Snopes, an online fact-checking resource, examined a claim that many Floridians, and others made, that the photos used to show crowded Jacksonville beaches were in fact fake. They argued that photos from the past, before the pandemic were used to paint a false picture of the beaches, and illustrate what would happen to many public areas when reopened after the pandemic.

There is an extreme divide within the U.S. in beliefs of how to begin to reopen the country. One side urges the government to hold off on opening public areas, such as beaches, and allow social distancing to continue to slow the spread of COVID-19. The other side of the argument is that individuals have a right to use outdoor space, for mental health as well as exercise. They argue that individuals are in more close contact in the grocery store, than on a beach, and therefore they should be allowed to use this public land.

Snopes concluded that while old photographs of Jacksonville beaches may have been used in the context of unrelated stories, the photos used to show the crowding of the beaches after reopening this month, are very real. Snopes also conceded to some arguments that the angles and photo choice make the beaches appear far more condensed than they actually are. However, the photos are real and current, and accurately portray the state of the beaches.

As systems like parks and beaches begin to open in the future, there will be inevitable disparity in opinions. In an unprecedented crisis, there is no way to know how the public, or the virus, will react, and therefore it is unfortunately nearly a guessing game at this time.

On Tuesday, April 21st, President Donald Trump was up early, before 7 am to be precise. His first action, surprisingly, was to take to Twitter in a series of tweets attacking the media.

At 6:19 AM, Trump tweeted  “Watched the first 5 minutes of poorly rated Morning Psycho on MSDNC just to see if he is as ‘nuts’ as people are saying. He’s worse. Such hatred and contempt!” The next tweet came shortly after at 6:40 AM when he tweeted, “It is amazing that I became President of the United States with such a totally corrupt and dishonest Lamestream Media going after me all day, and all night. Either I’m really good, far better than the Fake News wants to admit, or they don’t have nearly the power as once thought!” The final early morning tweet was at 6:57 AM, and read, “I’ve had great ‘ratings’ my whole life, there’s nothing unusual about that for me. The White House News Conference ratings are ‘through the roof’(Monday Night Football, Bachelor Finale, @nytimes) but I don’t care about that. I care about going around the Fake News to the PEOPLE!”.

While Trump’s preference for Twitter, and his less than eloquent tweets are no surprise, many had something to say about his decision to tweet during this time specifically. While at heart, false media coverage would be a large issue, in the face of a world wide pandemic claiming thousands of lives each day, it seems trivial and even insulting to be tweeting about one’s television ratings.

Trump’s frequent debriefings with the Coronavirus task force often result in clashing with journalists, when any of his statements are confronted or fact-checked. In times of great peril, we need to come together in the face of a common cause, not grab onto our exclusive beliefs and rally against others.

As hospitals around the world continue to struggle to cope with healthcare shortages, some have begun enlisting those with little to no experience in treating infectious diseases to help meet the demand.  Doctors and nurses with expertise in other areas, as well as once retired practitioners, have stepped up to combat the spread and flatten the curve. 

When treating patients who have tested positive, healthcare workers must use extreme caution and follow strict guidelines for treating and interacting with patients. This has led some hospitals to employ an unlikely training method: virtual reality simulation. According to an article by CNN, over 300 doctors at Cedars-Sinai hospital in Los Angeles have already undergone training with help from VR technology.  Among the skills being taught by VR are how to assess a patient’s symptoms and how to perform CPR while wearing protective gear. Given the limitations of time and resources, the medical field has turned to innovative, emerging technologies such as VR to help fill the gaps. 

Many hospitals have utilized software from tech startup Virti, which provides detailed feedback and metrics on procedures that medical professionals need more practice within. The company signed up 70,000 new users in the past three weeks in hospitals and universities worldwide.  VR allows doctors and nurses to make mistakes in simulation and learn from them before they treat human patients. It can be extremely beneficial to doctors who are just entering into practice as well as those who have been retired for years. Even those who have been in the field in recent years may not necessarily be trained in how to safely treat infectious disease patients, such as those tested positive for COVID-19. Most importantly, VR instills a sense of confidence in trainees that is invaluable during these uncertain and scary times. 

Early clinical research on VR training has concluded that such technology can be effective in decreasing injury, speeding up processes, and improving overall results. In fact, a 2018 study determined that people trained by VR had “lower performance errors and higher accuracy compared to those trained by conventional approaches.” With that being said, VR training should never replace traditional training methods entirely. Virtual reality is mostly intended to serve as a complementary training tool or for when time and resources are limited. 

           Today Apple announced the release of its new second generation iPhone SE. Since the first iPhone SE was received with positive feedback, this new iPhone is meant to build and improve on the accessories that people loved in the original SE. Senior Vice President of Worldwide Marketing, Phil Schiller commented on the features of this new phone saying it includes, “industry-leading performance of A13 Bionic that enables great battery life…along with having a Portrait mode and takes Smart HDR photos.. [and also includes] Touch ID back in the phone (LeBlanc, 2020).” This iPhone will continue to go hand in hand with the platforms applications like the App Store, Apple TV, Apple Watch, etc. and will continue to use the headlight cable as its main adaptor to plug into your car radio.

