Official Coronavirus Non-Political Thread: Facts and Updates ⛑

Science & Technology
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UK coronavirus death toll rises to 29,427, becoming highest in Europe

The UK has recorded the highest death toll as a result of the Covid-19 coronavirus in Europe, with 29,427 having passed away after testing positive, Dominic Raab has said.

The figure is a 693 rise from Monday’s figure of 28,734, the first minister and foreign secretary added - leaving the UK’s recorded total higher than that of Italy, once the epicentre of the virus in Europe, for the first time.

However Mr Raab said the severity of the figure reflected the abilities of the nation to effectively record deaths in all settings – including in the community and in care homes – adding that the UK only appeared to be the worst effected country in Europe because it is a “world leader” in “collecting statistics”.

“I don’t think we’ll get a real verdict on how well countries have done until the pandemic is over and particularly until we’ve got comprehensive international data on all cause of mortality”, he added.

Mr Raab went on to note that as of 9am on Tuesday, there have been 1,383,842 tests in total after another 84,806 tests in the past 24 hours – once again falling below the government’s target to be conducting 100,000 tests for the virus on a daily basis.

It comes as the government begins to move towards easing lockdown measures across the country – with the prime minister due to outline his plans for the removal of social distancing measures later this week.

The foreign secretary said the next phase of the response to coronavirus would be to create a sustainable “new normal” which would protect the NHS but also safeguard the economy.

He told the Downing Street briefing: “As we consider the decisions that we will take next to protect life but also to protect our way of life, it’s now clear that the second phase will be different.

“We will need to adjust to a new normal where we as a society adapt to safe new ways to work, to travel, to interact and to go about our daily lives.

“We have never experienced anything like this first stage of Covid-19 in terms of the scale of the lives lost but also the lockdown it has required.

“As we go forward we want to make sure that the next phase is more comfortable, is more sustainable and prevents lasting damage to jobs and livelihoods.”

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Maybe, they should do what Sweden has done.

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Chinese snot and spit on benches and public places all over the EU, the UK, USA etc. utter evil cunts!

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Not all Chinese are created equal! :rofl:

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Apple, Google Detail Exposure Notifications That Will Come Through Their COVID-19 Contact Tracing System

Apple and Google have shared information about exposure notifications that will be a part of their contact tracing system to help people detect the spread of COVID-19. The new notification system will appear in various contact tracing apps using the technology designed by the tech giants. In addition to providing how exposure notifications will surface on phones, Apple and Google have released sample interface designs to show how the potential apps using their contact tracing system would work in the future. The companies have also released a cryptography specification for enabling exposure notifications.

Exposure notifications will emerge on the screen as an alert to let people know if they’ve been exposed to someone who has tested positive or is at risk of being exposed to COVID-19. “They are meant to support and augment public health’s existing contact tracing efforts, not replace them,” Apple and Google have written in a document explaining about the exposure notification system.

Public health authorities will have the system to decide who the notifications will be triggered on phones. They’ll also have the option to include what next steps should be advised to users and how to reach exposed individuals for further contact tracing and containment programmes.

The contact tracing system that Apple and Google are developing together will push exposure notifications if the user has been exposed to a person who later reports themselves as COVID-19 positive. The notifications will rely upon sharing and collecting of random IDs over Bluetooth. Moreover, users will have the option to disable exposure notifications from the apps in case they don’t want to receive any alerts.

Resources for developers
Alongside detailing the exposure notification system, Apple and Google have provided a sample code for both iOS and Android to help developers build contact tracing apps. Both companies have also independently released their policies that developers will need to follow if they want to use the Exposure Notifications APIs designed to work on the given system.

The policies have made it mandatory that contact tracing apps must be created by or for a government public health authority and should be used exclusively for COVID-19 response efforts. Similarly, user consent is important to push exposure notifications. Apple and Google have also directed developers that the contact tracing apps based on their system should “only collect the minimum amount of data necessary” and shouldn’t use user data for any purposes other than enabling COVID-19 response efforts. The companies have also prohibited apps from seeking location access of users.

Apple and Google have also laid down six distinct principles that developers need to follow in order to use the resources provided. One of those principles says that the use of the Exposure Notifications API “will be restricted to one app per country to promote high user adoption and avoid fragmentation.” However, there is an exception for the countries that have opted for a regional or state approach.

The developers working on contact tracing apps based on the system designed by Apple and Google have also been provided with the detailed technical specification for cryptographic keys that will enable exposure notifications. The specification is aimed to preserve user privacy while using a Bluetooth protocol to understand and alert about possible exposure to the deadly virus.

