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Covid-19 projects looking for volunteers

601 points by tvvocold 7y ago

jph 7y ago
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 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.
- secfirstmd 7y ago
  I'd hate to state the obvious but why Github? It's quite a big barrier to entry for the average person (especially in places with low literacy) to write in MD, make a pull request etc. Why not just use a public Google doc or something? Don't get me wrong. I get where you are coming from but I have gone down the Github route on a few similar projects and regretted it.
stared 7y ago
In this thread, there is an ongoing hackathon https://www.hackcrisis.com/ https://www.hackcrisis.com/ (until this weekend).
DariusMarkus 7y ago
Hopefully there is a general cure found against this virus, this is necessary as soon as possible.
nikivi 7y ago
There's also https://en.coronahelpers.nl https://en.coronahelpers.nl but I think it's only for Netherlands. Although I misunderstood. Above site is for finding volunteers to help with daily tasks.
yiyus 7y ago
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 to create a reserve for the US of more than 740000 ventilators. Sorry, but I want to help people everywhere, not just in the US. The whole world needs ventilators. Maybe I just misunderstood, and the US numbers were just indicative, but it does not look like a global effort. Does anybody knows of a similar initiative that is not so focused on the US?
- fock 7y ago
  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...
  - vorpalhex 7y ago
    So think of care in this case being a pipeline, and right now the bottleneck is ventilators. Once we solve that, we may well have other bottlenecks, but right now this is the main one. Well designed modern ventilators once set require minimal attention, and the overall settings for most COVID cases seem to be well understood from what the literature has suggested. In terms of bacterial infections, it depends on the type of ventilation used and there are some variables here, but regular ventilator sanitation procedures should be fine, and currently have proven to be fine.
    - fock 7y ago
      are you a doctor or why are you so sure? In italy they don't have space, ventilators or personel. As this is not a time-independent pipeline-problem with human lifes at stake, I don't think that it's really effective to say: just let's do one part after the other without even knowing that someone is taking care of the rest)
  - LorenPechtel 7y ago
    A care person is a very low skill job, it's not a critical bottleneck. (In many cases family could make do, especially if you have some cooperation. One person can't do it but two could trade off doing two people.)
    - fock 7y ago
squashthebug 7y ago
Free Tibet. Free Hong Kong. Free Taiwan. Death to the CCP.
radmin 7y ago
The Helpful Engineering project has several thousand volunteers and a global scope: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1cM87eJdXhP_8e9gJJZ_SnZXdo_huWsBmMzcqYWbhEOg/preview https://docs.google.com/document/d/1cM87eJdXhP_8e9gJJZ_SnZXd...
fortran77 7y ago
> 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.
- fock 7y ago
  well, your user name speaks for itself. Oldfashioned but reliable and well thought out.
  - deleted 7y ago
    [deleted]
- bentona 7y ago
  There is at least one project listed specifically to enable this.
  - fortran77 7y ago
    No there isn't. There's a project to write software to build a platform to do this. Just knock on doors.
- scrollaway 7y ago
  Quit being hostile to people trying to help. It's the lowest of the low you can be during a world-wide crisis.
  - blackguardx 7y ago
    Anyone is free to spend their free time as they wish and trying to help is very noble. However, there are some very mundane things people can do that would seem to have a lot more impact than many of these projects. Volunteering to delivery groceries is one. It is like volunteering to help out a soup kitchen. Sure, they could probably use some help with their website or other technical issues, but mostly they just need people to serve food.
0xfaded 7y ago
I have an idea to increase viral RNA test throughput (PCR) by 46.5 times using a binary encoding scheme that I hope someone here might be able to validate/invalidate. Sorry for the thread jack, but I tried posting this yesterday but didn't get picked up. https://wet-robots.ghost.io/how-to-increase-covid-19-testing-by/ https://wet-robots.ghost.io/how-to-increase-covid-19-testing...
- throwaway3gg64 7y ago
  Read Dorfman’s 1940s paper on detecting “defectives” [1]. The fundamental chemistry, as I understand it, is compatible with the method described by Dorfman. I’ve actually reached out to MD Dr., biochemists, epidemiologists asking your very question: “Why can’t we mix samples?” None seem unable to give me an straight answer. Most I’ve asked can’t get past the fact that you can still identify the infected individual after mixing the samples. (Sorry dang. I know I’m banned. But I think coronavirus trumps a ban!) [1] “the detection of defective member of a large population”
- icegreentea2 7y ago
  At a quick reading, here are some things that pop out: 1) In your 94 well example, you'd need to dilute each individual sample 1/94. This could cause problems. The lower leveraged scenarios may be more useful due to lower dilution. 2) Similarly, very small scale liquid handling is relatively difficult to do. As you multiplex the number of sources into a well, the volume of each of those sources will decrease, increasing the difficulty and uncertain. Once again, a lower leveraged solution is likely viable. It's also worth identifying that the bottle neck in testing is moving towards the availability of sample swabs, and reverse-transcription reagent (these happen up stream of PCR). Given those constraints, the emphasis should be on making all other steps in the detection chain as reliable (so simple) as possible to make the best of the bottle necked resources. That said, it's a very clever idea.
- svara 7y ago
