Category: coronavirus

Rivian shuts down all facilities over COVID-19 pandemic concerns

Rivian, the buzzy electric vehicle startup that is backed by Amazon and Ford, is shutting down all of its facilities due to the spread of COVID-19, the disease caused by coronavirus. Rivian employs more than 2,000 workers across several locations, including its headquarters in Plymouth, Mich., a factory in Normal,…

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Hydroxychloroquine, chloroquine and other potential COVID-19 treatments explained

During two of this week’s White House briefings, President Trump referred specifically to two potential treatments that have been identified by medical researchers and clinicians, and that have undergone various degrees of investigation and testing in the ongoing fight against the global coronavirus pandemic. It’s important to note upfront that…

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Netflix announces $100M relief fund after TV and film production halted

When it comes to the entertainment industry, the COVID-19 outbreak isn’t just affecting movie theaters – it’s also halted TV and film production around the world. For Netflix, that’s included production on high-profile titles like “The Witcher” and “Stranger Things.” So the streaming company just announced that has created a $100…

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FluSense system tracks sickness trends by autonomously monitoring public spaces

One of the obstacles to accurately estimating the prevalence of sickness in the general population is that most of our data comes from hospitals, not the 99.9 percent of the world that isn’t hospitals. FluSense is an autonomous, privacy-respecting system that counts the people and coughs in public spaces to…

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SpaceX and Tesla are ‘working on’ ventilators, Elon Musk says

Elon Musk tweeted Friday that Tesla and SpaceX employees are “working on ventilators” even though he doesn’t believe they will be needed. His confirmation on Twitter that both of the companies he leads are working on ventilators comes a day after New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio made a direct…

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Hospital droid Diligent Robotics raises $10M to assist nurses

Twenty-eight percent of a nurse’s time is wasted on low-skilled tasks like fetching medical tools. We need them focused on the complex and compassionate work of treating patients, especially amid the coronavirus outbreak. Diligent Robotics wants to give them a helper droid that can run errands for them around the…

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