
YC Companies Responding to Covid-19 - no_gravity
https://www.ycombinator.com/covid
======
DoreenMichele
Really happy to see this. Really happy to see the extra "Who is Hiring" post
the other day. In passing, I also noticed a title about YC going all remote
for their upcoming batch. All good stuff. I'm impressed by the proactive
response.

If they haven't already, I would love to see something like this focused on
any YC companies involved in providing remote work options. I think they have
at least one company called Moonlight that does, or did, that kind of thing
for programmers. If that company is alive and well, I'm sure there are people
here who would love to know more.

~~~
ignoramous
> Really happy to see the extra "Who is Hiring" post the other day.

For any one interested, here's that thread:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22665398](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22665398)

~~~
DoreenMichele
Terrific idea. See also the "Who wants to be hired" post:

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22665396](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22665396)

Edit:

A couple more resources:

List of Remote Jobs or Gigs Platforms (google doc -- not mine, just something
I know about)

[https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1JfNAbUX_lN9K3MCNHO15...](https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1JfNAbUX_lN9K3MCNHO15GJtJ5qpk7H9Cl3xTBwv2FR8/htmlview)

r/GigWorks (I'm the mod)

~~~
lioeters
I saw that Google Doc the other day, and have already forwarded the link to
several people looking for work. Good resource!

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Tarrosion
I know it's the nature of startups that most of these efforts will fail for
technical reasons, fail for financial reasons, arrive to late, get preempted,
etc. Maybe this is doubly true for hard problems in biology like drug
discovery.

Nonetheless, I am filled with pride and optimism that so many talented people
are working on these ambitious projects. Humanity the species will get through
this yet.

------
hef19898
Especially the logistics oriented companies are incredibly important.
Flexport, Medina's, Osh.

If wonder why, the German government (procurement was handled by the military
procurement agency and a department of German customs) "lost" a suppliers
shipment of 6 million FFP2 masks (or 3 million, numbers are not really
reliable so far) in Kenia. For everyone wondering why they have been shipped
througj Africa, welcome to the club. I have no idea. But it seems logistics
was handled by the supplier.

Having control over your supply chain, from sourcing through distribution, is
critical right now.

Good to see YC has some of such companies in their portfolio.

~~~
seanhunter
That Kenya facemask story looks highly dubious and likely to be fake. The main
source seems to be rt.com. Do you have a credible source?

The stories I've seen claim to be quoting der spiegel but I don't see the
story on der speigel itself. For example, nothing is showing up on
[https://www.spiegel.de/suche/?suchbegriff=mask+kenya&seite=1](https://www.spiegel.de/suche/?suchbegriff=mask+kenya&seite=1)

~~~
hef19898
Confirmed by the German defence ministry, first reported by Speigel who seems
to have a copy from the internal report on it (they are citing passages from
it in their German article).

But I agree, it is highly dubious. Not having been involved, my only theory
right now is that the supplier sold them to someone els. if he ran delivery
himself, it is easy to route it through Kenia. Then the shipment get's lost.
If he was smart, he has proper insurance for it.

"The authorities are trying to find out what happened,” a German defence
ministry spokeswoman said, confirming a report first published by Spiegel
Online."

Surce: [https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus-
german...](https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus-germany-
masks/germany-says-six-million-coronavirus-face-masks-missing-in-kenya-
idUSKBN21B1T0)

~~~
rjzzleep
Yes, but the Kenyans say there was no such thing.[1]

Basically the only reason we trust the Germans over the Kenyans is because of
reputation, keep in mind that there is no proof for that statement, we
basically take their word for it. But in Germany even recently a stash of
100000 masks was stolen from a local hospital and everyone pretends there is
no supply shortage.

So I don't know whether the Kenyans are lying, but I do know that the Germans
are, because of information updates I get from local health department
connections. Might just be the German government trying to talk themselves out
of a bad situation. But right now, we don't know either way.

"We, therefore, wish to inform the public that we are treating this report of
alleged disappearance of six million type FFP2 protective masks as fake news &
that our cargo section continues with normal operations."