  The idea is great in principle. But this is going to be a problem: "We need a mechanical device which can automatically sort the samples into well group" PCR machines are actually not that complicated by comparison. Basically just a programmable heater. Last time I looked into it (admittedly a while ago, so feel free to correct me), pipetting robots kind of sucked and weren't very precise. Correctly handling tiny (microliter scale) fluid amounts without the slightest risk of cross contamination isn't going to be that simple. But all that said, if you can solve this problem I think the idea is a real winner. Can be used for HIV and other PCR based testing as well.
aaron695 7y ago
This should have started months ago when it hit China to help them. So try to be forward thinking. Don't just think in the now. In Italy some places don't treat people without families for instance (The excuse is they have no one to care for them after ICU, but we know the real reason) Tinder for fake family's for instance?
- Engineering-MD 7y ago
  I mean that’s just unhelpful. Caring for patients after ITU is a real challenge and if they are triaging a very limited resource it makes sense to give it those who are likely to survive long term when there isn’t the medical facilities to look after them without family input.
- vorpalhex 7y ago
  > In Italy some places don't treat people without families for instance This is false and not aligned to the current guidelines[^1] put out for triage of cases. > So try to be forward thinking. Don't just think in the now. People need groceries today. Projects are attempting to fill those gaps we need, not the theoretical ones we might have tomorrow. Sure, you should keep an eye on the future, but you need to address the present. [^1] - PDF WARNING http://www.siaarti.it/SiteAssets/News/COVID19%20-%20documenti%20SIAARTI/SIAARTI%20-%20Covid19%20-%20Raccomandazioni%20di%20etica%20clinica.pdf http://www.siaarti.it/SiteAssets/News/COVID19%20-%20document...
  - aaron695 7y ago
    > This is false and not aligned to the current guidelines[^1] put out for triage of cases. "Every time a bed comes free, two anaesthesiologists consult with a specialist in resuscitation and an internal medicine physician to decide who will occupy it. Age and pre-existing medical conditions are important factors. So is having a family. “We have to take into account whether older patients have families who can take care of them once they leave the ICU, because they will need help,” says Marco Resta, deputy head of Policlinico San Donato’s Intensive Care Unit." https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus-italy-ethics-speci/special-report-all-is-well-in-italy-triage-and-lies-for-virus-patients-idUSKBN2133KG https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus-italy-... What is the false bit? I'm talking about what is happening, not the guidelines.
Alex3917 7y ago
If anyone is interested, I made a subreddit to discuss over-the-counter drugs, supplements, and other treatments for Covid—19: https://www.reddit.com/r/covid19stack https://www.reddit.com/r/covid19stack
gadders 7y ago
There is also: https://coronavirustechhandbook.com/ https://coronavirustechhandbook.com/
_curious_ 7y ago
This site, list, and general orientation of 'tech for good' applied towards CV19 is very likeable. Especially so at a time where there is going to be excess brain capacity on the sidelines due to layoffs or those now working from home who have spare time & motive to do something and feeling helpless. The economic + remote labor shifts definitely open up more resources for side/volunteer stuff for those, like me, wanting to help this cause but not sure how or where to begin. After reading through and clicking on a few projects of personal interest, my feedback for those listing who seek to increase their chances of success and maximize impact would be: (a) make the 'how to get in touch' more consistent/accessible. An email contact should be standard. Just give me an email address and i'll give you mine, we'll go from there. (b) consider thinking bigger and broader in terms of 'looking for'. It takes much more than devs/languages to get something real off the ground, scale it, and actually solve a real world problem. Designers, PMs, marketing, strategy, people with capital and connections... Not that it's fast or easy to find these things, but understanding the scope of what you will actually need to succeed upfront will only expand your funnel and give you options to evolve and grow by tapping into diverse expertise as the product is built.
- antsar 7y ago
  Also consider including progress to date, your rough plan (if any), an indication of how much leadership is in place or required. Like "b" above: as a potential volunteer it's helpful to know whether you have a plan and just need workers or if it's still early idea phase and you need executive help.
eezurr 7y ago
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. <rant> A lot of us have the amazing comfort of working from our own homes, isolated from the rest of the world. In roughly 2-3 weeks, the epicenter locations of this disease in the US are going to run out of hospital beds. If you are younger and healthy, please consider asking your boss if you need to be working full time right now. Watch your state governor's and mayor's press conferences. They will communicate to you where you can go to help volunteer. We are going to transition to "war time leadership". A time that will test everyone's true character. </rant>
- brookside 7y ago
  I joined a community group that is doing just this, and as an hour ago have a list of older neighbors to check in on, and possibly help with obtaining food and medications. I do wonder if at 39 i am in fact young enough to be in the most-likely-to-survive-if-exposed group.
  - OakNinja 7y ago
    As long as you don’t have any other diseases, you’re statistically sort of “safe”. 0.2% risk of dying for your age group regardless of physical health according to https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/coronavirus-age-sex-demographics/ https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/coronavirus-age-se... Wash your hands, stay safe.
