I've seen some "citizen science" projects for coronavirus that are not really collaborations, but simply requests for processing time. Are there any "real" projects where people who have gotten their diagnoses could go, chat with one another, volunteer to publicly disclose their virus status, test results such as O2 perfusion, and daily self-rating of symptoms, and agree on group surveys to profile what they eat and other activities they do?
I would like to see ordinary people work together toward answers to basic questions. For example: a) does salt intake affect symptoms? [re: blood pressure] b) does drinking coffee affect symptoms? [re: type II diabetes risk] c) does exercise affect symptoms? [re: HIFs] d) do dietary supplements such as flax, curry, and elderberry affect symptoms? e) does the overall intake of calories, or ratio of carbohydrates/protein/fat, affect symptoms?
Of course, trying to correlate actions by a patient with immediate self-reported changes in symptoms is fraught, as is a comparison of subsequent hospitalization or death between groups of online survey respondents. Yet such disorder on an informal basis is where ideas often come from, and citizen science might mark out candidate factors for formal validation by professionals. Is there anything like this going on?
