White House enlists Apple, tech companies in fight against coronavirus pandemic

AppleInsider

In response to growing concerns over the fast-moving COVID-19 pandemic, the White House on Wednesday asked Apple and a handful of other tech companies to police their respective platforms for misinformation and assist in ongoing government efforts to corral the virus.

The Trump administration in a conference call asked major tech players to coordinate efforts to identify and remove potentially harmful content, reports Politico.

While not specified in the report, tech companies are on the lookout for misinformation and other media that could negatively impact an official response to the pandemic.

Amazon, Facebook, Google, IBM, Microsoft and Twitter were on the call, according to the report.

In addition to monitoring their own platforms, tech companies were asked to lend a hand in domestic efforts to stop or manage the spread of the virus. For example, the White House intends to release a database of research associated with the coronavirus and asked tech firms to help medical researchers analyze the information using artificial intelligence, the report said.

"Cutting edge technology companies and major online platforms will play a critical role in this all-hands-on-deck effort," U.S. Chief Technology Officer Michael Kratsios said in a statement. "Today's meeting outlined an initial path forward and we intend to continue this important conversation."

For its part, Apple is reportedly restricting distribution of COVID-19 apps to those developed by recognized health agencies and institutions. Other apps, even those that scrape data from sources like the World Health Organization, are being rejected on the basis of a new App Store guideline that requires apps associated "highly-regulated" fields to be submitted by a "legal entity that provides the services, and not by an individual developer."

Apple this week launched a special section in its News app dedicated to providing up-to-date coverage of COVID-19, with sources ranging from CNN to The Wall Street Journal.

seanismorris

So no quoting President Trump?

From CNN:

Trump continued by discarding his own administration's advice to stay home if you're feeling sick: "If we have thousands or hundreds of thousands of people that get better, just by, you know, sitting around and even going to work, some of them go to work, but they get better, and then when you do have a death, like you've had in the state of Washington, like you had one in California, I believe you had one in New York." No deaths have been reported in New York.

"You know," Trump said, "all of a sudden it seems like 3 or 4%, which is a very high number, as opposed to a fraction of 1%. But again, they don't know about the easy cases because the easy cases don't go to the hospital. They don't report to doctors or the hospital in many cases. So I think that that number is very high. I think the number, personally, I would say the number is way under 1%." 

revenant

seanismorris said:

So no quoting President Trump?

From CNN:

Trump continued by discarding his own administration's advice to stay home if you're feeling sick: "If we have thousands or hundreds of thousands of people that get better, just by, you know, sitting around and even going to work, some of them go to work, but they get better, and then when you do have a death, like you've had in the state of Washington, like you had one in California, I believe you had one in New York." No deaths have been reported in New York.

"You know," Trump said, "all of a sudden it seems like 3 or 4%, which is a very high number, as opposed to a fraction of 1%. But again, they don't know about the easy cases because the easy cases don't go to the hospital. They don't report to doctors or the hospital in many cases. So I think that that number is very high. I think the number, personally, I would say the number is way under 1%." 

to be fair:

"Every one of these doctors said, 'How do you know so much about this?' Maybe I have a natural ability. Maybe I should have done that instead of running for president."

the lack of consistency on this terrible, yet not so bad, virus is weird. sit around and go to work does not need apple and other tech companies to help.

SpamSandwich

revenant said:

seanismorris said:

So no quoting President Trump?

From CNN:

Trump continued by discarding his own administration's advice to stay home if you're feeling sick: "If we have thousands or hundreds of thousands of people that get better, just by, you know, sitting around and even going to work, some of them go to work, but they get better, and then when you do have a death, like you've had in the state of Washington, like you had one in California, I believe you had one in New York." No deaths have been reported in New York.

"You know," Trump said, "all of a sudden it seems like 3 or 4%, which is a very high number, as opposed to a fraction of 1%. But again, they don't know about the easy cases because the easy cases don't go to the hospital. They don't report to doctors or the hospital in many cases. So I think that that number is very high. I think the number, personally, I would say the number is way under 1%." 

to be fair:

"Every one of these doctors said, 'How do you know so much about this?' Maybe I have a natural ability. Maybe I should have done that instead of running for president."

the lack of consistency on this terrible, yet not so bad, virus is weird. sit around and go to work does not need apple and other tech companies to help.