    - bronipstid 7y ago
      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.
deleted 7y ago
[deleted]
jjm 7y ago
I created overnight https://covid-info.us https://covid-info.us I’m just trying to help out any way I can. Some of the info here I will post on the site. I also have access to other information which may not yet be public and that’s going up as soon as possible.
miguelmota 7y ago
My colleague launched a podcast on coronavirus news https://coronavirus.fm/ https://coronavirus.fm/
randunel1 7y ago
Here at https://www.coronawiki.org https://www.coronawiki.org we are also looking for help. I am Dr. Riciu Andrei, board certified dermatologist with a strong interest in infectious diseases I put together a team of medical professionals, researchers, programmers and data scientists and we're trying to create the most accurate Coronavirus / COVID-19 resource (data stats and accurate medical information). With this project I am trying to help as many people as I can gain access to reliable information and data and stop the fake news that trigger a lot of panic.
- prox 7y ago
  I think a global information hub is very much wanted! I may have some links that might prove useful.
- notahacker 7y ago
  Hi Riciu. This looks like a very promising resource. One constructive comment: your dashboards could benefit from some text above clarifying things like [i]some countries test more symptomatic people than others [ii]recoveries are much lower because recovery takes time and in most places most of the cases are new etc [iii] many cases are undocumented. And possibly linking to your articles on the same subject. This may be clear to you, but perhaps not to some people using the data to assess the relative safety of their country or age group.
_bxg1 7y ago
I realize this is probably a work in progress, but as a suggestion, it would really benefit from better navigation: - Sorting (particularly by # of volunteers, to find ones that aren't filled up) - Searching by string - Maybe tags that can be searched by? (skillsets wanted, etc.) - Projects could list an estimated number of needed volunteers; "Does 86 mean they don't need any more?" Overall, excellent idea and it looks great so far. I just think the above would make it much easier for people to find the right place to contribute.
- dhosek 7y ago
  Yeah, it seems weird that the default presentation is to put the projects with the most volunteers at the top.
- sradu 7y ago
  We're working on this!
CodiePetersen 7y ago
I don't know who made the website but shouldn't the least volunteered ones be at the top.
- evv 7y ago
  Looks like the project was started by Sam Altman, Radu Spineanu, Tinnei Pang (YC folks, it seems). According to https://helpwithcovid.com/projects/1 https://helpwithcovid.com/projects/1 PSA, the Discord is getting more active: https://discordapp.com/invite/mgupDG https://discordapp.com/invite/mgupDG
- sradu 7y ago
  That was the initial approach, we're bringing in some people to highlight projects.
idoby 7y ago
Is the purpose of this site to connect me with a project needing help as fast as possible, or to collect data? If the former, why do I need to sign up to join the project? Just link to whatever wiki/github/slack/trello/whatever it's using or a point of contact.
- resonantjacket5 7y ago
  The point is for the project to contact you. Not for you to contact them. I understand that signing up is annoying, but really this isn't the time to be concern trolling about an email/account sign ups. Plus how are you going to help if you can't be contacted?
deleted 7y ago
[deleted]
secfirstmd 7y ago
Also a very worthwhile Github Project here for the John Hopkins Map. 400+ issues at the moment https://github.com/CSSEGISandData/COVID-19/issues https://github.com/CSSEGISandData/COVID-19/issues
tectonic 7y ago
We've started FeedADoc.com and posted it on helpwithcovid (https://helpwithcovid.com/projects/53 https://helpwithcovid.com/projects/53). 10 volunteers from HN folks so far, thank you!
tootie 7y ago
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.
- sequoia 7y ago
  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. :(
  - tootie 7y ago
    That's not what clickbait is. Also, despite my skepticism I just volunteered for something. I can be skeptical but still hopeful :)
- pdelbarba 7y ago
  These are all moonshot projects. If someone can come up with a creative and simple ventilator that relies entirely on 3d printed and massively available electronic parts they can save a lot of lives and it appears to be entirely possible. If they don't produce anything of value, at least they tried.
  - sequoia 7y ago
    The issue is it's premature to even call these listings "projects." I can write "create vaccine for covid for free distribution" on this list, what does that achieve? There are concrete things we can all do, and probably ways for we programmers to contribute using our professional skills, but just wishing for a million ventilators is a distraction, not a contribution or even a project to be brutally honest.
  - Uehreka 7y ago
    > at least they tried. I recognize the optimism and idealism in this way of thinking and feel bad about countering it, but as someone who has taken on a number of “if we fail at least we tried!” ideas over the years, this is a recipe for burnout. Enthusiasm and passion are valuable and scarce resources: we don’t have an unlimited amount. Each time we take on a project and really throw ourselves into it, we’re investing a bit of our limited passion supply. If the project works out and makes an impact, we get a return on that investment, and feel the motivation to take on even bigger projects! But if you throw yourself body and soul into too many projects that totally fail, you’ll eventually run out of steam to keep going, and you may not even see it coming until it’s too late. To continue the investment analogy: I recommend folks invest themselves in projects with an eye to risk. “A weekend project that will almost certainly go nowhere, but could go somewhere” is a small investment, sure go ahead. A months long grind with a startup better come with a plausible strategy for success that doesn’t hinge on something unlikely. Invest well, friends.
