Metabiota is a San Francisco startup that compiles data from around the world to predict disease outbreaks. The company is a partner with

USAID The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) is an independent agency of the U.S. federal government that is primarily responsible for administering civilian foreign aid and development assistance. With a budget of over $27 bi ...

PREDICT A prediction (Latin ''præ-'', "before," and ''dicere'', "to say"), or forecast, is a statement about a future event or data. They are often, but not always, based upon experience or knowledge. There is no universal agreement about the exact ...

and PREVENT programs. In the early months of the

SARS-CoV-2 Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS‑CoV‑2) is a strain of coronavirus that causes COVID-19 (coronavirus disease 2019), the respiratory illness responsible for the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. The virus previously had a ...

outbreak, Metabiota and

BlueDot BlueDot Inc. is a Canadian software company. The company's flagship product is Insights, a software-as-service used to map the spread of infectious diseases. Description BlueDot was founded in 2013. According to the company's founder, BlueDot' ...

independently demonstrated the capabilities of computer analytics to map the future spread of the virus between countries. In an effort to expand its business offerings, Metabiota teamed up with insurance groups

Marsh A marsh is a wetland that is dominated by herbaceous rather than woody plant species.Keddy, P.A. 2010. Wetland Ecology: Principles and Conservation (2nd edition). Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK. 497 p Marshes can often be found at ...

, African Risk Capacity and

Munich Re Munich Re Group or Munich Reinsurance Company (german: Münchener Rück; Münchener Rückversicherungs-Gesellschaft) is a German multinational insurance company based in Munich, Germany. It is one of the world's leading reinsurers. ERGO, a Muni ...

to provide data for outbreak coverage. Coverage would pay out to governments or companies based on stages of severity of an outbreak to help pay the cost to respond. Google invested $1 million into the company while also planning to act as a partner to provide expertise in data analysis. Hunter Biden's Rosemont Seneca Technology Partners was reported to have a 13.4% stake in the company in 2014. This investment and Metabiota's work with

Black & Veatch Black & Veatch (BV) is the largest engineering firm in the Kansas City metropolitan area. Founded in 1915 in Kansas City, Missouri it is now headquartered in Overland Park, Kansas It is a global engineering, procurement, construction ( EPC) and c ...

at labs in Ukraine led to the company being flagged in Russia's bioweapons claims during its

2022 invasion of Ukraine On 24 February 2022, in a major escalation of the Russo-Ukrainian War, which began in 2014. The invasion has resulted in tens of thousands of deaths on both sides. It has caused Europe's largest refugee crisis since World War II. An ...

. The company had staff stationed in

Kenema Kenema is the third largest city in Sierra Leone (after Freetown and Bo, Sierra Leone, Bo), and the largest city in the country's Eastern Province, Sierra Leone, Eastern Province. It is the capital of Kenema District and a major economic center of ...

supporting the

Sierra Leone Sierra Leone,)]. officially the Republic of Sierra Leone, is a country on the southwest coast of West Africa. It is bordered by Liberia to the southeast and Guinea surrounds the northern half of the nation. Covering a total area of , Sierra ...

government when the

Western African Ebola virus epidemic The 2013–2016 epidemic of Ebola virus disease, centered in Western Africa, was the most widespread outbreak of the disease in history. It caused major loss of life and socioeconomic disruption in the region, mainly in Guinea, Liberia and S ...

began.

Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF; pronounced ), also known as Doctors Without Borders, is a humanitarian medical non-governmental organisation (NGO) or charity of French origin known for its projects in conflict zones and in countries affected by endemic diseases. M ...

criticized the company for failing to discover early cases, and for not sharing data or

contact tracing In public health, contact tracing is the process of identifying persons who may have been exposed to an infected person ("contacts") and subsequent collection of further data to assess transmission. By tracing the contacts of infected individua ...

information. Metabiota responded, saying they were restricted to reporting only to the local government.

References

{{reflist Public health and biosurveillance software Disaster management tools Companies based in San Francisco American companies established in 2008