AI and the future of the Pandemic

By February 9, 2021 June 17th, 2021 Blog Posts

 

In the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic and the world grappling with the reality of these uncertain times, there is also some glimmer of hope. With the development of the vaccines by Pfizer and Moderna, comes the yearning of normalcy in the nearest future.

In the battle against the pandemic, there has been the deployment of Artificial Intelligence to lessen the burden faced by healthcare workers and providers. In recent times, we have also seen the speedy acceleration of AI tools. A recent example is the approval of an untested AI algorithm by the United States Food and Drug Administration. This has raised a lot of concern by medical researchers and the medical community as to the porous regulatory environment of Covid-19 AI Algorithms. How accurate are the reports and data provided by these AI Algorithms are some of the questions that come to mind?

In the same light, there have been record breaking advancements such as the largest AI studies in the history of Covid-19.  CURIAL AI, a new AI Covid-19 screening test collected clinical data for over one hundred thousand cases of patients in the UK. (The Lancet Digital Health). This also proved its high efficacy as compared with Polymerase Chain Reaction testing (PCR).

AI has also been harnessed in the management of the disease through tracking, preventing the spread, and forecasting the trend of the disease. Research has also proven the effectiveness of AI in contact tracing, monitoring cases, early diagnosis and curbing the spread of misinformation.

Despite the burning questions like how well AI tools can be developed to improve the Covid-19 situation or even predict the deployment of the vaccines and the need for immunization. The truth remains that this is an aha moment for AI as the world has seen the massive shift by technology averse and agnostic organizations alike. A Bloomberg report highlights tech companies like Amazon web partnering with researchers to help in identifying vulnerable populations. Also, BlueDot was able to filter through large amounts of data with the aid of machine learning to anticipate the spread of the virus in China.

With the help of AI, the manual intensive distribution and tracking of several batches of vaccines will be made easier through rapid processing of millions of data. The inefficiencies attached to the supply chain management of the vaccines can also be effectively managed.

In other words, thanks to Artificial intelligence, there is light at the end of the very dark tunnel that the world is currently entrapped in.

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