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Covid-19 projects looking for volunteers

helpwithcovid.com

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Re: Covid-19 projects looking for volunteers

#131

Post by sequoia »

Do these projects have PMs etc.? I am curious about them (and work at a company whose services overlap with some of these initiatives) but it's hard to tell if there's anything more just a title + a paragraph to these projects. Nothing wrong with that, just looking for some clarity here.

Limiting this list to projects that are underway and have some clear leadership might help avoid the "random list of ideas" problem that another user here pointed out. I mean to say, if you don't have a plan, a leadership group/person, and something underway, don't post (if you're not able to get that much together, you don't have a project, you have an idea, and ideas are not very valuable).

Re: Covid-19 projects looking for volunteers

#132

Post by sequoia »

tootie wrote: post #117

I applaud the intent, but this looks like a laundry list of random ideas. There's no leadership or vetting or job descriptions. I'd love to help us build 1,000,000 ventilators, but I think the answer to that one is for governments to allocate money to manufacturers (which is starting to happen), not to crank out some javascript.

Agreed. Good intentions but this needs some filtering of ideas to focus in on things people can actually do.

"1 Million Ventilators" Why not 10 million, or 100? This is effectively clickbait. :(

Re: Covid-19 projects looking for volunteers

#134

Post by criddell »

T-hawk wrote: post #113
nsxwolf wrote: post #101

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We're being told by the medical establishment, quite angrily, that masks are useless - unless you work in the medical establishment, then they're essential. Who is right?

A mask doesn't "work" in the sense of preventing you from catching the virus, because airborne is not its transmission method. A mask does work in the sense of reducing your transmission to others if you are infected (and may not know it), by keeping your moisture-laden exhalations confined. A mask can reduce your risk by reminding you not to touch your face after having contacted potentially infectious surfaces. And…

> airborne is not its transmission method

If the virus can stay "alive" in the air for 3 hours [1], why wouldn't airborne be a transmission method?

[1]: https://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/en/news/20200318_23/

Re: Covid-19 projects looking for volunteers

#135

Post by dr_orpheus »

dominotw wrote: post #63
eezurr wrote: post #45

Please consider reaching out to your elderly neighbors and offering your time to gather groceries/supplies for them. Or posting a note near the entrance of your apartment complex with your number. This alone will have a huge impact. They have a very real chance of dying if they contract covid-19. Take a moment to imagine how you would feel if you could not safely leave your home. A lot of us have the amazing comfort…

> please consider reaching out to your elderly neighbors I live in a densely packed city. I have no idea who lives in my neighborhood. I would be glad to help anyone at anytime though. I am just not clear how to go about it.

Try looking for local organizations that coordinate help with elderly on a normal day to day basis. There are likely to be non-profits, NGOs and maybe some local government programs that already exist. Therefore, they will probably have a good idea of who needs help and how to coordinate it.

Re: Covid-19 projects looking for volunteers

#136

Post by hawaiianbrah »

ardy42 wrote: post #118
T-hawk wrote: post #113

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A mask doesn't "work" in the sense of preventing you from catching the virus, because airborne is not its transmission method. A mask does work in the sense of reducing your transmission to others if you are infected (and may not know it), by keeping your moisture-laden exhalations confined. A mask can reduce your risk by reminding you not to touch your face after having contacted potentially infectious surfaces. And…

We really need to start distinguishing between masks and respirators. Surgical masks are useless for protecting the wearer from infected people, however they help protect others from an infected wearer. If used properly, a respirator will help protect the wearer from infected people, as it will block them from inhaling virus-containing droplets.

I don’t see how they’re completely useless for protecting the wearer. If someone infected sneezes in my face, would I not be better off with a physical barrier over a point of entry into my system?

Re: Covid-19 projects looking for volunteers

#137

Post by ThePhysicist »

To all German speakers: There will be a government-sponsored hackathon from Friday to Sunday, please think about participating!

https://wirvsvirushackathon.org/

We think about building tools for anonymous health data collection or a tool to fight misinformation / fake news using passive DNS data and some (simple) machine learning. Help is greatly appreciated :)

Re: Covid-19 projects looking for volunteers

#138

Post by lozaning »

criddell wrote: post #134
T-hawk wrote: post #113

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A mask doesn't "work" in the sense of preventing you from catching the virus, because airborne is not its transmission method. A mask does work in the sense of reducing your transmission to others if you are infected (and may not know it), by keeping your moisture-laden exhalations confined. A mask can reduce your risk by reminding you not to touch your face after having contacted potentially infectious surfaces. And…

> airborne is not its transmission method If the virus can stay "alive" in the air for 3 hours [1], why wouldn't airborne be a transmission method? [1]: https://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/en/news/20200318_23/

It my understanding that the difference between this and other airborne things is that the particles that get expelled from covid patients contains liquid droplets that are pretty heavy and so they fall out of the air quickly and onto surfaces, they dont float around and linger.

Smaller lighter particles can just float around in the air for hours and linger, then you just have to breath them in. With covid you'd have to touch a surface that droplets fell onto, and then touch your face or something.

Verify this info before counting on it for anything serious, I am a lay person with possible misunderstandings.

Re: Covid-19 projects looking for volunteers

#139

Post by bronipstid »

ejstronge wrote: post #99
bronipstid wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For comparison, the death rate across all age groups of flu is 0.1%. Extrapolating out, a failure to contain the virus will still mean tens of thousands of young healthy people dying in every country. That's why governments are finally admitting "Herd Immunity/Flatten the Curve" without total containment is not an option.

> For comparison, the death rate across all age groups of flu is 0.1%. Extrapolating out, a failure to contain the virus will still mean tens of thousands of young healthy people dying in every country. I’m not sure why you’re comparing the all-age mortality of flu to the age-specific mortality of COVID-19. The relevant metric would be about 0.02% [1] 1. https://www.cdc.gov/flu/about/burden/2018-2019.html

Why not? It's just giving some context to people who may think .2% is a "low" mortality rate.

Thanks for the age specific number. That shows my point even more.

Re: Covid-19 projects looking for volunteers

#140

Post by bronipstid »

SpicyLemonZest wrote: post #81
bronipstid wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For comparison, the death rate across all age groups of flu is 0.1%. Extrapolating out, a failure to contain the virus will still mean tens of thousands of young healthy people dying in every country. That's why governments are finally admitting "Herd Immunity/Flatten the Curve" without total containment is not an option.

Flat statements about what strategies are or aren't options don't seem helpful. It's not a good option, ideally we'll have total containment, but it's important that we not see it as a betrayal if it's decided in a couple weeks that total containment isn't feasible.

It absolutely would be a betrayal of the people you'd be giving up on to not do everything we can to help them while we still can. You can advocate for or against taking strong action but you can't tell people you're allowing to die to not be upset about it.
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