Features

PARIS — False claims targeting billionaire philanthropist Bill Gates are gaining traction online since the beginning of the coronavirus outbreak, with experts warning they could hamper efforts to curb the virus.

Doctored photos and fabricated news articles crafted by conspiracy theorists — shared thousands of times on social media platforms and messaging apps, in various languages — have gone as far as accusing the Microsoft founder of creating the outbreak. 

Gates, who has pledged $250 million to efforts to fight the pandemic, is the latest in a string of online targets despite the World Health Organisation's efforts to fight what it called an "infodemic" — misinformation fanned by panic and confusion about the virus.

In recent months, 5G networks and Hungarian-American billionaire George Soros have also been blamed for creating COVID-19, which has killed more than 315,000 people around the world.

"Bill Gates has always been a target of specific conspiracy communities," said Rory Smith, research manager at First Draft, a non-profit that provides research and training for journalists.

Gates — whose eponymous foundation has spent billions of dollars improving healthcare in developing countries over the past 20 years — has become "a kind of abstract boogeyman", said Whitney Phillips, an assistant professor at New York's Syracuse University, where she teaches digital ethics. 

A video accusing Gates of wanting "to eliminate 15 per cent of the population" through vaccination and electronic microchips has racked up nearly two million views on YouTube.

Similar allegations "exploded" between January and April, Smith told AFP. 

Exploiting the crisis

Since the start of the crisis, AFP Fact Check has debunked dozens of anti-Gates rumours circulating on platforms like Facebook, WhatsApp and Instagram in languages including English, French, Spanish, Polish and Czech.

A number of accusations, including posts claiming that the FBI arrested Gates for biological terrorism or that he supports a Western plot to poison Africans, share a common thread. 

They accuse the tycoon of exploiting the crisis, whether it is to "control people" or make money from selling vaccines. 

"These conspiracies are powerful enough to drive down institutional trust around health organisations, and as a result, possibly drive down vaccination rates, which is worrying," Smith said.

Gates' vocal criticism of US President Donald Trump and support for vaccine development made him "the perfect scapegoat for a crisis that emerges on the intersection of technology and [medical] science," Kinga Polynczuk-Alenius, a social sciences researcher at Finland's University of Helsinki, wrote in a university blog post.

It is not the first time Gates has found himself at the mercy of conspiracy theorists. When Zika virus broke out in 2015 in Brazil, he was one of several powerful Western figures blamed for the disease. 

Other rumours claim that he is secretly a lizard, an old favourite among online trolls.

"He hasn't become conspiracists' favourite target, he has been [their favourite target] for a long time," Sylvain Delouvee, a social psychology researcher at France's University of Rennes, told AFP.

Predicted the pandemic

The recent explosion in false claims could be explained as a coping mechanism during the global crisis, Smith said.

"People are constantly looking for information to make sense out of this reality, and having these conspiracies offers a convenient way of having power over your situation," he said.

The pandemic has also provided fertile breeding ground for attacks on the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, particularly by anti-vaccine campaigners whose influential online presence was already brewing years before the virus emerged.

The charity's humanitarian work in Africa, where misinformation about Gates is particularly present, and financial support of the World Health Organisation — it is the agency's second-largest donor — have fed rumours of dark secrets and ploys for power.

Several widely shared posts point to photographs of Gates attending a "coronavirus conference" in 2015. Conclusion? He predicted the pandemic. 

In reality, he was meeting with a research institute that had filed for a patent to potentially be used for a vaccine against a different type of coronavirus that affects animals.

Like many scientists, Gates had already warned of an imminent pandemic in the years before the novel coronavirus outbreak.

Conspiracies creeping into mainstream

Gates has also come under attack from celebrities.

Conservative US television host Laura Ingraham claimed in an interview that Gates was developing "tracking mechanisms". She was referring to a widely misinterpreted Reddit post by the billionaire about "digital certificates" to show who has recovered, been tested or — eventually — vaccinated.

Robert Kennedy Jr, the anti-Trump, anti-vaccine nephew of the former American president John F Kennedy, has accused the philanthropist of dictating global health policies.

Meanwhile, French "Chocolat" actress Juliette Binoche sparked controversy when she posted an Instagram post blasting Gates and calling for the rejection of "a microchip implant for all".

Debunking misinformation is "not about saying that everyone is a good guy", said Delouvee at France's University of Rennes, pointing to privacy concerns around the race to build coronavirus tracking apps and governments' use of medical data.

