That Very Good Robotic Dog Is Now Helping Hospitals Fight the Coronavirus

In the U.S., at least 5,400 nurses, doctors, and other healthcare workers treating COVID-19 (coronavirus) patients have contracted the disease themselves. Of those medical professionals, dozens have died--and that's a conservative estimate. Treating patients with a virus that can live on surfaces for days and propagate through the air in respiratory droplets is dangerous, life-threatening work no matter how you slice it. That's why some Boston-area hospitals have turned to an unlikely assistant: a robotic dog named Spot. "Starting in early March, [we] started receiving inquiries from hospitals asking if our robots could help minimize their staff's exposure to COVID-19," Boston Dynamics, the maker of the robot, said in a blog post Thursday.