Ending the Pandemic

As I was responding to a tweet about my idea of covending machines (COV-end-ing machines), another of my mom's best friends died of, with and from #covid19. #Covendingmachines should support the work that @michaelmina_lab et al. have been talking about for months. They should interface with apps for ease of use & no touching required. Of course it would allow for manual entry too. It should be free to the public. Covid-end-ing rapid test kits available for you and your family at any covending machine.
 
I don't need or want anything other than for this to end as quickly as possible. I want people to think like it's 2020. This is a devastating time for many of us--spiritually, emotionally, relationally, physically, financially--so let's think & act differently! Covending machines with rapidly deployable tests NOW while developing ways to make biotechnologies like vaccines also rapidly deployable in alternate delivery platforms (e.g., transdermal patches, eye drops, orally) that are stable enough to ship, store and make available via the same covending machines. One we can do today. The other we can work on as we move forward!

Sometimes, it seems like competence and creativity have also been taken by this pandemic. There are ways out of this that don't require blunt & overly-punitive lockdowns that end up harming the most vulnerable at disproportionate rates. I'm not from Harvard. But we don't need to be from a prestigious institution to know that what we're doing is failing.

We have exponential growth in cases. Going from 17-18 million in four days. And for people that keep saying the survival rate is ~99%, I'm thankful for that. However, do the math for 1% of this country. 
We will lose too many lives, needlessly. Even this grim fact doesn't take into account a range unknown variables (e.g., long term impacts). It also misses a key point that we are foolish to ignore, namely, that the virus is still in a highly exploratory mode. The less chances we give 
it to respond to selection pressure, the better! Let's find a way to make it happen, folks!

​And, again, I thank @michaelmina_lab for using his expertise & clout to show there's a better path forward.

Covending Machines by Kyle McNease is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.