Improvements incoming
That being said, Apple and Google are currently improving the contact tracing system they introduced on April 10. The iPhone maker launched the first beta release of Xcode 11.5 that included a new version of the iOS SDK along with the Exposure Notifications API. It also brought iOS 13.5 beta 3 for developers with the setting to enable or disable exposure notifications. Similarly, Google recently brought its first beta update for Google Play Services with the Exposure Notifications API and an SDK to help developers begin testing the contact tracing system on Android devices.

Both tech companies are set to release additional updates to their software and developer tools to help developers build advanced contact tracing apps in the future. They’re also supposedly addressing concerns raised by the European Commission and other global authorities.

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Coronavirus researcher on verge of ‘significant findings’ killed in murder-suicide: reports

The biology department at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine is in mourning after the shooting death of a scientist who it says was studying the biological makeup of the coronavirus and was on the “verge of making very significant findings toward understanding” the disease.

Bing Liu, 37, a research assistant professor, was shot dead Saturday in his suburban Pittsburgh home. He allegedly knew his killer, a man who walked to his car after the shooting and killed himself, according to reports.

Liu’s research centers on computational systems biology, and apparently his coronavirus research was leading to breakthroughs.

“Bing was on the verge of making very significant findings toward understanding the cellular mechanisms that underlie SARS-CoV-2 infection and the cellular basis of the following complications,” the biology department said in a statement. “We will make an effort to complete what he started in an effort to pay homage to his scientific excellence.”

Liu suffered gunshot wounds to his head, neck, and torso in the incident that happened around noon, according to reports.

Liu was from China and lived with his wife, the Pittsburgh Post Gazette reported. They had no children.

A motive for the shooting has not been disclosed.

Ivet Bahar, the head of Liu’s department told the paper Liu was a very talented, extremely intelligent, and hard-working individual.

“He has been contributing to several scientific projects, publishing in high-profile journals,” Bahar said. “He was someone whom we all liked very much, a very gentle, very helpful, kind person, very generous.”

She added “We are all shocked to learn what happened to him. This was very unexpected."

https://www.foxnews.com/us/coronavirus-researcher-was-on-verge-of-significant-findings-before-being-killed-in-murder-suicide?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A%20foxnews%2Fnational%20(Internal%20-%20US%20Latest%20-%20Text)

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Virginia Changes COVID-19 Test-Counting Method, Sees Surge in Cases

The commonwealth of Virginia saw a surge in coronavirus cases this week after they changed the way they are counting COVID-19 testing.

Commonwealth officials announced that if the same person tests positive for coronavirus three times that will count as three separate cases of the virus.

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So, we potentially already have a vaccine

Like, if this passes all the safety and effectiveness trials, this is the same vaccine that will be injected in people.

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Does this mean we have to say good-bye to Corona-chan?

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Outside of New York, cases are still rising.

But it doesn’t feel like it because all the media covers is New York.

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Everybody was fascinated by Corona vs New York, but now that it’s Corona vs America everybody has lost interest.

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People are bored of coronavirus.

It’s like we’ve binged watched a new series on Netflix and now we’re ready for something new…but corona keeps putting out new episodes.

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Need a series where right wing death squads toss journalists and politicians into a roiling fire.

But Netflix wouldn’t carry it.

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You should have seen the lake area where I live! The whole lake was packed and not a single mask to be seen anywhere! I think we’re done with Coronapanic around here.

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I have been quarantined to my apartment binge watching on Hulu for the past month now! Nothing like watching Game of Thrones - from the beginning. :slight_smile:

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I’ll bet it was like when Richard Dreyfuss took off his gas mask in Close Encounters of the Third Kind and discovered the air was fresh.

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The beaches here in areas of South Florida have been packed and so have the marinas. I have a few small boats that I rent out as part of my business and we haven’t had demand this big since we first opened. I hope we are through this because I think everybody has had enough and is just going to demand to make their own choices, which is how it should have been to begin with in many respects…especially for small business owners.

My main location is still shut down so we aren’t at 100% yet, but it feels good to be back in business.

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I can carry it! You let me know what you got cooking and we can discuss the details. Prepare a treatment!

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I thought beaches in South Florida were all still closed?

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Where I am in Miami everything is shut down and I haven’t heard of any plans to open anytime soon. South Florida isn’t just Miami though. I have a second location northwest of me in lower Manatee County that I own and my brother runs. Manatee County beaches opened but only for “solo activities” so what’s been happening is someone comes in to rent a boat or a two seater jet ski “solo” and then they go grab their friends after they launch. Some people just come in as a “family” when they clearly aren’t related to each other but we can’t prove otherwise so we don’t even bother asking. Manatee was so busy yesterday that I drove up today to help my brother and there was a decent amount of beach traffic.