European Countries Begin Exploring Covid Vaccination Passports

Don't leave home without it...Literally. JL

Heather Stewart reports in The Guardian:

The UK government is exploring the idea of documentation that would allow travellers to prove they have been vaccinated against coronavirus. Denmark and Sweden are already working on plans for some form of digital certification for vaccination, and discussions are under way about an EU-wide certification scheme. Greece is among the holiday hotspots that have suggested they would be willing to welcome tourists if they can show they have been inoculated.

Amazon To Use AI-Powered Cameras To Monitor Its Drivers

Amazon has become infamous for going to any length to collect data with which it can monitor customers and employees. 

The AI-powered cameras in its vans have drawn criticism both because of their intrusiveness for workforce members and because they can film the people and neighborhoods in which the vans operate while there are no restrictions on what Amazon is allowed to do with the images and data it collects. JL

Avi Ascher-Schapiro reports in Reuters:

Amazon's announcement that it would be rolling out AI-powered cameras in it delivery vans for safety has drawn criticism.There are no laws in place to limit what Amazon can do with the footage they collect. Other surveillance products, such as Amazon's Ring doorbell, can share footage with police departments. "Amazon is building mobile surveillance to film neighborhoods, something we would be horrified about if government did it. We dont want to join dystopia prime. The first thing Amazon should do to improve safety would be not have such outrageous delivery quotas that force people into unsafe conditions. "

Why 23andMe is Going Public To Switch From Genetics To Healthcare

23andMe is trying transition away from its genetic testing business, which is slowing, due in part to concerns about what is being done with the data it collects. 

The company - and Branson's special purpose acquisition company - believe it has a brighter future as a healthcare data collector and possibly, in the future, provider. For instance, Covid testing increasingly relies on spit analysis similar to that 23andMe employs. That is even though the new business strategy raises greater concerns about the sanctity of the personal health data it hopes to collect. JL

Alistair MacDonald and Amy Marcus report in the Wall Street Journal:

23andMe is the latest making (its) public-market debut through special-purpose acquisition companies, also known as blank-check companies, raising cash without a business. The deal would help fund 23andMe’s transition away from the slowing consumer DNA-testing market toward the more lucrative health market. With a database of 10 million customers, the company can leverage existing customers, such as the 1.7 million in the database with high cholesterol, 1.6 million with depression and 539,000 with Type 2 diabetes, to ask research questions and identify people to participate in clinical trials.

The Reason Uber Is Acquiring Wine, Liquor Deliverer Drizly

The pandemic has convinced Uber that delivery will play a significant role in its future, especially given the number of people who may continue to work remotely even after most people are vaccinated. 

In addition to building up its Uber Eats business, the company acquired another delivery firm, Postmates. Drizly adds another dimension by providing wine, beer and alcohol options to its customers. It can use the same technology and alcohol margins have always been higher than food. JL

Blake Gray reports in Wine Business:

Drizly has been popular with liquor shops, which have gained incremental business. Drizly helped stores set up web pages and manages sales and delivery. Drizly sales were up 350% in November 2020 compared. Wine made up 38% of sales. Liquor was 41%. Merchants on Drizly will benefit from Uber’s routing technology and consumer base. "Drizly has been strategic, their business model enables local delivery from local, licensed alcohol retailers. They could be three-tier compliant, but offer convenience." Uber (has continued) to grow its food-delivery business by buying Postmates last year.

Worried People Seeking Covid Vaccinations Often Cross State Lines To Get Them

Many people, especially Americans, are traveling great distances and crossing state lines in order to get Covid vaccines. 

States like Florida, which initially had no restrictions are now imposing residency requirements as its citizens became frustrated by the flood of 'vaccine tourists' bumping locals to the back of the line. But given the ultimate goal of getting as many humans vaccinated as possible, some experts are saying that whoever wants one should get one, especially given the threat posed by those claiming they dont want to be vaccinated. JL

Simon Romero and colleagues report in the New York Times:

Thousands of Americans are crossing state lines on quests for doses. The scramble to get inoculated has turned attention to the patchwork of vaccination rules devised by states, given a lack of national, standardized protocols. “The federal government has created this ‘Hunger Games’ scenario." In Ohio, 21,501 shots went to residents from elsewhere. Florida has reported 57,000 people who live in another state have gotten shots. In Mississippi, 5,300 people from out of state have received vaccine. "But the ultimate goal of this process is to get as many people immunized as possible.”

