Cognitive Software Group — Coronavirus at risk of AI outbreak

Australia’s ‘ABC Online’ highlights what few of us knew about Florence Nightingale; that she was a statistician more than a nurse.

“Upon arriving at the British military hospital in Turkey in 1856, Nightingale was horrified at the hospital’s conditions and a lack of clear hospital records.

Even the number of deaths was not recorded accurately. She soon discovered three different death registers existed, each giving a completely different account of the deaths among the soldiers. Using her statistical skills, Nightingale set to work to introduce new guidelines on how to record sickness and mortality across military hospitals.

With her improved data, Nightingale put her statistical skills to use. She discovered deaths due to disease were more than seven times the number of deaths due to combat, because of unsanitary hospital conditions.

More than 150 years after Nightingale pointed out the need to standardise datasets before comparing them, we are certain she would have something to say about the lack of standardised datasets for COVID-19.”

Her key recommendation to the British military commanders — Handwashing and social distancing!

Coronaviruses are a family of viruses. There are many different kinds, and some cause disease in animals. Coronaviruses were first discovered in the 1930s when an acute respiratory infection of domesticated chickens in the US was shown to be caused by…