Here’s the thing. This virus is far more transmissible than the flu, even though it has a narrower group of people it might kill than the standard flu (it affects people who are older and with impaired lung function. Smokers seem to be affected more also).

And the initial very low numbers of people affected in the US gave the impression that it wouldn’t spread as fast as China. Clearly that was incorrect. Even so, should more have been done in the very beginning of the spread to the US? That’s a pointless exercise because there was no consensus that such a thing should happen right away. And it’s almost certain that the entire population will eventually be exposed to the Coronavirus.

revenant

SpamSandwich said:

revenant said:

seanismorris said:

So no quoting President Trump?

From CNN:

Trump continued by discarding his own administration's advice to stay home if you're feeling sick: "If we have thousands or hundreds of thousands of people that get better, just by, you know, sitting around and even going to work, some of them go to work, but they get better, and then when you do have a death, like you've had in the state of Washington, like you had one in California, I believe you had one in New York." No deaths have been reported in New York.

"You know," Trump said, "all of a sudden it seems like 3 or 4%, which is a very high number, as opposed to a fraction of 1%. But again, they don't know about the easy cases because the easy cases don't go to the hospital. They don't report to doctors or the hospital in many cases. So I think that that number is very high. I think the number, personally, I would say the number is way under 1%." 

to be fair:

"Every one of these doctors said, 'How do you know so much about this?' Maybe I have a natural ability. Maybe I should have done that instead of running for president."

the lack of consistency on this terrible, yet not so bad, virus is weird. sit around and go to work does not need apple and other tech companies to help.

Here’s the thing. This virus is far more transmissible than the flu, even though it has a narrower group of people it might kill than the standard flu (it affects people who are older and with impaired lung function. Smokers seem to be affected more also).

And the initial very low numbers of people affected in the US gave the impression that it wouldn’t spread as fast as China. Clearly that was incorrect. Even so, should more have been done in the very beginning of the spread to the US? That’s a pointless exercise because there was no consensus that such a thing should happen right away. And it’s almost certain that the entire population will eventually be exposed to the Coronavirus.

horse biscuits. cdc was rather admit that the virus would spread quickly, it was the white house, particularly the president who said, “when you have 15 people, and the 15 within a couple of days is going to be down to close to zero, that’s a pretty good job we’ve done.” the cdc was saying something opposite. WHO was saying the opposite. the only lack of consensus in the US was from the white house.

seanismorris

‘It’s just the flu’

P.S.  ‘All flights to the EU is cancel’ & ‘all meetings on the coronavirus are classified’

Everything is fine.  Nothing to see here. Please stop selling stock, it’s making me look bad.

How about some tax breaks?  That will make everyone feel better...

asdasd

SpamSandwich said:

revenant said:

seanismorris said:

So no quoting President Trump?

From CNN:

Trump continued by discarding his own administration's advice to stay home if you're feeling sick: "If we have thousands or hundreds of thousands of people that get better, just by, you know, sitting around and even going to work, some of them go to work, but they get better, and then when you do have a death, like you've had in the state of Washington, like you had one in California, I believe you had one in New York." No deaths have been reported in New York.

"You know," Trump said, "all of a sudden it seems like 3 or 4%, which is a very high number, as opposed to a fraction of 1%. But again, they don't know about the easy cases because the easy cases don't go to the hospital. They don't report to doctors or the hospital in many cases. So I think that that number is very high. I think the number, personally, I would say the number is way under 1%." 

to be fair:

"Every one of these doctors said, 'How do you know so much about this?' Maybe I have a natural ability. Maybe I should have done that instead of running for president."

the lack of consistency on this terrible, yet not so bad, virus is weird. sit around and go to work does not need apple and other tech companies to help.

Here’s the thing. This virus is far more transmissible than the flu, even though it has a narrower group of people it might kill than the standard flu (it affects people who are older and with impaired lung function. Smokers seem to be affected more also).

