Re:Coronavirus may mean automation is coming sooner than we ...
by triceratops on Wednesday April 22, 2020 @03:03PM
(#22949009)
Uh...there's also option 4. We develop antiviral drugs that work against the virus, so that survival rates improve.
[ Parent
| on HN ]
Re:Coronavirus may mean automation is coming sooner than we ...
by dougmwne on Wednesday April 22, 2020 @03:39PM
(#22949371)
That's true, and would make the outcome more dependent on the quality of the county's healthcare system. Let's say we had an amazing antiviral that made the virus no more dangerous than the common flu. You'd need both testing capacity to rapidly identify who needed the drug, plus a ready supply of the drug so people could get treatment before their condition worsened. Rich countries could get back to a sense of normalcy, perhaps even quickly if the drug were discovered in the next month or two and were easy to manufacture. Poor countries without good healthcare systems would likely struggle and continue to suffer the worse effects of the virus for much longer till they could build up healthcare capacity. Drug discovery is normally a lengthy process and none of our current antivirals seem to be wonder drugs for this virus, so I think this scenario is unlikely.
Re:Coronavirus may mean automation is coming sooner than we ...
by cultus on Wednesday April 22, 2020 @03:28PM
(#22949262)
Not anytime super-soon we won't. Even fast tracked, drugs take a while and often don't pan out. Chloroquine and the one Gilead developed both turned out to be duds. You're engaging in the normalcy bias.