Date | COVID-19 Discovery | Tech Trend |
January 7, 2020 | Novel coronavirus identified | Virus recognized as coronavirus within weeks of the first-identified cases of 'pneumonia of unknown cause' thanks to supercomputers |
January 12, 2020 | Genome sequenced | Supercomputers and big data allowed researchers to analyze the genetic sequences of COVID-19 patients and SARS-CoV-2 mutations at population scale |
January 16, 2020 | Diagnostic reagents optimized | SARS-CoV-2’s genetic sequence $\rightarrow$ development of testing kits in a matter of weeks |
January 30, 2020 | Person-to-person transmission confirmed | Contact tracing technologies |
February 19, 2020 | 'Spike' protein mapped | The mRNA vaccine type fast-tracks research and development by requiring significantly less data be sent to human cells (compared to traditional vaccines) |