Uri’s COVID19 advice
Uri gave the YCombinator founder community this advice:
Hello,
I’m Uri Lopatin, a visiting partner at YC with a background in medicine and biotech. Once upon a time, I was an MD, who specialized in infectious diseases. I left the US National Institutes of Health to work in big pharma on treatments for chronic viral infections before ultimately starting a biotech company to develop small-molecule anti-viral drugs.
I would like to provide you with my thoughts on the Coronavirus.
Coronavirus is an infection that can spread from person to person when they cough — just like the flu — and should be treated as such. What does this mean at a practical level?
You are probably not going to get sick from coronavirus. Most people are going to be ok, even if you are exposed. Most of the people who get exposed to the virus will have minimal (if any) symptoms. The vast majority of folks who are exposed will simply recover and be fine. (Ref: https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/fullarticle/2762130)
Some people, like the elderly and infirm, have a more significant risk of doing badly when they come down with infections. This is true of coronavirus, but also the flu — and pretty much anything else. Help them stay healthy by being cautious in what you bring home.
You don’t need a supply of face masks and dried food to last for months. However, if you have a family member that has a critical medication (e.g. they need it to survive), it is not unreasonable to have an extra month’s supply of medicine for them. Happy to discuss this 1:1 if anyone has questions of what this might mean for their particular instance.
People are worried about travel. Think about this like you would think about flying during a bad flu season (such as we happen to be in). If you don’t have to fly places — great! If you have to fly places, wash your hands often; don’t shake a lot of hands; carry a small hand sanitizer with you and use it liberally; and avoid people who are coughing.
If you do feel sick: Please don’t attend public events. This means you don’t need to come into the office; you can pass on office hours (group or 1:1) – attend them by video instead; you can skip batch dinners; avoid planes and trains. To be clear, this is just good general “infection hygiene” that is always true. Spreading the flu around is not better behavior then spreading COVID-19.
If you are coughing, you should wear a face mask when you are going to be around other people. Any mask helps prevent other people from getting sprayed; don’t worry about a fancy one.
Don’t shake people’s hands. It’s ok. Instead, go in for the elbow bump.
Be thoughtful about what you are touching. Coughing into your hand and then pushing “down” to get into an elevator is not helpful. Instead, use the edge of your phone or your sleeve.
After you wash your hands with soap and water, of course, use disposable paper towels to clean up. Don’t use the blowers — especially not the ones that blow up into the air.
“I feel sick and I am worried that I have COVID-19. What should I do?” In the US, COVID19 is still rare, so feeling really lousy (like a truck just hit you) is much more likely to be flu than COVID-19. However, the trifecta of cough, fever and shortness of breath is always scary, and you should let a doctor know. If the symptoms are bad you will probably want to be seen by a doctor; as a courtesy, call ahead first. If you have a reason to believe that you may somehow have been exposed to anyone with risk of COVID-19, let the doctor know that as well. (For example, your family just came back from Wuhan.)
For those who want more detailed information, some good sites are:
https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/index.html https://www.nejm.org/coronavirushttp://www.centerforhealthsecurity.org/resources/COVID-19/ https://www.who.int/emergencies/diseases/novel-coronavirus-2019/technical-guidance
Stay healthy and please don’t hesitate to ask questions if you have any.
Uri