The Download from MIT Technology Review (April 6, 2021)

The CDC’s $1.75 billion sequencing boom may be throwing money at the wrong problem

The big idea: When Joe Biden took over the White House, his coronavirus task force decided the US should massively ramp up the use of powerful genomic sequencing technology to learn more about covid, particularly the rise of variants. The CDC got an astonishing $1.75 billion to spin up these efforts, and the US is well on its way to meeting its target of decoding the genomes of 5% of all positive tests.

Not what it seems: This sequencing boom means that experts now have a lot more information about where variants might be popping up. The trouble is, they can’t really do a lot with it. Important data are anonymized, held in private healthcare silos, or simply never collected in the first place. And without more, better data, these sequencing efforts are likely to be wasted.

For example: The CDC sequencing program won’t tell scientists whether new variants are making people more sick, because sequences are not connected to a patient record. It also won’t help them to understand whether vaccines work against new variants, because there’s no way to know if the patient has been vaccinated. And this isn’t easily fixed. Many of these issues are a direct result of the design of the American healthcare system. Read the full story.

—Cat Ferguson

We can still have nice things

A place for comfort, fun and distraction in these weird times. (Got any ideas? Drop me a line or tweet ’em at me.)

+ This Russian adaptation of Lord of the Rings is quite something.
+ Have a virtual snoop around some Scottish castles. (WSJ $)
+ It is genuinely staggering that these are ballpoint pen drawings, not photographs.
+ Rasputin by Boney M, played on some Tesla coils.
+ Try making this famous egg salad sandwich at home. (NYT $)
+ An angry octopus… or is it just playful?! (NYT $)
+ A special chair for needy pets.

The must-reads

I’ve combed the internet to find you today’s most fun/important/scary/fascinating stories about technology.

1 US vaccinations are now averaging over 3 million a day
Three-quarters of the over-65s have now received at least one vaccine dose. (CNBC)
  + What we’ve learned from one long, terrifying year. (NYT $)
  + Americans are relaxing at just the point when they need to be especially vigilant. (The Atlantic $)
  + The EU thinks it will have vaccinated most citizens by the end of June. (Bloomberg $)
  + Israel offers a glimpse of the post-pandemic future. (NYT $)
  + India recorded 100,000 cases in a single day. (NPR)

2 Facebook leaked 533 million people’s data and didn’t tell anyone
Bad. Really bad. (Vice)
  + Once again, someone tampered with an area’s water supply online. (Vice)

3 Google has won its decade-old copyright fight against Oracle
The US Supreme Court ruled that its copying of APIs from Oracle’s Java SE was an example of fair use. (CNN)

4 Asian Americans in tech are speaking out about the racism they experience
The “model minority” myth causes a huge amount of harm. (Protocol)

5 The co-inventor of NFTs does not like the way things are going
They were meant to help artists. Instead, they’ve become another get-rich-quick scheme. (The Atlantic $)
  + Some artists found a lifeline selling NFTs. Others worry it’s a trap. (TR)
  + The latest wheeze? Buying shares of video games. (Wired $)

6 Clubhouse gives Arabs a space where they can speak freely
For now. (The Economist $)
  + Clubhouse has launched a payments feature. (TechCrunch)

7 How QAnon turned a custody fight deadly
These are not happy or healthy people. (WSJ $)

8 Yahoo Answers is shutting down
Probably for the best, given it’s become overrun with far-right conspiracies. (The Next Web)

9 “Witchtok” is flourishing 🧙‍♀️
Witches are racking up more views on TikTok than #Biden. (FT $)
   + The rise and fall of an infamous TikTok commune. (Input)

10 Think you could design a better face mask?
Now’s your chance to find out—you could win half a million bucks. (The Verge)