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Covid-19 projects looking for volunteers

helpwithcovid.com

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Re: Covid-19 projects looking for volunteers

#11

Post by program_whiz »

yiyus wrote: post #5

This is a great initiative, but it looks to me like most of these projects are directed to help the US. That's totally understandable, but there are many people all over the world willing to help with this, and it would be great if we could also collaborate to help everyone. For example, as an engineer, I was interested in helping with the 1M ventilators project, but reading the description it looks like the goal is…

I agree, a global solution is ideal. But please keep in mind these initiatives, if they speed up treatment or help stockpile resources, will allow others to use those cures and/or the other supplies that would be freed up.

Also, it may be more effective to concentrate everyone in one project that starts with the US since it has the most resources (technology, medical, science, etc) and then send out the results rather than having sparse groups trying to do the same thing for all different areas of the globe.

Best to build a prototype for a focused set of problems and users, then expand out once you have success there. Difference between needing 750k ventilators and 200m ventilators and also simultaneously having to solve all the global regulations, shipping, distribution, customs, etc.

Re: Covid-19 projects looking for volunteers

#12

Post by fock »

yiyus wrote: post #5

This is a great initiative, but it looks to me like most of these projects are directed to help the US. That's totally understandable, but there are many people all over the world willing to help with this, and it would be great if we could also collaborate to help everyone. For example, as an engineer, I was interested in helping with the 1M ventilators project, but reading the description it looks like the goal is…

Do I missunderstand something or isn't it necessary for the real bad cases to intubate the person needing the ventilator? I think the bottleneck here is a lot more complicated than "moaaar" ventilators. Also if you have 1 Mio. people on ventilation, these probably are not able to move on theirselves, so you need a care person to turn them every hour. Additionally hooking them up to a ventilator and pressing "play" seems to be a recipe for trouble, be it from mechanical damage because of faulty settings or bacterial infections not being treated at all until it's too late...

Re: Covid-19 projects looking for volunteers

#13

Post by jph »

If you're on GitHub and want to help, you can edit these country-specific pages to add your area nonprofits, organizations, volunteer opportunities, and the like:

https://github.com/nonprofitnetworks/covid

We're launching today with blank pages ready to edit for all countries, and we welcome help. My email is joel@nonprofitnetworks.org if you want to contact me about this.

Re: Covid-19 projects looking for volunteers

#14

Post by fock »

fortran77 wrote: post #10

> Help With COVID is a marketplace for people (especially software engineers) to find projects to contribute to, and for projects to find help. Do you know how "software engineers" can "help with COVID?" By getting into their cars and bringing supplies to elderly people in their neighborhood.

well, your user name speaks for itself. Oldfashioned but reliable and well thought out.

Re: Covid-19 projects looking for volunteers

#15

Post by [deleted] »

fock wrote: post #14
fortran77 wrote: post #10

> Help With COVID is a marketplace for people (especially software engineers) to find projects to contribute to, and for projects to find help. Do you know how "software engineers" can "help with COVID?" By getting into their cars and bringing supplies to elderly people in their neighborhood.

well, your user name speaks for itself. Oldfashioned but reliable and well thought out.

[deleted]

Re: Covid-19 projects looking for volunteers

#16

Post by bentona »

fortran77 wrote: post #10

> Help With COVID is a marketplace for people (especially software engineers) to find projects to contribute to, and for projects to find help. Do you know how "software engineers" can "help with COVID?" By getting into their cars and bringing supplies to elderly people in their neighborhood.

There is at least one project listed specifically to enable this.

Re: Covid-19 projects looking for volunteers

#17

Post by smoyer »

yiyus wrote: post #5

This is a great initiative, but it looks to me like most of these projects are directed to help the US. That's totally understandable, but there are many people all over the world willing to help with this, and it would be great if we could also collaborate to help everyone. For example, as an engineer, I was interested in helping with the 1M ventilators project, but reading the description it looks like the goal is…

Crowd-sourcing a producable design should help everyone. There are some assumptions (that I believe to be correct) that longer supply chains will be somewhat unreliable, so arranging local production is probably better for the patients anyway. I think there's inspiration in the Italians who were printing ventilator valves en masse.

Re: Covid-19 projects looking for volunteers

#18

Post by omarhaneef »

yiyus wrote: post #5

This is a great initiative, but it looks to me like most of these projects are directed to help the US. That's totally understandable, but there are many people all over the world willing to help with this, and it would be great if we could also collaborate to help everyone. For example, as an engineer, I was interested in helping with the 1M ventilators project, but reading the description it looks like the goal is…

I think you are right, but it likely reflects the node we sit on in the internet.

If this were not hacker news, but some german equivalent in the german language, I am sure you would find a german focused effort.

I think it makes sense that most of the efforts would be local (someone has to distribute and man the ventilator). The global effort should be focused on design, and best practices.

Re: Covid-19 projects looking for volunteers

#19

Post by OakNinja »

program_whiz wrote: post #11
yiyus wrote: post #5

This is a great initiative, but it looks to me like most of these projects are directed to help the US. That's totally understandable, but there are many people all over the world willing to help with this, and it would be great if we could also collaborate to help everyone. For example, as an engineer, I was interested in helping with the 1M ventilators project, but reading the description it looks like the goal is…

I agree, a global solution is ideal. But please keep in mind these initiatives, if they speed up treatment or help stockpile resources, will allow others to use those cures and/or the other supplies that would be freed up. Also, it may be more effective to concentrate everyone in one project that starts with the US since it has the most resources (technology, medical, science, etc) and then send out the results rathe…

Edit: Less sarcasm.

Are you suggesting the whole world should focus on solving the COVID-19 problem in the US before solving it in their own countries? Or did I misinterpret your comment?

Re: Covid-19 projects looking for volunteers

#20

Post by sojournerc »

OakNinja wrote: post #19
program_whiz wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I agree, a global solution is ideal. But please keep in mind these initiatives, if they speed up treatment or help stockpile resources, will allow others to use those cures and/or the other supplies that would be freed up. Also, it may be more effective to concentrate everyone in one project that starts with the US since it has the most resources (technology, medical, science, etc) and then send out the results rathe…

Edit: Less sarcasm. Are you suggesting the whole world should focus on solving the COVID-19 problem in the US before solving it in their own countries? Or did I misinterpret your comment?

Leave the flame bait on reddit -

In this very thread: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22616311

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