CenturyLink Connects Emergency Healthcare Facilities During COVID-19

CenturyLink

CenturyLink announced on April 1 that it is donating high-speed internet connections to temporary hospital facilities created to help ease the burden on the nation’s healthcare system. The company is immediately responding to requests for services and installing connections within 48 hours.

Connecting the Mercy Ship
CenturyLink installed and donated high-speed connectivity to the hospital ship U.S. Naval Ship Mercy  just hours after it arrived at the port of Los Angeles. The company also waived installation fees for a 1 gigabit Ethernet circuit connecting the Defense Information Systems Agency’s shored-based Naval Air Station North Island to USNS Mercy. The high-speed connection supports our nation’s military and healthcare professionals providing medical assistance to patients not associated with COVID-19 during this pandemic.

Connecting Field Hospitals and Quarantine Sites
Grappling with the sudden need for more hospital beds and overflow capacity due to COVID-19, local municipalities are transforming various facilities into temporary field hospitals. CenturyLink has committed to donate high-speed connectivity and waive fees for several field hospital operations in Seattle and Oregon.

The company is working with local and state agencies to provide speeds ranging from 200 Mbps to 1 Gigabit Ethernet connections at these locations – with an expectation that the following list will continue to grow and evolve:

• Oregon State Fair and Exposition Center in Salem, Oregon

CenturyLink is providing a 1 gigabit Ethernet connection to this temporary hospital for 250 non-coronavirus patients in recovery.

• King County, Seattle locations, Washington

CenturyLink activated high-speed fiber internet connections at eight quarantine locations in just three days throughout the city of Seattle in King County. These locations are serving coronavirus patients.

• Tallahassee Memorial Healthcare, Florida

CenturyLink’s quick response successfully connected the hospital to the metropolitan area’s only COVID-19 test site. In less than 24 hours, CenturyLink technicians established multiple connections, critical to relaying testing orders and results. This drive-thru test site at Northwood Center not only serves Tallahassee, but also the surrounding rural areas that make up Florida’s Big Bend.

• Hospital Posadas, Argentina

CenturyLink donated internet access up to 100 Mbps to Hospital Posadas, a medical assistance institution focused on prevention, treatment and health rehabilitation.

Additional activities include:

• United Christian Nethersole Community, Hong Kong

Our Hong Kong Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) team partnered with United Christian Nethersole Community, a local senior center, to provide critical protective supplies, such as surgical mask, hand sanitizers, rice, noodles and cleaning towels. Our donations will assist more than 250 seniors in need.

• Critical Supply Donations, Singapore

Our Singapore CSR team raised thousands of dollars to purchase hand sanitizer and other needed supplies for individuals in vulnerable areas. These items were donated to a local non-profit agency for distribution to those in need.

Pfizer Advances Battle Against COVID-19 on Multiple Fronts

Pfizer

USCIB member Pfizer announced on April 9 important advances in the battle against the global COVID-19 pandemic. As outlined in Pfizer’s five-point plan, the company has been collaborating across the healthcare innovation ecosystem ranging from large pharmaceutical companies to the smallest of biotech companies, from government agencies to academic institutions to address the COVID-19 global health care crisis.

Pfizer announced key advances in its commitment to protect humankind from this escalating pandemic and prepare the industry to better respond to future global health crises:

Anti-Viral Compound Screening

Applying Pfizer’s Long History in Vaccine Research Development Expertise to Finalize Agreement with BioNTech

Pfizer Inc. and BioNTech SE have entered into a global collaboration agreement to co-develop BioNTech’s potential first-in-class, mRNA-based coronavirus vaccine program aimed at preventing COVID-19 infection. In March 2020, the companies announced a letter of intent to collaborate and began working together at that time. The two companies plan to jointly conduct clinical trials for the COVID-19 vaccine candidates initially in the United States and Europe across multiple research sites. BioNTech and Pfizer intend to initiate clinical trials as early as the end of April 2020, assuming regulatory clearance. The companies estimate that there is potential to supply millions of vaccine doses by the end of 2020 subject to technical success of the development program and approval of regulatory authorities and then rapidly scale up to capacity to produce hundreds of millions of doses in 2021. For the terms of the agreement, please see the press release page of Pfizer’s website.

