[HN Gopher] Funding for Covid-19 Projects
___________________________________________________________________
Funding for Covid-19 Projects
Author : molecule
Score : 218 points
Date : 2020-03-15 16:35 UTC (6 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (blog.samaltman.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (blog.samaltman.com)
| intended wrote:
| Can someone just sell Bidets = better for the environment, and
| this ridiculous fighting over TP in the developed world ends.
| spookthesunset wrote:
| If you look on amazon, lots of them are getting sold out. This
| might be what changes people's view on it...
| the_af wrote:
| I come from a country where bidets are very popular, and I of
| course own one: you still need toilet paper. Think when you
| wash your hands, how do you dry them? ;)
| TeMPOraL wrote:
| Fights over TP should disappear soon. It's just a supply shock,
| but unlike with PPE, the coronavirus doesn't affect the rate at
| which people go through TP, so it should be one time. People
| who hoarded will just take more time to buy again.
| fortran77 wrote:
| An AI system that has been trained on survivability based on
| easily cheked comorbidities (age, BMI, smoker) that can instantly
| do triage and let hospitals know whether or not to allocate a
| hospital bed/ventilator to an incoming patient.
| supernintendo wrote:
| Please make sure any startup you fund doesn't take a selfish
| approach to patents and intellectual property. Any progress on
| fighting Covid-19 needs to be shared with the world and not used
| as a cynical tool for profit.
| vikramkr wrote:
| What counts as selfish? If someone is developing a drug for it
| but can't make the money back they spent on it because they
| don't have patent protection, they're not going to do it in the
| first place. A startup will fundamentally need to have
| profitability to be worth developing the drug. The government
| is a different story, and of course there's a chance the
| vaccines come out of the NIH etc. But if it comes out of a
| startup in particular, the people behind it we're only driven
| to create it for profit (why are they founding a startup
| instead of working through academia, or doing it as a
| startup/funding a startup instead of as a nonprofit?) And if
| that profit motive was required to make this work, then profit
| was the tool used to fight Covid, not the other way around, no?
| d_burfoot wrote:
| Thanks SamA!
| fludlight wrote:
| You can also try emailing K-12 (6-12 really) schools offering
| tech support helping teachers and students set up and use tele-
| learning software.
| codingdave wrote:
| I'd suggest that the K-5 crowd needs more help than 6-12. My
| older children already did some of their work online, and when
| the schools shut down, the teachers emailed the students to let
| them know that they'd be using their existing tools... just
| expanding the content.
|
| But my younger kids have never even used the online tools. They
| need more help, and the teachers need more help transitioning
| their curriculum to remote classrooms.
| tcbawo wrote:
| There are a lot of mom and pop stores and restaurants that will
| suffer and may go out of business. If there is a secure,
| convenient website to set up gift card purchases, it might keep
| these places afloat.
| wenc wrote:
| I was thinking this too, but I'm not convinced the gift card
| idea, as it stands, will work for all businesses. There needs
| to be some creative thinking to make it truly help small
| businesses.
|
| Gift cards are a deferred liability -- they help cash flow now
| but in the future when everybody redeems them, they're going to
| eat away at future income, which doesn't leave the mom and pop
| store necessarily in a better state. The hope is: (1) a large
| percentage of folks never redeem their gift cards; (2) mom-and-
| pops can accommodate the increased demand in the future and
| still make future income. (3) they can set really limited
| expiry dates. But if these assumptions are not true, they will
| still have to close. (but yes, let's do gift cards for
| businesses where these assumptions are true)
|
| In some cases, gift cards are not useful especially for non-
| scalable businesses like barbershops, which have a finite
| number of appointment slots. Gift cards just delay the
| inevitable. Barbers can extend hours and open up more slots but
| they might never catch up.
|
| A more appealing idea is a temporary UBI but then we're wading
| into political territory. And even with a UBI, it doesn't help
| businesses with uncertain demand and perishable inventories.
|
| I really want to help small businesses: any thoughts from other
| folks here? Is there something else we can do? Are there
| good/better solutions?
| tcbawo wrote:
| Maybe something like GoFundMe but with gift cards that have
| <100% redemption value, so it's neither entirely charity or
| unfunded liability. You need some transparency into the
| funding goals. Maybe even provide some sliding scale where
| after a certain amount purchased, the gift cards trend
| upwards towards 100%.
| andrewfromx wrote:
| Sam's ending line "And of course, I think the best thing to do is
| still to get people to stay home." makes me think we need this
| app asap: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22585852
| samirillian wrote:
| What about more social network type projects? As someone living
| in a relatively cheap apt building in Chicago, I was thinking
| that this could be an opportunity to get people to actually
| interact more with the aid of technology, form local support
| networks for sharing information and other resources, make sure
| the most vulnerable people have some support, etc. Lots of people
| are stuck at home, lots of people are nervous, lots of people may
| need help in the coming weeks. I wish our apartment building had
| at least a forum for sharing a little info.
| bryanrasmussen wrote:
| I guess fixing the problems listed here would be the most useful
| to invest in startup wise https://www.wired.com/story/high-
| stakes-security-set-ups-mak... as they will be problems that
| persist after the pandemic is over, and can secure clients in
| wealthy firms for the product that fixes them.
