One Robot A Day Keeps The Doctor Away

December 3, 2020

The Good News

An indigenous leader from the Ecuadorean Amazon is one of the winners of the Goldman environmental prize, which recognises grassroots activism. (BBC)
These are the charities where your money will do the most good (Vox)

“Reserving judgments is a matter of infinite hope.” — F. Scott Fitzgerald

“No winter lasts forever; no spring skips its turn” — Hal Borland

In India, One Robot A Day Keeps The Doctor Away

(Sunil Ghosh via Getty Images)

Mitra’s not statuesque, or even lifelike, but she’s still kinda cute. And as long as the WiFi isn’t interrupted, she’ll continue gliding around hospital wards in India with a chest-mounted tablet that lets COVID-19 patients and their loved ones see each other. Plus, because she can take vital readings and help in consultations — thereby reducing the risk of infection to medical personnel — she’s become hugely popular during the pandemic.

Mitra stands just five feet tall and costs around $13,600. She was developed by the Bengaluru startup Invento Robotics to assist in care homes. Initially, Indian hospitals enlisted the Mitra robots due to a shortage of PPE, and because they could be used for disinfecting floors with ultra-violet radiation and strong disinfectants. As the crisis continued, they became even more useful in treating COVID-19 patients.

Other robotic systems had been in use in hospitals long before the pandemic. One colorectal surgeon employed Intuitive Surgical’s Da Vinci XI. “This [remote control robotics system] helps me in performing difficult surgeries with 10 times more magnification, and 3D views. ‘Firefly’ fluorescence technology used with the Da Vinci robot lights up the blood supply to the organ, and helps differentiate cancerous from healthy tissue,” he said. “Though these systems are very expensive and have to be imported, their superior advanced technologies are invaluable in complex surgeries.”

As a range of other sectors began adopting automation to reduce costs or time, or to take on hazardous tasks, projections were made that India’s robotics market would grow 20 percent between 2017 and 2025. One startup, Genrobotics, collaborated with local authorities in the southern state of Kerala to adapt its spider-shaped robot Bandicoot to clean sewers and manholes — notoriously dangerous and unpleasant work that previously had been done manually. The head of Genrobotics said: “We found manual scavenging is a global issue, and there was no efficient tech to clean manholes.” Now more than 11 Indian states are using the world’s first manhole cleaning robot.

The Indian army has used Daksh robots equipped with x-ray vision and chemical, biological, radiological, and nuclear hazard detection mechanisms since 2011. By 2017, the automotive sector accounted for 62 percent of industrial robots, which were used to perform everything from welding to lifting heavy loads. India’s industrial robot sales have landed it among the top 10 countries for the annual installation of machines in industries.

India still has only about three robots for every 10,000 workers, but the pandemic has likely incentivized its robotic industry to grow even faster than projected.

The UK Gets The OK On A Vaccine

(Paul Ellis via Getty Images)

The UK has beaten the US and the EU to the head of the line in granting emergency use of a COVID-19 vaccine. Britain gave authorization to Pfizer’s vaccine on Wednesday, clearing the way for the first Western country to allow mass inoculations against a disease that worldwide has killed over 1.4 million people and continues killing 10,000 a day.
Britain’s authorization — for a vaccine co-developed by an American pharmaceutical giant — appears to be intensifying White House pressure on US regulators for not moving faster. EU regulators expressed concern that Britain’s review of the vaccine hadn’t been rigorous enough, and that the authorization was limited to specific batches of the vaccine, a claim that Pfizer denied and British officials didn’t address. American regulators said they lag behind — even if only by days — because they are virtually alone in reanalyzing thousands of pages of raw data from vaccine trials before approval.
Advocates of that approach say it’s the only way to minimize unintended damage, in lives and public trust, from vaccines not working. British and European regulators audit only occasionally, relying much more on the vaccine makers’ own analyses. Russia and China have approved vaccines without waiting for large-scale efficacy tests. (NYT)

No Confidence For Netanyahu

Israel’s parliament voted 61 to 54 Wednesday on a preliminary measure to dissolve the country’s turbulent government, which has operated over a year and a half with a largely dysfunctional unity coalition during the mounting COVID-19 pandemic and accompanying economic collapse. Negotiations continue among the feuding factions over issues such as the timing of what would be the country’s fourth election in two years.
The push to topple the coalition got a major boost when Benny Gantz, leader of the Blue and White party that shares power with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud party, announced he would support dissolving the government. Gantz had battled Netanyahu to inconclusive results over three previous elections, but agreed to join his rival in a coalition government last April as COVID-19 cases began to spiral. Gantz became both the defense minister, and an “alternate” prime minister scheduled to rotate into the top job in less than a year.
But after seven chaotic months, Gantz effectively declared the power-sharing effort a failure, accusing Netanyahu of bad-faith political maneuvers meant to prolong his grip on power. The proposed legislation to disband the government must move to a parliamentary committee before coming back for three more votes by the full Knesset. (WaPo)