Analysis of Azithromycin as an Agent with Antiviral Activity

In an effort to share information that could benefit COVID-19 mitigation efforts, Pfizer researchers will publish a review in Clinical Pharmacology and Therapeutics which assesses published in vitro and clinical data regarding azithromycin as an agent with antiviral properties. This open access review may serve to facilitate the use of azithromycin in future research on COVID-19. Azithromycin is not approved for the treatment of viral infections.

Studying Pfizer’s Existing Medicines for Critical Patient Populations in Need

Pfizer Inc. and the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine’s Respiratory Infection Clinical Research Group are launching two new studies to provide insights on the interaction between S. pneumoniae and SARS-CoV-2. Pfizer is expected to finalize in the coming days, a research collaboration agreement with Liverpool to provide funding and in-kind laboratory testing support for this research. The studies will help demonstrate whether patients infected with COVID-19 have a higher risk of also developing pneumococcal pneumonia and if having both infections leads to more severe disease and poorer outcomes. Enrollment has already begun, and data are expected over the next few months.

For a comprehensive review of Pfizer’s initiatives, please click here.

Apple and Google partner on COVID-19 contact tracing technology

Apple & Google

Google and Apple announced on April 10 a joint effort to enable the use of Bluetooth technology to help governments and health agencies reduce the spread of the virus, with user privacy and security central to the design.

Since COVID-19 can be transmitted through close proximity to affected individuals, public health organizations have identified contact tracing as a valuable tool to help contain its spread. A number of leading public health authorities, universities, and NGOs around the world have been doing important work to develop opt-in contact tracing technology. To further this cause, Apple and Google will be launching a comprehensive solution that includes application programming interfaces (APIs) and operating system-level technology to assist in enabling contact tracing. Given the urgent need, the plan is to implement this solution in two steps while maintaining strong protections around user privacy. 

First, in May, both companies will release APIs that enable interoperability between Android and iOS devices using apps from public health authorities. These official apps will be available for users to download via their respective app stores. 

Second, in the coming months, Apple and Google will work to enable a broader Bluetooth-based contact tracing platform by building this functionality into the underlying platforms. This is a more robust solution than an API and would allow more individuals to participate, if they choose to opt in, as well as enable interaction with a broader ecosystem of apps and government health authorities. Privacy, transparency, and consent are of utmost importance in this effort, and the companies look forward to building this functionality in consultation with interested stakeholders. Apple and Google will openly publish information about their work for others to analyze.

Google’s Fight Against COVID-19 Includes $800M Commitment

Google

Google’s CEO, Sundar Pichai recently published a blog post announcing a new $800+ million commitment to support small- and medium-sized businesses (SMBs), health organizations and governments, and health workers on the frontline of this global pandemic. Google.org is also committing an additionally $50 million to the global COVID-19 response. As part of that support, Google will be matching up to $5 million in donations to the WHO’s new COVID-19 Solidarity Response Fund. Google also made a $500,000 grant to a team of researchers, epidemiologists and software developers working on HealthMap, a website that provides up-to-date trends of emerging public health threats and outbreaks. On 3/20 Google announced a $10M Distance Learning Fund to support organizations around the globe that help educators access the resources they need to provide high quality learning opportunities to children, particularly those from underserved communities. Grants from the fund to date: $1M grant to Khan Academy supporting resources to help teachers and students with remote learning, including localization in 15 languages.

Google continues to develop new resources to connect users to helpful information and resources, such as a global expansion of COVID-19 SOS Alerts and YouTube Information Panels, as well as homepage promotions around the world. Google is launching home page promotions, including a global “Do the Five” campaign to remind people to follow five simple practices to help stop the spread of COVID-19. Google also developed a website with resources dedicated to COVID-19 education and prevention. This launched in English first, with plans for global expansion.

Protecting users from misinformation and abuse

Google is removing COVID-19 misinformation across its platforms. Google’s Trust and Safety team has been working around the clock and across the globe to safeguard users from phishing, conspiracy theories, malware and misinformation, and is constantly on the lookout for new threats.  

Enabling productivity for remote workers and students

Google is seeing more people using the premium features of Meet, a Google video conferencing app, which was made available to all G Suite customers at no cost until July 1, 2020. Google shared tips and resources for remote workers of all kinds. For educators around the globe, Google created new distance learning resources, including a collection of training materials, Teach From Home Hub, a new YouTube Learning Hub, and a series of blog posts and webinars.

For a comprehensive review of all of Google’s initiatives to combat COVID-19, click here.

