SCIENCE sciencemag.orgPHOTO: NATIONAL BOBBLEHEAD HALL OF FAME AND MUSEUM
Roni Rosenfeld, a computational epi-
demiologist at the university. The work
could also supplement data from tests for
SARS-CoV-2 or antibodies to the virus, he
says. Each map plots data from one of five
sources: two online surveys conducted by
Facebook and Google, anonymized data
about Google searches related to COVID-
19, influenza testing statistics from
test manufacturer Quidel (a proxy
for respiratory illness), and nation-
ally reported figures on visits to doctors’
offices. This “now-cast” is just a first step,
Rosenfeld says: Using machine learning,
researchers hope to forecast 4 weeks in
advance the demand for intensive care and
ventilators for COVID-19 patients.Chloroquine warning from FDA
DRUG REGULATION |A global debate about
the merits of using of two antimalarial
drugs touted by President Donald Trump
as potential COVID-19 treatments reached
a new pitch last week. The U.S. Food
and Drug Administration, which last
month authorized the emergency use of
chloroquine and hydroxychloroquine in
COVID-19 patients, advised doctors on
24 April not to prescribe the drugs outside
of hospitals or clinical trials, and to moni-
tor patients closely for side effects. The
drugs have not yet proved effective against
the virus in large clinical trials, and in
some patients increase the risk of a heart
arrhythmia that can lead to cardiac arrest.
Also last week, the Trump administration
ousted Rick Bright from his position as
director of the Department of Health and
Human Services’s Biomedical Advanced
Research and Development Authority; he
said in a statement that he was dismissed
for resisting pressure to invest in hydroxy-
chloroquine as a COVID-19 treatment.Vaccine push makes a billionaire
INNOVATION |Timothy Springer has made
some good bets in his life—and his latest
windfall will help an institute developing
protein therapies. In 1993, the Harvard
University molecular biologist turned his
research on how white blood cells destroy
foreign targets into a biotech company
sold 6 years later, earning him a reported
$100 million. He invested $5 million in
Moderna, a biotech company focused on
messenger RNA that went public in 2018,
netting Springer a nearly 100-fold return
on his investment. Now, the COVID-
virus has pushed his wealth even higher.
Moderna scientists devised a messenger
RNA vaccine that prompts cells to make
pieces of viral proteins that aim to trainSCIENCEMAG.ORG/TAGS/CORONAVIRUS
Read additional Science coverage of the pandemic.immune sentries to recognize the invader.
The U.S. Biomedical Advanced Research and
Development Authority recently awarded
the company nearly $500 million to conduct
clinical tests of the vaccine. That has helped
the company’s stock price more than double
during the past 2 months, enough to elevate
Springer’s worth to more than $1 billion,
according to the Bloomberg Billionaires
Index. Springer has said he plans to donate
most of his money to the Institute forProtein Innovation, an open source hub that
he and colleague Andrew Kruse founded in
2017 to design antibodies and other proteins
as cures for intractable diseases.NIH pulls viral origins grant
FUNDING |The U.S. National Institutes
of Health (NIH) on 24 April abruptly
terminated a long-standing grant to the
EcoHealth Alliance (EA), a New York City
nonprofit, which has supported research—
including by scientists in China—on how
viruses spread from bats and other wildlife
to humans. The move, first reported by
Politico, came after the grant was criticized
by conservative politicians and media figures
who have suggested, without evidence, that
the current pandemic was caused by a virus
that escaped from the Wuhan Institute of
Virology. The institute collaborated with EA
on past projects, but EA said it had not given
the lab money this year. NIH’s order barring
the alliance from spending some $370,
remaining on the grant for 2020 drew criti-
cism from some researchers, who fear it was
motivated by political, not scientific, con-
cerns. The pandemic, some noted, has only
highlighted the need to better understand
how wildlife pathogens can spill into human
populations. As Science went to press, NIH
refused to explain the cancellation, saying
policy prevented it from doing so.i-
ork
ts for
us, he
of five
ed by
data
VID-tors’
step,
ning,
s in
are andDA
e about
al
ump
ached
dPOPULAR CULTUREFauci inspires collectors’ items
A
nthony Fauci’s burgeoning fame as a
voice for science within White House
corridors and beyond reached new
heights in April with the release of a raft
of merchandise in his honor, includ-
ing a bobblehead. The for-profit National
Bobblehead Hall of Fame and Museum is
selling the plastic figurine of Fauci, longtime
director of the U.S. National Institute of Allergy
and Infectious Diseases, as a fundraiser for
COVID-19 masks. Even though Fauci has not
attended some recent White House brief-
ings on coronavirus, the Hall of Fame says
his bobblehead remains its best-selling ever.
Other vendors are selling socks, shirts, prayer
candles, and beer emblazoned with Fauci’s
name and face. “That’s nice if people want to
do [it],” Fauci said of the blitz during a Fox &
Friends interview, but “I have other things to
worry about.” The Hall of Fame is also selling
a bobblehead of Deborah Birx, the White
House’s coronavirus response coordinator.Americansstaying at homeBY THE NUMBERS1 MAY 2020 • VOL 368 ISSUE 6490 45329%The 24 April figure marked a downward
slide from 35% in mid-March—a sign of
fatigue with social distancing require-
ments, say researchers at the Maryland
Transportation Institute at the University
of Maryland, College Park. They defined
staying at home as no trips more than
1.5 kilometers away from home. The figure
is likely to dip further as some states this
week began to allow selected businesses
to reopen. The Maryland researchers
have been using anonymized, aggregated
location data from mobile devices and
other sources to track travel metrics that
include distance and trips per person to
quantify the extent of social distancing.
The figures, at https://data.covid.umd.edu,
are updated daily for each state.