The five years between 2013 and 2017 saw a 200% increase in the number of commercially-insured Americans diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease or early-onset dementia between the ages of 30 to 64. "While the underlying cause is not clear, advances in technology are certainly allowing for earlier and more definitive diagnosis," says a Blue Cross executive.

The data was collected by the Blue Cross Blue Shield Association (and its licensee Independence Blue Cross) in a report titled Early-Onset Dementia and Alzheimer's Rates Grow for Younger Americans. schwit1 shared their announcement: Among that group, the average age of a person living with either form of dementia is 49... The number diagnosed with these conditions increased 373% among 30- to 44-year-olds, 311% among 45- to 54-year-olds and 143% among 55- to 64-year-olds from 2013 to 2017...

The study also took a deeper look into early-onset Alzheimer's disease and found that more than 37,000 commercially insured Americans between the ages of 30 and 64 were diagnosed with the condition in 2017 — a 131% jump in diagnoses since 2013.

Though SETI@Home has shut down, "users with a fondness for distributed computing might take a look at Folding@home, which is trying to figure out the structures of proteins on the surface of the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus," writes Ars Technica. The coronavirus uses these proteins to latch on to proteins on the surface of human cells, a key step in its ability to infect them. Understanding the structure of this protein is a key to understanding the virus' vulnerabilities.

While it won't help in the production of a general vaccine, it can be extremely useful in developing therapies. Once we know where this protein interacts with its receptor on human cells, we can start searching for small molecules that could bind in this same location, potentially blocking this interaction. Alternatively, we can potentially generate antibodies that bind to this site on the virus' protein. Either of these options can help people who are already infected, as they can limit the virus' ability to spread to new cells.
Or, as their web site explains it, "The data you help us generate will be quickly and openly disseminated as part of an open science collaboration of multiple laboratories around the world, giving researchers new tools that may unlock new opportunities for developing lifesaving drugs."

Startup accelerator Y Combinator announced today that it has moved its demo day online, citing a "growing concern over COVID-19," or coronavirus. From a report: The demo day has historically drawn crowds of Silicon Valley elite, journalists and both national and international venture capitalists to watch more than 100 startups come out to the world. "While we won't be able to recreate every aspect of Demo Day, we'll try our best to create an amazing experience for our founders and investors," Y Combinator said in a blog post. Y Combinator's 30th annual demo day will be pre-recorded and released to investors on Monday March 23, per the post. Thanks to a mix of history and glamour, demo day is the culminating day of a YC startup's accelerator experience. It's a big audience full of check writers and fast typers, and at the least, they'll get a tweet or a couple of sign-ups. The move to remote, in some way, dims that excitement.

South by Southwest, the annual tech, film and music conference held in Austin, Texas, has been canceled due to concerns surrounding the COVID-19 coronavirus outbreak. From a report: Local government officials announced the update at a press conference Friday afternoon discussing the status of the outbreak and events in the city. Austin's Mayor Steve Adler said he had declared a local disaster in the city and issued an order canceling the conference. In a statement on its website, SXSW said it would "faithfully follow the City's directions." "We are devastated to share this news with you," organizers wrote in a statement on the SXSW website. The show must go on is in our DNA, and this is the first time in 34 years that the March event will not take place. We are now working through the ramifications of this unprecedented situation." Austin officials said there are no confirmed cases of COVID-19 in Travis County, where Austin is located. But confirmed cases around the world passed 100,000 Friday.

