AI Helped Create a Vaccine

I Was There When: AI Helped Create a Vaccine

By In Machines We Trust in ACM Opinion

September 1, 2022

As soon as the first genetic sequence of the COVID-19 virus was released, researchers began scrambling to find a vaccine. Scientists at biotech company Moderna took just 42 days to go from getting the sequence, identifying mutations and the proteins they wanted to target, to "actually building a clinical-grade, human-safe manufacturing batch and shipping it off to the clinic," says Dave Johnson, chief data and artificial intelligence officer at Moderna, in an interview. Researchers then used AI to optimize a phase-3 trial that included 30,000 subjects, helping the team figure out "...where do we run our studies, the right racial diversity, right size facility...optimal places to run the study," and more.

Johnson says he never thought that he "would ever use one of our own medicines, but to have that injected into my arm, and for my family to get it, and for my friends and to see that benefit for so many other people in the world was an amazing moment for us."...  

From In Machines We Trust

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Understanding High-Mutating Viruses

Tool Helps to Better Understand High-Mutating Viruses, Including COVID-19

Los Alamos Reporter, March 8, 2022

Scientists at the U.S. Department of Energy's Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) have developed FEVER, or Fast Evaluation of Viral Emerging Risks, a computational tool for detecting and investigating high-mutating viruses. Researchers use FEVER to design flexible measurement assays that concurrently identify whole classes of viruses for bio-surveillance, accurately diagnose an outbreak strain, and type mutations to find variants impacting public health. "We applied FEVER to COVID-19 and showed that we can indeed perform both highly specific SARS-CoV-2 diagnostics in 100 clinical samples while performing mutation typing for spike variants all at the same time," said LANL's Jessica Kubicek-Sutherland. ... '

At Home COVID-19 Tests

At-home COVID-19 tests could be more affordable thanks to your smartphone

The SmaRT-LAMP system promises to be nearly as accurate as a PCR test.

In Engadget, Igor Bonifacic  @igorbonifacic, January 30th, 2022

Ever since the omicron variant arrived in the US, there’s been a testing shortage in the country. Stuck between long lines at dedicated clinics and overly expensive at-home tests, many Americans have understandably given up the idea of getting tested to ensure they’re not sick with COVID-19. However, a solution to some of those problems could be on the way....'

When will the COVID-19 pandemic end?

McKinsey writes.   And what is the definition of  'ends'?   Normalcy is? 

August 23, 2021 | Article

By Sarun Charumilind, Matt Craven, Jessica Lamb, Adam Sabow, Shubham Singhal, and Matt Wilson

When will the COVID-19 pandemic end?

This article updates our perspectives on when the coronavirus pandemic will end to reflect the latest information on vaccine rollout, variants of concern, and disease progression. Among high-income countries, cases caused by the Delta variant reversed the transition toward normalcy first in the United Kingdom, during June and July of 2021, and subsequently in the United States and elsewhere. Our own analysis supports the view of others that the Delta variant has effectively moved overall herd immunity out of reach in most countries for the time being. The United Kingdom’s experience nevertheless suggests that once a country has weathered a wave of Delta-driven cases, it may be able to resume the transition toward normalcy. Beyond that, a more realistic epidemiological endpoint might arrive not when herd immunity is achieved but when COVID-19 can be managed as an endemic disease. The biggest overall risk would likely then be the emergence of a significant new variant.  ... ''