Imagine a normal Tuesday morning. You park your car in the nearby Costco’s parking lot. The lot is complete, with vehicles parked nose to nose. You wait in a very long line, similar to what you’d see at Disney on a typical weekend. You move your cart about frenzied shoppers, only to find that Costco is out of face masks, nonperishable items, medications, hand sanitizers, and hand soaps.
The cause of this newfound global love of hand sanitizers and masks? The fear and dread since the coronavirus (called’2019-nCov’ or’Covid-19) spread worldwide.
As of March 3rd, 2020, Covid-19 had taken the lives of 3,168, as well as bringing more than 92,880 documented cases of contaminated people across at 79 countries, including the United States and the United Kingdom. This makes the coronavirus’ total death toll greater than that of its cousin’ SARS (severe acute respiratory syndrome) virus in 2003 (774 total deaths) and bird flu’ in 2013 (616 total deaths).
Experts have warned us that face masks do not help block the spread of Covid-19. However, what’s helpful is progress in artificial intelligence and genetic technology.
Artificial intelligence and genetic applied science are making it simpler, quicker, and more economical to comprehend how the virus spreads, the way to manage it, and the way to contain its devastating effects.
Sergey Young, founder of Longevity Vision Fund
Artificial Intelligence, or even more commonly known as A.I., can warn of an impending outbreak and give us sufficient time to prepare.
By way of example, BlueDot, a international artificial intelligence database firm, uses A.I.-powered algorithm, machine learning, and natural-language processing to assess information from a multitude of resources and track over a hundred infectious ailments.
On December 31st, 2019 Blue Dot sent out a warning to its customers to avoid Wuhan, ahead of both the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the World Health Organization (WHO) To contrast this, the World Health Organization (WHO) didn’t send out a note until January 9th, 2020.
Before this month, BlueDot predicted where other Asian town outbreaks might be by assessing pupil itineraries and flight paths.
In the future, A.I. could use social media data to predict human behavior and possible outbreaks.
A.I. Can Speed Up Drug Discovery and Development
A.I. is not only able to warn us of an impending epidemic, but it might help us identify, develop scale new therapies and vaccines quicker than ever before.
The trick to developing a vaccine is to be able to rapidly and economically recreate the virus’s genome order and build a copy of the virus.
In just 1 month, scientists at China recreated the genome sequence of this virus. Not just that, researchers at Australia created a lab-grown replica of the virus from an infected patient.
Also Read: Is Artificial Intelligence A Allegory?
With an accurate genome sequence and a replica of this virus replicate, we can subsequently quickly develop and verify diagnostic tests for the virus.
Furthermore, Longevity Vision Fund, founded by wellbeing investor and visionary Sergey Young, one of the very few worldwide life extension-focused funds, together with an army of biotech companies and entrepreneurs, are at the forefront to collaborate and fast-track the development of treatment.
For instance, one of Longevity Vision Fund’s portfolio company Insilico Medicine was able to use its A.I. system to successfully identify tens of thousands of molecules for potential medications within four days. Insilico Medicine then initiated an open policy, also published the updated findings on its website so all researchers could download the information at no cost, ultimately contributing to the worldwide effort to fight the epidemic. Imagine what we can do with that sort of speed, scalability, and free collaboration!
A.I. May Help Minimize Fatality and Boost Disease Management
Last, A.I. helps manage the outbreak and minimize deaths by lowering the burden on the healthcare professionals and alerting patients on appropriate care processes.
Physicians, nurses, and hospital employees are at high risk of Covid-19 exposure and contraction. So far, thousands of hospital staff in China are infected with the virus. By way of instance, China is using robots to provide quicker diagnostic checks, and Hangzhou city ambulances are aided by A.I. to speed through traffic.
A.I. can also help remind us of what we should do in case we have contracted the virus. China launched an app that helps people check if they’ve taken a flight or train with a verified coronavirus patient. At the same time, China is using drones to guarantee citizens are taking the right precautions.
Though Covid-19’s rapid spread globally is scary, it gives us a ray of hope understanding the awe-inspiring, boundary-breaking, cross-collaboration of our healthcare leaders, leaders, and public servants.
We have to take some time to pay tribute and admiration to the front-line healthcare employees, to the scientists collaborating cross-culturally, and to the public servants hard at work mitigating the outbreak path. So, here’s to all those fighting the illness, and also to our final beating of the Covid-19.
Leave a comment