Additional World News

U.N. chief calls on humanity to end ‘war on nature’ (NBC). Calling to end one war…
…while ending another war on drugs: U.N. Reclassifies Cannabis as a Less Dangerous Drug (NYT, $)
The nation learning to embrace flooding (BBC)
Hong Kong: Joshua Wong and fellow pro-democracy activists jailed (BBC)
Who’s backing the crackdown? The US and UK Are Helping Nigeria’s Violent Suppression of Protesters (Foreign Policy)
Ethiopia, U.N. Reach Deal To Allow ‘Unimpeded’ Access For Aid Groups In Tigray (NPR)
U.S. to withdraw some Baghdad embassy staff as tensions with Iran and its allies spike (WaPo, $). Trump continues his Middle Eastern evacuation.
Some tourism is risky business: Israel fears tourists in UAE could become Iranian targets (Axios)
Detained Saudi royal moved to secret site: European lawmaker (France24)
EU looks forward to Biden resetting trans-Atlantic relations (AP)
As if 2020 couldn’t get any weirder… 12 Years of Smuggling Women and Selling Their Babies Only Got This Guy 6 Years in Prison (Vice)

COVID-19

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I Beg Your Pardon, Literally.

The chief judge for the Washington DC federal district court, Beryl Howell, unsealed a 20-page document Tuesday that shows the Justice Department is investigating a “bribery for pardon” scheme at the White House. The unsealed document stems from the judge’s review in late August of prosecutors’ request for documents gathered for the bribery investigation.
More than 50 digital devices including iPhones, iPads, laptops, thumb drives, and computer drives were seized after investigators raided unidentified offices. In the court filings, prosecutors alleged that an individual offered “a substantial political contribution in exchange for a presidential pardon or reprieve of sentence.” Two individuals acted improperly as lobbyists to secure the pardon in the scheme.
It is unclear why Howell decided to release the filing now. However, the disclosure has unleashed a whirlwind of speculation with no definitive answers, because the heavily redacted document mentions no names at all. It does, however, come amid media reports that President Trump is considering granting numerous pardons before leaving office next month, including for his three adult children, son-in-law Jared Kushner, and personal attorney Rudy Giuliani.
Trump already pardoned his first national security adviser, Michael Flynn, barely a week ago. Flynn spent years enmeshed in a bizarre legal battle with the government; he pleaded guilty twice to lying to the FBI about his contacts with Russian officials, then later changed his plea to not guilty. (Guardian, NPR)

Additional USA News

‘It Has to Stop’: Georgia Election Official Lashes Trump (NYT, $). Public servants are done with death threats.
Biden will eliminate Trump’s travel ban, but its effects will last & Trump travel ban: ‘I might finally see my sons again’ (WaPo, BBC)
Setting the Biden-era cybersecurity agenda (Axios)
The Biggest Challenge Facing Joe Biden’s New Economic Team (New Yorker, $)
Testing patients or testing our patience? Stock Sales By Leaders At Coronavirus Testing Company Raise Legal Concerns (NPR)
Democrats spend millions to hammer Perdue, Loeffler on controversial stock trades (Politico)
A holy war against Warnock: Doug Collins’s Sacrilegious Attack on Raphael Warnock (Intelligencer)
Minority Rule Cannot Last in America (Atlantic, $)
US lawmakers unveil anti-slavery constitutional amendment (AP)
A Democratic branding divide: Barack Obama criticizes ‘Defund the Police’ slogan but faces backlash (Guardian)
The murder increase in the US, explained (Vox)

Park Rangers Have Been Up Sh*t Creek

It doesn’t look like Geoff Hill, inventor of ToiletTech, ever appeared on Shark Tank. It could have been a missed opportunity. The sharks always say the best invention is something that solves a problem that needs to be solved. And Boy, did rangers at America’s national parks think they had a problem that needed solving.
Hill was a doctoral student studying backcountry waste, and came up with his invention while working with rangers like Richard Lechleitner. For 20 years at Mt. Rainier National Park, Lechleitner had the grueling task of digging human waste out of backcountry toilets and carrying it down the mountains. “They’d put in these horrible toilets that just smelled terrible,” Lechleitner said. Maintaining them, he found, was appallingly dirty work.
At national parks across the US, from the peaks of Denali in Alaska to desert backpacking destinations in Utah and Arizona, managers have struggled to deal with this inevitable byproduct of people eager to get outdoors. Unlike a discarded Clif Bar wrapper, human waste carries a slew of bacteria and pathogens when left unbagged or otherwise unaddressed. That’s where Hill comes in.
His ToiletTech system separates urine from solid waste, which creates cleaner excrement, and less work for rangers. Beneath the toilet seat, excrement lands on a small conveyor belt, while urine flows through a separate pipe and into a septic field. When a visitor presses a foot-powered pump inside the bathroom, the solid waste travels from the conveyor belt into its own chamber. There it remains dry, lightweight, and free of viruses usually present in a wet barrel of urine-soaked waste.
Land managers have installed Hill’s toilets across the country to rave reviews, from Angel’s Landing in Utah’s Zion national park to Terwilliger Hot Springs outside Portland, Oregon, as well as at Mt Rainier. “If I was to win the lottery, I literally would go out … and buy enough toilets to work in all of the backcountry camps at Mt Rainier,” Lechleitner said of the new design. It’s not all peaches and cream, unfortunately — there are drawbacks. Waste from remote areas is still flown out by helicopter, very expensive. And the ToiletTech units aren’t cheap either — $4,000 per unit. Then there are the National Park System maintenance upgrades, which are notoriously, uh, backed up. (Guardian)