From Our Weekly Note and More
On Fitness Trackers, COVID-19 and more
On research projects using fitness trackers such as Apple Watch, Fitbit, Oura Ring and WHOOP to provide early alerts about diseases such as COVID-19. (Stanford, UCSF, Rockefeller Neuroscience Institute, Scripps Research)
For the Class of 2020: Guidance from the Past & Present
As 2020 graduation celebrations continue (often virtually), consider views shared last week (Barack Obama, Oprah Winfrey) as well as several from the past (Steve Jobs, JK Rowlings and US Navy Admiral William H. McRaven.
On Treating COVID-19: Gilead Sciences' Remdesivir and more
Remdesivir is a treatment, not a vaccine, but there are over 100 vaccine candidates in development worldwide (eight are in early clinical trials.)
Was CES in Las Vegas (Jan 2020) a "Super-Spreader" Event?
Comments from American Public Media’s report “A Covid-infected attendee emerges from CES, a massive tech conference in January” January 7-10, over 170,000 attendees from 160 countries including business representatives from Wuhan, China
On Resilience, Knowledge of the Future, a Typhoon and a Fragile Success
Comments by Angela Merkel (German Chancellor), Madeleine Albright (former US Secretary of State), Charlie Munger (vice chairman of Berkshire Hathaway) and Howard Marks (co-founder of Oaktree Capital Management).
To Inspire, Educate and Entertain
During this profoundly uncertain period, we share links to: 1) an insightful discussion about public health, 2) a streaming video about gene-editing and 3) music by Sting, Jimmy Fallon and others - and a distributed performance of Beethoven's "Ode to Joy".
On Telehealth Innovation, Economic Impacts and the Pandemic
Comments from World Health Organization, International Monetary Fund, Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services and the Federal Communications Commission.
Thoughts, Prayers, Data - and the Virus
Comments by Dr. Fauci (CDC), Bill Gates, Pope Francis and John Chambers (former Cisco Systems CEO); along with top 20 countries impacted and the spread among US counties.
On Books, Mushrooms and a Cow-Milking parody of Queen's "We Will Rock You"
Amid global uncertainty, this week we recommend two books to inspire, a film about mushrooms to enlighten and milk-focused parody based on “We Will Rock You” to entertain.
A Wake-up Call - But There Were Warnings in the Past
As the World Health Organization declared the COVID-19 virus a global pandemic - with comments from German Chancellor Angela Merkel, the Brookings Institute, Worldwide Threat Assessment of the US Intelligence (2019), Community”, "Climate Change Impacts in the United States" report (2014) and more.
On Innovations in Gene-Editing, Addressing Blindness and More
Last week, CRISPR gene-editing was used for the first time to edit a person’s DNA while it was still in their body. The project is a collaboration between Oregon Health & Science University (Portland, OR), Editas Medicine (Cambridge, MA) and Allergan (Dublin, Ireland)
On Market Volatility, Viruses, Sporting Events and More
As Covid-19 virus infects over 86,000 people, markets declined, events/travel are cancelled, supply chains are disrupted and more. Our note shares comments from the Center for Disease Control, World Health Organization and Bill Gates’ New England Journal of Medicine article “Responding to Covid-19 — A Once-in-a-Century Pandemic?”
Amazon, Walmart and "Healthcare as a Service"
Changes in the industry will include the entry of new players, new pricing models, new delivery approaches and services that are more data driven and virtual.
On AI, the Human Microbiome, Aging, Stress and more
An Oxford University study links individual personality traits and gut microbiome composition and work by IBM and UC- San Diego believe AI can predict your age based on your microbiome.