Policy, Industry, and Grassroots Ideas for Fighting SARS-CoV-2 in the United States

We have 1-2 weeks before major cities in the United States may be facing a crisis on the level of what we've seen in Italy and China, and potentially worse.

Here are some ideas that need to be happening on a policy, industry, and grassroots level right now to fight and deal with the effects of SARS-CoV-2 in the United States:

Policy

Overall, federal and state policy should be decisive, strong, with the message that the government is going to get out of the way and let industry and grassroots efforts take over.

• Mandated shelter in place TODAY for anyone over 60 or with pre-existing health conditions/immunodeficiences
• Remove the majority of regulatory restrictions (FDA, OSHA) over industries related to producing Personal Protective Equipment, ventilators, ICU beds, test kits, and mobile hospitals
• Start converting unused open space to mobile intensive care units: sports fields, arenas, auditoriums
• Create a medical reserve corps. Call to action for (in priority order): recently-graduated medicine students and nurses who are not yet working, medicine graduates who haven't passed their boards, nurses and anyone with a medical degree ages 30-60. Give them ICU and ventilator re-training and send them in as backups for when primary providers get sick/tired.
• Anyone who is tested and confirmed immune should get priority hiring for any public-facing healthcare position (that doesn't require a lot of training). Even if it does require training, fast-track the training program and get people working who won't get sick and won't get others sick.
• Don't bail out any industries or businesses, not even small businesses. Instead, fast-track legislation to give every American $1000 (don't debate over who gets it, restrictions, or how, just do it)
• Limit or remove regulation and waiting times for anyone starting a business related to SARS-CoV-2
• States and localities should rent hotels and structures to house the homeless, provide them food, and get them supplied with masks and hand sanitizer
• Just like firefighters are imported to fight wildfires, remove travel restrictions and visa restrictions for foreign medical professionals who want to come work in the US and aid in stopping the crisis

Industry

For many years, America's strength has been in its industry, not its government. We are untouchably innovative and forward-thinking. Industry should be expected to lead the way here.

• Any production facility/factory that can reasonably produce Personal Protective Equipment, ventilators, ICU beds, and mobile hospitals should switch to doing so NOW
• Facebook and/or Google should switch their frontpages to collect symptoms (rate your fever level on a scale of 1 to 10) and open-source the data so we can get a countrywide map of estimated infections while we wait for testing to arrive
• Anyone who is a leader at any company should take initiative and think outside the box as far as how they can direct company resources to help.
• Companies should make a policy that encourages employees to spend X% amount of time working on projects related to SARS-CoV-2
• Brick-and-mortar businesses should check people's temperature with an infrared thermometer before letting them enter. All staff should wear face coverings and sanitizing wipes should be provided, if available, to guests, to wipe down shared surfaces.
• Multiple hackathons should be started to foment ideas for grassroots projects
• An incubator should be started to advise and finance startups fighting the pandemic

Grassroots

Every single person in the United States should look to either find work or volunteer. There will be a big shifting of the economy towards industries that have their profits stimulated by this. Think about what those companies will be and gravitate towards them. This isn't the time to sit at home and play videogames and watch Netflix. This is about to be the equivalent of the US fighting multiple World Wars at once. Find out where you fit in and pursue it with aplomb.

• Anyone with more Personal Protective Equipment than they can possibly use in the next three months should donate it, preferably to an ICU or EMS provider. Volunteers can also cold call companies or universities that may have spare PPE and convince them to donate.
• On that note, someone should write a webapp that matches equipment donors with providers in need (as of the publishing of this article there are a couple Google Forms and basic sites floating around, see here)
• Someone should write a webapp that matches donors of ANYTHING with people in need, generally. The equivalent of asking your neighbor for a cup of sugar. This is going to be a big need once businesses are closed for a while. It looks like StayNeighbor is off to a good start.
• Anyone with a 3D printer should be using it to print masks and face shields for donation
• Those that have spare savings reserves and are not in a place to work or volunteer directly fighting the pandemic should donate a reasonable amount to those most affected (10% of your monthly salary for each month this goes on seems prudent). I recommend GiveDirectly's COVID-19 Relief Fund.