The Gates Foundation has come under fire in publications such as The Lancet medical journal, which accused it of a lack of transparency over its financial investments.

By Julie Charpentrat

A big, comfortable and indulgently well-equipped saloon with a reputation as a quick and sporty mover earned over multiple generations, the Nissan Maxima is something of an unlikely front-wheel-drive sports saloon, but nevertheless a convincing one.

Not exactly a sports saloon in the mould of a compact rear-driven BMW 3-series, the Maxima is more akin to a larger Audi A6 or A7 four-door-coupe, and competes in a similar bracket as the Dodge Charger and Chevrolet Impala, as something of a dad-racer grand-touring saloon with an emphasis on personal luxury and performance.

Assertive aesthetic

Winner of the 2020 Middle East Car of the Year’s best Large Sedan award in the face-lifted guise that hit the streets in 2019, the current generation Maxima first appeared in 2015, adopting a noticeably lower roofline and more overtly aggressive styling than its predecessors. Larger and more indulgent than Nissan’s mid-size family saloon favourite Altima, the Maxima is, however, a different sort of car and is in some ways a less practical car than some of its smaller siblings in terms of luggage volume and rear headroom, owing to its rakishly low roofline. 

Not quite committed to being a so-called ‘four-door-coupe’ but with a lower and more coupe-like roofline than most large ‘formal’ saloons, the Maxima’s aggressively sporting appeal includes its long swooping bonnet, curvy Coke-bottle lines, broad wheel-arches that swallow its large 19-inch alloy wheels, and a short, jutting rear deck with a built-in spoiler. Mildly revised for 2019, the Maxima adopts a more contemporary version of Nissan’s V-Motion grille design and has a dramatically hungry look about it, with squinting, browed and sharp-edged wraparound lights with C-shaped LED signatures, gaping big grille and jutting bodywork.

Seamlessly sweeping

Taken out of service from most of the multi-brand Japanese manufacturer’s premium Infiniti vehicles in recent years, Nissan’s gloriously eager, smooth, high-revving and award-winning naturally-aspirated VQ-series V6 engine thankfully still has a home under the Maxima’s muscular bonnet. Mounted transversely, the Maxima’s 3.5-litre V6 is just the right engine to deliver so much power via the front wheels. With its long-legged revs and seamlessly progressive and silky smooth delivery, it doesn’t abruptly over-power the front wheels and minimizes the torque-steer usually associated with powerful front-drive cars.

Allowing one to dial in precise increments of power and torque with its exacting throttle control and delivery, the Maxima’s V6 builds up with an eager yet refined urgency. Responsive from idling to redline and with a generous reserve of mid-range flexibility for overtaking, the Maxima’s V6 develops its full 300BHP at 6,400rpm – just 200rpm shy of its rev limit – and achieves peak torque by a comparatively high 4,400rpm. Smooth in its own right, the Maxima’s engine is complemented with a seamless continuously variable transmission (CVT) that adjusts ratios on a sort of sliding scale.

Confident cruiser

Working to achieve best performance or efficiency for a given situation by varying ratios and keeping engine revs within the best band width, CVT delivers smooth, economical driving and low rev cruising and brisk acceleration with a slingshot feel, but can lack the interaction of a traditional gearbox. That said, pre-set ratios that mimic a regular gearbox can be used, while ‘sport’ mode optimises the Maxima’s CVT for improved performance. Though CVT isn’t usually associated with sports cars, the Maxima is more of a sports saloon for long bends and high speeds rather than ducking and diving through narrow switchbacks.

Accelerating through 0-100km/h in a smooth seamless sweep estimated at 6-seconds, and capable of effortless high speed cruising, the Maxima is at home on the open road. Refined inside and with excellent stability at speed, the Maxima is a comfortable and confident continent crunching long distance driver. Forgiving over most imperfections – including one particularly poorly maintained stretch of highway – and despite its large low profile tyres, the Maxima remains settled on crests and dips. Well insulating from road harshness, it can, however, feel slightly firm over sudden, small and jagged speed bumps.

Commitment and comfort

Unexpectedly sporty for a large and front-heavy front-drive saloon, the Maxima turns into corners with eager precision and plenty of grip, while its quick 2.63-turn steering is direct and well-weighted, delivering ease of use and just enough feel and heft. Well-controlling lateral lean, the Maxima is confident and committed through corners. Able to carry impressive speed into and through a bend, the Maxima’s grip defies expectations of earlier under-steer, while rear grip is similarly stoic in its efforts. Responsive, manoeuvrable and well controlled through corners, the Maxima is designed to deliver reassuring road-holding rather than playful agility. 