The number of coronavirus cases has reached 100,276, with 55,694 recovered and 3,404 deaths, according to the Johns Hopkins University Center for Systems Science and Engineering. From a report: The UK prime minister, Boris Johnson, said it looked like the UK would face substantial disruption due to the coronavirus. He said: "It looks like there will a substantial period of disruption where we have to deal with this outbreak." When asked what help would be given to businesses struggling due to the outbreak, Johnson said next week's budget presented "a big opportunity" for the country. He added: "You will be seeing in the budget next week all sorts of ways in which we want to be using this moment, the UK coming out of the European Union. All the opportunities that we have -- but also dealing with this particular challenge, coronavirus, and set in the general low growth the world is seeing -- to make some fantastic investments in the long term."

bobthesungeek76036 writes: COVID-19 has another victim: RedHat has cancelled this year's Summit event in San Francisco and it will now be a virtual event. "We are taking this precautionary measure after closely monitoring developments with coronavirus (COVID-19) and guidance from the CDC, WHO, and other health authorities," reads a statement on Red Hat's website. "We know you have questions, and we will continue to share answers as they become available. Stay tuned to the Red Hat blog for additional information."

The free, multi-day, virtual event will take place April 28-29, 2020. Attendees who were registered for Red Hat Summit will automatically be registered for Red Hat Summit Virtual Experience at no charge. Those who registered will also have the option to either roll over their pass to Red Hat Summit 2021 or receive a refund.

Twitter user Scott Bell is reporting that his uncle from Venice, California, has tested positive for the coronavirus. According to Bell, "he was skiing in the Italian alps with 6 other guys," 4 of which, including his uncle, now have the coronavirus. One is reportedly in a coma and two others are sick. Bell says his uncle "has not present any symptoms as of yet," but has chosen to self-quarantine himself. From the thread: A few days later they tested him and yesterday he found out he's positive. Meanwhile, they've told my aunt to wear a mask, stay 10 feet away from my uncle, and otherwise she is free to move about the community. And, she has -- to grocery stores, the hair salon, etc. [...] Believe me, I'm upset to hear that she did this. The crazier part is that they have not tested her, and will not, and again - advised her she is free to move at-will. This is how our health dept. is leading this effort. In an updated tweet, Bell says his aunt is now quarantined and the guy in the coma "is starting to improve."

Update: Patch is confirming the report.

Here's a screenshot of the thread:


UPDATE: A nurse from a northern California Kaiser facility issued a statement criticizing the CDC for delays in testing, and reporting that she is "currently sick and in quarantine after caring for a patient who tested positive."

You can breathe in harmful chemicals from tobacco use even in non-smoking venues because they are carried on smokers' bodies and clothes. From a report: Third-hand smoke -- the residue from cigarette fumes that sticks to surfaces and then wafts back into the air -- has previously been found indoors in places where smoking is allowed. To find out if third-hand smoke also pollutes non-smoking venues, Drew Gentner at Yale University and his colleagues monitored the air quality in a non-smoking cinema in Germany for four days, after first flushing it with clean air. Smoking is banned inside cinemas and other public places in Germany. They observed spikes of tobacco chemicals in the air just after audiences arrived, which decreased over time but didn't go away completely.

The polluting substances were probably brought in on the bodies and clothes of people who had recently smoked cigarettes or been near smokers, says Gentner. They observed larger spikes during movies rated for those aged 16 and above, most likely because the audiences were older and had greater tobacco exposure than those attending movies suitable for younger people, says Gentner. The amount of tobacco chemicals that people watching the films aimed at older teens and adults were exposed to per hour was equivalent to that inhaled while sitting directly next to someone as they smoke up to 10 cigarettes.

sciencehabit shares a report from Science Magazine: Whether it's calculating your risk of catching the new coronavirus or gauging the chance of rain on your upcoming beach vacation, you use a mix of statistical, physical, and social information to make a decision. So do New Zealand parrots known as keas, scientists report today. It's the first time this cognitive ability has been demonstrated outside of apes, and it may have implications for understanding how intelligence evolved. [...] The findings indicate that keas, like humans, have something known as "domain general intelligence" -- the mental ability to integrate several kinds of information, the researchers argue. That's despite the fact that birds and humans last shared a common ancestor some 312 million years ago and have markedly different brain anatomies. Previously, cognitive researchers have argued that domain general intelligence requires language. The findings have been published in the journal Nature Communications.