| pkaye wrote:
| The US ventilator companies say they can already ramp up
| production 5x. They just need the orders. And they can probably
| make more basic units which might be sufficient
|
| https://www.forbes.com/sites/baldwin/2020/03/14/ventilator-m...
| olalonde wrote:
| Why haven't they? There's a worldwide shortage of ventilators
| and prices are through the roof.
| pkaye wrote:
| > The German government just placed an order for 10,000
| mechanical ventilators. What's the U.S. government doing
| about a potential shortage here? Not much, it seems.
| President Trump alluded to the matter in a press conference
| but did not spell out any plans.
|
| I guess there is not action at the top level. This is a
| national emergency and they should be cranking them out like
| tanks during a war and distribute to where its most needed.
| hanniabu wrote:
| > They just need the orders.
| jonas21 wrote:
| Or rather, one small US ventilator company says they can ramp
| up their production by 5x in 3 to 4 months. From your link:
|
| _"We could increase production five-fold in a 90- to 120-day
| period," says Chris Kiple, chief executive of Ventec Life
| Systems ... The seven-year-old, 135-employee Ventec is a fairly
| small player in a market dominated by Medtronic (under the
| Puritan Bennett brand), GE Healthcare and Allied Healthcare in
| the U.S._
|
| Not to mention that there's a big difference between producing
| ventilators at 5x the current rate and having 5x as many total
| ventilators available.
| brian-armstrong wrote:
| Hospitals also need beds and staff to care for patients on
| ventilators. They could be well-equipped with the ventilators
| themselves and be bottlenecked on people to operate them.
| aabajian wrote:
| You can use an ECMO instead of ventilation:
| https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6185806/
|
| Here's a fringe idea in the worse case: Connect one ECMO
| oxygenator to multiple patients at once using Type-O negative
| blood. You'd have to filter out the O-negative RBC's as they come
| in.
| hn_throwaway_99 wrote:
| This seems pretty insane to me. ECMO in general is _much_ more
| dangerous than mechanical ventilation because the risk of
| infection and sepsis is so much higher. Certainly understand it
| as a last ditch effort, but the resources and risks WRT ECMO is
| much higher than mechanical ventilation.
| blackRust wrote:
| Unfortunately the number of ECMO machines is far cry away from
| what is required for this to work:
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Extracorporeal_membrane_oxygen...
|
| Even if you manage to double or triple capacity unfortunately
| it is no match to the exponential growth.
| haldujai wrote:
| We have a lot more ECMO capacity than people think, CPB
| machines from heart surgery cases can be used to provide ECMO
| which are at least an order of magnitude more common than
| classic ECMO machines.
| bryanrasmussen wrote:
| I'm somewhat dense - why Type-O?
| ipostonthisacc wrote:
| it is somewhat universal. type-O blood can be used for all
| groups (in general), but type-O patients can only receive own
| aabajian wrote:
| O-negative means the red blood cells lack the A, B and Rh
| antigens on their cell membrane. It is these antigens that
| (most) often lead to a host immune response.
| Spooky23 wrote:
| Type O is the universal donor.
| haldujai wrote:
| This is an extremely flawed idea.
|
| Not only does transfusion present a big risk, we quote ~20%
| risk of adverse events (minor to severe), but what you're
| suggesting massive transfusion protocol (DIC, hemolysis, TRALI,
| TACO) AND ECMO which itself is orders of magnitude more
| dangerous than ventilation.
|
| The risks are numerous but for brevity sake you have: Acute
| limb ischemia, DIC/other coagulopathies and spontaneous
| hemorrhage which carry huge mortality.
|
| It would be way simpler and safer to connect multiple patients
| to the same ventilator who are all on CMV with similar
| settings.
|
| ECMO is not saving many people with severe COVID-19 related
| illness. It depends on buying time for your body to recover.
| Nearly every case I've read about that required ECMO the
| patient died because of multiorgan failure and sepsis. ECMO
| only works well in patients with isolated lung (and some
| circumstances heart) problems.
| danenania wrote:
| I wonder how much home pneumonia treatment options like
| humidifiers, steam, and drinking tons of fluids can impact the
| hospitalization rate? Quitting/taking a break from smoking has to
| be a big one too. Can we find ways to encourage more people to do
| these things, like some kind of viral science-based "Lower Your
| Covid Risk" website or app? It could promote social distancing
| too.
|
| One of the biggest problems so far imo is lack of clear,
| unambiguous guidance from authority figures. People in the
| general population still have wildly misinformed views. Finding
| creative ways to inject this kind of crucial information into the
| collective consciousness could have a big impact.
| fovc wrote:
| There was a comment yesterday about how easy it is to manufacture
| iron lungs. A quick search indicates they might be effective
| (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15065832)
|
| Is this being explored?
| haldujai wrote:
| The mechanism of respiratory failure is different in COPD vs
| ARDS (in the case of COVID), hypercarbic vs hypoxemic. There is
| minimal human research in the use of NPV/iron lungs with ARDS.
| As far as I'm aware the technology does not even exist for many
| of the ventilation modes we use today with NPV which was
| designed for people with polio and paralyzed breathing muscles
| rather than "fluid in their lungs" causing the respiratory
| failure.