A driver-oriented car with a premium feel, the Maxima delivers terrific front space and comfort, with big, supportive, cosseting and almost throne-like part quilted leather front seats. Front sightlines and driving position adjustability are good, while a thick contoured flat-bottom steering wheel, clear-instrumentation and user-friendly controls and infotainment are similarly driver-oriented. Rear headroom is fine for most adults, and luggage volume is good, but both could be better if the Maxima is viewed as a traditional large saloon rather than a ‘four-door-coupe’. Equipment levels are meanwhile high and include numerous advanced driver-assistance, safety, convenience and infotainment features.

Specifications

• Engine: 3.5-litre, transverse V6-cylinders
• Bore x stroke: 95.1 x 81.4mm
• Compression: 10.6:1
• Valve-train: 24-valve, DOHC
• Maximum engine speed: 6,600rpm
• Gearbox: Continuously variable transmission (CVT) auto, front-wheel-drive
• Transmission ratios: 2.413:1-0.383:1
• Reverse / final drive: 1.797:1 / 5.25:1
• Power, BHP (PS) [kW]: 300 (304) [223.7] @6,400rpm
• Specific power: 85.76BHP/litre
• Power-to-weight: 181.2BHP/tonne
• Torque, lb/ft (Nm): 261 (354) @4,400rpm
• Specific torque: 101.2Nm/litre
• Torque-to-weight: 213.9Nm/tonne
• 0-100km/h: 6-seconds (estimate)
• Fuel economy, city / highway / combined 11.76-/7.84-/9.8-litres/100km
• Fuel capacity: 68-litres
• Length: 4,905mm
• Width: 1,860mm
• Height: 1,435mm
• Wheelbase: 2,775mm
• Track: 1,585mm
• Minimum ground clearance: 135mm
• Aerodynamic drag co-efficiency: 0.30
• Head room, F/R (with panoramic roof): 1,000/933mm 987/910mm
• Legroom, F/R: 1,143/870mm
• Shoulder room, F/R: 1,439/1,415mm
• Hip room, F/R: 1,376/1,340mm
• Luggage volume: 405-litres
• Kerb weight: 1,655kg
• Weight distribution, F/R: 61 per cent/39 per cent
• Steering: Hydro-electric assisted rack & pinion
• Steering ratio: 15.3:1
• Lock-to-lock: 2.63-turns
• Turning circle: 11.61-metres
• Suspension, F/R: MacPherson struts / multi-link
• Brakes, F/R: Ventilated discs 320 x 28mm / 308 x 16mm
• Tyres: 245/40R19

LONDON — An explosion in remote working owing to the coronavirus pandemic could see companies slash office space, saving them money but not necessarily improving productivity among staff, according to experts. 

Businesses allowing staff to work from home on a permanent basis, even as lockdowns ease worldwide, calls into question the future of skyscrapers used by multinationals which are seen as symbols of modern capitalism. 

Major financial districts, such as London's Canary Wharf and La Defense in Paris, remain extremely quiet, even as governments lift restrictions on social distancing and travel by public transport. 

Jes Staley, chief executive of British bank Barclays, has said "the notion of putting 7,000 people in a building may be a thing of the past".

"We will find ways to operate with more distancing over a much longer period of time," he added.

French car giant PSA, which makes Peugeot and Citroen vehicles, now sees remote working as a benchmark for tens of thousands of its office-based staff.

Twitter has indicated that some of its employees could do their jobs from home on a permanent basis.

'Work revolution'

"The revolution is going to come with a mindset shift," said Cydney Roach, global chair of employee experience at US consultancy Edelman.

"Companies have been debating on the future of work for 10 years, but people were really not very keen to pull the trigger and commit to it fully," she told AFP, adding that the "pandemic has proven that the technology is supportive of this kind of remote working".

Roach said "flexibility is going to take on a bigger meaning", adding that bosses should listen to employees' views on the matter.

Already, around 95 per cent of 107,000 staff at British advertiser WPP are working remotely.

Real estate developer Land Securities last week estimated that only 10 per cent of its office space was being used. 

Negative effects

"There will never be a back-to-normal," said Alex Ham, joint chief executive at brokers Numis.

"It would be a great shame if, having been through this virtual working that we were thrust into, we didn't make some permanent changes to the way we work."