ISNIT 7y ago
Have you seen https://coronavirustechhandbook.com/volunteering https://coronavirustechhandbook.com/volunteering ?
sequoia 7y ago
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).
mrtweetyhack 7y ago
how many of these are scams? 100%
ThePhysicist 7y ago
To all German speakers: There will be a government-sponsored hackathon from Friday to Sunday, please think about participating! https://wirvsvirushackathon.org/ 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 :)
- h3ctic 7y ago
  Thanks for sharing! I spread the info with my colleagues
mistersquid 7y ago
I posted this to my agency's Slack channel. It didn't unfurl because there's no OG data. I added this as byline: "Community projects looking for volunteers. Sign up and add your project to the list." OG data would help promote the page with less effort by those who share in social media and text messages.
starpilot 7y ago
You can also donate blood, "American Red Cross faces 'severe blood shortage' as cancellations increase due to coronavirus": https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/american-red-cross-faces-severe-blood-shortage-cancelations/story?id=69642130 https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/american-red-cross-faces-sev... You can still donate while on most medications, which is something I didn't know.
taborj 7y ago
Hopefully some of these aren't re-inventing the wheel. For instance, currently the first one is helping build APIs for getting healthcare data. This is potentially a solved problem; indeed, interoperability is rather a large market in the healthcare world (I speak as someone who does this for a living).
- sanderjd 7y ago
  If it's a solved problem, is it easy to link to the solution here?
  - taborj 7y ago
    The solution depends on the problem. The standardizing body is HL7.org, but there are multiple standards depending on what you're trying to do. Currently, the market is focused on FHIR API, which is a RESTful API. I'm on mobile, but that should give you enough to search for.
- umbelisco 7y ago
  curious where you would start tackling it? what are the right building blocks that can be accessed for devs building solutions? from an outside perspective there is little access to data across the silos. im helping coordinate the project, not a healthcare expert myself (rather coming from the api / data side from other verticals), so happy about your thoughts.
  - taborj 7y ago
    FHIR APIs are allowing a standards-based approach to accessing healthcare data from external sources, such as an app. In addition, there are national networks for sharing data between clinics and hospitals, like CareQuality and Commonwell. I'm most familiar with CareQuality, as that's the system my company's EHR software integrates with. It uses SOAP calls to exchange CDA documents.
- noelsusman 7y ago
  There's also a problem of trust. I work for a hospital and I'm never going to pull data from an API built by random people yesterday, especially in a crisis situation.
williesleg 7y ago
Where's google, apple, etc. etc. Fuckers have a lot of brain power right? Can't help out? Heck, Google can't even set up a web site. I guess China really does own them.
ajoy 7y ago
The US spends so much money on defense and making sure soldiers are prepared for war. Right now, our soldiers in this war are our frontline medical staff. Nurses and doctors putting their lives on the line to help the ones in need. But instead we have this : Hospital Workers Make Masks From Office Supplies Amid U.S. Shortage (https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-03-18/hospital-makes-face-masks-covid-19-shields-from-office-supplies https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-03-18/hospital-...) Doctors in New York treating coronavirus patients reusing masks (https://www.businessinsider.com/doctors-new-york-treating-coronavirus-patients-reuse-n95-masks-2020-3 https://www.businessinsider.com/doctors-new-york-treating-co...)
- markkvdb 7y ago
  Mask shortages are showing up all over Europe too. France and The Netherlands already started shutting down general practitioner offices due to a lack of protective gear. A month ago the WHO already warned for this shortage (https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/feb/07/who-warns-global-shortage-face-masks-protective-suits-coronavirus https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/feb/07/who-warns-glob...) It's kind of heart-breaking to see people wearing the N95 masks on the streets, while hospitals are having a hard time to find sufficient protective gear to keep the hospital afloat.
OatsAndHoney 7y ago
Are there any software projects on GitHub which need volunteers, that helps the researchers?
deleted 7y ago
[deleted]
k2xl 7y ago
I built this project to help track covid trends in countries and states. https://covidtrend.com https://covidtrend.com
abductee_hg 7y ago
maybe also this? https://www.reddit.com/r/China_Flu/comments/fkeewi/how_to_use_one_ventilator_to_save_multiple_lives https://www.reddit.com/r/China_Flu/comments/fkeewi/how_to_us...
VectorLock 7y ago
The thing that worries me the most about the Elderly Grocery projects is that elderly individuals are EXTREMELY vulnerable to criminals and scam artists. They are explicitly target. I'm very afraid of people volunteering for these things as a confidence builder they can use to prey upon them.
rapjr9 7y ago
Given some people need to continue working, giving care, maintaining infrastructure, maybe social distancing in time as well as physical distance would be a good idea? You might be surprised how few people are around at 4am. Even if people didn't want to work at night, they could still spread out work hours during the day. Businesses have probably already thought of this, but workers in other areas may not have.
CodiePetersen 7y ago
It really does kind of feel gross that these sound like business pitches.