Data Reveal Pandemic Remote Work Means Longer Hours, Weekends

People working remotely work longer days during the week and more frequently on weekends. Workers with children work longer hours than those without, men work longer hours than women and people under 40 work longer hours than those over 40. 

These results reflect longer term trends driven primarily by technology and the 24-7 ubiquity of digital communication. The question is to what degree these changes will persist once the pandemic is over. JL

Roy Maurer reports in the Society For Human Resource Management:

70% of professionals who transitioned to remote work because of the pandemic say they now work on the weekends, and 45% say they work more hours during the week than they did before. The average workday lengthened by 48.5 minutes. Working parents were more likely to work weekends and more than eight hours per day than those without children. Men were more likely to report working on weekends and 40-plus hour workweeks. Workers under the age of 40 said they work weekends and more than eight hours per day than those older than 40.

How Tech-Savvy Volunteers Are Helping Seniors Book Covid Vaccinations

The absence of an easy-to-use national registration system for vaccine sign-ups has left many vulnerable seniors without the skills - or some in cases, the high-speed digital connections - to get vaccinated. 

So an army of volunteers has sprung up to help. JL

The Associated Press reports:

A 120-member volunteer force helps (those) 65 and older clear the hurdles of state-run registration systems that are poorly organized and rely on technology often like a foreign language to them. The problem has emerged in numerous states, where the absence of a streamlined national system has forced local governments to cobble together a puzzling patchwork of vaccine distribution plans. Volunteering has turned into a full-time job for some as they toggle back and forth between the online registration platforms of hospitals, grocery stores and county governments; check on state vaccination supplies and make repeated calls to overloaded hotlines.

Pandemic Pals: People In Quarantine Are Befriending Their Roombas

It's utilitarian at a time when people are more focused on cleaning than they used to be. It can be talked to like Siri or Alexa. But it's non-threatening: no one believes it's listening in and reporting your intimate conversations to Mark Zuckerberg.  All of which may make it the perfect pandemic pal. JL

Rob Walker reports in Medium:

No one predicted the robot vacuum would become the hot seller of the pandemic. People have given their Roombas names and formed subtle attachments to the devices. Some users “genuinely worry about their Roombas, as if they were living pets.” It can be hard to take the Roomba seriously as a triumphant tech product, because it resembles nobody’s vision of the future. It is not sexily powerful; it is not appealingly beneficent; it is not darkly sinister. It’s neither utopian nor dystopian, connotes neither Rosie from The Jetsons nor HAL from 2001.

Which Covid Data Numbers Really Matter

All data is better than nothing. But some data are better than others. JL

Caroline Nyce reports in The Atlantic:

Today's cases represent people who were exposed a week or two ago. Weekly trends provide a more accurate picture than any single day's count. Watch out for data lags: Each state has their own reporting cadence: some report daily, and some take weekends off. As a result, numbers can have a day-of-the-week effect. Hospitalizations are more stable than case numbers. Test positivity rates are easily skewed: factors like viral prevalence (how many infections there are), testing utilization (who is getting tested), and varying units (the number of people tested or raw tests) can make this metric very difficult to interpret

Why the EU's Vaccination Program Is In Chaos

It's hard enough for one country to get it right - as the US and UK have demonstrated abundantly. Then try getting 27 to agree on everything from vaccine manufacturers to contract negotiations to distribution. 

The biggest contributing factor may have been a Euro-centric approach to vaccine approval and producer indemnification. The EU claims it needed to be cautious because there are so many covid and vaccine skeptics there, but they are paying for that approach now. JL

Annabelle Timsit reports in Quartz:

3% of people living in the EU have received a dose of Covid-19 vaccine, compared to 15% in the UK and 10% in the US. As pharmaceutical firms face production delays that are leading to shortages around the world, the EU’s attempts to negotiate as a bloc, meet the needs of 27 countries, and play hardball with the pharmaceutical industry led to months of delay that are costing Europeans dearly today. The EU was also slow in approving vaccine candidates (because) there is a substantial amount of misinformation and vaccine skepticism across Europe, and officials worry about appearing to rush the process.

What Novavax, Johnson and Johnson Covid Vaccines Add to Ending Pandemic

The world needs as many vaccine doses as it can produce. Having two more options will help achieve this goal.

