Technology

To help answer your questions about the trial, we&ve created a step-by-step guide into the coronavirus vaccine trial that's currently underway in the UK

A lot of startups have answered the call for more personal protective equipment (PPE) and other essentials to support healthcare workers in their efforts to curb the spread and impact of COVID-19. One of those is direct-to-consumer 3D-printed eyewear brand Fitz, which is employing its custom-fit glasses technology to build protective, prescription specs to frontline healthcare workers in need of the best protection they can get.

Fitz Protect is a version of Fitzeyesore that uses the same custom measurement tool Fitz created for use via its iOS app, made possible by Appledepth-sensing Face ID camera on newer iPhones and all iPad Pro models. The app allows virtual try-on, and provides millimeter-level accurate measurements for a custom fit. Protect is a version of the glasses that still supports a wide range of prescriptions, but that also extends further like safety glasses to provide more coverage and guard against errant entry of any fluids through the eyes.

Health care professionals are doing what they can to ensure their face, mouth, nose and eyes are protected from any coughs, sneezes or other droplet-spreading activity from COVID-19 patients that could pass on the infection. These measures have more broadly focused on face shields that feature a single transparent plastic sheet, and N95 masks (and alternatives when not available) to protect the mouth and nose.

Fitz CEO Gabriel Schlumberger explained via email that the design for Fitz Protect came from working frontline doctors in nurses from New York, LA and Texas who were all looking for something to source prescription protective eyewear.

&More than 60% of doctors are glasses wearers, and current guidance is for them to stop wearing contact lenses,& Schlumberger explained, adding that Fitz Protect is also designed to be worn in conjunction with a face shield, when thatan available option, and provide yet another layer of defense.

&We heard from prescription glasses wearers that their standard glasses didn&t provide anywhere near adequate coverage, especially over the eyebrows, and in some cases they were adding cardboard cut-outs,& he said. &We leveraged our existing system to create something much better. &

Fitzmodel also helps on the pricing side because italready designed to be an aggressively cost-competitive offering when compared to traditional prescription eyesore. Their glasses typically retail for just $95 including frames, lenses and shipping, and are also offered in a $185 per year unlimited frame membership plan. For doctors, nurses and hospital staff, the entire cost of Fitz Protect is being waived, and the company is seeking donations to help offset its own manufacturing costs, which currently stand at around $100 per set, though process improvements should bring that down according to Schlumberger as they expand availability.

Already, he said that nearly 3,000 healthcare professionals have signed up to receive a pair in their first week of availability, so they&re working on adding scale to keep up with the unexpected demand.

The Wuhan Institute of Virology fiercely denies claims that it created the virus, and says that they are a ‘conspiracy& designed to ‘confuse& the public

Could the coronavirus crisis — and the way different countries have responded — make Silicon Valley VCs more bullish on European startups? Thatthe thesis put forward by Salman Ullah, co-founder and managing director of Merus Capital.

As COVID-19 spreads globally, he argues that countries with national healthcare — along with fiscal and monetary policies that balance the interests of citizens versus those of corporations — are better positioned to navigate the pandemic.

More broadly, investors prefer to invest in stable and resilient economies, and resilience depends on the ability of governments to respond to a crisis, let alone one on such an unprecedented scale. For investors, the strength of national infrastructure and political institutions in many European countries is a net positive — and a stark contrast to TrumpU.S.

Germany, where Merus has already made several investments, is cited as an example of a European country that has become more attractive to Silicon Valley investors in recent years. Not only is the cost of starting up in Germany lower, but Ullah argues therebeen a &cultural shift& amongst young people who now view startups as a viable career path, while the coronavirus crisis — and the German governmentresponse — is making ecosystems such as Berlin and Munich even more attractive.

&Your dollar goes much further in Europe, rents are lower, everyone gets free healthcare, essentially,& says Ullah during a call. &And the level of education and expertise in computer science in particular is no better or worse than in the U.S. And I think the pandemic has just kind of reinforced that.&

In a time of such uncertainly and the economic shock that comes with that, Ullah notes that in European countries like Germany, citizens aren&t worried about the personal cost of healthcare. He also points to the way German finance minister Olaf Scholz has pledged unlimited credit for businesses affected by the pandemic alongside an expansion of its short-time work scheme, which gives support for companies that are forced to reduce working hours of their employees.

A woman in Los Angeles first went to the doctor after noticing her toes turning blue as she got into the shower, only to find out that she had COVID-19

Uber argued in a recent court filing that former employee Anthony Levandowski committed fraud, an action that frees the company from any obligation to pay his legal bills, including a judgment ordering the star engineer to pay Google $179 million.

The court filing was first reported by Bloomberg.

Uberfraud claim was part of its response to Levandowskimotion to compel the ride-hailing company into arbitration in the hopes that his former employee will have to shoulder the cost of the $179 million judgment against him. The motion to compel arbitration, and now Uberresponse, is part of Levandowskibankruptcy proceedings. Itthe latest chapter in a legal saga that has entangled Uber and Waymo, the formerGoogle self-driving project that is now a business under Alphabet.

In this latest court filing, Uber has agreed to arbitration. However, Uber also pushed back against Levandowskiprimary aim to force the company to stand by an indemnity agreement. Uber signed an indemnity agreement in 2016 when it acquired Levandowskiself-driving truck startup Otto. Under the agreement, Uber said it would indemnify — or compensate — Levandowski against claims brought by his former employer, Google.

Uber said it rescinded the indemnification agreement several months prior to the inception of Levandowskibankruptcy case &because it was procured by his fraud,& according to the court filing. Uber revoked the indemnification agreement after Levandowski was indicted by a federal grand jury with 33 counts of theft and attempted theft of trade secrets while working at Google, where he was an engineer and one of the founding members of the group that worked on Googleself-driving car project.

Uber notified Levandowskicounsel on August 30, three days after the indictment, explaining that the indemnification agreement was rescinded &because it had been procured by Levandowskifraud, including his fraudulent concealment of the facts alleged in the indictment.&

Levandowski reached a plea deal in March 2020 with the U.S. District Attorney: one count of stealing trade secrets while working at Google.

Uber said it never received any benefits from Levandowski under the indemnification agreement, and had nothing to return to him as a result of the rescission, the company said in the court filing.

Levandowskiattorney pushed back at Uberargument.

&Uberassertion that Anthony did not disclose material information to Uber is false,& Levandowskiattorney Neel Chatterjee said in an emailed statement sent to TechCrunch. &The accusations Uber makes is premised on information they obtained as part of the due diligence process. This is the latest in a string of meritless theories Uber has set forth to try to get out of the deal it struck because it did not like the outcome.&