601 points by tvvocold 7y ago

jph 7y ago

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 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.

secfirstmd 7y ago
I'd hate to state the obvious but why Github? It's quite a big barrier to entry for the average person (especially in places with low literacy) to write in MD, make a pull request etc. Why not just use a public Google doc or something? Don't get me wrong. I get where you are coming from but I have gone down the Github route on a few similar projects and regretted it.

stared 7y ago

In this thread, there is an ongoing hackathon https://www.hackcrisis.com/ https://www.hackcrisis.com/ (until this weekend).

DariusMarkus 7y ago

Hopefully there is a general cure found against this virus, this is necessary as soon as possible.

nikivi 7y ago

There's also https://en.coronahelpers.nl https://en.coronahelpers.nl but I think it's only for Netherlands. Although I misunderstood. Above site is for finding volunteers to help with daily tasks.

yiyus 7y ago

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 to create a reserve for the US of more than 740000 ventilators. Sorry, but I want to help people everywhere, not just in the US. The whole world needs ventilators. Maybe I just misunderstood, and the US numbers were just indicative, but it does not look like a global effort. Does anybody knows of a similar initiative that is not so focused on the US?

fock 7y ago
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...
- vorpalhex 7y ago
  So think of care in this case being a pipeline, and right now the bottleneck is ventilators. Once we solve that, we may well have other bottlenecks, but right now this is the main one. Well designed modern ventilators once set require minimal attention, and the overall settings for most COVID cases seem to be well understood from what the literature has suggested. In terms of bacterial infections, it depends on the type of ventilation used and there are some variables here, but regular ventilator sanitation procedures should be fine, and currently have proven to be fine.
  - fock 7y ago
    are you a doctor or why are you so sure? In italy they don't have space, ventilators or personel. As this is not a time-independent pipeline-problem with human lifes at stake, I don't think that it's really effective to say: just let's do one part after the other without even knowing that someone is taking care of the rest)
- LorenPechtel 7y ago
  A care person is a very low skill job, it's not a critical bottleneck. (In many cases family could make do, especially if you have some cooperation. One person can't do it but two could trade off doing two people.)
  - fock 7y ago

squashthebug 7y ago

Free Tibet. Free Hong Kong. Free Taiwan. Death to the CCP.

radmin 7y ago

The Helpful Engineering project has several thousand volunteers and a global scope: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1cM87eJdXhP_8e9gJJZ_SnZXdo_huWsBmMzcqYWbhEOg/preview https://docs.google.com/document/d/1cM87eJdXhP_8e9gJJZ_SnZXd...

fortran77 7y ago

> 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.

fock 7y ago
well, your user name speaks for itself. Oldfashioned but reliable and well thought out.
- deleted 7y ago
  [deleted]
bentona 7y ago
There is at least one project listed specifically to enable this.
- fortran77 7y ago
  No there isn't. There's a project to write software to build a platform to do this. Just knock on doors.
scrollaway 7y ago
Quit being hostile to people trying to help. It's the lowest of the low you can be during a world-wide crisis.
- blackguardx 7y ago
  Anyone is free to spend their free time as they wish and trying to help is very noble. However, there are some very mundane things people can do that would seem to have a lot more impact than many of these projects. Volunteering to delivery groceries is one. It is like volunteering to help out a soup kitchen. Sure, they could probably use some help with their website or other technical issues, but mostly they just need people to serve food.

0xfaded 7y ago

I have an idea to increase viral RNA test throughput (PCR) by 46.5 times using a binary encoding scheme that I hope someone here might be able to validate/invalidate. Sorry for the thread jack, but I tried posting this yesterday but didn't get picked up. https://wet-robots.ghost.io/how-to-increase-covid-19-testing-by/ https://wet-robots.ghost.io/how-to-increase-covid-19-testing...

throwaway3gg64 7y ago
Read Dorfman’s 1940s paper on detecting “defectives” [1]. The fundamental chemistry, as I understand it, is compatible with the method described by Dorfman. I’ve actually reached out to MD Dr., biochemists, epidemiologists asking your very question: “Why can’t we mix samples?” None seem unable to give me an straight answer. Most I’ve asked can’t get past the fact that you can still identify the infected individual after mixing the samples. (Sorry dang. I know I’m banned. But I think coronavirus trumps a ban!) [1] “the detection of defective member of a large population”
icegreentea2 7y ago
At a quick reading, here are some things that pop out: 1) In your 94 well example, you'd need to dilute each individual sample 1/94. This could cause problems. The lower leveraged scenarios may be more useful due to lower dilution. 2) Similarly, very small scale liquid handling is relatively difficult to do. As you multiplex the number of sources into a well, the volume of each of those sources will decrease, increasing the difficulty and uncertain. Once again, a lower leveraged solution is likely viable. It's also worth identifying that the bottle neck in testing is moving towards the availability of sample swabs, and reverse-transcription reagent (these happen up stream of PCR). Given those constraints, the emphasis should be on making all other steps in the detection chain as reliable (so simple) as possible to make the best of the bottle necked resources. That said, it's a very clever idea.
svara 7y ago
The idea is great in principle. But this is going to be a problem: "We need a mechanical device which can automatically sort the samples into well group" PCR machines are actually not that complicated by comparison. Basically just a programmable heater. Last time I looked into it (admittedly a while ago, so feel free to correct me), pipetting robots kind of sucked and weren't very precise. Correctly handling tiny (microliter scale) fluid amounts without the slightest risk of cross contamination isn't going to be that simple. But all that said, if you can solve this problem I think the idea is a real winner. Can be used for HIV and other PCR based testing as well.

