Note: This post will be continuously updated to reflect additional ways to be helpful for the duration of the pandemic and after-effects.
As I write this post, the USA has just surpassed China and Italy in number of confirmed coronavirus cases.
I personally have qualms with how case diagnosis is being assessed; for example, I find it exceedingly difficult to believe that my home country India, with a population of 1.4 billion people, has a case count of merely 1024. Given the lack of personal space in both urban and rural populaces, these numbers indicate to me either a blatant nationalistic lie, or a lack of reliable testing capacity, both of which are scary prospects but not the focus of this post.
Regardless of which country we live in, it’s clear that COVID-19 is not your run-of-the-mill crisis. It affects every nation in the world… a rare phenomenon given SARS was relatively contained within Asia as Ebola within Africa. As we hole up in our residences as a result of “shelter-in-place” orders and practice social distancing, our daily activities have been fairly limited to working from home, going for a walk or run, trying out new recipes, gardening, other “safe” hobbies, and in my case, blogging, waiting for a signal that we can poke our heads out of the rabbit hole in due time.
The reality, though, is that we likely are far from being out of the woods with some public health studies projecting best case scenario of 20% of adults being infected over 18 months with hospitals operating at 95%, and worst case scenario 60% infected over a six-month span, requiring more than seven times the number of available hospital beds in the U.S.
Even while sheltering in place, it is important to remember that this isn’t only a problem for government, health care providers, and scientists to solve. This involves all of us as a community and there are many meaningful ways in which we can allocate our time. For example, locally in San Francisco, various charitable organizations such as Little Brothers, Friends of Elderly, and Shanti in collaboration with CERV have been organizing senior care kits for delivery. They have been recruiting young, able-bodied folks to help deliver mail and groceries to those who are less mobile (please reach out to me directly if you would like to volunteer with these activities). There are many more organizations globally that are engaging in similar efforts.
For those of us who are savvier in hardware and software, there are a slew of activities that we can commit these skills to as a united force and this will be the focus of my post. I’ve organized these activities by the following headings so that you as readers can filter through by your personal skillset quickly.
This is an opportunity to use our skills and talents as part of a united cohort with a common goal: to defeat COVID-19 and flatten the curve in as little time as possible.
Let’s see where your skillsets can be deployed to address pressing needs!
Software and Data Science
As a software engineer and data scientist, there are many projects that you can supply your knowledge and aptitude to in order to stay ahead of the curve. Research is invaluable now during a time of great uncertainty.
COVID-19 Global Hackathon: an online space with focus topics where developers can ideate, experiment and build software solutions to help address this crisis. Deadline to submit is 3/30 but you will be able to view submissions after as well.
Ovio: Curated a list of open source software and data science projects, repositories, databases, etc. tailored specifically to learn more about and track COVID-19.
Kaggle: If you have ever used Kaggle to help prepare for your coding interviews, explore machine learning courses, or compete in challenges, you can give back by participating in their ongoing COVID-19 research challenge. You can devote yourself to any of 10 key task questions centered around forecasting, transmission and incubation, therapeutics, origins of the virus, and more depending on what appeals to you.
Hardware
One of the major challenges we face has been a lack of personal protective equipment (PPE) to provide not only citizens, but more critically, health professionals and medical personnel on the front lines. Masks, face shields, and test swabs are in abysmal scarcity. I have been following the great work of various companies and organizations around the world scrambling to equip hospitals and clinics with this missing PPE day in and out. Other companies like Carbon and Formlabs, are pivoting business models and resources rapidly and creatively to begin producing this kind of PPE as well as parts required for ventilators. Read about them here.
These efforts don’t extend just to companies. Members of the maker community whose email threads I am a part of and other enterprising individuals are doing similar things. For instance, maker Diego Fonstad, has been working with a doctor in the UCSF hospital system to test ventilator prototypes downloaded from the Internet. These individuals are part of a nationwide group of doctors preparing for COVID system needs.
3D Printing:
If you have access to a 3D printer/laser cutter/other lab tools:
We need as many shields as possible. Here are some designs that various organizations have released to aid the additive manufacturing revolution:
https://budmen.com: The material is PETG but flexible clear plastics and laminating pouches are an alternative too. This is the most widely accepted design being used right now.
HP 3D Printing: Includes Budmen face shield model, HP face shield, and mask adjuster.
Materialize: Hands free door knob for use in hospital and congested public areas.
Bay Area Face Shield Supply: Sign up on the google doc to provide either your time, resources, or money (yes, money!) to help local scientist Santani Teng.
Isinnova: Modified commercial available snorkel masks into a ventilator and saved patient lives in Italy. Design files available.
Best practices for safe printing:1) Remove material from the 3D printer or laser cutter while wearing gloves and a mask.
2) Insert into a plastic bag and into a box such that the next time you need to handle it, you don’t have to handle the bag.
If you don’t have access:
Donate to SharkWheel. The company based in southern California typically manufactures wheels for longboards and skateboards using an innovative 3D sine wave design. It is now reshuffling its resources to manufacture personal protective equipment (PPE) in the form of face shields for the medical community. They even have a professional mold maker on staff and can quickly produce quality parts in-house. With your help they will be able to produce about 100 shields a day. Mass-manufacturing is the key here!
Design Chops:
Savvy in Solidworks? Capable in Creo? (or any other CAD application for that matter).
The Covent-19 Challenge is an open 8 week innovation challenge launching on April 1, 2020 that is seeking CAD designs for a rapidly deployable mechanical ventilator. You can join a Slack team or design on your own as part of the two phase challenge. Free software is even provided if you don’t have access on your personal stations.
MedXProgress is hosting a design challenge for a touchless thermometer.
Other
If you work at a hardware company, chances are that your company has labs that are stocked with PPE like visors, face shields, latex gloves, etc. If there are supplies of PPE that are being unused or that your company could do without temporarily as I’m sure most are given “shelter-in-place”, hospitals in your area will gladly welcome donations that have been packaged and delivered as safely as possible. Do this safely and hygienically - make sure you aren’t endangering colleagues if you need to go to your office
Stay in touch with the Open Source COVID19 Medical Supplies group on Facebook to track other ways to contribute to providing open source emergency medical supplies around the world, given a variety of local supply conditions.
Dragon Innovation, my manufacturing expert friends over in Boston, has published a thorough post on open source projects and resources to address COVID-19. It’s a great read for a deeper dive into tailored opportunities and news for hardware and manufacturing folks.
Misc.
https://enrichment.knack.com/volunteer-tutors#volunteer-to-tutor/ - Tutor kids who have been affected by school shutdowns.
Run out of hand sanitizer? Protect your neighbors and others around you by making WHO-regulated safe sanitizer and distributing as safely as possible.
Bottom line: There is a lot that we can do from home as individuals. If you or your company have a supply of skills I have blogged about, or if you have projects that readers of my blog can subscribe to, I encourage you to reach out to me in the “About” section of my website.
Stay safe everyone! Social distancing remains the most effective way in which we can flatten the curve. Do not let any of the fore-mentioned activities prevent you from being absolutely safe and keeping 6 feet between you and others who are not members of your immediate circle.