6 ms·

Ask HN: How can I help the Coronavirus situation?

25 points by daenz 7y ago

Beyond simply slowing the spread by practicing good hygiene and avoiding exposure.

deleted 7y ago
[deleted]
jacquesm 7y ago
By keeping an eye on vulnerable people around you and ensuring they have access to life's necessities without risk penalty.
dekobon 7y ago
I encourage you to write your local politicians to encourage policy changes that would encourage people to self-quarantine or to seek treatment for infectious diseases. I wrote the following to my state senators: Many people currently are concerned about the corona virus outbreak. I believe that Washington state can take the lead in medical policy decisions that would help to mitigate the effect of the disease on the most vulnerable members of our state. There are two key legislative gaps that prevent people from seeking proper care for infectious diseases: 1. A lack of legislation protecting peoples’ jobs when taking leave for treatment or diagnosis for an infectious disease. 2. The high potential cost of medical care when seeking treatment or diagnosis for an infectious disease. Although many people have health care in Washington state, many have high deductibles that are so high that they may choose paying their rent over treatment. I am not a medical professional nor a medical policy expert, but an ordinary citizen of your district and these gaps are frightening. Please help Washington be a national leader in infectious disease policy.
- bjourne 7y ago
  > I encourage you to write your local politicians to encourage policy changes that would encourage people to self-quarantine or to seek treatment for infectious diseases. Isn't that easier said than done if you have no paid sick leave?
throwaway88483 7y ago
Wash your hands.
lm28469 7y ago
The only thing I'm personally vaguely concerned about is making sure my grandparents have access to basic necessities without having to expose themselves in places like supermarkets. If you're under 40 and healthy it seems that you don't have much to worry about besides not spreading the virus yourself (self quarantine as soon as you think you might have it).
- biolurker1 7y ago
  Parents too
  - lm28469 7y ago
    Yes of course. In my case I feel like my grandparents wouldn't feel very concerned if no one was pressuring them and telling them it could potentially be very serious.
- AlchemistCamp 7y ago
  Dr. Li Wenliang was healthy and died to the virus at only 33.
DoreenMichele 7y ago
I was just at a pharmacy where I asked the cashier to use hand sanitizer because she kept touching her damn nose every minute or two and she blew me off and told me "I've been using hand sanitizer all day." If you could smack a few million people upside the back of the head and get them to actually, in fact, practice the hygiene stuff that gets repeated all the time and utterly ignored, you could save thousands of lives. Stop touching your face. Stop touching your face. Train cashiers to practice actual germ control. Don't let them lick their fingers to open bags. Fire them if they do stuff like touch their nose and then immediately handle money or lick their fingers to open bags. The single biggest obstacle to germ control is the fact that most humans don't want to actually practice it. Making it a widespread habit would nearly put a stop to most epidemics all on its own, but we are too busy sticking our heads up our butts to do that.
- vvillena 7y ago
  The amount of people who do not wash their hands in any way while in the bathroom is sickening. I hope coronavirus helps raise awareness regarding the basics, so more people get into the habit of regular hand washing.
  - DoreenMichele 7y ago
    From your lips to God's ears and all that. I'm not holding my breath. People are amazingly stubborn about clinging to their bad habits and acting like I'm just a bitch and meanie face for trying to foster positive change or even just protect myself from their horrifying behavior. We are going to hell and most of us deserve it.
    - afarrell 7y ago
      Some people get lung cancer rather than change bad habits. There is a nonzero chance that my nosepicking habit kills me over the next couple months. Yet for some goddamned reason it doesn't stop me.
- im3w1l 7y ago
  > Don't let them lick their fingers to open bags. How else would you do it? I stopped myself when I was just about lick my fingers to open a plastic bag for fruit the other day, realizing maybe it's not good to do in these times, but I couldn't figure out an alternative and gave in.
nickthemagicman 7y ago
Accept that there's a significant chance you're going to get coronavirus. Educate yourself and be realistic. Realize that 80% of patients have mild symptoms, only 20% have serious symptoms, and of that 20% only 2% fatalities occur. Also, accept that nothing in life is guaranteed, appreciate the time with the people you love and care about, and be grateful this pandemic isn't some more virulent version of something more lethal like yersinia pestis. That's about all you can do.
- deleted 7y ago
  [deleted]
- enchiridion 7y ago
  Minor correction, you make it sound like 2% of 20% which is a .4% fatality rate. The total fatality rate is 2%
  - AnimalMuppet 7y ago
    Is it? If I understand correctly, it's 2% of the cases we know about. How many of the patients with mild symptoms do we know about? (But if we don't know about them, how do we know that 80% of the people only have mild symptoms? We guess... or so I suspect.)
    - nickthemagicman 7y ago
      This is actually a really really good point as well. It may be far less than reported 2% because the number of people with mild symptoms who may not get tested is so high.
    - enchiridion 7y ago
      People keep bringing up edge cases like this. If we look at strictly died/(recovered+died) the mortality is 6%. Obviously it's lower because there are recoveries which are not recorded. I'd tend to believe that the statisticians putting out the 2% figure understand enough about disease dynamics for it to be accurate.
jeffrallen 7y ago
Wash your hands.
codegladiator 7y ago
Question, should I go to office tomorrow? First case just reported a few hours ago.
html5web 7y ago
I've just purchased the domain name coronavirus.rehab Planning to compile useful content and share it with public
digikata 7y ago
I had this question of software engineers with maybe access to social data. But I think I posted it at a poor time - no replies. Ask HN: Usefulness of social network data for epidemic management? https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22440114 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22440114 But really it seems like a natural reaction to want to help, but I suspect if you aren't already tied in to a network of people/resources with a jump on the issues already, that coming up to speed is more of a idle thought than practical.
throwaway230047 7y ago
Write an app! On the first screen it poses the question, "Should I buy a bunch of N95 masks?" On the second screen, it says, "Fuck, no."
sjg007 7y ago
Wash your hands.
max_ 7y ago
You could build insurace infrastructure for people at a high risk of the disease. https://asindu.drileba.capital/2020/02/fighting-of-disease-pandemics-with-defi/ https://asindu.drileba.capital/2020/02/fighting-of-disease-p...
deleted 7y ago
[deleted]
kyawzazaw 7y ago
You can donate your computational resources to Stanford.