aaron695 7y ago

This should have started months ago when it hit China to help them. So try to be forward thinking. Don't just think in the now. In Italy some places don't treat people without families for instance (The excuse is they have no one to care for them after ICU, but we know the real reason) Tinder for fake family's for instance?

Engineering-MD 7y ago
I mean that’s just unhelpful. Caring for patients after ITU is a real challenge and if they are triaging a very limited resource it makes sense to give it those who are likely to survive long term when there isn’t the medical facilities to look after them without family input.
vorpalhex 7y ago
> In Italy some places don't treat people without families for instance This is false and not aligned to the current guidelines[^1] put out for triage of cases. > So try to be forward thinking. Don't just think in the now. People need groceries today. Projects are attempting to fill those gaps we need, not the theoretical ones we might have tomorrow. Sure, you should keep an eye on the future, but you need to address the present. [^1] - PDF WARNING http://www.siaarti.it/SiteAssets/News/COVID19%20-%20documenti%20SIAARTI/SIAARTI%20-%20Covid19%20-%20Raccomandazioni%20di%20etica%20clinica.pdf http://www.siaarti.it/SiteAssets/News/COVID19%20-%20document...
- aaron695 7y ago
  > This is false and not aligned to the current guidelines[^1] put out for triage of cases. "Every time a bed comes free, two anaesthesiologists consult with a specialist in resuscitation and an internal medicine physician to decide who will occupy it. Age and pre-existing medical conditions are important factors. So is having a family. “We have to take into account whether older patients have families who can take care of them once they leave the ICU, because they will need help,” says Marco Resta, deputy head of Policlinico San Donato’s Intensive Care Unit." https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus-italy-ethics-speci/special-report-all-is-well-in-italy-triage-and-lies-for-virus-patients-idUSKBN2133KG https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus-italy-... What is the false bit? I'm talking about what is happening, not the guidelines.

Alex3917 7y ago

If anyone is interested, I made a subreddit to discuss over-the-counter drugs, supplements, and other treatments for Covid—19: https://www.reddit.com/r/covid19stack https://www.reddit.com/r/covid19stack

gadders 7y ago

There is also: https://coronavirustechhandbook.com/ https://coronavirustechhandbook.com/

_curious_ 7y ago

This site, list, and general orientation of 'tech for good' applied towards CV19 is very likeable. Especially so at a time where there is going to be excess brain capacity on the sidelines due to layoffs or those now working from home who have spare time & motive to do something and feeling helpless. The economic + remote labor shifts definitely open up more resources for side/volunteer stuff for those, like me, wanting to help this cause but not sure how or where to begin. After reading through and clicking on a few projects of personal interest, my feedback for those listing who seek to increase their chances of success and maximize impact would be: (a) make the 'how to get in touch' more consistent/accessible. An email contact should be standard. Just give me an email address and i'll give you mine, we'll go from there. (b) consider thinking bigger and broader in terms of 'looking for'. It takes much more than devs/languages to get something real off the ground, scale it, and actually solve a real world problem. Designers, PMs, marketing, strategy, people with capital and connections... Not that it's fast or easy to find these things, but understanding the scope of what you will actually need to succeed upfront will only expand your funnel and give you options to evolve and grow by tapping into diverse expertise as the product is built.

antsar 7y ago
Also consider including progress to date, your rough plan (if any), an indication of how much leadership is in place or required. Like "b" above: as a potential volunteer it's helpful to know whether you have a plan and just need workers or if it's still early idea phase and you need executive help.

eezurr 7y ago

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. <rant> A lot of us have the amazing comfort of working from our own homes, isolated from the rest of the world. In roughly 2-3 weeks, the epicenter locations of this disease in the US are going to run out of hospital beds. If you are younger and healthy, please consider asking your boss if you need to be working full time right now. Watch your state governor's and mayor's press conferences. They will communicate to you where you can go to help volunteer. We are going to transition to "war time leadership". A time that will test everyone's true character. </rant>

brookside 7y ago
I joined a community group that is doing just this, and as an hour ago have a list of older neighbors to check in on, and possibly help with obtaining food and medications. I do wonder if at 39 i am in fact young enough to be in the most-likely-to-survive-if-exposed group.
- OakNinja 7y ago
  As long as you don’t have any other diseases, you’re statistically sort of “safe”. 0.2% risk of dying for your age group regardless of physical health according to https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/coronavirus-age-sex-demographics/ https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/coronavirus-age-se... Wash your hands, stay safe.
  - bronipstid 7y ago
    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.