As an added benefit, both of these can be stored in normal refrigerators making them less expensive and more easily applicable everywhere in the world. JL

Sarah Pitt reports in The Conversation:

While millions have been given a jab, billions still need to be vaccinated. We need to produce as many doses as we can. J&J's phase 3 trial started in November 2020, meaning the vaccine came up against some of the new, tougher variants of the coronavirus during testing. The vaccine reduced the risk severe of disease by 85%. Novavax's estimated efficacy is 89%. We need vaccines to help get the pandemic under control in the short term, and the more options we have, the faster we can move towards this. These two can be stored in a normal fridge so, unlike some vaccines, they could be used anywhere in the world.

Why Those Getting Most Out Of AI Have Humans and AI Learn From Each Other

Data reveal that organizations optimize the impact of artificial intelligence by focusing not just on machine learning but on organizational learning. 

Doing so significantly increases positive, sustainable results from implementation. Such organizations only scale AI solutions once they have proven financial benefits. JL

Sam Ransbotham and colleagues report in MIT Sloan Management Review:

Only 10% of companies obtain significant financial benefits from artificial intelligence technologies. With organizational learning, the odds of an organization reporting significant financial benefits increase to 73%. Successful companies change processes; their strategic focus is organizational learning, not just machine learning. Leaders set up a “business problem-solving team” rather than an “AI team.” 80% assemble teams from multiple functional areas and use feedback to evolve solutions from the original design during subsequent development. (They) scale AI solutions only after they prove their positive financial impact.

Google Installs Heart and Respiratory Tracking To Android Phones

The pandemic has meant that tracking personal medical issues may become more common and lead to better health. JL

Richard Nieva reports CNET:

The new features measure a person's respiratory rate and heart rate using their phone's camera. The respiratory tool works like a person taking a selfie. While posed in front of the camera, the software measures breathing by detecting small movements of the chest. Google said it tested the features with people from different backgrounds, health statuses and skin tones.

How A New AI Learns Continuously From Its Experience

The key is not more complexity, but more simplicity, which enables greater adaptability. JL

Jason Dorrier reports in Singularity Hub:

In a new machine learning approach, engineers did away with the human brain and all its beautiful complexity—turning instead to the brain of a lowly worm for inspiration.Whereas most machine learning algorithms can’t hone their skills beyond an initial training period, the researchers say the new approach, has a “neuroplasticity.” That is, as it goes about its work it can learn from experience and adjust its connections on the fly. Simplicity has its benefits. The resulting neural network is efficient, transparent, and it’s a lifelong learner.

The Next Major Cyberattack Is Already Under Way

Data is money. The attacks will never stop as long as that is the case. Which is to say, they will never stop. JL

Jill Lepore reports in The New Yorker:

The recklessness of the people who have been buying and selling the vulnerability of the rest of us is not just part of an intelligence-agency game; it has been the ethos of Wall Street and Silicon Valley for decades. Move fast and break things; the money will trickle down; click, click, click, click, buy, buy, buy, like, like, like, like, expose, expose, expose. This raises the question of the horse’s whereabouts relative to the barn. If you listen, you can hear the thunder of hooves.

To Almost Everyone's Surprise, the Russian Covid Vaccine Appears To Be Effective

Despite their reputation for chronic cheating on medical issues like sports doping and concerns about the lack of transparency as well as apparent ignorance of safeguards inherent in the efforts of other vaccine makers, the Russian Sputnik V vaccine appears to work. 

This matters because it is inexpensive and the world needs as many vaccines as possible to halt the pandemic. JL

Andrew Kramer reports in the New York Times:

Russia drew criticism from Western experts when it approved the vaccine for emergency use in August — before late-stage trials had even begun. (It) cleared a hurdle in its vaccine rollout with the publication in the British medical journal The Lancet of late-stage trial results showing the country’s Sputnik V vaccine is safe and highly effective. The vaccine had an efficacy rate of 91.6% against the virus and was completely protective against severe forms of Covid-19. "The Sputnik V vaccine has been criticized for unseemly haste, corner cutting, and an absence of transparency, but the outcome reported here is clear."

Are Big Tech Companies So Powerful They've Outgrown Their Founders?

