Two weeks ago Ben Pace and I asked for practical advice on what to do about coronavirus, with the requirement that advice be justified in some way- ideally full blown models informed by empirical data, but at a minimum, an explanation of why it was helpful. The resulting thread had wonderful advice but makes for, uh, inefficient reading, at best. This post is an attempt to take the best of the Justified Practical Advice Thread and present it in a clear, easy-to-digest format.

It’s important to note that neither the original post nor this one are attempting to give comprehensive advice. If you’re looking for that, I suggest checking out the Guide/FAQs/Intros tab on the LessWrong Coronavirus Link Database. This is for advice that fell through the cracks.

Though I will briefly mention the standard advice. From what I can tell, the most important (and luckily widely publicized advice) is the following:

Wash your hands a lot, and wash them to a hospital standard (spend 20 seconds and follow these instructions).
Socially isolate yourself, and don't be around other people unless really necessary. Avoid groups of people, especially large gatherings. Really don't go to bars, clubs, restaurants or other places that lots of people pass through (like public transportation).
If you are sick, use a mask. They are probably also effective at preventing the disease when you are not sick, but most of the western world currently has massively limited supply, so leave the masks to health workers and sick people.

The rest of this post will summarise the interesting ideas that went beyond these basic recommendations. But if you haven't done (or at least seriously considered doing) all of the above, I would recommend you prioritise the things listed above.

Many of the below recommendations involve buying things. When possible I’ve included a link to a particular amazon page. This is not a strong recommendation for that particular product: it’s an attempt to lower activation energy for acting on a recommendation. If you have reason to believe a particular model is better than what I linked to, please comment and I’ll update if appropriate. Speaking of which, if you think of anything else I missed or got wrong, please comment with that too.

That said, here is the top advice from the Coronavirus Justified Practical Advice thread.

Cover your h

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Jamie Swan

Jamie Swan