Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19)

[Administrator]

Dmitry Korkin: Computational Biology of Coronavirus | AI Podcast #90 with Lex Fridman

Apr 22, 2020

Dmitry Korkin is a professor of bioinformatics and computational biology at Worcester Polytechnic Institute, where he specializes in bioinformatics of complex disease, computational genomics, systems biology, and biomedical data analytics. I came across Dmitry's work when in February his group used the viral genome of the COVID-19 to reconstruct the 3D structure of its major viral proteins and their interactions with human proteins, in effect creating a structural genomics map of the coronavirus and making this data open and available to researchers everywhere. We talked about the biology of COVID-19, SARS, and viruses in general, and how computational methods can help us understand their structure and function in order to develop antiviral drugs and vaccines. This conversation is part of the Artificial Intelligence podcast.

OUTLINE:
0:00 - Introduction
2:33 - Viruses are terrifying and fascinating
6:02 - How hard is it to engineer a virus?
10:48 - What makes a virus contagious?
29:52 - Figuring out the function of a protein
53:27 - Functional regions of viral proteins
1:19:09 - Biology of a coronavirus treatment
1:34:46 - Is a virus alive?
1:37:05 - Epidemiological modeling
1:55:27 - Russia
2:02:31 - Science bobbleheads
2:06:31 - Meaning of life

 

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How Nuro is helping the heroes during COVID-19

Apr 22, 2020

A documentary of the team members at Nuro mobilizing their contactless R2, robot delivery service to provide food, medicine, and other essentials to COVID patients in Sacramento’s Sleep Train Arena.

 

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COVID-19 disinfection with HYBRiX drone

Apr 23, 2020

HYBRiX agriculture drone, originally designed to spray liquid in farms has been adapted to spray disinfecting chemicals in public spaces and in impacted areas. Quaternium is also making efforts and its open to help.

 

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Webinar: drones, hype and COVID-19

Apr 23, 2020

Drones are being used in all kinds of ways in response to the pandemic. But which of these applications actually make sense? Which don't? And which could potentially make sense? This webinar summarizes our findings on the different drone applications being championed in response to the pandemic.

 

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NASA builds ventilator prototype for Coronavirus patients

Apr 23, 2020

NASA is helping the medical community address the shortage of ventilators needed to treat coronavirus patients with a ventilator prototype. Within 37 days, engineers and others at the agency's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California created a high-pressure ventilator prototype tailored to the needs of patients with COVID-19 and sent it to the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York for testing.

The device, called VITAL (Ventilator Intervention Technology Accessible Locally), is designed to be faster to build and easier to maintain than traditional ventilators, with a fraction of the parts. JPL is now seeking an Emergency Use Authorization for the device from the Food and Drug Administration.

 

[Administrator]

How Mayo Clinic is using AI to research COVID-19

Apr 24, 2020

Artificial intelligence has a vital role in helping researchers in their efforts to fight COVID-19 and is an important tool in the work being done at Mayo Clinic.

Dr. Andrew Badley is an infectious diseases specialist and leads Mayo Clinic’s COVID-19 Research Task Force. In this Q&A, Dr. Badley answers questions about the task force and the role of artificial intelligence.

 

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What is contact tracing and why is it important in the fight against COVID-19?

Apr 24, 2020

Contact tracing is one of those terms associated with the COVID-19 pandemic that has seemingly become a part of our everyday language. But it's a public health strategy that's been used for years to combat communicable diseases.

Contact tracing is the process of finding out who has recently been in close contact with a person infected with a virus, such as SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, and reaching out to those people to let them know they may have been exposed and guide them on what to do next. In some cases, that may include self-isolating to prevent further spread.

Dr. Gregory Poland, a Mayo Clinic infectious diseases expert, explains why contact tracing is important in the fight against COVID-19.