| tcbawo wrote:
| If cheap improvised medical equipment turns out to be feasible,
| I hope government will provide adequate legal cover for those
| willing/able to do R&D, manufacture, and distribution.
| dnautics wrote:
| How about a project to understand who is NOT getting Covid-19?
| There are almost certainly healthcare workers in heavily infected
| areas who "should have gotten it but haven't". Understanding this
| could rapidly lead to:
|
| - screens to identify who's vulnerable and who's not
|
| - therapeutic strategies (probably not ready for this round, but
| for future rounds)
|
| edit: removed errant footnote reference
| thih9 wrote:
| > There are almost certainly healthcare workers in heavily
| infected areas who "should have gotten it but haven't"[0]
|
| It looks like the link is missing. Does anyone have it?
| dnautics wrote:
| no, sorry, I was going to add more text and put the bullets
| into a footnote, but went back to coding.
|
| If you would like more information on something similar,
| consider:
|
| https://www.theguardian.com/world/2007/may/27/aids.features
|
| The flip side of this is that I used to work in structural
| biology, and there were tons of structural biology grants
| flying around justifying studying these antibodies on the
| grounds that they might lead directly to vaccination
| strategies. Well, that is highly unlikely because some of
| these antibodies have a germline (versus adaptive immunity
| internal random generator) mutation that fundamentally
| changes the higher-order architecture of their antibodies
| that makes them not comparable to the antibodies that the
| rest of us have. The blatant (deliberate or brainless, I
| wasn't sure) mischaracterization by the PIs and the brazen
| funding of these proposals (deliberate or brainless, I wasn't
| sure) by the grant program managers that contributed me to
| leaving academia. I just wish they were honest and said "we
| are studying this because it's interesting and we would like
| to know more about the universe".
| [deleted]
| bastawhiz wrote:
| I've read multiple reports online that truvada and descocy (HIV
| medication sold as a prophylactic, largely to LGBT individuals)
| may offer some resistance to COVID-19. I think it's largely
| bunk speculation, but research into whether existing, mass-
| produced pharmaceuticals would help could be incredibly
| valuable.
| tjoff wrote:
| Don't know about trubada/descocy but they are doing exactly
| that. Still, takes many months to get results though.
| davmar wrote:
| 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-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.
| taytus wrote:
| >You can email me if you want.
|
| What is Sam's email?
|
| Thanks!
| mceoin wrote:
| samaltman@ycombinator.com gives a hit in Superhuman.
| ISL wrote:
| Finding ways to mitigate the economic impact of Covid-19 is less
| sexy, but it is likely to be the place where investors can make
| the biggest difference to other humans.
|
| Zero/low-interest loans will stem the inevitable downward spiral
| that comes with loss of free cash flow from otherwise great
| businesses. This is the time to ensure the stable capitalization
| of good businesses (and investors are likely to get paid back in
| spades in karma, if not cash, for doing so).
| Theodores wrote:
| Well said.
|
| The lockdown presents an opportunity. Imagine you run a small
| customer facing business where the premises could do with
| refurbishment.
|
| Under normal circumstances you cannot close the doors for
| however long it takes to redecorate the place, maybe putting in
| modern lighting and air conditioning. Too much revenue would be
| lost plus there would be the matter of goodwill with customers
| discovering rival shops.
|
| Most of these businesses are cash driven, there isn't a lot in
| the bank. So, right now the business has to shut up shop, game
| over thanks to consequences of the virus.
|
| Now, if you did have the capital to spend on the premises, you
| could shut the doors to the customers and hire the usual team
| to help out on the refurbishment. They might not have the
| paperwork for the HVAC work or for doing electrical work but
| they could put everything in place for when times change and
| the electrician or HVAC engineer could be called out. Painting
| the walls or assembling shop fittings can be done by almost
| anyone, albeit not as quickly or proficiently as the
| professionals.
|
| When the hysteria is over and 'herd immunity' is reached then
| the refurbished business can reopen. With more up to date
| premises and a fresh look this should result in better sales.
|
| Sometimes 'charity starts at home' and helping one's preferred
| local business to make something of the opportunity rather than
| close is worth a go. If you are a customer then even just
| talking to your favourite shop about opportunities is useful,
| 'customer feedback'. It could be your hairdresser, a cafe or a
| shop that could do with the suggestion. Perhaps they don't
| notice the grubby walls as they work there day in and day out,
| whereas, you as a customer, might notice such things but never
| say anything as you like the staff. Time to speak up before
| they close.
| voidmain wrote:
| Someone should look at Sterilray and Ushio 222nm KrCl excimer
| lamps. Light at that frequency is extremely effective at
| destroying viruses but probably does not cause much skin cancer
| or eye damage like other UV because it is absorbed so fast it
| doesn't make it through the dead layer of skin etc. There are at
| least some studies but no FDA approval or mass production. If
| they work these might make a big difference in transmission in
| public spaces, especially via surfaces.
| deftnerd wrote:
| Even if 222nm has its purposes, the market is crying out for
| inexpensive and plentiful UV-C 253nm LED's.
|
| You can get UV LED's in different wavelengths, but 253nm is the
| very effective for disinfection (even though it does suffer
| from the other UV damage that you mentioned). It's slightly
| wider wavelength might make it more possible to make using
| existing LED manufacturing techniques.