HP Mobilizes 3D Printing to Battle COVID-19

HP

HP Inc. and its global digital manufacturing community announced in a press release on March 24 that they are mobilizing their 3D printing teams, technology, experience, and production capacity to help deliver critical parts in the effort to battle the COVID-19 pandemic.

HP has produced more than 35,000 parts to date and growing, with partners and customers producing tens of thousands more. HP’s 3D R&D centers in Barcelona, Spain; Corvallis, Oregon; San Diego, California and Vancouver, Washington are collaborating with partners around the world in a coordinated effort to increase production to meet the most urgent needs. Initial applications being validated and finalized for industrial production include face masks, face shields, mask adjusters, nasal swabs, hands-free door openers, and respirator parts. HP is also coordinating with government, health, and industry agencies in numerous countries to ensure a synchronized and effective approach.

Some of the first applications being validated and produced include:

• Hands-Free Door Opener: Door handles are among the most germ-infested objects in houses, hospitals, factories, and elderly homes. This adapter allows for easy and more sanitary opening with an elbow. This hands-free door opener has been designed by HP’s Digital Manufacturing Network partner Materialise.

• Mask Adjuster: Many hospital staff are required to wear masks for long periods of time. This clasp is designed to improve comfort and alleviate associated ear pain.

• Face Shields: Face shields are one of the highest-need personal protection items. Brackets to hold the shield and comfortably fit the wearer are a critical component.

• FFP3 Face Masks: Effective protective gear is needed for medical providers to treat the volume of expected COVID-19 patients. HP is validating several hospital-grade face masks and expects them to be available shortly. One example of face mask has been developed by the Research Institute CIIRC CVUT and is being produced using HP Multi Jet Fusion technology and distributed by Škoda Auto in the Czech Republic.

Many more applications are in the testing and validation phase and are expected to begin production soon, including:

• Field Ventilator: 3D printed parts for a mechanical bag valve mask (BVM) that is designed for use as a short-term emergency ventilation of COVID-19 patients. This simplified design enables a robust and less-complex device, facilitating its rapid production and assembly.

• Nasopharyngeal swabs: HP has developed an investigational 3D printed nasopharyngeal test swab, designed for use in COVID-19 testing. HP has shared the swab designs with several premiere research partners for clinical evaluation. We are working closely with leading researchers at Harvard University and Beth Israel

Deaconess Medical Center to assist with gathering test data and to further refine the 3D printed swab designs, materials, and printing capacity. We are advancing fast with the goal of mass producing the swabs with HP’s industrial-grade Jet Fusion 3D printers.

To read the full press release, please click here.

Mastercard Partners With Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Wellcome to Speed Development and Access to Therapies for COVID-19

Mastercard

The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Wellcome and Mastercard announced on March 10 a commitment of up to $125 million in seed funding to speed-up the response to the COVID-19 epidemic by identifying, assessing, developing, and scaling-up treatments. The partners are committed to equitable access, including making products available and affordable in low-resource settings. The COVID-19 Therapeutics Accelerator will play a catalytic role by accelerating and evaluating new and repurposed drugs and biologics to treat patients with COVID-19 in the immediate term, and other viral pathogens in the longer-term. Currently there are no broad-spectrum antivirals or immunotherapies available for the fight against emerging pathogens, and none approved for use on COVID-19.

The COVID-19 Therapeutics Accelerator will work with the World Health Organization, government and private sector funders and organizations, as well as the global regulatory and policy-setting institutions. The Accelerator will have an end-to-end focus, from drug pipeline development through manufacturing and scale-up. By sharing research, coordinating investments, and pooling resources, these efforts can help to accelerate research. This kind of collaboration was a key lesson from the 2014 Ebola outbreak. By providing fast and flexible funding at key stages of the development process, the Accelerator will de-risk the pathway for new drugs and biologics for COVID-19 and future epidemic threats, ensuring access in lower-resource countries.

While antiviral drugs are approved to lessen the severity of seasonal flu and treat HIV, among other viral diseases, none have demonstrated efficacy against the current epidemic. One reason for the lack of effective treatments is that products may not have an immediate market, which can slow or prevent their research and commercial development. The COVID-19 Therapeutics Accelerator is designed to help by bringing together resources and expertise to lower the financial and technical risk for academia, biotech, and pharmaceutical companies, while ensuring that these products are accessible and affordable to people in low-resource settings. The expertise of pharmaceutical companies will be critical in identifying, researching, and commercializing successful drugs.