And the initial very low numbers of people affected in the US gave the impression that it wouldn’t spread as fast as China. Clearly that was incorrect. Even so, should more have been done in the very beginning of the spread to the US? That’s a pointless exercise because there was no consensus that such a thing should happen right away. And it’s almost certain that the entire population will eventually be exposed to the Coronavirus.

The 1000 or so level the US has just reached is the part of the curve where the exponential really starts to become obvious. Follow Italy or Spain and its trajectory will be to the tens of thousands in a week or so. The US has a disadvantage over some countries, in that its population is highly individualistic and it might be hard to curtail freedoms, and the population is  highly divided across racial, class and regional lines. Also the lack of health care for the poor. On the other hand it has an impressive military that could provide field hospitals if required. The EU is useless. 

asdasd

revenant said:

seanismorris said:

So no quoting President Trump?

From CNN:

Trump continued by discarding his own administration's advice to stay home if you're feeling sick: "If we have thousands or hundreds of thousands of people that get better, just by, you know, sitting around and even going to work, some of them go to work, but they get better, and then when you do have a death, like you've had in the state of Washington, like you had one in California, I believe you had one in New York." No deaths have been reported in New York.

"You know," Trump said, "all of a sudden it seems like 3 or 4%, which is a very high number, as opposed to a fraction of 1%. But again, they don't know about the easy cases because the easy cases don't go to the hospital. They don't report to doctors or the hospital in many cases. So I think that that number is very high. I think the number, personally, I would say the number is way under 1%." 

to be fair:

"Every one of these doctors said, 'How do you know so much about this?' Maybe I have a natural ability. Maybe I should have done that instead of running for president."

the lack of consistency on this terrible, yet not so bad, virus is weird. sit around and go to work does not need apple and other tech companies to help.

I thought the hysteria about Trump excessive and the Russian allegations preposterous but he is floundering here. 

hexclock

seanismorris said:

‘It’s just the flu’

P.S.  ‘All flights to the EU is cancel’ & ‘all meetings on the coronavirus are classified’

Everything is fine.  Nothing to see here. Please stop selling stock, it’s making me look bad.

How about some tax breaks?  That will make everyone feel better...

Ok, so what are your suggestions? Everyone is so quick to criticize everything. What would YOU do?

asdasd

hexclock said:

seanismorris said:

‘It’s just the flu’

P.S.  ‘All flights to the EU is cancel’ & ‘all meetings on the coronavirus are classified’

Everything is fine.  Nothing to see here. Please stop selling stock, it’s making me look bad.

How about some tax breaks?  That will make everyone feel better...

Ok, so what are your suggestions? Everyone is so quick to criticize everything. What would YOU do?

Mass mobile testing and self isolation for those who have it.

GeorgeBMac

My fear is less about misinformation & bad information on the internet than it is about lack of information from the U.S. government.

We used to have the gold standard in disease prevention and protection -- including R&D with our CDC and NIH.  But that not only has been gutted by the president over the prior 3 years but the president has declared all discussions with those few remaining to be classified secret.  That not only blocks the flow of legitimate and accurate information to the American people but it has even blocked some of the top scientists in the world from even participating in those discussions because they, of course, do not have security clearance.  Security classification and clearances are a military thing (or used to be!).

Instead of worrying about "FakeNews" of any kind, the president should be concerned with getting complete, accurate information out to the American people and the American health care industry.

Right now, it seems most of our information is coming university professors (who don't have access to the tools available to the CDC & NIH) as well as from local government mayors and governors.

[for example:  why do we not know how long the virus can live on a hard surface?  Is it 4 hours or 4 days?  I have seen both quoted.  The CDC should know that and be publishing that.  Or, are infected but asymptomatic people contagious?  How contagious?]

felix01

Does a person develop immunity to COVID-19 after they have acquired it and recovered? 

GeorgeBMac

felix01 said:

Does a person develop immunity to COVID-19 after they have acquired it and recovered? 

The last I heard, probably, but we do not yet know for sure.  There have been reports of people being reinfected, but they are not sure if there might be extenuating circumstances (such as a false positive on a test, etc...)  That's one of the problems with having a gutted CDC -- not enough research, not enough science

gatorguy

GeorgeBMac said:

felix01 said:

Does a person develop immunity to COVID-19 after they have acquired it and recovered? 

