While 2020 saw an influx of information and news coming at us left, right and centre, happy news has been scarce and far in between. And although most of us have high hopes for 2021, things don’t seem to be getting any better.

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Take this latest piece of news for instance. There’s a new AI tool which can now calculate how likely someone is to die of an Covid-19 infection. The news comes on the basis of a study published in the journal Nature Medicine, which states that a newly-developed online calculator can be used to estimate an individual’s and community’s risk of dying from coronavirus.

Reports suggest that the calculator was created with an aim to aid public health authorities in assessing mortality risks across various communities, and help them prioritize particular groups for vaccination.

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Reportedly, the calculator algorithm makes use of information from existing studies to gauge the risk of Covid-19 mortality for a person based on their age, gender, sociodemographic factors and previous medical history. The result of risk estimates apply to those who are currently uninfected and also forecasts both risks of future infection and complications post infection.

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As if we don’t already have enough terrifying information and facts floating around now, and now this. And although we understand that the intention behind it was good, this doesn’t really make us feel any better, how can it? This legit sounds like filling out an application for an early delivery of our death certificate.

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