An Amazon employee at the company's Seattle headquarters has tested positive for the novel coronavirus, and has subsequently been sent to quarantine. CNET reports: The online retail giant has about 55,000 employees in the Seattle area, and reportedly said people working in close contact with the affected person have been notified. The employee went home sick on Feb. 25 and hasn't returned to work since, according to a message sent to Amazon employees seen by The Seattle Times. Amazon learned Tuesday that the employee had tested positive for the virus. So far, a total of nine deaths have been reported in Washington, with 27 confirmed cases in the state. There are more than 100 cases in 15 states as of Tuesday night.

The release of upcoming James Bond film "No Time To Die" has been pushed back from April To November due to coronavirus fears. "The 25th installment in the storied spy franchise will commence its run on Nov. 12 in the U.K., followed by the U.S. on Nov. 25," reports The Hollywood Reporter. "It was scheduled to open in North America on April 10." From the report: Relocating a tentpole and restarting a marketing campaign that was in full swing is a Herculean task but insiders say hundreds of millions of dollars hung in the balance decision of the ongoing cinema blackout in China and a downturn in moviegoing in markets where COVID-19 is a major issue, including South Korea, Italy and Japan. And there's concern that by early April, other markets could be impacted. "MGM, Universal and Bond producers, Michael G Wilson and Barbara Broccoli, announced today that after careful consideration and thorough evaluation of the global theatrical marketplace, the release of No Time to Die will be postponed until November 2020," read a statement issued by the three parties.

In its new date, No Time to Die has the advantage of going out over the lucrative Thanksgiving holiday in North America (many previous Bond movies also opened in November). The other major 2020 Thanksgiving tentpole is Godzilla vs. Kong, which debuts domestically on Nov. 20. As the coronavirus first began to spread, publicity tours for the movie in China, South Korea and Japan were canceled, and No Time To Die's release in Hong Kong was pushed back until April 30. Aside for the concerns over audience members, the letter said the ongoing coronavirus outbreak could seriously impact the film's box office, noting that the countries to have banned or restricted large public gatherings -- including China, Italy, France, Switzerland, Japan, Hong Kong and South Korea -- contributed some 38 percent of the total global earnings for the last Bond movie, 2015's Spectre.

Los Angeles-area officials have discovered six new COVID-19 cases in the county over the last 48 hours, prompting them to declare a local emergency to help free up federal and state funding. From a report: Kathryn Barger, chairwoman of the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors, told reporters Wednesday that she just signed a proclamation declaring a local emergency. "I want to reiterate that this is not a response rooted in panic," she said. County Supervisor Hilda L. Solis said the proclamation allows local officials "to further draw down resources from both the federal and state level of government." Health officials for the City of Pasadena and City of Long Beach said they, too, plan to declare a local emergencies later Wednesday. The new cases in Los Angeles County bring the state's total to 35, more than any other state, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. In Washington state, where at least nine people have died, there are at least 27 cases. There haven't been any fatalities outside of Washington.

An anonymous reader shares a report: After years of avoiding social media, drug companies are growing bolder about advertising on Facebook and other social networks, according to interviews with advertising executives, marketers, health-care privacy researchers and patient advocates. That is exposing loopholes around the way data can be used to show consumers relevant ads about their personal health, even as both social networks and pharmaceutical manufacturers disavow targeting ads to people based on their medical conditions. Ads promoting prescription drugs are popping up on Facebook for depression, HIV and cancer. Spending on Facebook mobile ads alone by pharmaceutical and health-care brands reached nearly a billion dollars in 2019, nearly tripling over two years, according to Pathmatics, an advertising analytics company. Facebook offers tools to help drug companies stay compliant with rules about disclosing safety information or reporting side effects.

But seeing an ad for a drug designed to treat a person's particular health condition in the relatively intimate setting of a social media feed -- amid pictures of friends and links to news articles -- can feel more intrusive than elsewhere online. The same opaque Facebook systems that help place an ad for a political campaign or a new shoe in a user's feed also can be used by pharmaceutical companies, allowing them to target consumers who match certain characteristics or had visited a particular website in the past. The ability of drug companies to reach people likely to have specific health conditions -- a far cry from a magazine or TV ad -- underscores how the nation's health privacy law, the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), has not kept up with the times. HIPAA, which safeguards personal health records, typically does not cover drug companies or social media networks.