The iPhone SE will carry its usual storage packages with 64GB, 128GB, and 256GB. In terms of colors it will be available in black, white and (PRODUCT)RED. Not to be confused with the regular color red, (PRODUCT)RED is a part of Apple’s (RED) partnership (LeBlanc, 2020).” This partnership assures at all profit made off of the sales of the (PRODUCT)RED iPhone will be donated toward HIV/AIDS program funding. Now being called the “affordable” iPhone by Apple, the starting price of the iPhone SE starts at $399.

To sum up this iPhone in the words of the people that have it trending on twitter. “Body iPhone 8. Internals iPhone 11. Camera iPhone XR. Only $399. And your dumb*** bought the iPhone 11 for $750 a month ago (@shaneisiconic).”

In this article it explores how much misleading information is put onto the news about the recent pandemic, It states one third of people have read and received misinformation on COVID-19. A survey that is spanning all around the world comes as people try to get a hold on online falsehoods. Google and Facebook are pulling out everything they can to try and take down misinformation. Large news companies are still receiving backlash that they are not doing enough in monitoring the information. Oxford University pulled from 8,500 people across six different countries. It showed that Spain and Argentina where over 40 percent of those polled said they had seen false information. Forty Percent is a very high number to be seeing false information on something so serious. In the US a whopping thirty three percent of people saw a great deal of false information. The U.S showed the greatest levels of polarization among the polled. We need to make sure all of the information we are receiving and publishing is correct. Misinformation especially on a topic like this can set people into a panic or make it seem like its letting up when in reality its not. People showed that the national government was the most credible source of news. With the recent pandemic tensions and anxiety’s are very high so we need to make sure what we are putting out in the world is correct and right. The fact one third of people are seeing false information is far too high, we need to limit it as much as we can.

Amazon has recently fired two tech workers after they became whistle blowers about the companies warehouse working conditions. The two workers, Emily Cunningham and Maren Costa, are both members of an Amazon workers advocacy group for climate justice say warehouse workers have insufficient protections at their job sites. Amazon responded swiftly noting that they “support every employees right to criticize their employer but that does not come with blanket immunity”. Amazon says the employees were let go do to repeat violations of internal policies.

Another Amazon warehouse employee was also fired but said they were fired do behavior and violating social distancing guidelines. Then just last month Christian Smalls, a central organizer for protesting against working conditions was also terminated for violating “multiple safety issues”. His termination sparked advocacy groups into actions linking together elected officials who pushed to get him reinstated.

It just seems like Amazon would rather push unruly workers out the door rather than listen to their sentiments and try to resolve some underlying work place conditions. Companies as big as Amazon have so much money under their belt they can give in to some of these small concessions. However, the company was even bold enough to delete emails from the Amazon Employees for Climate Justice group. These emails detailed an online meeting of over 1000 workers that was slated to tackle the current issues Amazon is facing.  Truth is Amazon cares about one thing and it isn’t their employees its their profit margins.

Image: https://www.wsj.com/articles/fired-amazon-warehouse-workers-accuse-company-of-retaliation-which-it-denies-11586891334

Article: https://www.cnet.com/news/amazon-fires-two-tech-workers-who-criticized-warehouse-conditions/

According to a recent article by CNN, Apple, and Google have partnered with authorities to help track exposure to COVID-19 with help from Bluetooth technology. The tech giants announced Friday that they had been working on a platform to enable contact tracing. This would allow officials to identify people who have been exposed to the virus and who they have come in contact with. 

The first interface will be built on existing public health apps and will be released in May. It will be compatible with both iOS and Android devices. In the coming months, a more comprehensive platform will be launched, which users will be able to opt-in. Users who test positive for COVID-19 can input their results into an app from a public health authority, which will be fed into an anonymous “identifier beacon.” The information will then be shared anonymously with anyone who the user potentially came in contact with, who also have the service enabled.  Users are then prompted to upload their identifier records to the cloud, where they will be notified if they were exposed to anyone who tested positive. 

Authorities across the globe have credited contact tracing as one of the critical solutions to prevent the rapid spread of COVID-19.  This has led governments across the world, including Israel, Thailand, and Hong Kong, to utilize technology as a means of tracking exposure and enforcing quarantines. This U.S government has hopped on the bandwagon, turning to Silicon Valley for solutions. This comes after the government announced last month they were considering the use of cellphone location data to help track the spread of COVID-19. In fact, some companies used location tracking technology to track spring breakers who ignored social distancing warnings in Florida. North Dakota went as far as to launch its own platform, created by developers of the Bison tracking app, in hopes of improving the state’s contact tracing efforts. 

Privacy advocates have criticized the use of contact tracing technology out of fear it could be used as a surveillance tool once the pandemic ends. Tech experts have also expressed doubts about the effectiveness of Bluetooth enabled contact tracing. Apple and Google have ensured customers that privacy will be the central focus of their contact tracing efforts. Users will be required to provide explicit consent for the platform to work, and no information that could potentially identify users will be collected.