|
| This would open up a lot of possible germicidal sanitation
| technologies from integrated germicidal LED's on door handles,
| bulbs used with home automation to disinfect a whole home once
| everyone has left for the day, to Roomba-like devices that
| disinfect floors.
| Animats wrote:
| On the ventilator front, a good start would be to order one each
| of the available ventilators on Alibaba, express shipping. For
| all the ones that show up, get them examined and tested and torn
| down if necessary. Publish the results. Get emergency FDA
| approval. Order in bulk. Make arrangements with the better
| suppliers to go to three shifts. Arrange for large air shipments
| of the good ones to where they are needed. Find out if there's
| something the supplier needs and get it from them. Basically, use
| money to overcome all normal obstacles to getting those things
| where they are needed.
| spodek wrote:
| Any tinkerers want to help these low tech versions
| https://www.notechmagazine.com/2020/03/open-source-breathing...
|
| Helping create versions 3d printable or mass manufacturable
| could save countless lives.
| timcederman wrote:
| This is spot on. I emailed officials in my city and county with
| this suggestion earlier this weekend and received some mild
| interest. From my research into the situation they do have
| stock and the current bottleneck is shipping, but stock is
| making it over in 2-3 weeks.
| ma2rten wrote:
| I doubt that there are going to be a bunch of ventilators that
| you can just order on Alibaba.
| jacquesm wrote:
| Take your pick:
|
| https://www.alibaba.com/showroom/emergency-ventilator.html
| BurningFrog wrote:
| You can order. But will they arrive?
| jacquesm wrote:
| That is a good question. I suppose there _was_ some stock
| of these before the crisis but those are very likely all
| depleted. Still, with this many suppliers it might not
| hurt to ask. Dutch proverb: "If you don't shoot you will
| certainly miss".
| microcolonel wrote:
| For what it's worth, China has literally turned around
| pending export medical supplies, and banned certain
| exports. Ventilators seem like they would be on that
| list, if it has not been withdrawn yet.
| thaumasiotes wrote:
| > Dutch proverb: "If you don't shoot you will certainly
| miss".
|
| Huh. The idea is certainly around in the US, but I'm kind
| of surprised I can't think of a matching proverb.
|
| We have a very close match, but it's considered a witty
| quote from a particular person (no consensus on who) --
| "you miss 100% of the shots you don't take".
|
| There's also something along the lines of "you can't get
| what you don't ask for". There's also an individually
| attributed version of this: "if you don't ask, you don't
| get". I had to look this up. There is no really common
| version.
|
| And of course, there's "ninety percent of success is
| showing up". Again this is attributed -- quote trackers
| seem to agree that it should be "80%", not "90%". But
| this one is common enough that I could see it becoming a
| proverb eventually. On the other hand, this has gone
| somewhat afield from "if you don't shoot, you won't hit".
| stormtroper1721 wrote:
| "You miss 100% of the shots that you don't take" is one
| ma2rten wrote:
| Fair enough, but I checked the first one. They were already
| certified by western agencies.
| genbit wrote:
| Here you go, startup idea: emergency logistics. Company that
| can quickly ship and verify good quality approved medical
| equipment and supplies to the epidemic area.
| jacquesm wrote:
| That's called the Red Cross.
| mceoin wrote:
| Mycology. Not a company but a novel and underinvested space with
| 3000+ yr history with antiviral applications. Paul Stamets is the
| go-to guy here but likely slammed. His talk, into the mycoverse,
| goes into detail about how he was brought in to do battery
| testing post-9/11 and how basically all polypore mushrooms
| (common globally) have some antiviral properties. Some are super-
| potent. At risk of being called "the crazy mushroom guy" I'm
| including here because I know this is a vastly underinvested in
| space and has huge latent potential WRT antivirals. The reason it
| is underinvested in is because patents are hard (used for 1000s
| of years) so big pharma stay away. Long shot, but also could be
| tested everywhere, reasonably cheaply.
| https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f0rkcrWqsV4
| Alex3917 wrote:
| Are there any mushrooms that have shown antiviral effects
| against SARS or other viruses in the Coronavirus family?
|
| I know there are a ton of studies on this for plant-based
| medicine in relation to SARS and MERS, but I haven't looked
| much into mushrooms for this. (Even as an amateur mycologist.)
|
| I know folks have been recommending cordyceps for COVID-19, but
| not because it has antiviral properties. Given that hunting for
| cordyceps is about the only safe thing to do in NYC right now,
| maybe this will be the year I actually find it for myself.
| (Albeit the species that's common in NYC doesn't have any
| history of being used medicinally afaik.)
| mceoin wrote:
| I haven't seen anything specifically related to COVID-19 and
| won't speculate. I'm also not a scientist or medical
| professional, so just think of me as some guy on the Internet
| saying "mycology is an interesting non-big-pharma industry
| that has bio-prospecting potential due to its anti-viral
| properties", and Paul Stamets is the source of that
| statement.
|
| (Personally, I'm making a lot of Reishi tea and taking a
| spectrum of polypore supplements as a general immune booster,
| not a specific defense against COVID-19).
|
| P.S. good luck finding cordyceps!
| andreyk wrote:
| "I'm trying to fund startups/projects helping with COVID-19,
| because it's basically the one thing I know how to do that can
| help. "
|
| You can... donate to the many existing efforts already fighting
| this?
