Covid-19
In Future Human. More on Medium.
Doing so may be the only chance of ending the pandemic
On one side are the leaders of 57 nations, the Pope, and a coalition of nursing unions all over the world. On the other are the executives of the world’s biggest pharmaceutical corporations. At issue is an idea that may be the only chance of ending the Covid-19 pandemic — and also takes aim at the drug industry’s core business model.
The dividing question: Should Covid-19 vaccines remain the intellectual property of drug companies?
In October 2020, India and South Africa submitted a petition asking that the World Trade Organization waive the intellectual property rules relating to Covid-19 that currently…
Preliminary research shows emissions dropped by more than 10%
Greenhouse gas emissions dropped by more than 10% in the U.S. in 2020 due to efforts to mitigate the spread of Covid-19, according to a preliminary report published by the independent research company Rhodium Group on Tuesday.
It was the single largest drop in annual emissions in the post-World War II era, the group reports. And, they say, the global shutdowns brought global emissions levels below 1990 levels for the first time.
“2020 was an unusual year — in more ways than we can count — with lives upended by a global pandemic and its economic fallout,” the group says…
The dismal planning failures can’t be repeated if we want to survive on this planet
In March, global emissions dropped as a result of Covid-19 shutdown orders. Carbon emissions dropped by as much as 17% in some countries, scientists reported, because so many of us weren’t on the road. People celebrated clear skies in normally smog-filled cities like Los Angeles and Beijing. Some claimed the planet was healing itself.
At the time, I wondered: Was this a temporary blip or something that could actually change our approach to climate change in the future? …
Glimpse of the Future
A skin-like device listens for coughs to catch early signs of Covid-19
Every week, Future Human’s Glimpse of the Future brings you an image of the science being deployed to solve the world’s pressing problems.
This flexible wireless sensor is designed to be worn just below the suprasternal notch — the dent at the base of the throat — to track symptoms of Covid-19. Developed by researchers at Northwestern University and the Shirley Ryan AbilityLab in Chicago, it continuously measures and interprets body temperature, heart rate, and respiratory activity, including coughing.
Many conventional wearable devices, like the Fitbit or Oura smart ring, also measure body temperature and heart rate but do so…
But there’s still a long way to go before UV-blasting devices hit the mainstream
San Antonio International Airport recently welcomed a new employee: a wheelchair-sized robot called the LightStrike that zaps the coronavirus and other pathogens with ultraviolet light. As the Washington Post reported on Tuesday, the $125,000 LightStrike spits out pulsating bursts of UV light while a human operator wheels it around the airport. Any SARS-CoV-2 particle lurking within a seven-foot radius of this thing is donezo, according to Xenex, the robot’s manufacturer.
Other airports, suffering from reduced business during the pandemic, are reportedly considering getting in on the LightStrike action. But don’t expect virus-zapping robots to hit the mainstream sanitation market just…
Glimpse of the Future
The tiny structures mimic Covid-19 infection in patients
Every week, Future Human’s Glimpse of the Future brings you an image of the science being deployed to solve the world’s pressing problems.
These balloon-like structures are actually miniature lungs made of living tissues that “breathe” like the real thing. Known as lung organoids, they mimic the tiny air sacs of the lungs, called alveoli — where coronavirus infection and serious lung damage occur. They measure just a fraction of a millimeter in diameter.
To make them, researchers at Duke University started with lung stem cells and fed them a cocktail of nutrients and growth factors until they grew into…
If approved, the companies’ Covid-19 vaccines would be the first of their kind
Last week, drugmaker Pfizer and German biotech partner BioNtech announced that their Covid-19 vaccine was more than 90% effective in a clinical trial, sparking hope that an end to the pandemic may soon be achievable. More good news came this week, with an announcement from Massachusetts-based biotech firm Moderna that its vaccine was 94.5% effective. Not to be outdone, Pfizer released more data on Wednesday, showing 95% efficacy.
Stocks of the companies soared on the news. Anthony Fauci, MD, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, called the results “very impressive” and said 20 million Americans could…
THE COLOR OF CLIMATE
Researchers are empowering residents to advocate for better protection by providing them with hyper-local health data
This is The Color of Climate, a weekly column from Future Human exploring how climate change and other environmental issues uniquely impact the future of communities of color.
Over 48,000 people have died of the novel coronavirus in Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, and Texas — the five states that make up the Gulf Coast. That’s 20% of the over 234,000 people who’ve died across the country. In all of those states, Black people have had either the highest or second-highest coronavirus death rate in these states, according to APM Research Lab. …
A completely artificial immune system quickly pumps out much-needed antibodies
In the early stages of the Covid-19 outbreak, Maker communities around the globe fired up their 3D printers to come to the aid of overburdened hospitals and first responders. Individuals and groups of amateurs and experts alike created 3D-printed face shields, masks, and ventilators. In labs, tissue engineers printed organs like lungs and blood vessels to study the devastating effects of the disease.
Meanwhile, in San Francisco, one group of scientists pushed 3D printing technology to the limit: They synthesized an entire functional immune system. Researchers at the biotech company Prellis Biologics have developed a fully synthetic system of 3D-printed…
Scientists are finding that fields of crops might be easier to manage than vats of cells
Most pharmaceutical companies currently pursuing a coronavirus vaccine are doing so with bioreactors — large, metal, temperature-controlled tanks holding millions of cells that are engineered to pump out viral bits that can protect people from Covid-19. But a few companies designing these vaccines are approaching their production differently. When they generate vaccine candidates, their scientists will tend to a bed of plants.
If all goes to plan, each rounded leaf sprouting from the bright green crops will fill up with proteins that elicit Covid-19 immunity, once extracted and packaged into a shot. These so-called plant-based vaccines are the product of…
