for any of sam's startup ideas to have an impact on the current Covid-19 pandemic, they need to: 0. raise a lot of money because vaccine/therapeutic developmen

for any of sam's startup ideas to have an impact on the current Covid-19 pandemic, they need to: 0. raise a lot of money because vaccine/therapeutic development is $$$. it's probably not seed funding. 1. be successful in researching and developing an approach that works with a novel, unproven approach 2. get that approach certified 3. scale the manufacturing of the novel approach 4. deliver the drugs to patients who need it 5. do it all in a timeframe that is faster than what existing companies can do, and within the budget of the money that you've raised. i don't think novel vaccines and therapeutics made by startups are likely to work in time to have an impact on this coronavirus. but, sam's funding can help out if he suggests different problems: logistics planning, increasing care capacity, and increased political pressure. - in the open letter to mike pence (https://medium.com/@maxinedexter/open-letter-to-vice-president-mike-pence-re-us-covid-19-response-5ee9eaece61e https://medium.com/@maxinedexter/open-letter-to-vice-preside...) they call for call centers to "coordinate transfers of patients to areas with higher levels or greater capacity for delivering care." if it doesn't exist, software should power this. - same letter: "A tracking method at the state level for people self quarantined must be instituted for public health surveillance and follow up." - cities need additional mobile quarantine facilities. build them out of box shipping containers or something. for this pandemic, we're already behind the 8 ball so i suggest picking simpler projects. if you want to fund novel approaches that require r&d, that's probably more likely to help with the next pandemic.