McIlvaine Coronavirus Market Ale

Brazil, U.S. Britain and Russia Continue to be the Leaders in New Cases Partly Because of Low Mask Use

Star Lanes Polaris has Added Hospital Grade Air Purifiers as They Prepare to Reopen.

Tustar Teams with Neatrition to Introduce High Efficiency Masks to the U.S. Market

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Brazil, U.S. Britain and Russia Continue to be the Leaders in New Cases Partly Because of Low Mask Use

The four large countries where coronavirus cases have recently been increasing fastest are Brazil, the United States, Russia and Britain. And they have something in common.

They are all run by populist male leaders who cast themselves as anti-elite and anti-establishment.

The four leaders — Jair Bolsonaro, Donald J. Trump, Vladimir V. Putin and Boris Johnson — also have a lot of differences, of course, as do their countries. Yet all four subscribe to versions of what Daniel Ziblatt, a government professor at Harvard and co-author of the book “How Democracies Die,” calls “radical right illiberal populism.”

“Very often they rail against intellectuals and experts of nearly all types,” Steven Levitsky, Mr. Ziblatt’s co-author, said. The leaders, he said, “claim to have a kind of common-sense wisdom that the experts lack. This doesn’t work very well versus Covid-19.”

In Brazil, Mr. Bolsonaro fired his health minister and has repeatedly called for states to end stay-at-home orders. In the United States, Mr. Trump rejected the views of experts for almost two months, predicting the virus would disappear “like a miracle.” In Britain, Mr. Johnson’s government initially encouraged people to continue socializing, even as other countries were locking down.

All four leaders also flouted guidance on personal protective measures early on, refusing to wear a mask or continuing to shake hands.

The pattern is apparent beyond just those countries, too. Iran — a country with a theocratic supreme leader — is fifth in case growth over the past two weeks among countries with at least 50 million people. Health experts say the government did not heed warnings about reopening too quickly. Mexico — where President Andrés Manuel López Obrador is a left-wing populist whose government published posters saying the virus “no es grave” (is not serious) — is sixth.

An academic effort to track countries’ responses to the virus has shown that a delay in government reaction allows the virus to spread much faster, said Thomas Hale of the Blavatnik School of Government at Oxford University, who is leading the effort. Many of the countries seeing bad outbreaks now share a “late recognition of the urgency of the crisis,” Mr. Hale said.

An international group of scientists, led by senior author Dr. Holger Schunemann, professor of clinical epidemiology and medicine at McMaster University in Ontario, Canada, analyzed 172 studies conducted in 16 countries that looked at the connection between social distancing, wearing masks, and wearing eye protection, and the risk of transmitting the virus. The studies included people with COVID-19 infections in addition to those with two other diseases caused by coronaviruses, SARS and MERS. The studies were observational, meaning that they tracked infection rates among people who practiced any of the aforementioned behaviors. Of the 172 studies, 44 (involving more than 25,000 participants) also included comparisons between those who followed the behaviors and those who did not.

When it comes to social distancing, the analysis showed that, on average, the risk of getting infected when remaining 1 meter (a little more than 3 ft) from an infected person was about 3%, while staying less than 1 meter apart upped the risk to 13%. The further people stand away from one another, the lower their risk. In fact, the risk drops by half for every additional meter of distancing up to 3 meters (about 10 ft).

“What we tried to do was bring everything together and sort out what distance might be the most effective, rather than an arbitrary threshold,” says Schunemann. Based on how far respiratory droplets from coughs or sneezes generally travel, most public health policies currently recommend standing at least 2 meters (about 6.7 ft) apart in public areas, which the study findings support. “The virus doesn’t know what a meter is, or what six feet is,” says Schunemann. “What this evidence suggests is that two meters, or 6.7 feet, appears that it might be more protective than one meter or three feet.”

The data also supported the benefits of eye shields for health care workers. The risk of infection among people who wore glasses, goggles or other face shields was 6% compared to 16% among those not wearing such protection.

The studies included health care workers in hospitals, as well as people living in households with an infected person. The researchers tracked whether those in close contact to people who had a coronavirus infection kept their distance, wore a mask or eye protection, and whether they too got infected.

I was surprised by the magnitude of the effect,” says Schunemann. “In epidemiology we often see small effects, and all the effects we saw here are considered large or very large.”

He says the findings support current public health advice to reduce the risk of spreading COVID-19 but adds that more detailed studies are needed. For instance, it’s not yet clear whether 1 meter of distance might be sufficient in some settings (compared to the 2 meters that are currently recommended). In addition, larger distances might be needed when people are gathered in denser settings or closer quarters—and it’s still uncertain what the ideal is in health care settings like hospitals, similar studies are needed to tease apart which types of face masks are best for different situations.