A recent survey by real estate consultancy Cushman & Wakefield of 300 companies worldwide showed 89 per cent of them believed remote working would continue beyond the pandemic.

In a recent blog, professors Clare Lyonette and Beate Baldauf pointed out the advantages of home working.

"The majority of research highlights positive organisational outcomes... including cost savings, better productivity, improved recruitment and retention and reduced absenteeism," said the academics from the University of Warwick in central England. 

But they cautioned: "Employers should be aware of the potentially negative effects this may incur over the longer-term.

"For example, reduced wellbeing and loyalty to the organisation may lead to reduced productivity, which will serve to deplete any savings made from reduced office space and resources."

According to Roach, "real estate is one of the areas that cost businesses the most" but "just because of real estate exigencies in small spaces like Manhattan, skyscrapers will never go away". 

Corporate giants may however be tempted to reduce the number of their buildings to slash costs following the economic shock caused by COVID-19.

According to VPN provider NordVPN, some remote employees are working longer hours than they would in an office, affecting their work-life balance while not necessarily making them more productive.

NordVPN said US employees were on average working three hours a day longer.

By Jean-Baptiste Oubrier

The Blood of Flowers

Anita Amirrezvani

London: Headline Publishing Group, 2008

Pp. 457

This is an amazingly rich and polished historical novel, all the more admirable because it is Anita Amirrezvani’s first book. In “The Blood of Flowers”, a young girl tells her own coming-of-age story in 17th century Iran. 

Her story is a tribute to Isfahan, the legendary city where architecture and craftsmanship reached new heights during the reign of Shah Abbas, most especially its signature craft, carpetmaking. Her story attests to the importance of superstition, religion, and kinship in everyday life at the time. 

It also reveals the prevailing power relations between men and women, between the city and the countryside, and between the rich and the poor, which mostly work to the disadvantage of the narrator, until she learns to harness her impulsiveness. 

Born in a small, poor, but largely self-sufficient village in southern Iran, the narrator is a cherished only child raised by loving parents who had to wait fifteen years for her birth. The year she turns fourteen, considered marriageable age at that time, a particularly bright and ill-boding comet appears in the skies, and wise men begin issuing all sorts of dire predictions about the moral decline and calamities it portends. Soon enough, her father dies unexpectedly, and she and her mother are left without resources or remaining kin in the village. Most crucially, she will have no dowry. 

Sinking into poverty, her mother decides they should seek out their only kin, her deceased husband’s half-brother, Gostaham, in Isfahan. Though he is obviously wealthy, they are treated no better than servants. Yet, the girl is deeply impressed by Isfahan’s glory: “Every surface of every building glittered with ornament. It was as if a master goldsmith had selected the most flawless turquoise, the rarest of blue sapphires, the brightest yellow topaz, the purest of diamonds and arranged them into an infinity of shimmering patterns that radiated colour and light”. (p. 39)

The girl eyes an opportunity in their new circumstances, since Gostaham is a skilled carpet designer and master of the shah’s carpentry workshop. Having learned basic carpet weaving in the village, she is eager to develop her skills and lift her and her mother out of poverty and dependence. Gostaham recognises her talent and ambition and is eager to help her, but his greedy wife is reluctant and tries to thwart her at every turn.

 Eventually the girl is pressured into a temporary marriage which leads her into entanglements from which there is no easy exit. While her impulsiveness sometimes opens new horizons, at other times it leads to disaster. She is forced into a delicate balancing act between her desires and values, and what is forced on her by poverty and lack of social standing. 

On the one side is her pride, creativity, and ambitions; on the other, the need to have a roof over her and her mother’s heads, not to mention food. Eventually, this struggle leads her to maturity, but one keeps turning pages, eager to know if she will ever reach her goals of a real marriage and recognition as a master carpet weaver and designer.

Amirrezvani, who was born in Iran but grew up in the US, writes with great literary skill, human compassion, and a keen eye for detail. She embellishes her tale with lavish descriptions of architecture, clothing, and carpets, and also with stories within stories, told in the tradition style and related, if obliquely, to the on going plot of the novel. 

