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What's next for COVID-19 apps? Governance and oversight

Science   Article 

Studies conducted in April and May 2020 showed that in countries like the United States, Switzerland, and Italy, between 55 and 70% of adults in all age groups were willing to download a contact tracing app (5).

Yet these figures do not match the current DCT apps uptake. Even in countries with robust privacy safeguards in place, downloads of DCT apps have been below expectations. At the time of writing, the Australian DCT app has been downloaded by 6.5 million (26% of the population), the Italian one by 8 million (13.4%), and the newly released French one by 1.5 million (2.3%). Ireland has about 1.3 million active app users (24%), Switzerland 1.8 million (21.5%), and Germany 16 million (19.3%).

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British Study: Black people 'twice as likely to catch coronavirus'

Black people are twice as likely as white people to catch the coronavirus, a study of 18 million people suggests.

The research also indicates Asian people are 1.5 times more likely than white people to be infected - and may be more likely to need intensive care.

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How Pfizer Plans to Distribute Its Vaccine (It’s Complicated)

For months, scientists and public health experts have been saying the most crucial part of defusing the Covid-19 pandemic will be developing a safe and effective vaccine. So it was cause for celebration this week when Pfizer announced that an early analysis showed its vaccine candidate was more than 90 percent effective.

Now the drug maker, the government and the public health community face a new challenge: quickly making millions of doses of the vaccine and getting them to the hospitals, clinics and pharmacies where they will be injected, two separate times, into people’s arms.

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Why Poorer Countries Aren't Likely To Get The Pfizer Vaccine Any Time Soon

This week, the world heard encouraging news about a vaccine for COVID-19.

On Monday, the pharmaceutical company Pfizer, and its partner BioNTech, said their experimental vaccine appears to work – and work quite well. A preliminary analysis suggests the vaccine is more than 90 percent effective at preventing COVID-19 symptoms.

Health officials hope to start vaccinating some Americans in a few months.

"The vaccine is on its way, folks," Dr. Anthony Fauci told a crowd Tuesday, via video link, outside Brooklyn Borough Hall.

But what about the rest of world, especially people in poorer counties. Is the vaccine "on its way for them?"

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Virus surge: Schools abandon classes, states retreat

School systems in Detroit, Indianapolis, Philadelphia and suburban Minneapolis are giving up on in-person classes, and some governors are reimposing restrictions on bars and restaurants or getting more serious about masks, as the coast-to-coast resurgence of the coronavirus sends deaths, hospitalizations and new infections soaring.

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New Airflow Videos Show Why Masks With Exhalation Valves Do Not Slow the Spread of COVID-19New Airflow Videos Show Why Masks With Exhalation Valves Do Not Slow the Spread of COVID-19

Many people wear masks in public to slow the spread of COVID-19, as recommended by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). However, masks with exhalation valves do not slow the spread of the disease, and now, new videos from the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) show why. 

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