COVID-19 Citizen Science Experiments: Quotes and Resources
Image: Fold-it crowdsourced coronavirus folding experiment
As I wrote in my blog recently, our collective responses to COVID-19 represent the largest Citizen Science for Health experiment in history.
There are some great resources online for things we can do, beyond social distancing, hand washing, and the other basics:
Below are some quotes from leading experts on this topic, drawn from our sister site, ConferenceBites:
"Right now people are approaching this if they are basically sheltering in place for … a Minneapolis blizzard, lasting two or three days. And that’s the mindset that they have. Where, in fact, we need to look at this like a coronavirus winter, where we’re only in the first weeks of what could be a long season." ~ Michael Osterholm, Minnesota Center for Infectious Diseases Research and Policy
"This could last easily many months. And we need to make our actions proportional to the risk in the community or else we run the risk of people just getting tired of them when that particular community has not seen increased transmission of the virus." ~ Michael Osterholm, Minnesota Center for Infectious Diseases Research and Policy
"What we might call a shared pandemic citizenship — where citizens worldwide share exactly the same fear, uncertainty, and risks — is here to stay."
~ Igor Calzada, University of Oxford
"Among the various resilience strategies stemming from social innovation that are worth considering are predicting and modelling AI systems, citizens science projects with real-time data, social media mining, open-source do-it-yourself (DIY) coronavirus detection tests, and most importantly, sharing policies and strategies among algorithmic nations." ~ Igor Calzada, University of Oxford
"Ultimately, algorithmic nations should strive to manage this extraordinary situation by taking advantage of the unprecedented masses of data now available, but without using it as a shortcut to undermine democracy and the rights of our fellow pandemic citizens, wherever they are located on the planet." ~ Igor Calzada, University of Oxford
"There’s no magic drug out there right now."
~ Anthony Fauci, NIAID Director (in response to a question about Trump's description calling the drugs as "game changers".)
"One thing that always impresses me working with modelers is that a modest change in assumptions of what goes into the model can often have huge differences. The only comfort I take in that is if current models for infection rate are anything like the models I have worked with: a small change in assumption can result in 2-3 logarithmic reduction in deaths…" ~ Peter Hotez, Baylor College of Medicine (on The Peter Attia Drive Podcast)