| natalyarostova wrote:
| Sam's expertise isn't just about money. It's about identifying
| the good ideas in the sea of ideas, and helping them get
| connected.
| hanniabu wrote:
| It doesn't look like the items identified in his list are
| things that can really help now though. They seem like
| they're things that will only be useful in future pandemics.
| zmj wrote:
| Like the second wave of COVID-19 next winter?
| DoreenMichele wrote:
| I'm going to note two things here:
|
| First, Sam Altman is no longer president of YC and this is his
| personal blog. So I think it is probably a mistake to conflate
| his writing with YC policy.
|
| Second, I've been posting here more than a decade. I was
| initially very open about my diagnosis and my pursuit of non-drug
| solutions, but that went weird and problematic places, in part
| because people on the leader made problematic comments at times
| that looked to me like the baked in assumption was "She's just a
| girl. She couldn't possibly come up with a brilliant idea like Do
| A Website about her health stuff." The website in question was
| listed in my profile at the time. He hadn't taken thirty seconds
| to look at my profile before opening mouth and inserting foot.
|
| Sadly the person may have been trying to flirt with me. It's a
| debacle I feel my reputation has never recovered from.
|
| I still don't know how to get taken seriously and I absolutely
| can't single-handedly dream up a fix here.
|
| I can't figure out what to talk about without engagement. I can't
| self promote when various gatekeepers actively exclude me for not
| having the right kind of mostly male-coded credentials because I
| was a homemaker and full-time mom for a lot of years.
|
| I've spent nearly 19 years getting better while the world calls
| me crazy and actively denies me support. The odds are extremely
| poor that I will ever get taken seriously.
|
| But if it genuinely bothers you that people are dying from this
| infection, maybe stop and consider setting aside your sexist,
| classist prejudices about me and try to find some way to help me
| find my voice and share what I know that has allowed me to
| successfully get off all the drugs and generally grow healthier
| while the world laughs in face and tells me I'm a liar and
| nutcase.
|
| And if insisting I'm a lunatic who deserves zero respect matters
| to you more, then you don't really want a solution to this
| problem more than you want to remain married to unpleasant
| character traits.
|
| Because you have this person in your midst whose very life
| depends upon such expertise and would love to share useful
| information and that's not a secret. It's just absolutely not
| taken at all seriously and I'm routinely attacked for trying to
| talk about health stuff at all, even when I'm doing so for my own
| edification with zero intent to convince anyone else of anything
| at all.
| taytus wrote:
| I read your post 4 times. I still have no clue what you are
| talking about.
| adamsea wrote:
| Wouldn't it make more sense, from a public health perspective, to
| put that money into the existing local institutions (hospitals,
| health clinics, food banks) which are vital and soon may be
| strained to the breaking point?
| CPLX wrote:
| The thing Sam Altman could have done, and still could do, that
| would have by far the most impact in this and similar crises, is
| support the adoption of universal health coverage and sick leave
| policies, as well as financial assistance for those devastated by
| these shutdowns.
|
| Startups are cool. But to the extent the Silicon Valley community
| has fought against a social safety net and effective public
| sector they're part of the problem.
|
| Not singling him out specifically here as my understanding is
| that he actually has done some political work along those lines,
| but the first sentence here implies that investing in startups is
| the only thing he knows how to do. That rings false.
|
| He's very wealthy and powerful. He has enormous influence over
| people who set employee policies at important companies and has
| the ear of world leaders.[0]
|
| There's many things he could do that are much more effective than
| investing in startups.
|
| [0] https://youtu.be/rKoACC5iOhQ
| pmorici wrote:
| This seems obviously false. Italy has universal health coverage
| and they have one of the worst outbreaks and worse fatality
| rates of any country. This doesn't feel like the right time to
| promote preferred political agendas. Doesn't matter who pays
| for it when there is no vaccine and no cure.
| melenaboija wrote:
| Partially agree with you.
|
| Universal health coverage in this situation is meant to treat
| everybody in equality for same problem and I would say it
| doesn't matter who pays for it as long as everybody will get
| treated in a similar way.
|
| Agree on European governments did not the right thing, but
| again, not sure if that has something to do with universal
| health.
| nrp wrote:
| On universal paid sick leave, the intent is to enable people
| to not go into their workplace when they could be contagious.
| The choice between risking getting others sick or going broke
| and getting evicted isn't one people should be forced to
| make.
|
| On universal health coverage, the major difference is what
| the recovery looks like (potentially after the vaccine in
| countries where it's too late for containment). If there's
| any silver lining to this pandemic, hopefully it's that
| politicians who oppose universal health coverage become
| unelectable.
| pmorici wrote:
| I understand that but the op is advocating that those
| things would do more than having an ample supply of PPE and
| an effective treatment and vaccine which is total nonsense.
| js2 wrote:
| We'll soon see how America's broken healthcare system
| combines with its undocumented immigrants and homeless.
| Alex3917 wrote:
| And also people of color not filling out the census because
| they're afraid the government is going to send people to
| lynch them. Healthcare resources are completely
| misallocated because people are scared to tell the
| government where they live. During the last census, the
| response rate in Harlem was something like only 65%, which
| the government can tell based on electricity usage and
| toilet flush data.
