? To help, the BBC’s disinformation-monitoring team is fact-checking and verifying some of the most widely shared fake and misleading stories of the week.”

Slate: A Comprehensive Guide to Masks. “We’re going to be seeing a lot more face masks soon. After a week of rumors that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention would advise regular folks to wear masks, President Donald Trump said in a press briefing Friday that ‘the CDC is advising the use of nonmedical cloth face covering as a voluntary health measure.’ This is awfully confusing. Back when this all started, we were told that we didn’t have to wear masks. You probably have some questions—about whether you should take the CDC up on the suggestion and about what changed. Here is our best shot at explaining what happened here!”

BetaNews: How to lock down Zoom to improve your privacy and security. “Zoom has received a lot of attention because of the increased number of people working from home, some good, some bad. There have been various security and privacy issues with the video conferencing app, but there are steps you can take to lock things down a little. Following numerous controversies, Zoom has not only issued an apology but also put a stop on the development of new features while it gets itself in order. In the meantime, there are a various things you can do to increase your privacy and security when you’re using Zoom.”

CNET: 5 ways to save money during a coronavirus lockdown. “People across the US are spending a lot more time at home amid lockdowns and stay-at-home orders to help slow the spread of the coronavirus outbreak. While some have turned to online shopping for necessities and stress relief, this time could also be a potential period to save money. Saving a few bucks now can be helpful as everyone is waiting for the $1,200 stimulus checks that will start being deposited within two weeks according to US Secretary of the Treasury Steven Mnuchin. Here are five ways to save money as you work from home during the coronavirus lockdown.”

Attractions Magazine: Legoland California invites kids to join in the ‘Legoland Building Challenge’. “As families look for fun and educational activities to do during their time stuck at home, Legoland California Resort has launched a new website filled with instructional videos and activities called ‘Legoland Building Challenge.’ Every Wednesday, the resort will announce a new theme and release a new instructional ‘how to build’ video hosted by a Master Model Builder. On Fridays, Legoland California will highlight builds posted by followers on the resort’s social media pages and ask families for ideas on what to construct next.”

Getty Iris: How to Use Getty Open Content for Your Custom Zoom Background. “Many of us are working from home, and keeping our distance from others. Perhaps there’s a pet or a child keeping us company or getting in the way as we try to focus (insert #coworker joke here). At Getty, our in-person meetings are now virtual, and some of us have turned to the custom Zoom background to help set the mood. Getty’s Open Content program includes over 100,000 images that are free and downloadable. This means they’re also fair game to use as your own custom background.”

CBS Sports: NBA 2K Players Tournament bracket: How to watch online, live stream, TV channel, start times, dates, results. “The tournament will be played on the Xbox One console and the winner will be crowned the ultimate NBA 2K20 champion and receive a $100,000 charity donation in their name to support coronavirus relief efforts. The seeding is determined by the player’s 2K rating and tenure. The first slate of games tipped off Friday night with No. 1 overall seed Kevin Durant losing to 16-seeded Derrick Jones Jr., while third-seed Hassan Whiteside lost to No. 14 Patrick Beverley.”

The Bold Italic: From Drag to Wine Tastings, How to Virtually Soak Up SF Culture in April. “In light of our current isolation plights, we’ve decided to cherry-pick some of the best digital happenings — most locally — that we’re putting on our calendars this month. From drag shows on Twitch to wine tastings via Instagram Live, here’s the best of the bunch to enjoy while wearing your sweatpants.”

Middle East Eye: Art and coronavirus: Middle Eastern galleries to view on lockdown. “Museums seeking to expand their online presence could take a leaf from Rijksmuseum in the Netherlands, with its high-quality downloadable digital images, or the fun of creating your own ‘studio’ collection. Meanwhile, on his upbeat Facebook feed, Lebanese art collector Basel Dalloul has been posting lists of other virtual galleries, from the Guggenheim in New York to the Sursock Museum in Beirut. The latter boasts a VR tour of its recent exhibition, Baalbek, Archives of an Eternity. Dalloul himself has just launched a website showcasing the ‘largest archive and collection of Arab art’. With the art world moving online, MEE highlights some of the best collections from the region you can view without having to leave home.”

CNBC: Why you’re having such vivid dreams and nightmares during the pandemic, and how to sleep better. “The COVID-19 pandemic has made even sleep feel stressful. From vivid dreams and nightmares to increased levels of insomnia, many people are struggling with sleep right now. This makes sense, because ‘we are wired to stay awake in the face of danger,’ Jennifer Martin, clinical psychologist and member of the American Academy of Sleep Medicine, and professor of medicine at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA, tells CNBC Make It. ‘In that way, it’s normal to have struggles with sleep throughout all kinds of difficult situations.'”

ComicBook: Every Tabletop Deal and Freebie to Help Get You Through Coronavirus Quarantine. “The coronavirus pandemic has caused many game publishers to adapt on the fly to ever-changing circumstances, as they try and still help the local game stores that are so important to the market as well as get games to players stuck in their homes. They are fulfilling those tasks in a number of ways, from offering sales on products for players or helping out local game stores by cutting some of the profits with them. Others are offering lots of free content for their games to download, while others are offering completely free games and experiences for fans to check out for the first time.”

