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> You do not have to be an expert in healthcare or infectious disease to contribute ideas for life-saving solutions. While that might be true, I really doubt t

> You do not have to be an expert in healthcare or infectious disease to contribute ideas for life-saving solutions. While that might be true, I really doubt this is the sort of situation where smart amateurs are likely to do much good. Remember all the crazy ideas for halting the Deepwater Horizon spill? None of them went anywhere. It was smart engineers who devised the eventual procedure to cap the well. > Together we share stories and inspiration from around the world. I mean, sure that might make people feel better, but I'm struggling to see how it helps. Nobody has ever faced an Ebola outbreak remotely like this before. The small group of people who have ever dealt with Ebola are experts already, and presumably don't need a bespoke Grand Challenge to give their input. > highlight the micro-challenges embedded in the larger Ebola epidemic They are "micro" insofar as they are "marginally smaller than the whole problem" but "Strengthen Health Care Capacity" is such an enormous problem by itself it's sort of laughable to call it a "micro-challenge"! Most of the ideas currently are "make PPEs less terrifying" and, while I agree that that's a great idea, right now they just need craptons more of them distributed to the healthcare workers who need them. Other brilliant ideas include "what if fasting makes Ebola go away," "Can we just use 3D printers to print hospitals?" "What about an Ebola symptom-tracking app?"

atmosx 12y ago
You can't tell that if you don't try. Given the situation[1] people who are actively fighting Ebola in Africa need all the help they can get, in any form, even if that's brainpower from amateurs. Of course, it's a very advanced topic (medicine generally speaking is...) where anatomy, pharmacology, (molecular) biology come at play, no one can predict what people all over the world is able to come up with. [1] The situation is that the Western World at government level doesn't really care about what happens in Africa. It's still too far and away (still). The scary thing is that there's not known and currently approved EbolaVirus treatment that we know off, except rehydration and symptomatic treatment.

atmosx 12y ago

You can't tell that if you don't try. Given the situation[1] people who are actively fighting Ebola in Africa need all the help they can get, in any form, even if that's brainpower from amateurs. Of course, it's a very advanced topic (medicine generally speaking is...) where anatomy, pharmacology, (molecular) biology come at play, no one can predict what people all over the world is able to come up with. [1] The situation is that the Western World at government level doesn't really care about what happens in Africa. It's still too far and away (still). The scary thing is that there's not known and currently approved EbolaVirus treatment that we know off, except rehydration and symptomatic treatment.