As we navigate the new world we find ourselves in, a sense of hopelessness while stuck apart from friends feels inevitable. But you can still make a difference even if you are one of the 297 million people in 38 states who are under stay-at-home orders.
Jayde Powel, a 20-year-old pre-med student studying at the University of Nevada Reno, started an organization called Shopping Angels. The elderly and the immunocompromised are matched with a local volunteer who will deliver their groceries to them. If you would like to volunteer to deliver groceries in your area, you can fill out this Google Form.
There is BOINC, the Berkeley Open Institute for Open Computing. Individuals can donate their computing power, so processors will do calculations for projects while they are not using it. Two projects organized by BOINC are directly working to combat COVID-19.
The Folding@Home project, which researches how proteins fold and interact, is now simulating the proteins of COVID-19 to help develop therapies against it. You can download the software here, so your computer can help in the fight against COVID-19 while you sleep. Rosseta@Home is also a project researching COVID-19 through the BOINC platform.
If you would like to take a more active role in research, Eterna is a puzzle-solving game used to research RNA in COVID-19.
If you are more technically and design-minded, Helpful Engineering is a new volunteer non-profit “with engineers, scientists, and doctors around the world dedicated to helping the world address the COVID-19 pandemic.” They are developing cheaper and 3D-printable designs for personal protective equipment and other ways to innovate ways to fight this pandemic. Volunteers are making designs in CAD, helping others and printing designs on their 3D printers. If you would like to volunteer, you can reach out here.
Mr. Rogers from “Mr. Rogers’ Neighborhood” said it best: “When I was a boy and I would see scary things in the news, my mother would say to me, ‘Look for the helpers. You will always find people who are helping.’” Whether you are helping research about solutions to the pandemic, helping the elderly get groceries or just calling a friend, we can all be helpers during these trying times.
