Commentary: COVID-19 crisis reveals the extraordinary promise of bioengineering

Engineers at technology company Alibaba, for example, developed an open-source platform for tracking the spread of COVID-19, to help health authorities prevent and prepare for new cases.

FILE PHOTO: Baidu's company logo is seen at its headquarters in Beijing December 17, 2014. REUTERS/Kim Kyung-Hoon/File PhotoHoning such a process could help speed up the development of vaccines against other existing and emerging diseases, meaning immunity could be offered more quickly before an outbreak takes hold.

As well as prefabricated units, the hospital incorporated specialised ventilation systems and quarantine wards, which offer useful lessons for other regions coping with an outbreak of infectious disease, as well as other humanitarian situations. However, the current COVID-19 outbreak also exposes the gap between bioengineering development, and growing healthcare demands.

Coded gender biases in digital assistants like Siri, for example, risk reinforcing social behaviours and attitudes, while technologies such as drones raise issues including privacy, surveillance and individual freedom.

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