Bill. Steve. Sergei and Larry. Travis (Kalanick, of Uber, for those who've already forgotten). And now Jeff. 

Most of the big tech founders have gone on to pursue their 'passions.' Leaving Mark Zuckerberg as the only remaining big tech founder whose passion appears to remain both threatening and aggravating the rest of the non-Zuck world. Reed Hastings also remains co-CEO at Netflix but he's always been under the radar compared to his tech confreres. And the reality is, all of these companies have done just fine when their founders leave, because they're just too big and powerful not to. JL

Peter Kafka reports in Re/code:

Once one of these companies attains a certain size and status, it’s very, very hard for the company and its founder to keep that single-mindedness. More importantly: They probably don’t have to. Even though these massively successful companies have grown way beyond their humble roots, they continue to win because they keep the focus and ferocity they had at the beginning. Most of Big Tech has become so Big and entrenched that it no longer needs the men who made it.

There Are Now 4,000 Covid Variants. And Counting

Only a few will enhance the spread or lethality of the virus. But then, as the world has learned the hard way, it only takes one. JL

Guy Falconbridge and Alistair Smout report in Reuters:

The world faces 4,000 variants of the virus that causes COVID-19, prompting a race to improve vaccines. Variants have been documented as the virus mutates, including the so-called British, South African and Brazilian variants which appear to spread more swiftly than others. While thousands of variants have arisen as the virus mutates on replication, only a very small minority are likely to be important and to change the virus in an appreciable way

AstraZeneca's One Dose Cuts Covid Danger 67 Percent. That's Very Good News

For all its problems relative to the competition - testing issues, efficacy, manufacturing - the Oxford/Astra Zeneca vaccine is a useful and much needed addition to a world desperately short of them, especially as new, more powerful variants emerge. 

The more people who can be vaccinated with over 50% protection - the WHO standard - the sooner the infection rate will begin to decline. JL

Ian Sample reports in The Guardian:

One dose of the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine provides sustained protection against Covid for at least three months and cuts transmission of the virus by two-thirds. Analysis of fresh data from three trials found that the first shot conferred on average 76% protection against symptomatic infections from three weeks until 90 days, and reduced transmission of the disease by 67%. The findings would reassure that prioritising vulnerable people for a first shot of the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine is a sound strategy.

Does Bezos' Successor Mean Amazon's Future Is the Cloud?

Amazon faces significant business challenges in its core ecommerce business: antitrust action in the US and Europe, stronger unionization efforts and growing public concern about its power over the global economy. 

It's cloud business - AWS - has been less obtrusive, but no less important in terms of profit generation and future growth. Ecommerce will not fade away, but in the context of global competition, Bezos' choice of a successor signals that the greatest opportunities may lie in its cloud services. JL

Lauren Goode reports in Wired:

AWS became Amazon’s main profit driver. Amazon figured out that infusing its cloud service with machine learning tools might give it a leg up on rivals Microsoft, Google, and IBM. In 2016, AWS released new machine learning services that allowed AWS customers to build their own mini-Alexas. It also launched a new cloud-based computer-vision service. Both are a “powerful revenue generator and a key to Amazon’s AI flywheel, as customers pay to get their machine learning from Amazon.”Jassy’s transition into the CEO role signals that AWS is going to become even more important than it already is.

25 Percent Of Those Vaccinated In NYC Don't Live or Work There

There is confusion about who is essential and how many people who work in the city but live elsewhere are eligible. Florida, notorious locales for vaccine tourism, has tightened its requirements. 

This is proving to be an issue across the country as those with financial means and the tech skills find ways to get vaccinated while many needier local inhabitants have to wait. JL

Grace Dean reports in Business Insider:

More than 25% of people vaccinated in New York City don't actually live there. Under the city's vaccine guidelines, essential workers, including healthcare staff, grocery workers, public transit staff, elderly and vulnerable residents, are eligible for the shot. This includes essential workers who work in New York City but live elsewhere. Most of those getting the vaccine without living in the city were from elsewhere in New York State. But 7% of people getting the jab in the city were from New Jersey. "We can't have so many people from upstate, Long Island, New Jersey, Connecticut taking vaccine slots here."