The last I heard, probably, but we do not yet know for sure.  There have been reports of people being reinfected, but they are not sure if there might be extenuating circumstances (such as a false positive on a test, etc...)  That's one of the problems with having a gutted CDC -- not enough research, not enough science

What are the Chinese saying about it? They would be the current worldwide experts on it and have had far more time and incentive to research the disease in depth. 

hexclock

asdasd said:

hexclock said:

seanismorris said:

‘It’s just the flu’

P.S.  ‘All flights to the EU is cancel’ & ‘all meetings on the coronavirus are classified’

Everything is fine.  Nothing to see here. Please stop selling stock, it’s making me look bad.

How about some tax breaks?  That will make everyone feel better...

Ok, so what are your suggestions? Everyone is so quick to criticize everything. What would YOU do?

Mass mobile testing and self isolation for those who have it.

Yeah sure, one of the criticisms is that there are not enough tests. How the hell are they supposed to have enough tests when 3 months ago the virus was completely unknown?
Where was all this handwringing when just ten years ago, H1N1 infected 60 Million people with 300,000 going to the hospital in the US alone!

GeorgeBMac

gatorguy said:

GeorgeBMac said:

felix01 said:

Does a person develop immunity to COVID-19 after they have acquired it and recovered? 

The last I heard, probably, but we do not yet know for sure.  There have been reports of people being reinfected, but they are not sure if there might be extenuating circumstances (such as a false positive on a test, etc...)  That's one of the problems with having a gutted CDC -- not enough research, not enough science

What are the Chinese saying about it? They would be the current worldwide experts on it and have had far more time and incentive to research the disease in depth. 

That was from the Chinese.  They reported the reinfections but were uncertain of the accuracy of the reports (again, perhaps the original test was a false positive, etc.)   I have not heard anything from the U.S. on it -- which makes sense since we are in the early days of the spread of the infection and too early for re-infection to occur

GeorgeBMac

hexclock said:

asdasd said:

hexclock said:

seanismorris said:

‘It’s just the flu’

P.S.  ‘All flights to the EU is cancel’ & ‘all meetings on the coronavirus are classified’

Everything is fine.  Nothing to see here. Please stop selling stock, it’s making me look bad.

How about some tax breaks?  That will make everyone feel better...

Ok, so what are your suggestions? Everyone is so quick to criticize everything. What would YOU do?

Mass mobile testing and self isolation for those who have it.

Yeah sure, one of the criticisms is that there are not enough tests. How the hell are they supposed to have enough tests when 3 months ago the virus was completely unknown?
Where was all this handwringing when just ten years ago, H1N1 infected 60 Million people with 300,000 going to the hospital in the US alone!

Every other country has enough test kits and many are testing more people in a single day than the U.S. been able to do in total.  South Korea has even set up drive thru test sites where you don't even get out of your car.

Apparently the WHO published information for producing test kits over a month ago but the U.S. refused and decided to go it alone.   As usual that hubris produced an epic fail.

hexclock

GeorgeBMac said:

[for example:  why do we not know how long the virus can live on a hard surface?  Is it 4 hours or 4 days?  I have seen both quoted.  The CDC should know that and be publishing that.  Or, are infected but asymptomatic people contagious?  How contagious?]

How long it can live probably depends on the ambient conditions like temperature, humidity, exposure to UV (sunlight), and so forth. It’s not as simple as it sounds. 

gatorguy

GeorgeBMac said:

gatorguy said:

GeorgeBMac said:

felix01 said:

Does a person develop immunity to COVID-19 after they have acquired it and recovered? 

The last I heard, probably, but we do not yet know for sure.  There have been reports of people being reinfected, but they are not sure if there might be extenuating circumstances (such as a false positive on a test, etc...)  That's one of the problems with having a gutted CDC -- not enough research, not enough science

What are the Chinese saying about it? They would be the current worldwide experts on it and have had far more time and incentive to research the disease in depth. 

