In a recent article from Scientific American called If We’re Not Careful, Tech Could Hurt the Fight against COVID-19, the authors shed light on how new technology attempting to help the worldwide COVID-19 pandemic can actually lead to more destructive results. For example, even if one’s intentions and technology seem useful, it can lead to more distrust in science and even scams. If someone with little previous medical or ethical experience attempts to rush a project on COVID-19, it can backfire and cause even more deaths in the world. In this article, the authors ask four questions that every person making technology on COVID-19 should think about. These four questions cover the aspects of needs, action, credibility, and impact.
The first question is “Are you listening to experts and vulnerable communities?” Answering this question should ensure that one has credible sources and can differentiate between helpful and harmful technologies. Through working with vulnerable communities, people can understand what others need and how to develop a solution. This is important as the base of a project to know that their project is working towards a good cause and people are willing to use it. The second question is “Can you join existing efforts?” Joining existing efforts can lead to a “jumpstart” to building something. Often, the most important part of a project is taking action and sparking the start. By joining efforts with big-name, professional companies, the technology can be more trustworthy and can receive proper funding.
The third question is “Can your technology do what you say it’s going to do?” In millions of cases around the world, what is shown of a startup or technology is not what it truly is behind the scenes. This can be due to various reasons, such as lack of funding, mindset, or even the idea behind it. .In order to have successful technology in a large market such as present-day biotech or computer science needed for the COVID-19 pandemic, one’s technology has to be applicable and usable instead of only being written on paper. The fourth and final question is “How does your technology shift power?” This question is one of the most direct to the COVID-19 pandemic due to the need for urgent and impactful technology. A useful technology to shift power would impact people on a large scale.
These four questions ensure that new technologies to help the COVID-19 pandemic are needed, applicable, credible, and impactful. In our world today, many startups and new products are being built to attempt to solve the pandemic. However, not all of these are good, and through the careful examination of these companies with these four questions, it can be seen how many companies bring harm and even greater complications.