2 Million Downloaded the Robinhood App During GameStop Frenzy

Wall Street has always argued that restrictive rules are for losers and thwart natural economic activity. Until, of course, the lack of rules starts hurting hedge funds and private equity firms. JL

Cat Zakrzewski reports in the Washington Post:

2.1 million people downloaded the app during the week of Jan. 25. That’s a 400% increase in downloads from just a week earlier. The recent frenzy around GameStop and stocks of other struggling companies has raised questions about whether Washington has paid enough attention to how the Internet is transforming U.S. investing. The role technology has played in democratizing finance can negatively affect and expose more people to risky financial moves. And as the controversy drives more retail investors to trading apps, the stakes are only growing.

We Know Covid Is Airborne. Why Are People Still Scrubbing Surfaces?

Part of the reason is psychological; people feel helpless in the face of an unseen threat. Cleaning surfaces gives them something physical to do, however ineffective it may be. 

The larger issue is that, just as uncertainty about the benefit of masks caused many to avoid or refuse to wear them, even after research about their effectiveness changed, so early advice about the benefits of cleaning are hard to unlearn. But the problem with that is that it diverts attention from ventilation and airborne transmission which is the leading cause of new infections. JL

Nature reports:

A year into the pandemic, the evidence is clear. The coronavirus is transmitted through the air, by people talking and breathing out large droplets and small particles. Catching the virus from surfaces seems to be rare. Despite this, some public-health agencies still emphasize that surfaces pose a threat and should be disinfected frequently. People and organizations continue to prioritize costly disinfection efforts, when they could be putting more resources into emphasizing the importance of masks, and investigating measures to improve ventilation.

Leadership Lessons From 2020

Learn. Adapt. Grow. Those are useful actions in any era, but the pandemic and the recession it has caused have given leaders and investors added impetus to apply them. 

But what Covid and the varied response of peoples, organizations and governments to the challenges it has created has also taught is that doing so with humility - given how much we didn't know, still don't and may never - may be the best way to optimize results in a difficult environment. JL

Ally MacDonald reports in MIT Sloan Management Review:

The future of work is upon us. Relative stability post-WWII is ceding to a period of increased turbulence. Leaders need to rethink their assumptions about constancy; build adaptive capacity, robustness, and resilience. Managers need to make sure that people update their understanding of shifts in technology, markets, customers, and competitive moves. 2020 showed that it is urgent and necessary, not just desirable, to humanize leadership.This pandemic demands that you go beyond what you should be doing to what you could be doing. It’s not about an individual aha moment. It’s about collective genius.

Is AI That Corrects Medical Records A Good Idea?

Even if information has to be approved by a physician before being added to a patient's medical record, it is prudent to assume that, especially under conditions such as the current pandemic, a tired or stressed physician could permit evaluations that arent appropriately vetted. 

Without oversight from third parties with legal authority to mandate reviews and changes, the potential for mistakes or abuse remains high. JL

Kyle Wiggers reports in Venture Beat:

Health care organizations’ analytics might lead to a 25% reduction in annual costs in coming years. Better diagnosis and disease predictions, enabled by AI, can lead to cost reduction by decreasing hospital readmission rates. A product analyzes doctors’ notes and lab results to diagnose patients and writes diagnoses, including billing data, back into the medical record. Analysis reviews patient data to determine where diagnoses and documentation might be missing. Algorithms monitor patients, providing physicians with “data-driven” notes. All information must be approved by the physician before it can be added into the medical record.

The Reason the 2nd Covid Vaccine Shot Feels Worse

The human body as already adapted to the vaccine and its natural defenses take the stimulus from the second shot as a signal to look for any evidence of the virus, blasting suspect areas. This can result in reactions such as headaches and fever. JL

Katherine Wu reports in The Atlantic:

Dose No. 2 is more likely to pack a punch, in large part because the effects of the second shot build iteratively on the first. When hit with the second injection, the immune system recognizes the onslaught, and takes it even more seriously. “By the second vaccine, it’s amped up.” These cells clobber anything that looks a little weird. Stimulated anew, sentinel cells blast out cytokines, layering on an extra wave of inflammation. In some people, reactions manifest in fevers, aches, and exhaustion. The body’s encore act, uncomfortable though it might be, is evidence the immune system is solidifying its defenses against the virus.

Facial Recognition Systems Probably Used Millions of Smartphone Photos

It seemed to many researchers a means of advancing an important new technology. 

