The TikTok Doc is In
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| The TikTok Doc is In | |
| Number | 3769 |
| Broadcast Date | APRIL 27, 2020 |
| Episode Length | 29:59 |
| Hosts | Tom Merritt, Sarah Lane, Roger Chang |
Twitter has made doctors and other medical professionals social media celebrities. But are they ready for it and can they help stop the spread of false and misleading medical information?
Quick Hits
- The Wall Street Journal's sources say Apple production of the next-generation iPhone is about a month behind schedule, indicating a later release than the company's typical September target. Apple also reportedly cut its July-December build estimates by 20%, as more production is pushed to 2021.
- On April 7th, WhatsApp implemented a limit on "highly forwarded" messages, allowing users to forward these on to one user or group at a time, down from five. Facebook announced that since the change, the spread of such messages has been reduced 70% globally. Facebook previously limited WhatsApp forwards to five recipients in 2018, which it said reduced forwards on its service by 25%.
- According to the analyst firm Canalys, in Q1 Vivo overtook Samsung in smartphone shipments in India, growing shipments 49% to 6.7 million units to Samsung's 6.3 million. This makes Vivo number two in terms of marketshare, behind Xiaomi.
- The Khronos Group released the provisional OpenCL 3.0 standard, the latest update to the open framework for programming GPUs and other compute accelerators. The new version reverts the core API to a fork of OpenCL 1.2, with everything released as part of the OpenCL 2 releases made optional components, giving platforms more control over which features to integrate. Khronos hopes to have the standard ratified by members in a few months.
- Bill Gates announced that the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation would turn its "total focus" to defeating the COVID-19 pandemic. This will shift the charity from its work on HIV, malaria, and polio research, and even the foundation's educational efforts will shift to focus on facilitating online learning. The Gates Foundation has the largest charity endowment with over $40 billion.
- Starting in May, CVS and UPS will use Matternet M2 quadcopters to deliver prescription medication to The Villages retirement community in central Florida. The Villages has more than 135,000 residents. CVS and UPS began drone delivery of medicine in North Carolina last November.
Top Stories
- Europe's General Data Protection Regulation went into effect almost two years ago, setting up a broad set of consumer data rights with fines of up to 4% of global company revenue. But a recent New York Times piece looks at the issues around enforcement. So far, Google remains the only large tech firm fined under the law, a 50 million euro fine for not properly disclosing to users how data is collected across services for ad personalization. The two largest fines, against Marriott and British Airways for data breaches, are under regulatory review. Part of the enforcement problem is that EU countries are responsible for investigations where companies are based, rather than centrally pooling resources across the EU. This means that Luxembourg, with a €5.7 million regulatory budget, is responsible for cases involving Amazon. Ireland, where Apple, Facebook, Google, LinkedIn and Twitter are based, is responsible for leading more investigations than any other EU country, but has not issued any GDPR penalties. But proponents of the law point to the law's benefits beyond penalties, citing increased awareness of data issues by the public, changes from major tech companies with requests to download and delete data, and Facebook's recent delay of its dating app launch over data collection questions from regulators.
- If you're worried about content running out during the COVID-19 pandemic, we're starting to see evidence of production resuming, with film and TV shoots restarting in Sweden and Denmark, Australia's long-running soap Neighbors resuming production soon, pre-production on the Mandalorian beginning for season 3, and Netflix filming in South Korea and Iceland. In fact, Netflix doesn't expect to have their 2020 content schedule effected. Chief content officer Ted Sarandos said 2020 content is largely in post-production. Since Netflix releases entire seasons at once, most series are shot well in advance of release. Netflix currently has over 200 projects being worked on remotely, with plans to release more content in 2020 than 2019.
- Google announced the 2nd generation Pixel Buds back in October, and the $179 wireless earbuds are now available. Reviews found the design a major improvement from the first generation, with solid fit and good, although not class leading, sound quality and mics. The buds don't have active noise cancelation, but do seal in the ear for better isolation, with an Adaptive sound mode to change the volume based on the environment. Battery life also was impressive at 5 hours given their smaller size, with an additional 19 hours with the wireless charging case. Hands free Google Assistant integration worked well, even if responses were slower than expected. On the software side, Google's Fast Pair worked well, but reviews criticized the Pixel Buds app for not supporting EQ adjustments or customizing touch controls.