| adrr wrote:
| Sick leave is in the house bill that passed yesterday along
| with paid family leave. White house supports it so it should
| pass the senate with little problems.
| CPLX wrote:
| No it isn't. It excludes almost everyone.
|
| That bill is an embarrassment. Doing something about _that_
| is kind of exactly what I'm talking about.
| [deleted]
| gji wrote:
| Those benefits only apply to people who work at companies
| that have less than 500 employees. Unfortunately, that leaves
| most people in the lurch.
|
| https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/14/opinion/coronavirus-
| pelos...
| cheez wrote:
| Those are the companies that won't survive without it. The
| bigger companies are expected to fund it themselves.
| throwaway8291 wrote:
| How true. I believe the US will see an even worse fallout than
| Italy - because people who can afford private medical personal
| tend to question whether healthcare is a business model at all
| ("Is curing patients a sustainable business model?", GS).
|
| America has the most uplifting and free-spirited legacy, but it
| has been transformed in the past decades into the most
| primitive form of greed and selfishness possible. Covid-19 is
| only the eye-opener.
|
| FTR: I believe the US will lose 5% of its population to the
| coronavirus in 2020. Not being panicky, just multiplying.
| ma2rten wrote:
| Coronavirus has death rate of 1-2%. It might be slightly
| higher if the health care system gets overwhelmed, but the US
| has a head start on Italy/China in terms of social distancing
| measures.
| varjag wrote:
| 3.4%
| ma2rten wrote:
| That number is a crude estimate based on reported cases.
| The real number of cases is obviously higher than the
| ones being reported.
| varjag wrote:
| These are WHO figures. You are speculating.
| ISL wrote:
| What odds are you giving for the 5% prediction?
|
| COVID-19 is going to hit us hard, but I believe deeply in
| America's ability to adapt and pull together. We are
| fractured and almost-leaderless today, but the United States
| tends to do very well against a common challenge, once the
| scale of the challenge is understood.
| [deleted]
| aaronbrethorst wrote:
| The United States's greatest challenges of the 20th century
| were only dealt with _after_ the country had strong
| leadership at the top. There is zero chance the U.S. will
| get that aforementioned strong leadership before January
| 2021 at the earliest.
| darawk wrote:
| I will make a bet with you for whatever amount of money that
| you want that every single prediction you just made is false.
| On a per capita basis, the US will have a better time than
| Italy. The US will lose _nowhere near_ 5% of its population.
| Not even 1%.
|
| Happy to formalize it and bet for real, if you'd like.
| CyanLite2 wrote:
| 5%? That's like 15-20 million people. Doubt it. We, the
| United States, have a lot of problems. We're greedy. We're
| arrogant. While we can't prevent all deaths, we're not going
| to let 15-20 million people die to a virus in this modern age
| of technology and healthcare.
| throwaway8291 wrote:
| I hope for the best.
| onetimemanytime wrote:
| >> _we 're not going to let 15-20 million people die to a
| virus in this modern age of technology and healthcare._
|
| well, you have to take measures weeks and months ahead, or
| else it doesn't matter...lungs need oxygen.
| heretoo wrote:
| Technology doesn't help once the number of cases needing
| intensive care exceed the capacity. Healthcare doesn't
| exist without technology.
|
| Italy exceeded that limit in the last two days, so now they
| have to decide who has the highest chance of survival, and
| those people get intensive care, if it is available.
| i_am_proteus wrote:
| Neither agreeing nor disagreeing with your point, but
| deliberating over what could have been done in the past does
| not help solve a crisis in the present.
| hn_throwaway_99 wrote:
| I very much disagree. The mistakes that were previously made
| (both broadly socially and specific instances, such as
| closing the pandemic response team and the delay in testing)
| were all incredibly foreseeable. I find it the height of
| dishonesty to say "Gosh, we had no idea what would have
| happened, we just have to focus on the present". Now, I don't
| think you're saying that, and you're right that the current
| situation is where we are and we should focus on what we can
| actually do. In the "never let a good crisis go to waste"
| vein, though, one thing we can actually do is make people
| realize that the health and well-being of your neighbors is
| inextricably linked to your own.
| CPLX wrote:
| I mean today, literally, he could call Nancy Pelosi, who most
| certainly knows who he is and would call him back, and scream
| at her for the insane lack of direct federal action to help
| regular workers affected financially by this crisis in the
| bill they just passed.
|
| If enough _people like him_ did that to our world leaders you
| can be damm sure it would make a difference.
| whiddershins wrote:
| Who isn't affected? Are you arguing we should
| simultaneously bail out the whole country?
| CPLX wrote:
| Yes of course. The government should take steps to
| stabilize the whole country and reduce the damage caused
| by mass disaster events. That's what governments are for.
| whiddershins wrote:
| I don't disagree, but I find your general stance of "of
| course my ideology is reality" totally problematic.
|
| Edit: To clarify there is a wide array of opinions about
| "what government are for" and "what governments should
| do" ... I think it is important to acknowledge that when
| expressing an opinion about what you think.
| kick wrote:
| I think implying that he doesn't support those isn't
| necessarily in line with his previous statements.
|
| He's previously made statements in favor of _at least_
| universal healthcare, and it seems incredibly unlikely that he
| doesn 't support sick leave policies.