“We’re proud to join this crucial effort to combat COVID-19 in furtherance of our commitment to inclusive growth,” said Mike Froman, vice chairman of Mastercard. “This global challenge not only represents a risk to the health and safety of populations all over the world, but also poses a potential disruption to the economic vitality of millions of people, businesses, and organizations worldwide. Our experience with financial inclusion shows us the importance of building a network of parties who bring not only their capital, but complementary assets and skill sets to the table, and we welcome other partners concerned about inclusive growth to join this effort.”

For the full story, please visit Mastercard’s press page.

Intel & Lenovo Work Together to accelerate the analysis of coronavirus genome in vaccine search

Intel & Lenovo

Lenovo, the world’s top producer of supercomputers as well as PCs, is teaming up with electronic chip giant Intel and a China-based life science company in an effort to speed up analysis of the coronavirus genome and thus find a means to “save more lives” by possibly accelerating vaccine development.

“The epidemic of new coronavirus pneumonia affects the hearts of people across the country. Lenovo, as the world ’s leading HPC [high-performance computing] manufacturer, has been committed to providing computing support for life science research,” said Tong Fuyao, senior vice president of Lenovo Group and president of its Enterprise Technology Group.

“Big data analysis and health and life science experts from Intel and Lenovo will integrate our resources and expertise to help solve the serious challenges currently facing and advance the development of health and life sciences.”

Originally published on WRAL TechWire (March 2020). You can read more here.

Intel Commits $50 Million with Pandemic Response Technology Initiative to Combat Coronavirus

Intel

On April 7, Intel pledged an additional $50 million in a pandemic response technology initiative to combat the coronavirus through accelerating access to technology at the point of patient care, speeding scientific research and ensuring access to online learning for students. Included in Intel’s effort is an additional innovation fund for requests where access to Intel expertise and resources can have immediate impact. This is in addition to prior announcements of $10 million in donations that are supporting local communities during this critical time.

What It Funds: Approximately $40 million will fund the Intel COVID-19 Response and Readiness and Online Learning initiatives. The Intel COVID-19 Response and Readiness Initiative will provide funding to accelerate customer and partner advances in diagnosis, treatment and vaccine development, leveraging technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI), high-performance computing and edge-to-cloud service delivery. Through the initiative, Intel will help healthcare and life sciences manufacturers increase the availability of technology and solutions used by hospitals to diagnose and treat COVID-19. It will also support the creation of industry alliances that accelerate worldwide capacity, capability and policy to respond to this and future pandemics, building on Intel’s own experience in driving technology innovation in the health and life sciences arena.

The Intel Online Learning Initiative will support education-focused nonprofit organizations and business partners to provide students without access to technology with devices and online learning resources. In close partnership with public school districts, the initiative will enable PC donations, online virtual resources, study-at-home guides and device connectivity assistance. The Intel Online Learning Initiative builds on Intel’s long-standing commitment to technology that improves learning. It will begin immediately in regions with the greatest needs across the United States and expand globally.

The company has also allocated up to $10 million for an innovation fund that supports requests from external partners and employee-led relief projects, addressing critical needs in their communities.

Why It Matters: Intel technology underpins critical products and services that global communities, governments and healthcare organizations depend on every day. We hope that by harnessing our expertise, resources, technology and talents, we can help save and enrich lives by solving the world’s greatest challenges through the creation and development of new technology-based innovations and approaches.

Coronavirus Relief to Date: This technology response initiative builds on Intel’s prior announcements of $10 million in donations that are supporting local communities during this critical time. Those donations include 1 million gloves, masks and other equipment for healthcare workers, $6 million from the Intel Foundation toward relief efforts in local communities and $4 million from Intel and its subsidiaries around the globe.

Salesforce Efforts to Help Those Affected by COVID-19

Salesforce

To support the global response to COVID-19, Salesforce has donated $3 million to UCSF’s COVID-19 Response Fund, the CDC Foundation’s Emergency Response Fund and San Francisco’s Give2SF Fund. As always, the company is also matching employee donations to eligible organizations.

Salesforce is also making some of its technology available for free for a period of time to help its customers and partners navigate through the crisis.The company launched Salesforce Care rapid response solutions to help companies stay connected to their employees, customers and communities. This is in addition to making Quip Starter available to any business and providing access to Health Cloud for healthcare systems experiencing an influx of COVID-19 requests. And organizations around the world are using Tableau’s COVID-19 data hub to see and understand data about the pandemic.

More updates on the initiatives Salesforce is taking during the COVID-19 crisis, please click here.