- Amazon announced a pilot program in the US, UK, China, and Japan to verify third-party sellers to help reduce fraudulent sellers and listings on its platform. The program initially used in-person interviews and now switched to video calls in light of COVID-19, and checks the sellers ID against their application to Amazon, with Amazon associates also using third-party data sources for additional verification. This pilot project is in addition to the use of machine learning algorithms and human investigators reviewing applications, which Amazon says 2.5 million accounts from listing items in 2019. Amazon says more than 1000 seller applications have already gone through the verification pilot project.
- Along with comprehensive testing availability, contact tracing is one of the essential methods countries like South Korea, New Zealand and the Indian state of Kerala have used to stop the spread of COVID-19 and loosen up restrictions on movement. These efforts were mostly manual but apps can help with contact tracing and several countries are firming up their plans. Sunday, Germany changed course from a centralized system to a decentralized system. That system tracks exposure and keeps anonymized encrypted data on devices instead of on a centralized server. Meanwhile, France has been developing its own centralized protocol, called ROBERT. The UK's NHS is also going ahead with a centralized approach. Australia launched an app Sunday based on Singapore's TraceTogether software. The Australian app got more than two million downloads.
Discussion
- Technology Review's Abby Ohlheiser has a story about all the doctors and other medical professionals becoming celebrities on social media as people look for information related to the virus. The article suggests that medical misinformation may have thrived on social media in part because medical professionals did not want to be seen as unprofessional. Also, it's not as easy as it may sound. COVID-19 is causing more of them to join in and it's a balance. You have to be funny on TikTok but be cringe and you lose your audience and your credibility. You also have to maintain ethical behavior. Not all doctors know all things. For example, Jeffrey VanWingen, a doctor who runs a private family practice in western Michigan made a video on disinfecting groceries. His first video ever got 25 million views on YouTube. But he gets a few things wrong.
- You should wash fruits with water not with soap.
- He did not clarify that you should not leave perishables in the garage for a few days.
- He has added links and updates to the description because YouTube doesn't let you edit and replace a video.
- Even within disciplines not everybody is as qualified as everyone else. Eric Feigl-Ding, an epidemiologist who now has a large following on Twitter has found his expertise and analysis questioned by other epidemiologists and even reliable individuals know they have outsized influence. Doctor Mike on YouTube says “expert opinion,” including his, is “the lowest form of evidence.” And becoming popular means sponsors come knocking, in medical cases, pharmaceutical companies.
- Technology Review's Abby Ohlheiser has a story about all the doctors and other medical professionals becoming celebrities on social media as people look for information related to the virus. The article suggests that medical misinformation may have thrived on social media in part because medical professionals did not want to be seen as unprofessional. Also, it's not as easy as it may sound. COVID-19 is causing more of them to join in and it's a balance. You have to be funny on TikTok but be cringe and you lose your audience and your credibility. You also have to maintain ethical behavior. Not all doctors know all things. For example, Jeffrey VanWingen, a doctor who runs a private family practice in western Michigan made a video on disinfecting groceries. His first video ever got 25 million views on YouTube. But he gets a few things wrong.
Mailbag
- I was pleasantly surprised that the VanMoof caught the DTNS's eyes. Electric bikes are all the rage in waffly Belgium (and Europe certainly). In the battle, consumers are the winners. There are so many choices and completely new & different types of bikes.
(I'm a VanMoof S2 guy. If you're wondering. And I know you're wondering! And, yes, a 205 cm / 6'9" guy can ride one of those.)
A couple of interesting ones:
In the category of VanMoof S3, there's the Cowboy (https://cowboy.com/ - how the hell did they get that domain - must be a story in itself). Cowboy is a Brussels startup that makes a sleeker, more sporty looking bike than the VanMoof. Removable battery is a big plus. - Sent by Rico
- I was pleasantly surprised that the VanMoof caught the DTNS's eyes. Electric bikes are all the rage in waffly Belgium (and Europe certainly). In the battle, consumers are the winners. There are so many choices and completely new & different types of bikes.
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| Preceded by: "Internet of Noises" |
The TikTok Doc is In |
Followed by: "In Amazon We Antitrust" |