News Room

In the space of 25 days, North Carolina’s coronavirus cases went from zero to more than 1,000 — and two local experts say it’s unrealistic to think the disease’s reach will slow dramatically in the next month. On Saturday, the state saw its fifth straight day of triple-digit increases. More than three-quarters of the state’s 100 counties have at least one case. As of Saturday afternoon, at least four North Carolina residents had died from the virus.

As operationsengineers who focus on how these supply chains work, we know that even in the best of times, the U.S. drug supply chain is relatively fragile. Shortages regularly occur, and the COVID-19 pandemic has the potential to further disrupt a system that patients depend on, sometimes for life or death.

During the coronavirus pandemic, our smartphones have become a lifeline, keeping us connected, informed, sane, employed, and socially distant. But they are also emerging as necessary tools to keep us safe and healthy. Smartphones’ cameras and sensors are increasingly turning them into fast, accurate, and low-cost devices for medical diagnosis—without their users ever needing to leave home.

Since 2012 a pandemic-planning tool developed by researchers at The University of Texas at Austin has helped public health officials plan for the consequences of a deadly and virulent virus. Now the pandemic modeler who developed the toolkit is studying COVID-19 and has built a new model to project the spread of COVID-19 across the U.S. She has teamed up with Dell Medical School to assess the potential impact of the pandemic in the Austin-Round Rock area.

How fast can the U.S. go back to work? Our disaster preparedness capabilities, and the supporting supply chains, will help to determine the answer to that question.