The World Health Organization is warning that the novel coronavirus could be far more dangerous than the flu, with a mortality rate of 3.4%. The new estimates come as the U.S. death toll from the virus reaches 9. From a report: The global mortality rate -- which includes more than 3,000 deaths -- is many times higher than the "mortality rate" of the flu, which is less than 1%. WHO director Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said that is at least partly because COVID-19 is a new disease, and no one has built up an immunity to it. Still, Tedros reiterated the WHO's belief that containment was still within reach. "We don't even talk about containment for seasonal flu," Tedros said. "It's just not possible, but it's possible for COVID-19." Officials say they have learned the coronavirus is less transmissible than the flu, which is often spread by people who are infected yet don't have symptoms. That doesn't seem to be the case for COVID-19, he said. "There are not yet any vaccines or therapeutics, which is why we must do everything we can to contain it."

Tedros said he's concerned by shortages of masks, gowns and other equipment needed by healthcare workers to stop the spread of disease "caused by rising demands and hoarding and misuse." "We can't stop COVID-19 without protecting our health workers," said Tedros, noting that prices of surgical masks have increased sixfold.

A tally of the number of people tested for the novel coronavirus disappeared from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention website on Monday. From a report: The change was first reported by journalist Judd Legum on Twitter. The disappearance of the numbers comes less than a week after the first cases of the virus with unknown origins were reported in the US. In the past few days, six deaths due to COVID-19, the disease caused by the virus, have been confirmed in Washington state.

The coronavirus has found a crack in the nation's public health armor, and it is not one that scientists foresaw: diagnostic testing. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention botched its first attempt to mass produce a diagnostic test kit, a discovery made only after officials had shipped hundreds of kits to state laboratories. From a report: A promised replacement took several weeks, and still did not permit state and local laboratories to make final diagnoses. And the C.D.C. essentially ensured that Americans would be tested in very few numbers by imposing stringent and narrow criteria, critics say. On Monday, following mounting criticism of the federal response, Trump administration officials promised a rapid expansion of the country's testing capacities. With the help of private companies and academic centers, as many as a million diagnostic tests could be administered by the end of this week, said Dr. Stephen Hahn, commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration. But many scientists wonder if the moves come too late. As of Monday evening, 103 Americans were infected with the coronavirus in the United States. Six deaths have been reported. Dozens of patients, in several states, may have caught the virus in their communities, suggesting that the pathogen already may be circulating locally.

The case numbers are rising not just because the virus is spreading, but because federal officials have taken steps toward expanded testing. The persistent drumbeat of positive test results has raised critical questions about the government's initial management of the outbreak. Why weren't more Americans tested sooner? How many may be carrying the virus now? Most disturbing of all: Did a failure to provide adequate testing give the coronavirus time to gain a toehold in the United States? "Clearly, there have been problems with rolling out the test," said Dr. Thomas Frieden, former director of the C.D.C. "There are a lot of frustrated doctors and patients and health departments." Still, Dr. Frieden said he thought the situation was improving. Other experts, although supportive of the agency, were mystified that federal officials could have committed so many missteps. "The incompetence has really exceeded what anyone would expect with the C.D.C.," said Dr. Michael Mina, an epidemiologist at Harvard University. "This is not a difficult problem to solve in the world of viruses."

hackingbear writes: According to a World Health Organization (WHO) report, Chinese hospitals overflowing with COVID-19 patients a few weeks ago now have empty beds. Trials of experimental drugs are having difficulty enrolling enough eligible patients. And the number of new cases reported each day has plummeted from thousands per day to 125 cases on March 2. The report is unequivocal. "China's bold approach to contain the rapid spread of this new respiratory pathogen has changed the course of a rapidly escalating and deadly epidemic," it says. "This decline in COVID-19 cases across China is real."

