Syeda Saberi

News Editor

The US sees its first case of the coronavirus in the Chicago area hospital, St. Alexius in Hoffman Estates. Medical staff at St. Alexius is taking all necessary precautions of infection control to inhibit the virus from spreading to other patients and caretakers. The patients, a husband and wife, are currently being monitored by the CDC and the Illinois Department of Public Health. “We have in place strict infection control precautions and protocols established by the CDC to protect patients, associates and visitors. We continue to fully care for the healthcare needs of our community. We ask for respect and privacy for our patients and staff at this time,” stated the Hospital in a public announcement. Currently there is no threat to the public and medical staff in direct contact with the couple are also being monitored for any onset symptoms.

An app that was inadequately tested resulted in the delay in results at the Iowa caucus this past Monday. The app was originally designed for the IDP (Iowa democratic party) and was created to aid in the final voting reports at the end of the caucus. However, there were several reports Monday night that stated that the app was acting up and had a “coding issue”. Wall Street Journal later reported that the app itself did not have any coding issues, but rather the IDP failed to test the app under the Department of Homeland Security’s security test. The IDP has stated that they will formally announce final results on Tuesday but warned that it could take longer than that. This app is undergoing security checks, but the Nevada democratic party stated that they will not be using this app during their upcoming voting caucus.

An ongoing lawsuit between Ancestry.com and the Pennsylvania PD might find its way to the supreme court. Associates at the DNA testing company received a request to access the company’s DNA database based on a search warrant from a Pennsylvania court. With genetic genealogy becoming a popular investigative method, several DNA testing companies such as 23andMe have also been facing legal issues with the privacy of the databases but are promising the public that they are doing whatever they can to keep their databases private. “We carefully scrutinize all law enforcement requests and have never provided any customer information to a law enforcement agency, nor do we share customer data with any public databases or with entities that may increase law enforcement access,” stated 23andMe in an interview with Buzzfeed news. Several companies have also begun using an opt in method in which users would have to select whether or not their profiles can be visible to police search but only 1 in 6 people have used that option according to GEDmatch.