News Room

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. 

Are we left with the hard choice between long-term lock down and a collapsing economy or attempting to reopen the economy quickly and crashing entire hospital systems? Not necessarily.

WASHINGTON (ABC7) — 7 On Your Side has been speaking with doctors and experts to give the public a better understanding of what is occurring with the coronavirus pandemic.