Apple Develops COVID-19 Screening App

Apple

Apple released a new screening tool and set of resources on March 27 to help people stay informed and take the proper steps to protect their health during the spread of COVID-19, based on the latest CDC guidance. The new COVID-19 website, and COVID-19 app available on the App Store, were created in partnership with the CDC, the White House Coronavirus Task Force and FEMA to make it easy for people across the country to get trusted information and guidance at a time when the US is feeling the heavy burden of COVID-19.

The COVID-19 app and website allow users to answer a series of questions around risk factors, recent exposure and symptoms for themselves or a loved one. In turn, they will receive CDC recommendations on next steps, including guidance on social distancing and self-isolating, how to closely monitor symptoms, whether or not a test is recommended at this time, and when to contact a medical provider. This new screening tool is designed to be a resource for individuals and does not replace instructions from healthcare providers or guidance from state and local health authorities.

Along with the new COVID-19 app and website, customers across the US may also ask Siri, “How do I know if I have coronavirus?” to access guidance and resources from the CDC and a curated collection of telehealth apps available on the App Store. This week, travelers landing at select international airports throughout the US started receiving notifications on their iPhone to remind them of current CDC guidance to stay home and monitor their health.

Consistent with Apple’s strong dedication to user privacy, the COVID-19 app and website were built to keep all user data private and secure. The tools do not require a sign-in or association with a user’s Apple ID, and users’ individual responses will not be sent to Apple or any government organization.

Although the screen tool is a resource to evaluate level of risk and recognizing when symptoms are severe, it is not meant to replace any guidelines or instructions from health officials. To learn more about Apple’s new app release, please see here.

Microsoft’s COVID-19 Assessment Bot Eliminates Bottlenecks

Microsoft

Microsoft is offering its Healthcare Bot service, powered by Microsoft Azure, to organizations on the frontlines of the COVID-19 response to help screen patients for potential infection and care. One such organization is the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), which recently released a COVID-19 assessment bot that can quickly assess the symptoms and risk factors for people worried about infection, provide information and suggest a next course of action, such as contacting a medical provider or, for those who do not need in-person medical care, managing the illness safely at home.

The bot, which utilizes Microsoft’s Healthcare Bot service, is available on the CDC website.

Public health organizations, hospitals and others on the frontlines of the COVID-19 response need to be able to respond to inquiries, provide the public with up-to-date outbreak information, track exposure, quickly triage new cases and guide next steps.  Many have expressed great concern about the overwhelming demand COVID-19 is creating on resources such as urgent, emergency and nursing care.

In particular, the need to screen patients with any number of cold or flu-like symptoms — to determine who has high enough risk factors to need access to limited medical resources and which people may more safely care for themselves at home — is a bottleneck that threatens to overwhelm health systems coping with the crisis.

Microsoft’s Healthcare Bot service is one solution that uses artificial intelligence (AI) to help the CDC and other frontline organizations respond to these inquiries, freeing up doctors, nurses, administrators and other healthcare professionals to provide critical care to those who need it.

The Healthcare Bot service is a scalable Azure-based public cloud service that allows organizations to quickly build and deploy an AI-powered bot for websites or applications that can offer patients or the general public personalized access to health-related information through a natural conversation experience. It can be easily customized to suit an organization’s own scenarios and protocols.

To read more about Microsoft’s Healthcare Bot service visit Microsoft’s Official Blog

HanesBrands To Manufacture Cotton Masks To Help Overcome the COVID-19 Pandemic

Hanesbrands

HanesBrands Inc. announced that it will begin producing FDA-approved cotton masks at some of its factories in Latin America as part of a federal contract to combat a national shortage of face masks resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic.

The company joined a cooperative consortium of other apparel manufacturers, led by Parkdale Mills America, that are dedicating manufacturing capacity to meet U.S. demand for masks. HanesBrands expects to produce about 1.5 million masks weekly, and the consortium as a whole is expected to ramp up production of five to six million masks weekly using HanesBrands’ design and patterns.

The announcement came Saturday, March 21, during President Donald Trump’s media briefing about the federal government’s response. The company went from negotiating a contract with the federal government to beginning production in less than a week, according to a company spokesman.

Using U.S.-grown cotton, the masks are being produced in Hanesbrands’ sewing factories in El Salvador, Honduras and the Dominican Republic.

These factories would normally be producing T-shirts, underwear, socks, sweatpants and sweatshirts

For more information, please see here