Her story shows the opposing sides of reality. Not far from the opulence of Isfahan’s mosques, palaces, public squares and bazaars, there are quarters of abject poverty, disease, and hunger. (The girl and her mother spend time in both.) The story debates the pros and cons of sigheh, temporary marriage. Even Isfahan’s treasured carpetmaking is subject to scrutiny, as the narrator notes the health hazards it entails, including permanent deformities: “Even the youngest knotters suffered aching backs, bent limbs, tired fingers, exhausted eyes. All our labours were in the service of beauty, but sometimes it seemed as if every thread in a carpet had been dipped in the blood of flowers”. (p. 410)

Still, it is the sense of beauty that prevails, not only of the grand monuments and lovely carpets but also the beauty of the human soul. In a particularly interesting author’s note and interview following the novel, Amirrezvani describes the extensive research she undertook, as well as her motivation for writing the book. She explains that in the thirty years of broken relations between the US and Iran, “knowledge of each other at an ordinary, human level has steadily decreased… One of my main concerns was to provide a more nuanced view of Iran than we normally see in the news”. (p. 443)

Amirrezvani also explains something that one wonders about in the course of the story: “The narrator of this novel is purposely not named, in tribute to the anonymous artisans of Iran”. (p. 437)

WASHINGTON — A specially formulated antimicrobial coating can keep surfaces clear of a human coronavirus for up to 90 days with just one application, a preliminary study said Friday, suggesting a new line of defence against COVID-19.

The paper by researchers at the University of Arizona (UA), which has not yet been peer-reviewed, found that the amount of virus on coated surfaces reduced by 90 per cent in 10 minutes and by 99.9 per cent in two hours.

Charles Gerba, a microbiologist at UA who was the study's senior author, told AFP the technology was "the next advancement in infection control."

"I think it's mostly important for high-use surfaces like subways and buses, because you could disinfect them but then the next people that come in there will recontaminate the surfaces," he said. 

"It's not a substitute for regular cleaning and disinfecting, but it covers you in between regular disinfecting and cleaning."

The UA team tested a coating specifically designed to act against viruses that was developed by the company Allied BioScience, which also funded their study.

The researchers carried out their testing on human coronavirus 229E, which is similar in structure and genetics to SARS-CoV-2 but causes only mild cold symptoms and was therefore safer to use.

The coating works by "denaturing" the virus' proteins — effectively twisting them out of shape — and attacking its protective layer of fat.

The colourless substance is sprayed on surfaces, and has to be reapplied every three to four months.

The technology behind so-called self-disinfecting coatings has been around for almost a decade, and has previously been used in hospitals to fight against the spread of infection, including against antibiotic-resistant bacteria.

A 2019 paper by UA researchers found that coatings reduced hospital-acquired infections by 36 per cent.

Gerba said that as a university professor, he and colleagues had been discussing ways to make their environment safer for students when they return from lockdowns, and antimicrobial coatings on door handles and table tops would be useful.

"There's a lot of them being developed right now, but hopefully when we start opening everything, they'll be ready."

TOKYO — Thousands of years ago, a group of people took a walk in what is now Tanzania. The footprints they left behind are now offering insights into ancient human life.

The group of more than 400 footprints was made sometime between 5,000 and 19,000 years ago at a site called Engare Sero, south of Tanzania's Lake Natron.

It's the largest group of human footprints ever found in Africa, and offers a glimpse at what humans in the so-called Late Pleistocene period looked like, as well as how they may have gathered food.

"Sites like Engare Sero form over very short time intervals, and so they capture snapshots in time of ancient humans moving across their landscapes," said Kevin Hatala, assistant professor of biology at Chatham University, who led the research.

"Given the rarity and value of this variety of fossil evidence, part of what makes our discovery exciting is its magnitude, with over 400 footprints preserved on the same volcanic ash surface," he told AFP.

"However, we have also been able to learn some really interesting things from these direct windows to the behaviour of the group that walked across the footprint surface."

Analysing the footprints was a complex process. In 2009, when the research team first visited the site — discovered by a local Maasai community — just 56 footprints were visible, exposed by natural erosion.

Three years of additional excavations revealed hundreds more prints, made by humans but also animals such as zebra and buffalo.

Analysing tracks

The prints were made in wet volcanic mudflow, which would have dried quickly into a hard surface, said Hatala.

That, combined with other evidence including the lack of overlap on footprints, strongly suggests the impressions were made by a group travelling together at the same time, rather than by individuals moving across the same area at different times.

The research team focused on "distinct trackways" where they could clearly discern stride distances and footprint length, looking for more clues.

Based on the size of the prints and the stride lengths, they determined the group included four adult men, 19 adult women and two younger boys.

There is some room for error, they acknowledge, with the possibility that the smaller feet and shorter strides they attributed to women could in some cases belong to children or adolescents of either gender.

