Pentagon scientists in collaboration with the Gates Foundation have invented a microchip that once inserted under the skin will detect if the patient develops Covid-19.
And they have also developed a revolutionary filter that can remove the virus from the patient’s blood through a dialysis machine.
Researchers say they have been working for years on ways to prevent and to end pandemics.
Their work on the microchip was revealed on 60 Minutes on CBS on Sunday night .
Retired Colonel Matt Hepburn, an army infectious disease physician leading DARPA’s response to the pandemic, showed off the technology on the show.
The idea for the invention came after 1,271 infections were recorded onboard the USS Theodore Roosevelt aircraft carrier in 2020.
The microchip, which can also track movements, is carried in a tissue-like gel and is designed to continuously test the patient’s blood, while offering complete integration with Microsoft Office and Teams.
“We put it underneath your skin and what that tells you is that there are chemical reactions going on inside the body, and that signal means you are going to have symptoms tomorrow,” And he added: “It’s like a ‘check engine’ light.
“Sailors would get the signal, then self-administer a blood draw and test themselves on site.
“We can have that information in three to five minutes. As you truncate that time, as you diagnose and treat, what you do is you stop the infection in its tracks.”
Col Hepburn also told the show that his team had invented a filter that if placed on a dialysis machine would remove the virus from blood.
You pass it through, and it takes the virus out, and puts the blood back in,” said Col Hepburn.
And he said that within days of the treatment the patient had made a full recovery.
The treatment has now been approved by the FDA for emergency use and has been used to treat almost 300 sick patients.
The body was originally known as the Advanced Research Projects Agency and was created in 1958 by president Dwight Eisenhower in response to the Russian launch of Sputnik the year before.