{"items": [{"author": "ErickBall", "source_link": "https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/FBiyBg48JXYDW8pwu#q8Gu6bqYEmeCs4Giw", "anchor": "lw-q8Gu6bqYEmeCs4Giw", "service": "lw", "text": "Thank you, this exactly answers a question I had been wondering about. I have only about a dozen N95 masks and would like to donate them, but since my area is not hard-hit yet I'm imagining that they would each be used once and thrown out. I will wait a few weeks as you suggest.", "timestamp": 1584903367}, {"author": "EKP", "source_link": "https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/FBiyBg48JXYDW8pwu#e8NEN569CGsdwAmdR", "anchor": "lw-e8NEN569CGsdwAmdR", "service": "lw", "text": "It seems very likely that in 2-4 weeks the critical bottleneck to care won't be PPE or ventilators, both of which have some hope of increased availability in that time frame, but skilled medical professionals who are still healthy enough to work, whose number is infinitely harder to scale up in a month. Shouldn't we be doing everything we possibly can to protect our medical professionals now?", "timestamp": 1584909565}, {"author": "Thomas Kwa", "source_link": "https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/FBiyBg48JXYDW8pwu#BEMNoqLRJWwYHPt5W", "anchor": "lw-BEMNoqLRJWwYHPt5W", "service": "lw", "text": "Can't we tell when the marginal utility of a mask at a certain hospital is high (e.g. by observing that they are totally out of masks and plan to reuse any donated ones) and donate at that point?\n", "timestamp": 1584921890}, {"author": "jkaufman", "source_link": "https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/FBiyBg48JXYDW8pwu#8jnjqCF9XngvMZmCi", "anchor": "lw-8jnjqCF9XngvMZmCi", "service": "lw", "text": "→ Yes, that sounds like the right time to donate\n", "timestamp": 1584924226}, {"author": "lisperati", "source_link": "https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/FBiyBg48JXYDW8pwu#AnN9ekitSoo7Sjk7f", "anchor": "lw-AnN9ekitSoo7Sjk7f", "service": "lw", "text": "The day that doctors in my area post stuff on social media about performing procedures with plastic bags over their heads (like this: https://twitter.com/rekhakuttikat/status/1240768592880132096) I'll donate my masks to a hospital.
If that doesn't happen and we pass the peak of the illness, I think the masks should instead go to the spouses of people in my neighborhood who have symptoms.", "timestamp": 1584924820}, {"author": "Zack_M_Davis", "source_link": "https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/FBiyBg48JXYDW8pwu#KmJeNrKWiSQPJgmS3", "anchor": "lw-KmJeNrKWiSQPJgmS3", "service": "lw", "text": "\n
if you donate masks today I expect them to be used much more quickly than if you wait and donate them when things are worse.\n\n
But this (strategically timing your donation because you don't expect the recipient to use the gift intelligently if you just straightforwardly gave when you noticed the opportunity) is kind of a horrifying situation to be in, right? If you can see the logic of the argument, why can't hospital administrators see it, too?\u2014at least once it's been pointed out?\n", "timestamp": 1584928336}, {"author": "Ben Pace", "source_link": "https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/FBiyBg48JXYDW8pwu#DFKB8BC5xBgbMFTCH", "anchor": "lw-DFKB8BC5xBgbMFTCH", "service": "lw", "text": "→ Yeah, I agree, it's saying that whatever forces are at play in creating and storing supplies, are unable to do basic calculations. Or else are acting deontologically (\"We must throw everything we can at this crisis immediately\") and expect their governments to make sure things never get too bad such that they need to personally plan for such terrible situations. Avoiding thinking about things getting too bad and not thinking through taboo tradeoffs seem closely related.", "timestamp": 1584929241}, {"author": "ChristianKl", "source_link": "https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/FBiyBg48JXYDW8pwu#fbRzv8WCF8fzuCQv9", "anchor": "lw-fbRzv8WCF8fzuCQv9", "service": "lw", "text": "→ The idea that hospital administrators can use logic to decide about how resources will get used seems to me very utopian. There's a lot of legal issues that come from reusing masks when not forced to reuse masks in that moment. ", "timestamp": 1584958749}, {"author": "lsanders", "source_link": "https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/FBiyBg48JXYDW8pwu#Rpcsz66mmbRWvToQE", "anchor": "lw-Rpcsz66mmbRWvToQE", "service": "lw", "text": "As it happens, I was on a call Sunday morning with 3 folks who work in different local (Boston-area) hospitals. All three said that, while not all institutions were behaving the same way, their particular institutions were already abandoning standard protocols in order to deeply conserve their stock of equipment like masks. One said, verbatim, “we’re acting as if we won’t get any more supply” of masks and gowns until a vaccine is developed.
That said, I think your two week threshold is not unreasonable. These folks are not going to run out of masks anywhere near that quickly, and probably wouldn’t substantively increase their usage rate unless they received fairly massive supplies (more than a few individuals are likely able to donate), so donations to them wouldn’t be particularly time sensitive right now. And I think you’re right that some other institutions are not as conscientious about this yet.", "timestamp": 1585095390}]}