The trackways also allowed the researchers to extrapolate the height of the people who made them, revealing some comparatively tall men among the group, including one standing an estimated 1.83 metres.

Skeletons from around the period in east Africa "have suggested generally tall and long-limbed body builds," said the study published Thursday in the journal Nature Scientific Reports.

"However, skeletal material from this time period and region is generally scarce, underscoring the value of the relatively large sample of anatomical data that is preserved on the Engare Sero footprint surface."

'Direct snapshot'

The make-up of the travelling group also offers clues about their lifestyle.

In modern-day hunter-gatherer communities, large numbers of women rarely move in a group, unaccompanied by children or a similar number of adult men, except when foraging for food.

The make-up of the ancient group implied by analysis of the footprints led the team to theorise that is what the group of women may have been doing.

"The behaviour itself isn't surprising to see in a human group from this time period," said Hatala.

"But the opportunity to witness the behaviour through this direct snapshot is exceptional."

Hatala acknowledged the theory remains just that for now, and more may eventually be revealed by further excavations at the site.

Some tracks exposed by erosion on one part of the site lead to areas still covered by sediment, offering the promise of further prints.

Excavation is on hold for the moment though, because the site is vulnerable to erosion and researchers are hoping to come up with a conservation plan before continuing work.

By Sara Hussein

PARIS — Europe and the United States have seen sharp surges in recent weeks of a severe immune disorder in children linked to COVID-19, health authorities reported Friday, sounding an alarm.

At least five children — three in New York, and one each in France and Britain — have died from the syndrome, and at least two other deaths are suspect.

Up to now, COVID-19 — with more than 4.6 million confirmed cases worldwide, and nearly 310,000 deaths — has largely spared small children and teens, though many are thought to have been infected without showing symptoms.

But the new illness, while still very rare by comparison, suggests that no age bracket is safe.

Europe has seen some 230 suspected cases of so-called paediatric inflammatory multisystem syndrome (PIMS) in children up to 14 years old, the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control said Friday.

Doctors in Bergamo, northern Italy reported a 30-fold increase in the incidence of severe inflammatory disorders among young children, with ten cases from mid-February to mid-April as compared to 19 during the previous five years, according to a study this week in The Lancet. 

In the US, where well over 100 cases have been identified in the New York area, health authorities have issued an alert for the mysterious illness. 

"Initial reports hypothesise that this syndrome may be related to COVID-19," World Health Organisation chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told a virtual briefing Friday, calling on clinicians worldwide to help "better understand this syndrome in children."

France's state-run health watchdog described the likelihood of such a link as "very probable."

Like Kawasaki disease, a rare condition that occurs in very young children, the new disorder can cause persistent fever, searing abdominal pain, rashes and a swollen tongue.

Also compared to toxic shock syndrome, PIMS leads to inflamed blood vessels and, in some cases, damage to the heart.

A nine-year-old boy who died in the southern French city of Marseille was said to have suffered "a neurological injury related to cardiac arrest" — in other words, a heart attack.

A delayed impact

Experts speculate that the virus triggers a violent response in the immune system, causing it to turn against, rather than protect, the tissue and organs of affected children.

"They had the virus, the body fought it off earlier," Sunil Sood, a paediatrician at Cohen Children's Medical Centre in New York, told AFP. 

"But now there's this delayed, exaggerated immune response."

PIMS is different, however, from the Kawasaki syndrome in that it seems mainly to affect older children.

"The population we are seeing are seven or eight through to 17," Karyn Moshal, a paediatric infectious disease consultant at Great Ormond Street Hospital in London told BMJ, a medical journal.

Only a minority of children affected by the inflammatory syndrome have tested positive for the new coronavirus, but that doesn't mean they didn't have it, experts say.

Evelina London Children's Hospital has seen more than 50 children with signs of the syndrome, said Julia Kenny, a consultant in immunology at the hospital.

"While very few tested positive for the virus on swabs, the majority tested positive for COVID-19 antibodies," which means they caught the virus without knowing it, she told BMJ.

Indeed, the surge in PIMS cases appears to lag several weeks behind the peak in COVID-19 infections across the general population, suggesting that antibodies may play a role in triggering the symptoms.

"In London, the peak [across the whole population] was estimated around the first or second week of April, and we think we saw the peak of these children this or last week," Liz Whittaker, a lecturer in children's infectious disease and immunology at Imperial College London, said at a press briefing on Wednesday. 

"What we wonder is whether this is an antibody mediated or delayed response to the virus that is happening several weeks after the infection," she said. "That would explain why these children don't test positive for the virus."

