Mark Zuckerberg adds tech chops to COVID war, reveals new low-cost ventilator prototype

In an effort to scale up the fight against the coronavirus pandemic, Facebook co-founder Mark Zuckerberg revealed that he was working with Chan Zuckerberg Biohub to make a low-cost, single-use ventilator. Mark Zuckerberg's initiative comes amid the rising need for ventilators around the globe as countries grapple with the deadly COVID-19 virus. Detailing on the new project that he & his team at Stanford were working on, Mark Zuckerberg explained that they were 'racing' to design a low-cost, single-use ventilator that could be quickly deployed across the US and the world.

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Further, he said that the project had kick-started few weeks ago and could be an important step to address the shortages faced at the time of a pandemic. 

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Mark Zuckerburg's low-cost ventilator

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Trump halts WHO funding

The US has passed the peak on new coronavirus cases, President Donald Trump said Wednesday, adding this has put the country in a very strong position to finalize new guidelines on social distancing. More than 6.3 lakh Americans have tested positive for COVID-19 so far and total fatalities as on Wednesday were nearly 28,000, the highest for any country in the world.

Trump on Wednesday halted US funding to the UN body after alleging mismanaging the coronavirus crisis. Trump has blamed WHO's "very much sided" approach to China on coronavirus crisis, asserting that many people are unhappy with the global health agency and feel that "it's been very unfair". Trump said: "Today I am instructing my administration to halt the funding of WHO while the review is conducted is assessing WHO's role in severely mismanaging and covering up the spread of the Coronavirus.

In an obvious reference to China, he said: "Everybody knows what's going on there." American taxpayer provides about 400 million to 500 million dollars per year to WHO in contrast China contributes only 40 million dollars or less. As the highest contributor, it is our duty to insist on full accountability."

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