The WHO team traveled to several cities including Wuhan, the hardest hit city. They visited hospitals, laboratories, companies, wet markets selling live animals, train stations, and local government offices. "Everywhere you went, anyone you spoke to, there was a sense of responsibility and collective action, and there's war footing to get things done," says WHO's Bruce Aylward. The question now is whether the world can take lessons from China's apparent success -- and whether other countries can imitate the massive lockdowns and electronic surveillance measures imposed by an "authoritarian" government (an assertion which real Chinese may not necessarily agree with from their daily experiences).

A woman that tested positive for coronavirus was "mistakenly released" from isolation Saturday, causing the mayor of San Antonio to declare a public health emergency in the city. Dallas News reports: The patient was one of 91 evacuees who were brought to San Antonio from Wuhan, China. She was released Saturday and was in the community for a little more than 12 hours before she was quarantined again. During that time, the woman checked into a Holiday Inn hotel near the San Antonio airport and took a hotel shuttle to the North Star Mall, said Dr. Anita Kurian of the city's Metropolitan Health District. She was at the mall from about 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. Kurian said the health department completed its risk assessment of any people the woman could have exposed to the virus and determined that everyone was at low risk, except for health-care personnel who were in direct contact with the woman when she was released.

The CDC said the patient had been treated at a local medical facility for several weeks after she returned from Wuhan on a flight chartered by the State Department. "At the time of discharge from the facility, the patient was asymptomatic and met all of CDC's criteria for release -- resolution of any symptoms and two consecutive sets of negative test results, collected more than 24 hours apart," the agency said. After the patient was released, a lab test was determined to be "weakly positive." The patient was brought back into isolation "out of an abundance of caution," the CDC said. "We simply cannot have a screw-up like this from our federal partners," San Antonio Mayor Ron Nirenberg said at a news conference Monday.

Texas Governor Greg Abbott also criticized the CDC, saying: "What the CDC did is completely unacceptable. It appears to be a case of negligence with regard to allowing this person who had coronavirus to leave Texas Center for Infectious Disease and go back into the general population. I think they understand the magnitude of the error."

A woman who recently traveled to Iran is New York's first confirmed case of the novel coronavirus (Warning: source paywalled; alternative source), New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo said on Sunday night. The Wall Street Journal reports: The woman, who wasn't named, is in her late 30s and contracted the virus while traveling abroad in Iran. She has respiratory symptoms and is isolated in her home, according to the governor's office. She isn't in serious condition and has been in a controlled situation since arriving in New York, according to the governor's office. "There is no cause for surprise -- this was expected," the governor said in a statement. "I said from the beginning it was a matter of when, not if, there would be a positive case of novel coronavirus in New York." A state official said the woman is in Manhattan. The report says there's been a total of eight other cases in New York City, but all of those people had tested negative.

"As of Sunday, 32 people in New York, including the one positive case, have been tested for coronavirus infection," reports The Wall Street Journal, citing New York state health officials. "All the other tests were negative." If the virus spreads, New York City health officials said there are roughly 1,200 hospital beds throughout the city that could be used.

Gordon Moore's 1965 forecast that the number of components on an integrated circuit would double every year until it reached an astonishing 65,000 by 1975 is the greatest technological prediction of the last half-century. When it proved correct in 1975, he revised what has become known as Moore's Law to a doubling of transistors on a chip every two years. Since then, his prediction has defined the trajectory of technology and, in many ways, of progress itself. Moore's argument was an economic one. It was a beautiful bargain -- in theory, the more transistors you added to an integrated circuit, the cheaper each one got. Moore also saw that there was plenty of room for engineering advances to increase the number of transistors you could affordably and reliably put on a chip.

Almost every technology we care about, from smartphones to cheap laptops to GPS, is a direct reflection of Moore's prediction. It has also fueled today's breakthroughs in artificial intelligence and genetic medicine, by giving machine-learning techniques the ability to chew through massive amounts of data to find answers. But what happens when Moore's Law inevitably ends? Or what if, as some suspect, it has already died, and we are already running on the fumes of the greatest technology engine of our time?