Researchers are groping for answers as to why some kids and not others get hit with the syndrome.

In adults, the strongest predictors have been pre-existing health problems, especially high blood pressure, but none of these applies to young children.

One theory emerging from the recent cases points to a genetic link.

In England, six of the eight first cases observed were in children of Afro-Caribbean origin, according to a study last week in The Lancet.

The boy who died in France was also of African origin, his doctor reported.

By Marlowe Hood

WASHINGTON — "Sharing economy" firms like Uber and Airbnb were seeing surging growth and predictions they would reshape several economic sectors. Then the pandemic hit. 

These companies are now bleeding more cash than ever, shedding workers and scaling back expectations for profitability amid heightened uncertainty about consumer trends and the economic outlook.

The sharing platforms had "tremendous momentum" in industries like transport and tourism and even apparel-sharing prior to the pandemic, said consumer markets analyst Steve Barr of PwC, which had previously predicted the sharing economy to generate $335 billion in revenue by 2025.

"I think there's going to be a very significant shift in consumer behaviour," Barr said.

One factor could be a move away from urbanisation in dense cities — a major force driving the sharing economy.

That could dampen the sharing economy "lifestyle" that had been building for people who opted to shun ownership, Barr noted.

Rideshare blues

Uber said in its quarterly update that it lost nearly $3 billion and its rides business was down some 80 per cent in April, prompting cuts to 14 per cent of staff. 

The rideshare giant said it has seen some "green shoots" in the recent weeks and is seeing strong revenue growth for its food delivery operation UberEats.

However, an IBM survey released this month found more than half of those who used ridesharing apps planned to reduce or stop using these services completely. 

"Riders are to continue to have a strong aversion to getting in a vehicle with a stranger for fear of infection which will not be allayed until there is a vaccine," said analyst Richard Windsor on his Radio Free Mobile blog.

Arun Sundararajan, a New York University professor who researches the sharing economy, said he nonetheless sees some room for optimism for ride-hailing firms.

"I think we'll see a shift to greater personal space control," Sundararajan said. "A lot of people will move away from mass transit in densely populated areas."

This could bring more business to ride-hailing services like Lyft and Uber or to "micromobility" platforms for bicycles and scooters, which the two companies also offer.

The researcher said, however, that it may take more time to see a rebound for "pool" rides with multiple passengers, and that the health crisis might slow the trend in which people give up their personal vehicles for shared rides.

Hit to home sharing

Leading home-sharing platform Airbnb has cut 25 per cent of its staff with the travel industry crushed, with some estimates of bookings down 50 per cent from earlier this year.

Sundararajan says things may not be so bleak for Airbnb, which has over the years learned to build consumer trust and allow people to host or stay with strangers. The startup has already unveiled a new sanitary protocol and guidelines on leaving spaces vacant between bookings.

"As people start to travel again, they will be oriented toward spaces where they feel they have control," he said.

"They may not want to pass through crowded hotel lobbies or stay in places where they don't know who was there before."

He said Airbnb might be better positioned than some hotel operators "because it doesn't rely on an extremely high rate of occupancy to make its business model work."

Rebuilding trust

As in other sectors, the sharing economy firms will need to rebuild consumer trust to get consumers back.

Sundararajan said these firms have an advantage because they have been working for years on helping change consumer habits.

"The platforms are better-situated to deal with this uncertainty and rebuilding trust because that's what they've been doing for a decade," he said.

But behavioral economist Lucas Coffman of Boston College said trust can be difficult, pointing to the "reputational" system of rating developed by online platforms.

"You also need to trust everyone who rode in your seat before you," Coffman said.

Some segments of the sharing economy may emerge stronger, PwC's Barr says, such as corporate jets or high-end black car rides.

"Safety is going to be the new experience," he said.

Saif Benjaafar, director of the University of Minnesota's Initiative on the Sharing Economy, said the platforms have been part of a lifestyle trend to on-demand, collaborative services that are extending to new areas such as medicine and education.

"There has been a shift in the traditional way of delivering products and services, and I think that will continue," Benjaafar said.

"I think people are getting used to the idea of going to an app and getting things whenever they need it."

By Rob Lever

Even if you are not an Information Technology (IT) professional or expert, you know that what makes your smartphone, tablet, laptop or desktop computer go is software referred to as operating system (OS). The main names are only a handful and together they rule the world of IT, and therefore in a certain way the world! They cover all machines, from the smallest mobile device to the biggest supercomputer.

