Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Ask HN: How to get Bill Gates's attention?

news.ycombinator.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

41–50 of 89 posts

Re: Ask HN: How to get Bill Gates's attention?

#41

Post by toxot »

Chinese researchers on findings of a less deadly strain, preprint March 10:

https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.03.10.20033944v...

We found, in our 788 confirmed COVID-19 patients, the decreased rate of severe/critical type, increased liver/kidney damage and prolonged period of nuclear acid positivity during virus dissemination, when compared with Wuhan. To investigate the underlining mechanism, we isolated one strain of SARS- CoV-2 (ZJ01) in mild COVID-19 patient and found the existence of 35 specific gene mutation by gene alignment. Further phylogenetic analysis and RSCU heat map results suggested that ZJ01 may be a potential evolutionary branch of SARS-CoV-2. We classified 54 strains of viruses worldwide (C/T type) based on the base (C or T) at positions 8824 and 28247. ZJ01 were both T at these two sites, becoming the only TT type currently identified in the world. The prediction of Furin cleavage site (FCS) and the sequence alignment of virus family indicated that FCS may be an important site of coronavirus evolution. ZJ01 had mutations near FCS (F1-2), which caused changes in the structure and the electrostatic distribution of the S protein surface, further affecting the binding capacity of Furin. Single cell sequencing and ACE2-Furin co-expression results confirmed that Furin level was higher in the whole body, especially in glands, liver, kidney and colon while FCS may help SARS-CoV-2 infect these organs. The evolutionary pattern of SARS-CoV-2 towards FCS formation may result in its clinical symptom becoming closer to HKU-1 and OC43 (the source of FCS sequence-PRRA) caused influenza, further showing potential in differentiating into mild COVID-19 subtypes.

Re: Ask HN: How to get Bill Gates's attention?

#42

Post by buboard »

danieltillett wrote: post #31
buboard wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> test asymptomatic people for COVID-19 and then genome sequence the SARS-CoV-2 strain that has infected them with the aim of identifying a virus with mutation(s) in an essential viral gene(s) But without these essential genes the virus would not multiply / infect people anyway, right? Also, how is it different from inactivated vaccines that are currently being developed ? Also, why cant someone engineer such a virus…

1. You are looking for partial deletions of essential genes, not full. Many of these deletions are going to weaken the virus, but not cause the virus to not be able to replicate. 2. An inactivated vaccine will have to be given again and again. A live attenuated vaccine can drive the dangerous strains to extinction. Also attenuated vaccines protect those not vaccinated. 3. In theory you could engineer a virus with del…

and how would we know that the harmless-virus infection protects against the dangerous strain?

are there already databases of sequenced strains?

and how would the regulatory aspect work? if the harmless individual is no longer infectious, how would people be infected

Re: Ask HN: How to get Bill Gates's attention?

#43

Post by certera »

danieltillett wrote: post #33
loftyal wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A decent percentage of people are also asymptomatic with most influenza strains. You probably know friends/acquaintance who says they never get the flu in winter, even though it's highly likely they have gotten the virus before, it's just their inflammation response for whatever reason (likely genetic variation) doesn't produce symptoms. Source: https://www.nhs.uk/news/medical-practice/three-quarters-of-p...

Yes this is true, but it has nothing to do with finding an attenuated strain. I addressed this in my post and yes many people who have a mild symptoms are infected with a dangerous strain, but an attenuated strain will only cause mild symptoms. If you want to find an attenuated strain you have to look in people with mild symptoms.

> If you want to find an attenuated strain you have to look in people with mild symptoms

Shouldn't we be looking at people with no symptoms? I know this is not ideal as we're likely only testing symptomatic people.

Re: Ask HN: How to get Bill Gates's attention?

#44

Post by polishdude20 »

danieltillett wrote: post #2

If anyone wants to know what this possible solution is I have written it up here in non-technical language [0]. 0. https://www.tillett.info/2020/04/05/a-solution-to-covid-19/ Edit. HN seems to have put me on the “posting too fast” treadmill so I will have to edit this post. While effectively the same as a vaccine, it is quite different. Any such attenuated strain identified can be used outside of the regulatory syste…

So you're saying we need to check all the mild cases for that 0.1% chance that they have the attenuated strain. You say that even the mild cases have the dangerous form of the virus most of the time.

Do you think we could find the attenuated case more easily of we tested immune compromised people that have mild to no symptoms? Because if they did have the dangerous form of the virus, the symptoms wouldn't be mild. So we know that if you have the virus and are immunocompromised and have mild symptoms, it's probably not your immune system that is strong but the fact that the virus strain you have is attenuated?

Or does that not work because the amount of people you can test that have those conditions is just too low to find any?

Re: Ask HN: How to get Bill Gates's attention?

#45

Post by danieltillett »

JauntTrooper wrote: post #37

Check out the Mercatus Center's 'Fast Grants' program: https://fastgrants.org/ They're giving $10k - $500k grants to fight covid-19, and decisions are made within 48 hours. Press Release: https://www.mercatus.org/features/mercatus-emergent-ventures...