| claudeganon wrote:
| Ycombinator funds several startups whose success depends on
| Medicare for All not happening.
| kick wrote:
| They've also funded startups in bids to try and make
| universal healthcare happen:
|
| https://blog.ycombinator.com/yc-research-universal-
| healthcar...
|
| Also, you shouldn't refer to universal healthcare/single-
| payer as a concept with "Medicare for All." Medicare for
| All is a compromised American policy proposal inferior to
| what most countries have had for years.
| claudeganon wrote:
| Medicare for All is the only meaningful proposal with
| mass support inside the Overton Window of American
| politics right now. I'd prefer a robust national
| healthcare service, but that's not on the table.
|
| Watsi is more akin to GoFundMe for care in the developing
| world, which, while admirable, has little to do with
| creating a universal healthcare system anywhere.
| dang wrote:
| Please don't take HN threads on generic tangents. They're
| predictable.
|
| https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=false&qu...
| throwGuardian wrote:
| Italy has both universal health coverage and sick leave
| policies, but is still reeling with a 7% mortality rate [1] and
| crisis. Neither replaces good leadership and policy/decision
| making by public health officials, and certainly has ZERO
| effect on pandemics.
|
| FYI, countries routinely provide free health care [2] during
| pandemics because it typically is an existential crisis for
| it's civil society and economy.
|
| [1]: https://www.ccn.com/coronavirus-death-rate-soars-to-7-in-
| ita...
|
| [2] : announcement about US COVID-19 testing and treatment:
|
| For USA -
|
| Where to get COVID-19 test?
|
| Enter your zip code to find out the nearest COVID-19 test site.
| (from US HRSA.gov website) https://findahealthcenter.hrsa.gov/
|
| 1. Go to clinics instead of crowded large facilities.
|
| 2. Fees: Testing and Treatments are free.
|
| If confirmed, home isolation for 14 days, please help stop
| spreading COVID-19. Proactive screening to stop the spreads.
| randomsearch wrote:
| > 7% mortality rate
|
| Please don't use such misleading figures. Spreading fear is
| dangerous. This number is known as a "naive case fatality
| rate", with the emphasis on naive. And you're even quoting
| just for one country - cherry-picking.
|
| The UK CMO has said the mortality rate for COVID-19 is likely
| 1% or less.
|
| Please, act responsibly. The situation is serious and
| difficult enough.
| throwGuardian wrote:
| The only person taking anything I said out of context is
| you. I've been very specific about the 7% estimate being
| unique to Italy, replete with a source. I've never claimed
| that to be the overall wordlwide mortality rate, so read
| before accusing someone.
|
| > Please, act responsibly ..
|
| I suggest you practice what you preach, and read someone
| else's well intentioned, informed opinion without
| attributing malice or intent to spread falsehoods.
|
| Most of all, the false narrative that a universal health
| care system somehow handles pandemics any better is clearly
| being proven wrong in the case of Italy, which is what I
| was trying to point out
| danenania wrote:
| No one really knows how the number will turn out. There are
| factors that could push it down: lack of testing, lots of
| mild cases; and factors that could push it up: the disease
| takes a long time to either recover or succumb to, so many
| of those who will end up dying from it haven't died yet.
|
| Resiliency of healthcare systems also clearly has a _major_
| impact. It might be well under 1% in a "first world"
| country where hospitals can keep up, and well over 10% in a
| "third world" country where they can't.
|
| While a 7% mortality rate certainly isn't some kind of
| objective fact, it's unfortunately not out of the realm of
| possibility for us in a worst-case scenario where the
| healthcare system is completely inundated. It's better to
| face up to that possibility than downplay it even if it
| scares people, because we urgently need people to act so it
| doesn't get that bad. While I agree that people shouldn't
| fear-monger, it's far more irresponsible at this point to
| downplay the risk than to (arguably) overstate it.
| whiddershins wrote:
| This is a negative and overall unhelpful comment.
|
| Not only do I not agree with your characterization of what is
| useful for him to do, your ideas about health care policies and
| mandatory sick are irrelevant, distracting, unimaginative, and
| an example of moral posturing that takes the form of demanding
| employers somehow take this burden, basically it is moral for
| you to demand someone-not-you foot the bill for something you
| think should happen.
|
| I deeply wish this wasn't the highest voted comment on this
| submission.
| saiya-jin wrote:
| Well here is where you disagree with most of the HN crowd
| including me. Maybe you are rich enough or insensitive enough
| to not care. That in fact doesn't matter at all.
|
| Free/almost free good enough healthcare, and education in
| similar vein are cornerstones of any society that would like
| to call itself fair, just and overall good place to live, not
| only for few elites. Everybody benefits from it, whole effin'
| mankind benefits from it long term.
|
| Heck, even though I am relatively young and properly healthy,
| so I don't need to spend a cent on healthcare, I am happy to
| pay (swiss) one so that other benefit. Fuck society that
| doesn't do that.
| whiddershins wrote:
| These things aren't free. It is merely shifting the costs.
|
| Shifting costs to employers (mandatory paid sick leave) is
| generally immoral.
|
| If people want to provide a benefit, do it with government
| spending, and remind yourself it is your money (taxes) that
| funds it.
|
| If you are still willing to do it, at least you are putting
| your money where your mouth is.