25 points by daenz 7y ago

Beyond simply slowing the spread by practicing good hygiene and avoiding exposure.

deleted 7y ago

[deleted]

jacquesm 7y ago

By keeping an eye on vulnerable people around you and ensuring they have access to life's necessities without risk penalty.

dekobon 7y ago

I encourage you to write your local politicians to encourage policy changes that would encourage people to self-quarantine or to seek treatment for infectious diseases. I wrote the following to my state senators: Many people currently are concerned about the corona virus outbreak. I believe that Washington state can take the lead in medical policy decisions that would help to mitigate the effect of the disease on the most vulnerable members of our state. There are two key legislative gaps that prevent people from seeking proper care for infectious diseases: 1. A lack of legislation protecting peoples’ jobs when taking leave for treatment or diagnosis for an infectious disease. 2. The high potential cost of medical care when seeking treatment or diagnosis for an infectious disease. Although many people have health care in Washington state, many have high deductibles that are so high that they may choose paying their rent over treatment. I am not a medical professional nor a medical policy expert, but an ordinary citizen of your district and these gaps are frightening. Please help Washington be a national leader in infectious disease policy.

bjourne 7y ago
> I encourage you to write your local politicians to encourage policy changes that would encourage people to self-quarantine or to seek treatment for infectious diseases. Isn't that easier said than done if you have no paid sick leave?

throwaway88483 7y ago

Wash your hands.

lm28469 7y ago

The only thing I'm personally vaguely concerned about is making sure my grandparents have access to basic necessities without having to expose themselves in places like supermarkets. If you're under 40 and healthy it seems that you don't have much to worry about besides not spreading the virus yourself (self quarantine as soon as you think you might have it).

biolurker1 7y ago
Parents too
- lm28469 7y ago
  Yes of course. In my case I feel like my grandparents wouldn't feel very concerned if no one was pressuring them and telling them it could potentially be very serious.
AlchemistCamp 7y ago
Dr. Li Wenliang was healthy and died to the virus at only 33.