 

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Article "Boston Dynamics open-sources health care robotics toolkit for telemedicine, vitals inspection, and disinfection"

by Emil Protalinsky
April 23, 2020

Spot, four-legged robot, Boston Dynamics, Waltham, Massachusetts, USA

 

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Article "Researcher develops artificial intelligence platform to combat infectious diseases"
Novel tool identifies optimal drug combination therapies at unprecedented speed

April 25, 2020

Dean Ho

identif.ai

 

[Administrator]

Symptom list for COVID-19 has been expanded

Apr 27, 2020

COVID-19, the disease caused by the SARS-CoV-2 virus, affects people in many ways. Early symptoms have included fever, cough and chills. The list of symptoms in people with confirmed COVID-19 disease has expanded since early reports of the disease. "We're learning more about the virus and more about the syndrome that it causes as people have become infected with it," says Dr. Stacey Rizza, a Mayo Clinic infectious disease specialist and researcher.

 

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Does getting COVID-19 make you immune to It?

Apr 27, 2020

Like a common cold or a cold sore, would it be possible to get a reinfection of COVID-19? Would we be able to build up long-term resistance to it?

 

[Administrator]

COVID-19: what type of mask should you get to protect against it? (Airwheel electric mask experience)

Apr 28, 2020

Airwheel smart mask is different from the mask with only a filter layer. In order to bring a more comfortable breathing experience, it is equipped with a silent booster fan, which can help the air intake when inhaling and form a complete aerodynamic system. This not only solves the problem of difficulty in breathing when using traditional masks, and also avoids the secondary inhalation of exhaust gas inside the masks, so every breath is fresh air.
The intelligence of Airwheel smart mask is that its wind speed is not fixed. Not only is it designed with two gears for users to adjust, but it is also equipped with professional sensors that can identify the user's dynamic and static status: sitting, walking, Running, cycling...On the basis of the user’s status, it will intelligently adjust the wind speed to keep breathing comfortable and smooth, and manage the wearer's respiratory health as an air expert.

 

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Article "France launches AI voice assistant to help coronavirus patients"

April 27, 2020

facebook.com/Allocovid

twitter.com/allocovid

Professor Xavier Jouven

 

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Why is the Coronavirus economic fallout unlike anything we've ever seen?

Apr 28, 2020

The current collapse of the daily global economic activity has never been this rapid. Professor of Economics Nouriel Roubini further explains why the economic fallout from coronavirus is so unprecedented.

 

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Google Translate makes a mask

Apr 29, 2020

 

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Are pets at risk of getting or spreading COVID-19?

Apr 29, 2020

 

[Administrator]

The race for a COVID-19 vaccine, explained

Apr 30, 2020

Humankind has never had a more urgent task than creating broad immunity for coronavirus. Realistically, if we’re going to return to normal, we need to develop a safe, effective vaccine—and we need to do it faster than we’ve ever developed a vaccine before.

"What you need to know about the COVID-19 vaccine"
Humankind has never had a more urgent task than creating broad immunity for coronavirus.

by Bill Gates
April 30, 2020

 

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Masks & protective gear shortages: challenges and solutions

Apr 30, 2020

The world has a global shortage of N95 masks. What can we do?

Health care professionals and experts say we now have a shortage of masks, gowns, gloves, and other personal protective equipment (PPE) for doctors, nurses, and other medical staff.

In this environment, health care workers worry they might get sick — perhaps forcing them to take up a hospital bed that would otherwise go to someone else — or die. The situation not only threatens health care workers’ well-being, but it could also limit US health care capacity even as experts warn we need to scale up to confront the rise in coronavirus cases.

What can be done about the shortfall in protective equipment? Should the US create a new supply chain - a cottage industry around protective equipment - a new "gig" economy? Is there a need to fix the existing supply chain? or Both?

The tactics to get PPE into the hands of healthcare professionals also continue to evolve day-to-day. Strongly influenced by government policy (CDC, FDA, US Customs, FEMA, and Chinese Government).
There are reports by several States including and healthcare systems that shipments of ventilators and protective gowns, gloves, and masks are being intercepted and diverted without explanations.

 

[Administrator]

Why is SARS-CoV-2 so contagious?

May 1, 2020

SARS-CoV-2 is super contagious, and researchers don’t yet know all the reasons why. But by comparing this new virus to the similar one that causes SARS, we’ve found a lot of promising leads that could help us figure out how to beat this thing.

 

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Here’s how criminals exploit COVID-19 for profit

May 3, 2020

Neil Walsh, head of the UN Office of Drugs and Crime, explains the biggest scams tricks used by cybercriminals and hackers to make money from the coronavirus pandemic.