deleted 7y ago

[deleted]

jjm 7y ago

I created overnight https://covid-info.us https://covid-info.us I’m just trying to help out any way I can. Some of the info here I will post on the site. I also have access to other information which may not yet be public and that’s going up as soon as possible.

miguelmota 7y ago

My colleague launched a podcast on coronavirus news https://coronavirus.fm/ https://coronavirus.fm/

randunel1 7y ago

Here at https://www.coronawiki.org https://www.coronawiki.org we are also looking for help. I am Dr. Riciu Andrei, board certified dermatologist with a strong interest in infectious diseases I put together a team of medical professionals, researchers, programmers and data scientists and we're trying to create the most accurate Coronavirus / COVID-19 resource (data stats and accurate medical information). With this project I am trying to help as many people as I can gain access to reliable information and data and stop the fake news that trigger a lot of panic.

prox 7y ago
I think a global information hub is very much wanted! I may have some links that might prove useful.
notahacker 7y ago
Hi Riciu. This looks like a very promising resource. One constructive comment: your dashboards could benefit from some text above clarifying things like [i]some countries test more symptomatic people than others [ii]recoveries are much lower because recovery takes time and in most places most of the cases are new etc [iii] many cases are undocumented. And possibly linking to your articles on the same subject. This may be clear to you, but perhaps not to some people using the data to assess the relative safety of their country or age group.

_bxg1 7y ago

I realize this is probably a work in progress, but as a suggestion, it would really benefit from better navigation: - Sorting (particularly by # of volunteers, to find ones that aren't filled up) - Searching by string - Maybe tags that can be searched by? (skillsets wanted, etc.) - Projects could list an estimated number of needed volunteers; "Does 86 mean they don't need any more?" Overall, excellent idea and it looks great so far. I just think the above would make it much easier for people to find the right place to contribute.

dhosek 7y ago
Yeah, it seems weird that the default presentation is to put the projects with the most volunteers at the top.
sradu 7y ago
We're working on this!

CodiePetersen 7y ago

I don't know who made the website but shouldn't the least volunteered ones be at the top.

evv 7y ago
Looks like the project was started by Sam Altman, Radu Spineanu, Tinnei Pang (YC folks, it seems). According to https://helpwithcovid.com/projects/1 https://helpwithcovid.com/projects/1 PSA, the Discord is getting more active: https://discordapp.com/invite/mgupDG https://discordapp.com/invite/mgupDG
sradu 7y ago
That was the initial approach, we're bringing in some people to highlight projects.

idoby 7y ago

Is the purpose of this site to connect me with a project needing help as fast as possible, or to collect data? If the former, why do I need to sign up to join the project? Just link to whatever wiki/github/slack/trello/whatever it's using or a point of contact.

resonantjacket5 7y ago
The point is for the project to contact you. Not for you to contact them. I understand that signing up is annoying, but really this isn't the time to be concern trolling about an email/account sign ups. Plus how are you going to help if you can't be contacted?

deleted 7y ago

[deleted]

secfirstmd 7y ago

Also a very worthwhile Github Project here for the John Hopkins Map. 400+ issues at the moment https://github.com/CSSEGISandData/COVID-19/issues https://github.com/CSSEGISandData/COVID-19/issues

tectonic 7y ago

We've started FeedADoc.com and posted it on helpwithcovid (https://helpwithcovid.com/projects/53 https://helpwithcovid.com/projects/53). 10 volunteers from HN folks so far, thank you!

tootie 7y ago

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.

sequoia 7y ago
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. :(
- tootie 7y ago
  That's not what clickbait is. Also, despite my skepticism I just volunteered for something. I can be skeptical but still hopeful :)
pdelbarba 7y ago
These are all moonshot projects. If someone can come up with a creative and simple ventilator that relies entirely on 3d printed and massively available electronic parts they can save a lot of lives and it appears to be entirely possible. If they don't produce anything of value, at least they tried.
- sequoia 7y ago
  The issue is it's premature to even call these listings "projects." I can write "create vaccine for covid for free distribution" on this list, what does that achieve? There are concrete things we can all do, and probably ways for we programmers to contribute using our professional skills, but just wishing for a million ventilators is a distraction, not a contribution or even a project to be brutally honest.
- Uehreka 7y ago
  > at least they tried. I recognize the optimism and idealism in this way of thinking and feel bad about countering it, but as someone who has taken on a number of “if we fail at least we tried!” ideas over the years, this is a recipe for burnout. Enthusiasm and passion are valuable and scarce resources: we don’t have an unlimited amount. Each time we take on a project and really throw ourselves into it, we’re investing a bit of our limited passion supply. If the project works out and makes an impact, we get a return on that investment, and feel the motivation to take on even bigger projects! But if you throw yourself body and soul into too many projects that totally fail, you’ll eventually run out of steam to keep going, and you may not even see it coming until it’s too late. To continue the investment analogy: I recommend folks invest themselves in projects with an eye to risk. “A weekend project that will almost certainly go nowhere, but could go somewhere” is a small investment, sure go ahead. A months long grind with a startup better come with a plausible strategy for success that doesn’t hinge on something unlikely. Invest well, friends.