[1]
[https://twitter.com/KenyaAirports/status/1242455090952384512](https://twitter.com/KenyaAirports/status/1242455090952384512)

~~~
hef19898
Talking about mixed signaling, so. Local practices are asking households and
carpenters for masks and protective suites. At the same time German
authorities are basically refusing external help. "We have our own processes"
was the most usefull answer I heard this week from officials.

Luckily, I found a doctor who's heading a regional association today. and at
least he was very happy to hear that someone was willing, and able, to help. I
almost gave up today, would have been a quite a waste of available air freight
and distribution capacities to get these thing from China.

As a side note, based on my experience with the german government in term of
procurement and such things, this whole Kenia story is at least in realm of
being possibly true. Still, a very strange story... I'm curious to see how it
ends.

------
gt565k
Are anti-body tests available to purchase on the commercial market yet?

I'd like to know if I already had it so I can get on with my life.

~~~
crispyporkbites
Can you still carry it / spread it after you’ve had it and recovered?

~~~
Fnoord
When you recover from a virus, antibodies are in your body. These can be
detected, Once you're recovered, you can no longer spread the disease. Problem
is, people with mild symptoms believe they don't have it, or have recovered.

I'm one of the many, many people who has been ill for a while during the past
weeks, and would like to know if I had it. If I can know for sure that I had
it, and no longer have it, then I can "move on with my life" indeed. As in, I
no longer have to worry about getting this disease, spreading this disease, or
getting organ damage from this disease. Most important, I'll know that when I
visit my mother (nearly 70, and risk group) that I won't spread the disease to
her. Same for my mother in law.

~~~
jacquesm
> Once you're recovered, you can no longer spread the disease.

This is a super dangerous statement and absent proof you should probably
retract it. There are plenty of viruses that you still shed even after
recovery, there is some evidence already that COVID-19 is still contagious
after recovery with an unknown for the duration, it could be hours, days or
even weeks, without a very good test regime it is very hard to put a safe
boundary on this.

~~~
Fnoord
WHO recommends 14 days, RIVM 1 day. With no symptoms.

------
yairchu
Do folks generally keep with the regular secrecy in this situation?

(regarding ANA's "More than 50 years ago, the FDA approved a drug. Today,
we’re evaluating that drug as a treatment for COVID-19")

~~~
boyband6666
I also found that extraordinary. With such limited information it is not
possible to know if the contacts I have are relevant, and how serious and
progressed the company are.

After all if I suggest something I'm putting my reputation (in part) on the
line, which I'm not prepared to do without at least understanding this is a
serious proposal, and the science being at least superficially credible.

------
westurner
Are life sciences and healthcare familiar verticals for YC?

Good to see money and talent going to such good use.

(Edit) Here's the YC Companies list; which doesn't yet list these new
investments:

Biomedical vertical:
[https://www.ycombinator.com/companies/?vertical=Biomedical](https://www.ycombinator.com/companies/?vertical=Biomedical)

Healthcare vertical:
[https://www.ycombinator.com/companies/?vertical=Healthcare](https://www.ycombinator.com/companies/?vertical=Healthcare)

"The Y Combinator Database" [https://www.ycdb.co/](https://www.ycdb.co/)

------
tirrellp
I'd like to see this for _all_ YC companies. The 'how you can help' was an
especially useful artifact of information. For those of us who are bored and
in need of intellectual stimulation, I would like to know what other (non
medical) startups are working on, with a specific description of 'how I can
help'. Im talking _specifically_ about short term projects (e.g., a week to 2
months) as opposed to the 'who's hiring' thread.

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corpMaverick
It is amazing that talent is going well beyond building cute cat apps.

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martin_e
How do I update our YC application? We are pivoting to help with COVID-19.

Thanks.

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mtraven
The page seems to have vanished in the last few hours. (Whups, now it's back).

~~~
Xavdidtheshadow
archive view here:
[https://web.archive.org/web/20200325200045/https://www.ycomb...](https://web.archive.org/web/20200325200045/https://www.ycombinator.com/covid)

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Xavdidtheshadow
Archive view:
[https://web.archive.org/web/20200325200045/https://www.ycomb...](https://web.archive.org/web/20200325200045/https://www.ycombinator.com/covid)

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georgewsinger
Inb4 the anti-capitalist/anti-SV crowd comes to preach about how much more the
YC ecosystem should be doing to help with covid..

~~~
dang
Community reaction seems pretty favorable so far.

It's true that cynical comments often show up early in a thread, but that's
partly because thoughtful comments simply take longer to write.