That was from the Chinese.  They reported the reinfections but were uncertain of the accuracy of the reports (again, perhaps the original test was a false positive, etc.)   I have not heard anything from the U.S. on it -- which makes sense since we are in the early days of the spread of the infection and too early for re-infection to occur

So the Chinese agency that would be most similar in tasking to the CDC is also gutted? I wouldn't expect so. If the Chinese don't know with far more exposure samples to work with and time to do so why are you finding fault with the CDC and claiming it's all because it's gutted? More forgiving of the Chinese or just more critical of the US? 
("That's one of the problems with having a gutted CDC -- not enough research, not enough science")

hexclock

gatorguy said:

GeorgeBMac said:

gatorguy said:

GeorgeBMac said:

felix01 said:

Does a person develop immunity to COVID-19 after they have acquired it and recovered? 

The last I heard, probably, but we do not yet know for sure.  There have been reports of people being reinfected, but they are not sure if there might be extenuating circumstances (such as a false positive on a test, etc...)  That's one of the problems with having a gutted CDC -- not enough research, not enough science

What are the Chinese saying about it? They would be the current worldwide experts on it and have had far more time and incentive to research the disease in depth. 

That was from the Chinese.  They reported the reinfections but were uncertain of the accuracy of the reports (again, perhaps the original test was a false positive, etc.)   I have not heard anything from the U.S. on it -- which makes sense since we are in the early days of the spread of the infection and too early for re-infection to occur

So the Chinese agency that would be most similar in tasking to the CDC is also gutted? I wouldn't expect so. If the Chinese don't know with far more exposure samples to work with and time to do so why are you finding fault with the CDC and claiming it's all because it's gutted? More forgiving of the Chinese or just more critical of the US? 
("That's one of the problems with having a gutted CDC -- not enough research, not enough science")

gatorguy said:

GeorgeBMac said:

gatorguy said:

GeorgeBMac said:

felix01 said:

Does a person develop immunity to COVID-19 after they have acquired it and recovered? 

The last I heard, probably, but we do not yet know for sure.  There have been reports of people being reinfected, but they are not sure if there might be extenuating circumstances (such as a false positive on a test, etc...)  That's one of the problems with having a gutted CDC -- not enough research, not enough science

What are the Chinese saying about it? They would be the current worldwide experts on it and have had far more time and incentive to research the disease in depth. 

That was from the Chinese.  They reported the reinfections but were uncertain of the accuracy of the reports (again, perhaps the original test was a false positive, etc.)   I have not heard anything from the U.S. on it -- which makes sense since we are in the early days of the spread of the infection and too early for re-infection to occur

So the Chinese agency that would be most similar in tasking to the CDC is also gutted? I wouldn't expect so. If the Chinese don't know with far more exposure samples to work with and time to do so why are you finding fault with the CDC and claiming it's all because it's gutted? More forgiving of the Chinese or just more critical of the US? 
("That's one of the problems with having a gutted CDC -- not enough research, not enough science")

China screwed this up from the beginning, there is no sugarcoating it. 

hexclock

GeorgeBMac said:

hexclock said:

asdasd said:

hexclock said:

seanismorris said:

‘It’s just the flu’

P.S.  ‘All flights to the EU is cancel’ & ‘all meetings on the coronavirus are classified’

Everything is fine.  Nothing to see here. Please stop selling stock, it’s making me look bad.

How about some tax breaks?  That will make everyone feel better...

Ok, so what are your suggestions? Everyone is so quick to criticize everything. What would YOU do?

Mass mobile testing and self isolation for those who have it.

Yeah sure, one of the criticisms is that there are not enough tests. How the hell are they supposed to have enough tests when 3 months ago the virus was completely unknown?
Where was all this handwringing when just ten years ago, H1N1 infected 60 Million people with 300,000 going to the hospital in the US alone!

Every other country has enough test kits and many are testing more people in a single day than the U.S. been able to do in total.  South Korea has even set up drive thru test sites where you don't even get out of your car.

Apparently the WHO published information for producing test kits over a month ago but the U.S. refused and decided to go it alone.   As usual that hubris produced an epic fail.

That’s a fair point if true, but man, these people are working night and day to get a handle on this thing, and the constant negative media bashing is not really helpful at this point. Bash all you want after the smoke clears