They are – essentially — Microsoft’s Windows, Apple’s MacOS and iOS, Google’s Android and Chrome OS, and last but not least is the special case of Linux/Unix which is not the property of a commercial entity but is “community-owned”. Linux/Unix primarily is the brainchild of Linus Torvalds, the celebrated Finnish-American computer scientist.

This article is not a comparison, a description or an analysis of the above systems, but a mere reflection about one of them in particular, Chrome OS. 

Despite having currently only six per cent of the OS market share in the United States, the concept and the very design of Chrome OS present it as the one that makes perfect sense today. You would expect it to lead the market. Its strong point may not be the amount of functionality as much as it is its simplicity and its avant-garde simplicity.

It is based on the global and perfectly valid notion that nowadays you run most applications online and you even store your data and files online. Why then should you bother installing and maintaining software on your computer, or buy and service expensive, unreliable local discs for local storage? This is old, expensive and time-consuming. This is swimming against the tide.

With the stripped Chrome OS you go to the company’s equally celebrated web browser that – of course – is named Chrome, and you do everything from there, while being connected to the Internet. It cannot be easier. The formula is so simple, so efficient and so obvious that one wonders why Chrome OS has only six per cent of the market. It has all the ingredients, by design, to be a leader.

Given the processing power of even the most inexpensive computers today and the speed of the Internet, even software applications that are very demanding in terms of processing, memory requirements and storage can be used online without even a glitch.

I recently used SketchUp online to design a three-dimensional object that was then sent to a 3D printer. I didn’t need to download or install anything at all. All I had to do was to log in the application via my web browser, do the design and save it in my also online Dropbox.

Other heavy-weight applications that were unthinkable to work online a few years ago include Adobe’s Photoshop and Illustrator. Now you can use them online with the same ease and pleasure as if they were on your computer. For all these programmes Chrome OS would more than do the job.

If Chrome OS would be the ideal OS for the vast majority, there will always be special cases where it just wouldn’t. However, such situations are less and less frequent. Among them are the cases of server computers. Windows Server OS for the “common” servers, and Unix for the supercomputers are the solutions in these cases. In other words, Chrome OS would really be a good choice only for personal computing – not a small share of the world’s installed base of computers.

WASHINGTON — Facebook unveiled an initiative Tuesday to take on "hateful memes" by using artificial intelligence, backed by crowd sourcing, to identify maliciously motivated posts.

The leading social network said it had already created a database of 10,000 memes — images often blended with text to deliver a specific message — as part of a ramped-up effort against hate speech.

Facebook said it was releasing the database to researchers as part of a "hateful memes challenge" to develop improved algorithms to detect hate-driven visual messages, with a prize pool of $100,000.

"These efforts will spur the broader AI research community to test new methods, compare their work, and benchmark their results in order to accelerate work on detecting multimodal hate speech," Facebook said in a blog post. 

Facebook's effort comes as it leans more heavily on AI to filter out objectionable content during the coronavirus pandemic that has sidelined most of its human moderators.

Its quarterly transparency report said Facebook removed some 9.6 million posts for violating "hate speech" policies in the first three months of this year, including 4.7 million pieces of content "connected to organised hate."

Facebook said AI has become better tuned at filtering as the social network turns more to machines as a result of the lockdowns.

Guy Rosen, Facebook vice president for integrity, said that with AI, "we are able to find more content and can now detect almost 90 per cent of the content we remove before anyone reports it to us."

Facebook said it made a commitment to "disrupt" organised hateful conduct a year ago following the deadly mosque attacks in New Zealand which prompted a "call to action" by governments to curb the spread of online extremism.

Automated systems and artificial intelligence can be useful, Facebook said, for detecting extremist content in various languages and analysing text embedded in images and videos to understand its full context.

Mike Schroepfer, Facebook's chief technology officer, told journalists on a conference call that one of the techniques helping this effort was a system to identify "near identical" images, to address the reposting of malicious images and videos with minor changes to evade detection.

"This technology can detect near perfect matches," Schroepfer said.

Heather Woods, a Kansas State University professor who studies memes and extremist content, welcomed Facebook's initiative and inclusion of outside researchers.

"Memes are notoriously complex, not only because they are multimodal, incorporating both image and text, as Facebook notes, but because they are contextual," Woods said.

"I imagine memes' nuance and contextual specificity will remain a challenge for Facebook and other platforms looking to weed out hate speech."