In the last few days I found myself looking for effective projects that help with COVID-19, and there seem to be many EAs doing so as well. But for most of us the search for such effective projects should be awfully hard (though not impossible) - Because if we are used to say that climate change and global poverty are very low on neglectedness, then COVID-19 on the same scale would be absurdly lower.

Eventually, this is the case with every crisis that receives extreme global attention. Global attention makes it hard to help without being easily replaceable by many others that are willing to help, besides from individuals with relatively rare skills that are relevant for that specific crisis.

However, global attention and aid are directed towards the crisis, not towards the cause the crisis is related to. And even if it's difficult for many in the EA movement to be useful for the crisis (say, coronavirus pandemic), we can still use this opportunity to direct some of the global attention towards the cause (Biosecurity) and towards other causes of global catastrophic risks.

The opportunity and EA's advantage

There is an opportunity in the global hindsight attitude of “we could have been more prepared”, and there is an advantage that is unique to EA - we have been analyzing the importance of Biosecurity for the last decade, which can:

Be very interesting for individuals who are now interested in Pandemic Preparedness, and could consider a career in this direction.
Serve as an example for the importance of mitigating global catastrophic risks. This hindsight feeling that is present nowadays can help emphasize the need for preparedness on other risks as well, which is also an opportunity for affecting career choices.
Serve as an example for the importance of EA's work; e.g. this showcases how cause prioritization (as Biosecurity has been in the community’s top 10 causes in 2019, 2018, and on other lists) affected funding (such as OpenPhil’s grants to Jon Hopkins Center of Health Security, David Baker lab, or others) and other projects.

I’d like to open a discussion on the following question:

How can the EA community utilize this moment in time for motivating individuals to (1) work on the cause of Biosecurity*, (2) work on other global catastrophic risks causes, (3) have a positive attitude towards EA?

Also, I'd be hap...

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