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California Can Tackle the COVID-19 Testing Problem With Technology and Entrepreneurship

WAXWORD

by Sharon Waxman | April 6, 2020 @ 8:00 AM

What keeps troubling me in all this is the lack of coordination with the most obvious actors who can drive positive change: technologists

Hat-tip to California Gov. Gavin Newsom, who this weekend admitted what he’d been avoiding in his public remarks during the pandemic lockdown thus far: We’ve failed dismally on testing patients to confirm a diagnosis of COVID-19. “I own that,” he said during his daily press briefing, addressing the testing issue. “I have a responsibility as your governor to do better.”

With the entire of state of 40 million people entering a fourth week in lockdown, yes, he does. And it starts with that admission.

Why does it matter? Despite the benefit of early stay-at-home orders in the most populous state in the union, we have no prayer of leaving our homes and going back to work, sending our kids back to school and getting the economy restarted until we have widespread testing. We simply must know where infection is highest, where immunity might be emerging, where clusters of infection are rife and also where infection is low or on the decline.

We still don’t know what we don’t know because we don’t have testing.

Also Read: Can Social Media and Technology Come to the Rescue in a Pandemic?

Ask yourself: Have you heard anyone tell you when to expect the coronavirus peak in California? Unlike New York, where Governor Andrew Cuomo has projected mid-April? No you haven’t, because we just don’t know.

On Saturday, Newsom said 126,700 people had been tested in California, a state of nearly 40 million people. Of those who have been tested, 13,000 were still awaiting results. (For comparison: As of Saturday, New York state reported 122,031 confirmed cases of COVID-19 from 302,280 tests.)

But Newsom said that he had formed a task force of private and public leaders that, he promised, will turn this situation around. “We are now in a position where I can confidently say it’s a new day,” Newsom said.

Are we? Newsom declined to say when the new testing will kick in, and how many people will be able to be tested.

He announced a new partnership with University of California campuses in Davis and San Diego to set up between five to seven testing hubs. The new task force will be led by Paul Markovich, president and CEO of Blue Shield of California, and Dr. Charity Dean, assistant director of the state Public Health Department. Plus, he said Illinois-based Abbott Laboratories had committed to setting up 75 testing sites throughout the state. (No date offered.)

He also said researchers at Stanford University were close to getting approval for an antibody test that would tell not just whether someone has the virus, but also if they are immune. A spokeswoman for Stanford’s School of Medicine said one test is being performed as part of a study and another will be launched in its lab shortly.

What keeps troubling me in all this is the lack of coordination with the most obvious actors who can drive positive change: technologists. As I wrote last week, countries like Taiwan have successfully leveraged alliances of government, technologists and entrepreneurs to control the pandemic.

Also Read: Coronavirus Diary: Squeezed Slowly to Stop the Pandemic

Here’s one example of how Newsom is using technology: He announced that the state is launching a website, covid19supplies.ca.gov, to allow individuals and companies to donate, sell and offer to manufacture essential medical supplies, such as N95 masks and testing materials. Supply shortages have been blamed for inadequate testing in the state, while a lack of masks, gloves and gowns has left critical health care workers unprotected against the virus.

But this is true for every category of fighting this virus, especially testing.

We need to share information. We need to groupsource our problem-solving, and use the incredible technological prowess that lives in our own backyard. (For example: If we do get testing at scale, how can we ensure that the results are consolidated in a single database and shared with the public, so we can know in real time where the virus is most potent? The California health department’s website with paltry county-by-county data is sadly rinky-dink, and a far cry from what our cutting edge technologists could produce with direction from our leadership.)

You may ask: Why am I focused on California? Apart from being where I live and where the industry I cover is based, California has the chance to do what almost no other state can do: Act as a model for how to successfully respond to the coronavirus threat. California has the scale, the resources and should have the ambition. It may not have the tools of the federal government, which we all know by now that we cannot rely on to get us out of this mess. But it has a lot of levers to pull.

I believe in California, I always have. Let’s leverage the deep competence in this state, solve it here, offer it elsewhere. And move us out of this purgatory of ignorance and fear.

Celebrities Who Have Died From the Coronavirus (Photos)