As for users' permission, well, the big tech companies had long ago dispensed with that formality. Now it may be coming back to haunt them. JL

Cade Metz and Kashmir Hill report in the New York Times:

Companies, universities and government labs have used millions of images collected from a hodgepodge of online sources to develop the technology. A.I. researchers at universities and tech companies began gathering digital photos from a variety of sources, including photo-sharing services, social networks, dating sites and cameras installed on college quads. They shared those photos with others. Now, researchers have built an online tool, Exposing.AI, that lets people search many of these image collections for their old photos.

Pharmacies and Supermarkets Will Take Major Covid Vaccination Role

Hospitals are overburdened caring for Covid patients in addition to their normal load so have neither the personnel nor the budget to manage inoculation. 

Standalone retail pharmacies as well as those inside large supermarket chains have the logistical expertise and experience to take some of the burden off state and local governments, which could speed up and better organize the vaccination process. JL

Sharon Terlep, Jaewon Kang report in the Wall Street Journal:

The job of vaccinating large swaths of the population will fall on retail pharmacies, with companies such as CVS, Walgreen's, Walmart and Kroger saying they are prepared to give tens of millions of shots a month. Hospitals and health systems, already overwhelmed by treating coronavirus patients, can’t also bear the brunt of vaccinations. Pharmacies are well-positioned to play a major role in Covid-19 vaccination efforts because they are among the most-accessible health-care providers for many Americans who pick up medication from local supermarkets or drugstores.  "We've got to increase access points."

Why the Messaging About the Need For Covid Vaccination Is Dead Wrong

Current messaging around the benefit of Covid vaccines focuses on their reduction in transmission, rather than on the fact that the more people who are vaccinated, the fewer the mutating variants and the fewer people who may die. 

The hesitation to deliver a strong message is reminiscent of the initial reluctance to recommend masks, which ultimately did incalculable damage and added to the number of infected and dead. There is no room for uncertainty in the need for vaccination, especially as more powerful mutations from South Africa, Brazil and elsewhere appear. JL

Bryan Walsh reports in Axios:

Much of the messaging around the vaccines emphasizes uncertainty about their effect on transmission as opposed to disease and death. It also pushes the idea that even after they've gotten all their shots, they have to keep wearing masks and social distancing afterward. The problems around vaccine messaging are reminiscent of the confusion around masks at the start of the pandemic, when medical experts, out of concern they would be misused, initially discouraged their use. That mistake worsened the pandemic and did lasting damage to public trust in science. Americans need a clear message about the public and personal benefit of vaccination.

How AI Can Make Medical Assessments More Accurate

Much of the data used in medical diagnoses is inherently biased on the basis of gender, race and other factors. When that is fed into technologically-based assessments, the inaccuracies self perpetuate. 

Training AI on data that has been updated to put health professionals' scoring methods in perspective rather than accepting them as the baseline can increase accuracy by reducing the impact of historical methods. JL

Karen Hao reports in MIT Technology Review:

With a health-care system already riddled with disparities, sloppy applications of deep learning could make that worse. The key is to stop training algorithms to match human expert performance. (An) algorithm revealed that the standard way of measuring pain is flawed. The medical community investigated which radiographic markers the algorithm might be seeing, and updated their scoring methodology. If algorithms are only trained to match expert performance, they will  perpetuate existing gaps and inequities.

What Comes After Covid? The Transition From Bits To Atoms

To continue to be transformational, innovation is becoming increasingly multicultural, multi-disciplinary, cross-functional and collaborative. JL

Greg Satell reports in Digital Tonto:

We created a simulation economy. Today we’re doing similar things at the molecular level. Digital technology combined with synthetic biology to quickly sequence the Covid-19 virus. These technologies then allowed scientists to design vaccines  and bring them to market in less than a year. It’s no accident that Zoom has become the killer app of the pandemic. The challenges over the next decade will be too complex for one organization to tackle alone. That’s why collaboration is becoming the new competitive advantage. Power will reside not at the top of hierarchies, but at the center of networks and ecosystems.

How To Redesign Covid Vaccines So They Protect Against Variants

Vaccine makers are already studying whether and how their vaccines could or should be updated. 