ISNIT 7y ago

Have you seen https://coronavirustechhandbook.com/volunteering https://coronavirustechhandbook.com/volunteering ?

sequoia 7y ago

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).

mrtweetyhack 7y ago

how many of these are scams? 100%

ThePhysicist 7y ago

To all German speakers: There will be a government-sponsored hackathon from Friday to Sunday, please think about participating! https://wirvsvirushackathon.org/ 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 :)

h3ctic 7y ago
Thanks for sharing! I spread the info with my colleagues

mistersquid 7y ago

I posted this to my agency's Slack channel. It didn't unfurl because there's no OG data. I added this as byline: "Community projects looking for volunteers. Sign up and add your project to the list." OG data would help promote the page with less effort by those who share in social media and text messages.

starpilot 7y ago

You can also donate blood, "American Red Cross faces 'severe blood shortage' as cancellations increase due to coronavirus": https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/american-red-cross-faces-severe-blood-shortage-cancelations/story?id=69642130 https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/american-red-cross-faces-sev... You can still donate while on most medications, which is something I didn't know.

taborj 7y ago

Hopefully some of these aren't re-inventing the wheel. For instance, currently the first one is helping build APIs for getting healthcare data. This is potentially a solved problem; indeed, interoperability is rather a large market in the healthcare world (I speak as someone who does this for a living).

sanderjd 7y ago
If it's a solved problem, is it easy to link to the solution here?
- taborj 7y ago
  The solution depends on the problem. The standardizing body is HL7.org, but there are multiple standards depending on what you're trying to do. Currently, the market is focused on FHIR API, which is a RESTful API. I'm on mobile, but that should give you enough to search for.
umbelisco 7y ago
curious where you would start tackling it? what are the right building blocks that can be accessed for devs building solutions? from an outside perspective there is little access to data across the silos. im helping coordinate the project, not a healthcare expert myself (rather coming from the api / data side from other verticals), so happy about your thoughts.
- taborj 7y ago
  FHIR APIs are allowing a standards-based approach to accessing healthcare data from external sources, such as an app. In addition, there are national networks for sharing data between clinics and hospitals, like CareQuality and Commonwell. I'm most familiar with CareQuality, as that's the system my company's EHR software integrates with. It uses SOAP calls to exchange CDA documents.
noelsusman 7y ago
There's also a problem of trust. I work for a hospital and I'm never going to pull data from an API built by random people yesterday, especially in a crisis situation.

williesleg 7y ago

Where's google, apple, etc. etc. Fuckers have a lot of brain power right? Can't help out? Heck, Google can't even set up a web site. I guess China really does own them.

ajoy 7y ago

The US spends so much money on defense and making sure soldiers are prepared for war. Right now, our soldiers in this war are our frontline medical staff. Nurses and doctors putting their lives on the line to help the ones in need. But instead we have this : Hospital Workers Make Masks From Office Supplies Amid U.S. Shortage (https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-03-18/hospital-makes-face-masks-covid-19-shields-from-office-supplies https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-03-18/hospital-...) Doctors in New York treating coronavirus patients reusing masks (https://www.businessinsider.com/doctors-new-york-treating-coronavirus-patients-reuse-n95-masks-2020-3 https://www.businessinsider.com/doctors-new-york-treating-co...)

markkvdb 7y ago
Mask shortages are showing up all over Europe too. France and The Netherlands already started shutting down general practitioner offices due to a lack of protective gear. A month ago the WHO already warned for this shortage (https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/feb/07/who-warns-global-shortage-face-masks-protective-suits-coronavirus https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/feb/07/who-warns-glob...) It's kind of heart-breaking to see people wearing the N95 masks on the streets, while hospitals are having a hard time to find sufficient protective gear to keep the hospital afloat.

OatsAndHoney 7y ago

Are there any software projects on GitHub which need volunteers, that helps the researchers?

deleted 7y ago

[deleted]

k2xl 7y ago

I built this project to help track covid trends in countries and states. https://covidtrend.com https://covidtrend.com

abductee_hg 7y ago

maybe also this? https://www.reddit.com/r/China_Flu/comments/fkeewi/how_to_use_one_ventilator_to_save_multiple_lives https://www.reddit.com/r/China_Flu/comments/fkeewi/how_to_us...

VectorLock 7y ago

The thing that worries me the most about the Elderly Grocery projects is that elderly individuals are EXTREMELY vulnerable to criminals and scam artists. They are explicitly target. I'm very afraid of people volunteering for these things as a confidence builder they can use to prey upon them.

rapjr9 7y ago

Given some people need to continue working, giving care, maintaining infrastructure, maybe social distancing in time as well as physical distance would be a good idea? You might be surprised how few people are around at 4am. Even if people didn't want to work at night, they could still spread out work hours during the day. Businesses have probably already thought of this, but workers in other areas may not have.

CodiePetersen 7y ago

It really does kind of feel gross that these sound like business pitches.