Marvel: Marvel Unlimited Now Offering Free Access to Iconic Comic Book Stories. “Marvel Unlimited, Marvel’s digital comics subscription service, is now offering all fans FREE access to some of Marvel’s most iconic stories from recent years, including now-classic Marvel Comics events and critically acclaimed runs featuring the Avengers, Spider-Man, Black Widow, Captain America, Captain Marvel, and more. Fans who are social distancing will be able to escape into the Marvel Universe and revisit their favorite stories from a curated selection of complete story arcs – completely free – on Marvel Unlimited, starting Thursday, April 2 until Monday, May 4.”

How-To Geek: How to Stream U.S. Sports for Free Online. “The wide world of sports has been mostly postponed for 2020 thanks to the coronavirus. As we all try to flatten the curve with social distancing, some of the most popular U.S. sports leagues are streaming both new and old games for free.” Very extensive, handy for those of you who are missing your sports.

UPDATES

Bloomberg Quint: Anthony Fauci and Deborah Birx Are Diving Into Social Media to Reach Young Adults. “President Donald Trump’s evening virus briefings have been a big TV ratings hit, but missing from that audience is a critical demographic: the younger generation of people who tuned out of broadcast and cable television a long time ago. So Trump’s top public health officials, Anthony Fauci and Deborah Birx, are going where young people go — to social media, podcasts, online video and TV talk shows that draw diverse viewers, such as those of Trevor Noah and Showtime personalities Desus and Mero.”

Slate: The Unsettled Mood on Liberty University’s Campus as COVID-19 Advances. “Last week, Jerry Falwell Jr. made several TV appearances intended to reassure viewers that Liberty University was taking the coronavirus seriously. The school had received widespread criticism for Falwell Jr.’s decision to keep campus open for any students who wanted to be there, although classes had moved online. Now, his message was that the campus was effectively empty after all, and that its leadership was taking every safety precaution possible. ‘Only essential staff are on campus: cleaning staff, food preparers, security,’ he said. The next day on CNN, he described campus as a ‘ghost town.’ For many people who were on Liberty’s campus over the last week, the feeling has been very different.”

Hindustan Times: Google donates 4,000 Chromebooks, free Wi-Fi to California students. “Google has announced to provide 4,000 Chromebooks and 1,00,000 Wi-Fi hotspots for rural students in California, who are studying from home due to coronavirus pandemic. The initiative was announced by California Governor Gavin Newsom and Alphabet and Google CEO Sundar Pichai on Thursday.”

Getty Iris: Getty Creates $10 Million LA Arts COVID-19 Relief Fund for Museums and Visual Arts Organizations. “The fund, to be administered by the California Community Foundation, will provide emergency operating support and recovery grants to small and mid-size organizations located in Los Angeles County. The efforts will focus on museums and arts non-profits that contribute significantly to the region’s artistic diversity and are facing great difficulty during the coronavirus crisis. Getty invites other organizations and individuals to contribute to the LA Arts COVID-19 Relief Fund.”

SOCIETAL IMPACT

BBC: Birmingham and Merseyside masts torched over 5G coronavirus claims. “Mobile phone masts have been torched amid theories linking coronavirus to 5G, despite ministers saying there is no credible evidence to back them. Masts were set alight in Sparkhill, Birmingham, on Thursday and Melling, Merseyside, on Friday.”

CNET: Don’t defy coronavirus lockdown rules, or this robot will call you on it. “The PGuard robots from Tunisia-based Enova Robotics come equipped with infrared and thermal-imaging cameras and a sound and light alarm system for making public announcements. If the bots spot potential violators, they roll up and ask to see IDs to be examined remotely by police officers, who can communicate with citizens in real time via microphones and speakers.”

Sarajevo Times: Migrants in Reception Centres in Bosnia and Herzegovina are learning to cope with Disruption caused by the COVID-19 Pandemic. “Migrants and refugees hosted at UN-run reception centres in Bosnia-Herzegovina, are learning to cope with the disruption caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. ‘We fled from home to save our lives, to escape war, and now we are faced with this new coronavirus’, says Rozhan, Along with her husband, Ibrahim, and her three children, she made a long and arduous journey from Iraq, her home country, to Bosnia-Herzegovina in Europe, Relief Web reports.”

New York Times: This Brooklyn Landlord Just Canceled Rent for Hundreds of Tenants. “A few days after losing his job in March, Paul Gentile was throwing away trash outside his Brooklyn apartment building when he noticed a new sign hanging near the front door. Because of the coronavirus pandemic, which has brought life to a near standstill in New York City and caused an untold number of people to lose their jobs, tenants in the building did not need to pay April rent, it read.”

Houston Chronicle: ‘We could get wiped out’: American Indians have the highest rates of diseases that make covid-19 more lethal. “They hastily piled all the dumbbells and treadmills in the back of a gym to make room for 23 extra hospital beds. The beds aren’t needed yet, but on a reservation where residents suffer high rates of disease that exist throughout Indian Country, the Lummi Tribal Health Clinic in Washington is bracing for the deadly coronavirus.”

