How can the world avoid another coronavirus pandemic? Data could be the answer, as Hong Kong university joins united bid
- Coalition of 20 founding members, including tech giants such as Tencent, Google and Facebook, as well as HKU’s medicine faculty, launches Trinity Challenge that invites suggestions
- Goal is to harness data from available sources, especially corporate stakeholders, for the common good, and learn from setbacks in current health crisis
A sewage monitoring programme, an early warning digital system for chest scans and a data-driven campaign to fight falsehoods are among answers to future pandemics as top universities, tech giants, leading businesses and NGOs launch a bid to harness data and protect people in a post-Covid-19 world.
A coalition of 20 founding members on Monday launched the Trinity Challenge focusing on data and advanced analytics, aimed at better identifying, responding to and recovering from future pandemics.
The group brings together tech titans like Tencent, Google and Facebook, charities such as the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, and academic institutions including the University of Hong Kong’s faculty of medicine and Trinity College, University of Cambridge.
The World Health Organisation last year launched a five-year programme of “triple-billion targets” which envisions billions benefiting from universal health coverage, better protection from health emergencies and advanced health and well-being.
What the Trinity Challenge is about is can we use data differently or better, or get more data from other places
The efforts come under the spectre of the coronavirus, which is still ravaging the world, infecting more than 28 million people and killing over 910,000. Hong Kong has been hit by three Covid-19 waves since late January, with daily infections reaching as high as 149 at one point, and the official tally currently above 4,900, with 100 related deaths.