Battling the Coronavirus: Alibaba and Baidu AI accelerate vaccine and drug R&D

As of February 7, China’s National Health and Health Commission had received a total of 31,261 confirmed cases of the 2019 Novel Coronavirus (2019-nCov) outbreak and 26,359 suspected cases, which was a leap of 4,833 from the day before. As of February 8, the 2019-nCoV had killed 725 people, all but one of them in China. Like SARS, HIV, Ebola, and influenza, the 2019-nCoV is an RNA virus. Its single-strand structure makes it more susceptible to mutation and more difficult to develop vaccines for. In mid-January, Chinese scientists isolated the first 2019-nCoV strain and published its genetic sequence to aid in independent detection of the virus. The World Health Organization categorizes 2019-nCoV risk as “Very High” in China and “High” in the rest of the world. Globally, there are now 15 laboratories providing reference testing for the virus. The crucial step now is to develop matching vaccines and drugs to uproot its...