I have already applied there. I don’t actually want any money just collaborators to make this happen.

Re: Ask HN: How to get Bill Gates's attention?

#46

Post by danieltillett »

polishdude20 wrote: post #44
danieltillett wrote: post #2

If anyone wants to know what this possible solution is I have written it up here in non-technical language [0]. 0. https://www.tillett.info/2020/04/05/a-solution-to-covid-19/ Edit. HN seems to have put me on the “posting too fast” treadmill so I will have to edit this post. While effectively the same as a vaccine, it is quite different. Any such attenuated strain identified can be used outside of the regulatory syste…

So you're saying we need to check all the mild cases for that 0.1% chance that they have the attenuated strain. You say that even the mild cases have the dangerous form of the virus most of the time. Do you think we could find the attenuated case more easily of we tested immune compromised people that have mild to no symptoms? Because if they did have the dangerous form of the virus, the symptoms wouldn't be mild. So…

Yes for this to work you are going to have to screen a lot of people with mild cases to find the very rare mutant that is attenuated. The chance this rare mutating just happens to infect an immune compromised person is low. Just looking through the entire population of mild cases will be much quicker as the limiting factor is not the genome sequencing of the viral strains.

Re: Ask HN: How to get Bill Gates's attention?

#47

Post by danieltillett »

ballenf wrote: post #39
danieltillett wrote: post #2

If anyone wants to know what this possible solution is I have written it up here in non-technical language [0]. 0. https://www.tillett.info/2020/04/05/a-solution-to-covid-19/ Edit. HN seems to have put me on the “posting too fast” treadmill so I will have to edit this post. While effectively the same as a vaccine, it is quite different. Any such attenuated strain identified can be used outside of the regulatory syste…

Why Bill Gates? Or why start with him? Get a grant from anywhere reputable. You need to work your way up the ladder through a ton of hard work. I don't mean that's how the system should work, but each rung of the ladder will be a signal to the next rung that your idea is worth the opportunity cost of not considering a competing idea. Waiting for Gates or another almost god-like figure can be an excuse to avoid hard w…

Have you looked into my background? I know all about how the how the system works. I am not looking to avoid hard work.

As for why Bill Gates I specifically said I am looking for people with the clout to make this happens - while I am sure Bill would understand my proposal so would lots of other smart people.

I don’t wish to be snarky, but yes you have misunderstood my proposal.

Re: Ask HN: How to get Bill Gates's attention?

#48

Post by danieltillett »

buboard wrote: post #42
danieltillett wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

1. You are looking for partial deletions of essential genes, not full. Many of these deletions are going to weaken the virus, but not cause the virus to not be able to replicate. 2. An inactivated vaccine will have to be given again and again. A live attenuated vaccine can drive the dangerous strains to extinction. Also attenuated vaccines protect those not vaccinated. 3. In theory you could engineer a virus with del…

and how would we know that the harmless-virus infection protects against the dangerous strain? are there already databases of sequenced strains? and how would the regulatory aspect work? if the harmless individual is no longer infectious, how would people be infected

1. You would check the person’s immune response. With luck they have infect a pool of people in the local area which should give you more data.

2. Yes there are, but we need to look for a quite rare mutant.

3. We would be genome sequencing clinical samples - these would be kept in storage until the data comes back.

Re: Ask HN: How to get Bill Gates's attention?

#49

Post by danieltillett »

m33k44 wrote: post #34

I read somewhere that Bill Gates is very active on social media e.g. Reddit and Twitter. Here is one of the AMAs he did on Reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/5whpqs/im_bill_gates_... A recent AMA related to covid-19. There are references to his team and adviser: https://www.reddit.com/r/Coronavirus/comments/fksnbf/im_bill... His Reddit handle is: https://www.reddit.com/user/thisisbillgates His Twitter han…

Yes in an ideal world I should just be able to write to Bill and he will have the time to consider my proposal seriously. In the real world the only way to get the attention of someone like Bill is to have someone he takes seriously bring it to his attention. Hence the post here.

Re: Ask HN: How to get Bill Gates's attention?

#50

Post by keanzu »

danieltillett wrote: post #47
ballenf wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why Bill Gates? Or why start with him? Get a grant from anywhere reputable. You need to work your way up the ladder through a ton of hard work. I don't mean that's how the system should work, but each rung of the ladder will be a signal to the next rung that your idea is worth the opportunity cost of not considering a competing idea. Waiting for Gates or another almost god-like figure can be an excuse to avoid hard w…

Have you looked into my background? I know all about how the how the system works. I am not looking to avoid hard work. As for why Bill Gates I specifically said I am looking for people with the clout to make this happens - while I am sure Bill would understand my proposal so would lots of other smart people. I don’t wish to be snarky, but yes you have misunderstood my proposal.

> people with the clout to make this happen

You said you are in Australia? The Australian government has the clout to make this happen.

Post reply on HN