DoreenMichele 7y ago

I was just at a pharmacy where I asked the cashier to use hand sanitizer because she kept touching her damn nose every minute or two and she blew me off and told me "I've been using hand sanitizer all day." If you could smack a few million people upside the back of the head and get them to actually, in fact, practice the hygiene stuff that gets repeated all the time and utterly ignored, you could save thousands of lives. Stop touching your face. Stop touching your face. Train cashiers to practice actual germ control. Don't let them lick their fingers to open bags. Fire them if they do stuff like touch their nose and then immediately handle money or lick their fingers to open bags. The single biggest obstacle to germ control is the fact that most humans don't want to actually practice it. Making it a widespread habit would nearly put a stop to most epidemics all on its own, but we are too busy sticking our heads up our butts to do that.

vvillena 7y ago
The amount of people who do not wash their hands in any way while in the bathroom is sickening. I hope coronavirus helps raise awareness regarding the basics, so more people get into the habit of regular hand washing.
- DoreenMichele 7y ago
  From your lips to God's ears and all that. I'm not holding my breath. People are amazingly stubborn about clinging to their bad habits and acting like I'm just a bitch and meanie face for trying to foster positive change or even just protect myself from their horrifying behavior. We are going to hell and most of us deserve it.
  - afarrell 7y ago
    Some people get lung cancer rather than change bad habits. There is a nonzero chance that my nosepicking habit kills me over the next couple months. Yet for some goddamned reason it doesn't stop me.
im3w1l 7y ago
> Don't let them lick their fingers to open bags. How else would you do it? I stopped myself when I was just about lick my fingers to open a plastic bag for fruit the other day, realizing maybe it's not good to do in these times, but I couldn't figure out an alternative and gave in.

nickthemagicman 7y ago

Accept that there's a significant chance you're going to get coronavirus. Educate yourself and be realistic. Realize that 80% of patients have mild symptoms, only 20% have serious symptoms, and of that 20% only 2% fatalities occur. Also, accept that nothing in life is guaranteed, appreciate the time with the people you love and care about, and be grateful this pandemic isn't some more virulent version of something more lethal like yersinia pestis. That's about all you can do.

deleted 7y ago
[deleted]
enchiridion 7y ago
Minor correction, you make it sound like 2% of 20% which is a .4% fatality rate. The total fatality rate is 2%
- AnimalMuppet 7y ago
  Is it? If I understand correctly, it's 2% of the cases we know about. How many of the patients with mild symptoms do we know about? (But if we don't know about them, how do we know that 80% of the people only have mild symptoms? We guess... or so I suspect.)
  - nickthemagicman 7y ago
    This is actually a really really good point as well. It may be far less than reported 2% because the number of people with mild symptoms who may not get tested is so high.
  - enchiridion 7y ago
    People keep bringing up edge cases like this. If we look at strictly died/(recovered+died) the mortality is 6%. Obviously it's lower because there are recoveries which are not recorded. I'd tend to believe that the statisticians putting out the 2% figure understand enough about disease dynamics for it to be accurate.

jeffrallen 7y ago

Wash your hands.

codegladiator 7y ago

Question, should I go to office tomorrow? First case just reported a few hours ago.

html5web 7y ago

I've just purchased the domain name coronavirus.rehab Planning to compile useful content and share it with public

digikata 7y ago

I had this question of software engineers with maybe access to social data. But I think I posted it at a poor time - no replies. Ask HN: Usefulness of social network data for epidemic management? https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22440114 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22440114 But really it seems like a natural reaction to want to help, but I suspect if you aren't already tied in to a network of people/resources with a jump on the issues already, that coming up to speed is more of a idle thought than practical.

throwaway230047 7y ago

Write an app! On the first screen it poses the question, "Should I buy a bunch of N95 masks?" On the second screen, it says, "Fuck, no."

sjg007 7y ago

Wash your hands.

max_ 7y ago

You could build insurace infrastructure for people at a high risk of the disease. https://asindu.drileba.capital/2020/02/fighting-of-disease-pandemics-with-defi/ https://asindu.drileba.capital/2020/02/fighting-of-disease-p...

deleted 7y ago

[deleted]

kyawzazaw 7y ago

You can donate your computational resources to Stanford.