The general thinking is that given the rapid spread of variants some sort of update will become common and that booster shots may eventually be recommended. JL

Ewen Callaway and Heidi Ledford report in Nature:

The best and most immediate way to combat the threat of emerging variants is still probably to quickly vaccinate as many people as possible with current shots. One possibility is to swap vaccines’ old versions of the spike protein for an updated molecule that has the specific amino-acid changes that hinder antibody responses. (Another is) COVID vaccine updates could follow seasonal flu vaccines. Researchers use studies with antibodies to determine whether a new flu strain is likely to evade a previous season’s vaccine. Reviews are conducted annually for each hemisphere’s flu season.

The Reason Xi Jinping Believes Chinese Entrepreneurs Are A Threat

Entrepreneurs, especially in tech,  became too wealthy, too successful, too independent - and too well-respected - posing a potential threat to the power of the Chinese government. 

A course correction to limit their influence has now begun. JL

John Pomfret reports in The Atlantic:

Xi has long feared that the private sector could serve as a separate locus of power in China. In the past, private businesses were small. But by the early 2000s, they had begun competing with state-owned monopolies. The difficulties faced by capitalist countries, especially the US, strengthened the argument that peaceful evolution into a more open society and economy, with independent poles of political power, would be a recipe for disaster, for the party and for China. Entrepreneurs were now painted as a potential fifth column. Control needed to be reasserted over them and their capital.

Microsoft Patents Chatbot Based on Dead Peoples' Online Habits

And who would own the dead person's data on whose online habits the chatbot would be based: to say nothing of who would own and be able to sell the information of anyone who communicated with such dead chatbot? 

No, not you. The implications, as we are coming out of a pandemic expected to kill half a million Americans by next week is as ghoulish as it is tasteless. JL 

Timothy Geigner reports in Tech Dirt:

“The specific person [who the chat bot represents] may correspond to a past or present entity (or a version thereof), such as a friend, a relative, an acquaintance, a celebrity, a fictional character, a historical figure, a random entity etc”, it goes on to say. The patent also lays out how the use of a deceased person's image could be used to create a 3D model of the departed, allowing for the construction of not just a "chatbot", but one that uses images of a person to make the interaction with others more... personable. The idea that you would be able to speak to a simulation of someone who has passed on.

On Becoming A Member Of the Vaccinated Class

Those who have received the vaccine in the US, tend to be whiter and wealthier. 

The overarching question is whether proof of vaccination will continue to connote privilege, and if so, for how long. JL 

Jonah Bromwich reports in the New York Times:

The coronavirus vaccine wasn’t supposed to be a golden ticket. But scattershot distribution of the limited supply now threatens to create a new social class. The vaccinated class is and will remain a relatively small portion of the population during the first half of 2021.A leisure class of the newly vaccinated will mean that hotels, catering services and other businesses will employ bartenders, servers and other staff who are also vaccinated. A vaccination will represent not only safety from the virus but also, for some, a leg up in the job market. Dating app companies confirmed that vaccination has become a hot topic.

How Covid Masks Block Understanding of Emotion

Masks that cover the bottom half of human faces make it harder to recognize and understand emotions, which may make the physical return to organizational workplaces more challenging. 

Happiness, sadness and anger are difficult to ascertain when the subject is wearing a mask, though fear is readily recognizable. While many are working remotely and can safely reveal their faces, as more people are vaccinated and return to the workplace, successful enterprises recognize the psychology of rebuilding interpersonal and team culture may require additional training and effort. JL 

Robert Hotz reports in the Wall Street Journal:

While a public health necessity, masks challenge understanding facial expressions, confusing ability to distinguish disgust from anger or happiness from indifference. Scientists worry about the implications for (those) who may lag in learning to recognize subtle facial signals of anger, fear, doubt, delight and sorrow. Laboratory experiments in Frontiers in Psychology, found people confused expressions when the lower part of the face was blocked by a mask. Happiness and sadness seemed neutral. Signs of anger were especially hard to perceive. Fear, though, came through clearly.

Volunteers Build 1-Stop Website To Find NYC Covid Vaccine Appointments

With local governments either unable (budget and talent deficits) or unwilling (ideological and political opposition) to provide easily navigable online sites to help people sign up for Covid vaccinations, volunteers are starting to do so, with New York City being one of the first. JL

Nicole Wetsman reports in The Verge:

Local health departments and hospitals are struggling put the limited shots they have available in arms, and people eligible for those shots are often frustrated by buggy sign-up websites. Older adults, in particular, are having trouble with online tools. In New York City, the city, the state, and various hospital groups  are distributing the vaccine across dozens of sites. (A) software developer reached out to friends to build a platform to pull every open vaccine appointment into one, easy-to-use site. Right now, it pulls in vaccine appointments from around 40 locations.