RESEARCH

ScienceBlog: Researchers Design Low-Cost PPE Disinfectant System Using Parts Found At Hardware Stores. “A team of USC researchers has devised a simple but effective way to sterilize medical equipment in response to the urgent need for more safety gear for doctors and nurses treating COVID-19 patients. The method worked so well in lab tests at the Keck School of Medicine of USC that it’s already been deployed at 45 hospitals and clinics, including the Keck Hospital of USC, USC Verdugo Hills Hospital and the Los Angeles County+USC Medical Center.”

CNN: How the cell phones of spring breakers who flouted coronavirus warnings were tracked. “The Trump administration wants to use Americans’ smartphone location data to help track and combat the spread of coronavirus. Now, a pair of US data companies are making a public pitch to show just how that kind of technology might work. X-Mode and Tectonix focused on a high-profile case: tracking location data from the phones of people who visited the beach in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, in March — among them spring breakers who made national news two weeks ago when they ignored warnings to practice social distancing despite the worsening coronavirus pandemic.”

EurekAlert: Researchers develop a computer simulator that recreates the spread of COVID-19 in Europe. “A team of Spanish researchers have designed and validated a simulator to enable study of the evolution of the COVID-19 illness in Spain and in all Europe, based on parameters such as climate, social distancing policies and transportation. This research work has been carried out by scientists and technologists from Universidad Carlos III de Madrid (UC3M), the Centro Nacional de Epidemiología (CNE) and the Consorcio Centro de Investigación Biomédica en Red (CIBER) from the Instituto de Salud Carlos III (ISCIII), in conjunction with the Barcelona Supercomputing Center – Centro Nacional de Supercomputación (BSC-CNS).”

Radio Prague International: Coronavirus: Czech Hospitals Soon To Get Free Ventilators Thanks To Crowdsourced It Project ‘Covid19cz’. “The Czech civic initiative Covid19CZ was formed just a few weeks ago to try to harness technological, medical and engineering know-how to help stop the spread of the novel coronavirus and treat patients in critical condition. The volunteer project now looks set to deliver open-sourced ventilators to Prague hospitals in a matter of days.”

Psychology Today: New Research on Stress of Quarantine and 5 Ways to Feel Better . “New research published in the Lancet reveals the negative psychological impact of quarantine. The review examines the psychological impact from quarantines involving SARS (11 studies), Ebola (5), the 2009 and 2010 H1N1 influenza pandemic (3), Middle East respiratory syndrome (2), and equine influenza (1). ”

POLITICS AND SECURITY

New York Times: The 1,000-Bed Comfort Was Supposed to Aid New York. It Has 20 Patients.. “Such were the expectations for the Navy hospital ship U.S.N.S. Comfort that when it chugged into New York Harbor this week, throngs of people, momentarily forgetting the strictures of social distancing, crammed together along Manhattan’s west side to catch a glimpse. On Thursday, though, the huge white vessel, which officials had promised would bring succor to a city on the brink, sat mostly empty, infuriating executives at local hospitals. The ship’s 1,000 beds are largely unused, its 1,200-member crew mostly idle.”

New York Times: A Ventilator Stockpile, With One Hitch: Thousands Do Not Work. “President Trump has repeatedly assured Americans that the federal government is holding 10,000 ventilators in reserve to ship to the hardest-hit hospitals around the nation as they struggle to keep the most critically ill patients alive. But what federal officials have neglected to mention is that an additional 2,109 lifesaving devices are unavailable after the contract to maintain the government’s stockpile lapsed late last summer, and a contracting dispute meant that a new firm did not begin its work until late January.”

Washington Post: The U.S. was beset by denial and dysfunction as the coronavirus raged. “By the time Donald Trump proclaimed himself a wartime president — and the coronavirus the enemy — the United States was already on course to see more of its people die than in the wars of Korea, Vietnam, Afghanistan and Iraq combined.”

Reuters: Exclusive: Pressed by Trump, U.S. pushed unproven coronavirus treatment guidance. “In mid-March, President Donald Trump personally pressed federal health officials to make malaria drugs available to treat the novel coronavirus, though they had been untested for COVID-19, two sources told Reuters. Shortly afterward, the federal government published highly unusual guidance informing doctors they had the option to prescribe the drugs, with key dosing information based on unattributed anecdotes rather than peer-reviewed science.”

Chicago Sun-Times: Illinois adjusts on the fly to meet medical supply needs in a coronavirus ‘Wild West’. “About two weeks ago, Illinois officials tracked down a supply of 1.5 million potentially life-saving N95 respirator masks in China through a middleman in the Chicago area and negotiated a deal to buy them. One day before they were expecting to complete the purchase, they got a call in the morning from the supplier informing them he had to get a check to the bank by 2 p.m. that day, or the deal was off. Other bidders had surfaced.”

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April 5, 2020 at 06:22PM
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