Imagine, a few weeks or months from now, having a covid-19 test kit sent to your home. It’s small and portable, but pretty easy to figure out. You prick your finger as in a blood sugar test for diabetics, wait maybe 15 minutes, and bam—you now know whether or not you’re immune to coronavirus. If…
How many people have really been infected by the coronavirus? In one German town a preliminary answer is in: about 14%. The municipality of Gangelt, near the border with the Netherlands, was hard hit by covid-19 after a February carnival celebration drew thousands to the town, turning it into an accidental petri dish. You can read our most essential coverage of the coronavirus/covid-19...
In this episode of Radio Corona, on April 10 at 4 pm ET, Karen Hao, senior AI reporter of MIT Technology Review, speaks with Shion Lim, a postdoc research fellow at the Wells Lab of UCSF. They will be discussing prospects for diagnostics, treatment and prevention of covid-19. Lim studies antibody-based diagnostics and therapeutics, specifically how proteins on the surface of our cells are...
When it comes to predicting the spread of an infectious disease, it’s crucial to understand what Ryan Tibshirani, an associate professor at Carnegie Mellon University, calls the “the pyramid of severity.” The bottom of the pyramid is asymptomatic carriers (those who have the infection but feel fine); the next level is symptomatic carriers (those who are feeling ill); then come...
The US isn't ready to hold a vote during a pandemic. It needs to get there, quickly.