The Reason Europe's Vaccine Roll-out Has Been So Problematic

As the US experience reveals, getting agreement in one country is hard enough. Getting 27 member countries to agree is maddening. 

Aside from the chaos of competing health regimens, philosophies and budgets, the EU hoped for a European vaccine, which has yet to materialize and its investment in the AstraZeneca model created problems due, in part, to Brexit. The Union was also cautious about how much money to invest and was late to agreements with those companies that were clearly leaders even though it could be argued the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine was primarily European. Such small-minded regional thinking is dangerous when facing a global problem. JL 

Lauren Chadwick reports in EuroNews:

The European Union was slower to approve the first coronavirus vaccines than the UK and the US. The European regulator requires input from every member state (and) under the EU process, the drugmaker will be held liable if anything with the vaccine goes wrong. (Plus) "We wanted to invest in a diversified portfolio of different companies using different technologies because we were not sure which vaccine would be successful. The right thing to do was to throw money at the problem and make sure that we got enough of the vaccines that were actually useable in the time frame that they were needed. And that wasn’t done,"

The Politicization of Unhappiness

The pandemic is merely the latest - and most obvious - manifestation of growing unhappiness and the related belief that whatever might cure that condition is a political right to which the aggrieved have come to believe they are entitled. 

The question is whether government is really organized, structured and funded to do anything about most of these problems. JL

Ronald Dworkin reports in National Affairs:

23% of Americans claim to be unhappy. This represents the highest figure on record since 1972. In this era, life's annoyances and discomforts form the ever-present baseline. Then come the ills of life that are more structural and have worsened over time. There is the mass loneliness problem, which affects 60% of Americans. There is the marriage problem, as some women drawn into the workforce have difficulty finding compatible men. Whatever unhappiness Americans feel in their private lives has spilled over into the public realm.

The Reason Facebook's Oversight Board Has Already Failed To Limit Misinformation

It's decisions in the cases already rendered suggest that freedom of speech is the primary factor in its decisions rather than truth or harm. It is the social media equivalent of green or white washing, giving the company cover to double down on its engagement-driven business model. JL

Roger McNamee and Marie Ressa comment in Time:

Facebook’s strategy appears to be alignment with winners and are using the Facebook group of companies to incite violence and spread disinformation. Cases are heard in private, by a hand-picked, paid board which reports findings back to Facebook for action. It gives the appearance of oversight, but the process is ultimately controlled by Facebook itself. The Oversight Board will provide cover for Facebook to do what it wants to do. Self-regulation has failed, and governments can no longer shirk responsibility for protecting citizens from harmful technology platforms.

Robinhood's Biggest Customer Is A Huge Hedge Fund. It's Users' Data Is the Product

So much for robbing the rich to give to the poor. JL

Edward Ongweso reports in Motherboard:

Robinhood makes money by selling users’ trades to other large firms before they’re executed. Those firms make money by seeing what the retail investors on Robinhood are going to do before they actually do it, and acting accordingly, buying information that then informs their own trades.The reality is that it's actually helping preserve the status quo by turning its customers (but more so their orders into product. It's called payment for order flow.

Why the US Invested More In Covid Vaccines Than Therapeutic Drugs

Drug development typically takes five to ten years. The government wanted immediate results, so focused on vaccines where the research was more advanced. 

There are still few therapies for Covid and the repurposing of existing drugs have been largely a failure. The question, now that vaccines are being distributed, is whether more of an effort will be made to develop drugs to help mitigate the impact of the virus for those who do contract it. JL

Carl Zimmer reports in the New York Times:

Doctors have few drugs to fight the virus. A handful of therapies, remdesivir, monoclonal antibodies and the steroid dexamethasone,  have improved the care of Covid patients, putting doctors in a better position than last spring. But these drugs are not cure-alls, they’re not for everyone, and efforts to repurpose other drugs, or discover new ones, have not had much success. The government poured $18.5 billion into vaccines, but in drugs, $8.2 billion. The lack of centralized coordination meant trials for Covid antivirals were  too small and poorly designed to provide useful data