The world continues to be upended by the coronavirus pandemic, with more people contracting COVID-19 as the days pass. While many have recovered, some have died from complications of the illness. These are the names of some notable figures from Hollywood and the media that we have lost.
Terrence McNally, a four-time Tony Award-winning playwright, died on March 24 at the age of 81 of complications from the coronavirus. His works included "Master Class," "Love! Valour! Compassion!" and "Frankie and Johnny in the Clair de Lune," which later became a film with Michelle Pfeiffer and Al Pacino.
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Italian actress Lucia Bosè, who starred in such films as Michelangelo Antonioni’s "Story of a Love Affair" (1950) and Juan Antonio Bardem’s "Death of a Cyclist" (1955), died on March 23 of pneumonia after contracting COVID-19, according to the Guardian. She was 89.
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Chef Floyd Cardoz, winner of "Top Chef Masters" Season 3, died at the age of 59 of coronavirus complications on March 25.
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Mark Blum, who starred in "Desperately Seeking Susan," "Crocodile Dundee" and the Lifetime/Netflix series "You," died on March 26 of coronavirus complications. The veteran character actor and regular on New York City stages was 69.
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Maria Mercader, a CBS News veteran who worked for over 30 years as a reporter and talent director, died March 29 after testing positive for coronavirus. She was 54.
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Grammy-winning country music singer Joe Diffie died March 29 due to complications from the coronavirus. He announced his diagnosis just two days prior.
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American rock musician Alan Merrill, best known for co-writing and recording the original version of "I Love Rock 'n' Roll," died March 29 of complications from the coronavirus. He was 69.
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Popular Japanese comedian Ken Shimura, whose career spanned decades, died March 29 due to complications from the coronavirus. He was 70.
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Andrew Jack, a dialect coach who most recently was hired to work with Robert Pattinson on the new Batman movie, died March 31 of complications from coronavirus, TMZ reports. He also appeared in "Star Wars: Episode VII" as a member of Leia's resistance. Jack was 76.
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Adam Schlesinger, Fountains of Wayne singer and "Crazy Ex-Girlfriend" contribute, died at the age of 52 from coronavirus complications on April 1.
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Ellis Marsalis Jr., New Orleans jazz legend and father of Wynton and Branford Marsalis, died at 85 from COVID-19 complications, Branford said. "Ellis Marsalis was a legend. He was the prototype of what we mean when we talk about New Orleans jazz... He was a teacher, a father, and an icon — and words aren’t sufficient to describe the art, the joy and the wonder he showed the world," New Orleans Mayor LaToya Cantrell said also.
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Eddie Large, one-half of the comedy duo Little and Large, died April 2 after contracting coronavirus while hospitalized for heart failure. He was 78.
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Sergio Rossi, the Italian shoe designer, died at age 84 after being hospitalized with the virus, the brand confirmed in an Instagram post Friday.
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Patricia Bosworth, a stage and screen actress turned journalist who penned celebrity biographies, died April 2 from complications of the coronavirus. She was 86.
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Tom Dempsey, New Orleans Saints legendary kicker who was born without toes on his right foot and wore a flat shoe that he kicked with, died on April 4 from complications of COVID-19.
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John Prine, one of the most influential and revered folk and country songwriters of the last 50 years, died on April 6 at the age of 73 after being infected with the COVID-19 virus.
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Allen Garfield, who appeared in such films as “The Conversation,” “Nashville” and “Irreconcilable Differences,” died April 7 due to coronavirus complications, according to his sister. He was 80.
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Charles Gregory, an Emmy-nominated hairstylist who frequently collaborated with Tyler Perry on his films and TV shows, died of complications from COVID-19 on April 8.
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Hilary Heath, an actress and producer who starred opposite Vincent Price in horror movies in the late 1960s and early '70s, died in April of COVID-19 complications. She was 74.
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Rick May, a voice actor best known to gamers as the husky-throated Soldier in Team Fortress 2, died in Swedish nursing home on April 13 after contracting COVID-19. He was 79.
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Allen Daviau, a 5-time Oscar-nominated cinematographer, died April 15 at age 77. He frequently collaborated with Steven Spielberg, and worked on such films as "E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial" and "The Color Purple"
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Henry Grimes, celebrated jazz bassist, died on April 15 at age 84, according to WGBO. He worked with such legends as Thelonius Monk, Charles Mingus and Sonny Rollins.
'Knight Rider' and 'Magnum P.I.' producer Joel Rogosin died of coronavirus at the MPTF nursing home. He became the fifth person to die from COVID-19 complications at the facility.
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Rapper Fred the Godson died after contracting coronavirus, a representative confirmed to Complex. He wrote on social media of his diagnosis on April 6, but he did not recover.
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Art director Matteo De Cosmo, who worked on films including "Emergence," "The Punisher" and "Luke Cage," died of coronavirus complications. He was 52.
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Roy Horn, best known as half of the legendary Siegfried & Roy magic and animal act in Las Vegas, died on May 8 from complications due to coronavirus.

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While many celebrities who contracted COVID-19 have recovered, some have died from complications of the illness

The world continues to be upended by the coronavirus pandemic, with more people contracting COVID-19 as the days pass. While many have recovered, some have died from complications of the illness. These are the names of some notable figures from Hollywood and the media that we have lost.

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Sharon Waxman

Sharon Waxman, is the founder, CEO and Editor in Chief of TheWrap. She is an award-winning journalist and best-selling author, and was a Hollywood correspondent for The New York Times.