| whiddershins wrote:
| Also "Fuck Society that doesn't do that" [you are Swiss?]
| Am I understanding you correctly?
|
| That's grossly insulting and jingoistic. Maybe you should
| rethink your nationalism and arrogance.
| ma2rten wrote:
| Health insurance companies have already said they will cover
| COVID without copay/deductibles. I am sure that there will be
| free/low cost options for people without any insurance.
|
| The people who profit from the current system know that there
| is a presidential election in November. They can't afford to
| let public opinion go against them. Ironically, I think that
| this event will cement the current system more.
| claudeganon wrote:
| > Health insurance companies have already said they will
| cover COVID without copay/deductibles.
|
| This has been said about testing and coverage for testing is
| included in the bill that passed the house. But I've seen it
| nowhere reported that this is true for treatment. What's the
| source for this claim?
|
| > I am sure that there will be free/low cost options for
| people without any insurance.
|
| The only provision currently on the table is Medicaid
| expansion to states for treatment, but the amount of people
| who are or will be ineligible for Medicaid (assuming they got
| laid off) is quite large. I'm not certain how you can be
| "sure" of this.
| ma2rten wrote:
| It turned out it was a misstatement by Trump:
|
| https://www.cnn.com/2020/03/12/politics/fact-check-copays-
| co...
| amluto wrote:
| Which means that, once a treatment or vaccine is available,
| the vendor can charge essentially whatever they please.
|
| I think the federal government should buy or acquire by fiat
| the rights to produce remdesivir and contract, immediately,
| with multiple vendors to start mass production. If the trial
| pan out, the US alone may need enough to treat a few million
| people. If the trials don't pan out, some money is lost.
|
| (I'm not saying Gilead shouldn't be fairly compensated. By
| all means, pay them a few billion dollars. But don't allow
| them to extract $50k per case. And don't allow them to delay
| widespread availability while negotiating.)
|
| FWIW, China appears to be doing this right now. A Chinese
| company is manufacturing the drug now and is essentially
| ignoring the patent.
| rjzzleep wrote:
| Let's not forget that the US did that with the Anthrax
| vaccination.
|
| https://www.theguardian.com/business/2001/oct/23/anthrax.bu
| s...
| fma wrote:
| If I recall, in addition to ignoring the patent, the
| Chinese company is taking the Gilead drug, repurposing it
| and then owning a new patent for the Corona virus...
| amluto wrote:
| To some extent the legal wrangling its irrelevant. China
| is likely to want large amounts of the drug, and they
| aren't waiting. Presumably there will be a lawsuit and a
| settlement. Gilead has very little leverage in China,
| unless they are able to outproduce the home grown
| manufacturer.
| felltrifortence wrote:
| We are launching a initiative to showcase tech projects to fight
| the covid-19 virus. Fell free to submit your projects
| https://taikai.network/taikai/challenges/covid-19
| andrewdubinsky wrote:
| Quarantine Enforcement using GPS with Symptom Tracking
| https://www.proveneapp.com
|
| Video: https://vimeo.com/395294573 Deck:
| https://www.dropbox.com/s/128ef7cmu62yv9i/Provene%20Quaranti...
|
| It's a monitoring platform - Used for jail diversion, recidivism,
| drug treatment, etc...Lots of great use cases around quarantine
| and tracking.
| [deleted]
| nenadst wrote:
| just heard this on https://peterattiamd.com/peterhotez/
|
| apparently Dr.Hotez has a Sars-1 candidate vaccine antigen which
| could be repurposed for Covid-19,
|
| https://grantome.com/grant/NIH/R01-AI098775-03S1
|
| but they don't have funding to move it to clinical trials ..
| [deleted]
| leakybit wrote:
| There already exists a low cost ventilator that was designed for
| the India market.
|
| https://www.agvahealthcare.com/
|
| but good luck getting fda approval.
| jacquesm wrote:
| If the choice is no FDA approved ventilator vs one that is not
| approved I think the second option is the better one.
| Emergencies will change the landscape rapidly to the point
| where such luxuries as FDA approval will no longer matter as
| much as they did before.
| quaquaqua1 wrote:
| The ventilator most likely is not approved for
| political/cronyism reasons, rather than safe functionality
| avip wrote:
| FDA has emergency approval process and it'll be used when
| shit hits the vent.
|
| In fact it was just used like two days ago.
| deepnotderp wrote:
| I wonder if we can just use a $250 Jackson-Rees circuit and an
| electric motor as a DIY ventilator in a pinch.
| _hardwaregeek wrote:
| This does seem to be a worthwhile effort and I have no doubt some
| good will come of it. But I'm not sure targeting COVID is the
| best idea. Projects can certainly help with that, but they need
| to scale, fast. Plus any sort of physical requirements like
| manufacturing is out of the question. What I'd be worried about
| is the _next_ COVID. I don 't mean this in a literal, disease
| based fashion. We should be asking about the next global
| disaster. How can our infrastructure break down? What can we do
| to strengthen it? Who is vulnerable?
|
| Also I'm a little concerned about medical projects that are
| created in an emergency and attempting to do fast track research.
| Immediate solutions may sound great but we don't want to do more
| damage in our hastiness. Urgency can lead to wishful thinking
| which can lead to disaster.
| [deleted]
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