The study found that medical-grade N95 masks and surgical paper masks used in medical settings offered the best protection, but that self-made cloth masks are still effective for the general public. These data, Shunemann says, support wearing a mask both to reduce the risk of spreading of the virus if you’re infected, and to lower the possibility of becoming infected if you’ve not yet caught the virus. “The type of masks that should be worn, and who wears the masks, should be investigated further in randomized controlled trials,” says Schunemann. “But having said that, my interpretation is that wearing even a self-made mask is better than not wearing anything.”

Star Lanes Polaris has Added Hospital Grade Air Purifiers as They Prepare to Reopen.

Air purifiers have been installed throughout this Columbus, Ohio bowling alley and entertainment facility. They will purify the air every 30 minutes,

“As much as we miss our customers, we made a commitment that we would only reopen Star Lanes when we had every necessary precaution in place to ensure our customers safety, said Doug Mechling, who is an owner of Star Lanes with his father, Mike and brother, Jeff. “As an indoor entertainment facility and knowing that COVID-19 can be spread through air droplets, we began researching ways to purify the air. Installing 36, hospital-grade, air filtration units throughout the venue is an investment that gives us the utmost confidence in our customers’ safety.”

Red Phone Booth in downtown Nashville wasted no time during the COVID-19 shutdown.

Before reopening last week, owners invested $20,000 into safety improvements to make customers feel at ease when returning to the speakeasy club.

“It was like doing a full reopen,” General Manager Jon Ho said, “You start going through this list and you realize what you really need to do to keep people safe. It’s like ‘wow’ and you keep adding another thing to it, and another thing goes on the list, and another thing. And before you know it, I’ve got a list in the office on the dry erase board that is 80 plus things long.”

The Red Phone Booth’s biggest addition is five new air purifiers throughout the business, including one in the HVAC system on the roof. The purifier kills viruses and bacteria, which Ho hopes will give people confidence coming back.

Other improvements include spraying a medical-grade disinfectant to all surfaces, installing a Plexiglass barrier to the bar, and only allowing staff inside the cigar humidor.

“It’s at what point is enough, enough. And enough is enough when no one gets sick. Enough is enough when no one is scared. Enough is enough when everyone feels safe being in the building,” Ho said.

Much of the information that we have about how to make buildings less hospitable to viruses comes from studies on the ever-present flu. All efforts to create healthy buildings start with the basics: the people who occupy buildings and carry the virus. During active outbreaks, minimizing the risk of disease spread in office buildings starts with keeping people out of them and having as many people as possible work from home. Next is identifying the bare minimum number of people who have to be physically present in the building and bringing them back in.

Once they’ve dealt with the people, designers can start trying to make the interiors of buildings as safe as possible. One of the most important solutions is increasing the ventilation and filtration of the inside air, says Kevin Van Den Wymelenberg, co-director of the Biology and the Built Environment Center at the University of Oregon. “The idea is diluting the viral contaminant indoors,” he says. Designers should increase the rate at which air inside is replaced with air from the outside, by windows or other systems, and should find ways to filter the inside air to remove dangerous particles. “It’s two major parts,” Van Den Wymelenberg says.

Most buildings today don’t meet even bare minimum standards for ventilation, Allen says, even though research shows that there are major benefits to meeting or exceeding those standards. One study that modeled the transmission of influenza in a school found that if it met the most basic ventilation recommendations, the rates of flu would drop as much as they would if half the people using the building were vaccinated, even if they weren’t.

Humidity levels in buildings can also be used to fight disease transmission, Van Den Wymelenberg says. Viruses don’t survive as well when humidity inside a building hovers around 50 or 60 percent. When humidity is too low or too high, the influenza virus can spread more easily, for example. In schools and offices, people report fewer respiratory infections and take fewer sick days when humidity is kept in a middle range. But few buildings monitor humidity today,

People who work in open offices, where desks are close together with no barriers between them, take more days off from work because they say they’re sick than people who have their own office space. People who work in spaces with four walls and a door don’t call in sick as much; they don’t sit only a few feet away from other people, and only breathe in their own air.

This photo taken on May 25, 2020 shows a face mask production workshop in Tbilisi, Georgia. A melt-blown non-woven cloth mask production line from China was put into operation in Georgia in May.

Today, June 2, Lydall said it would invest in an additional fine fiber meltblown asset in response to the exponential increase in domestic and global demand of specialty filtration media for face masks. This new production line will enable Lydall – one of the few American manufacturers capable of producing high-quality fine fiber meltblown filtration media for N95, surgical and medical face masks – to significantly increase its supply and help alleviate the shortage of meltblown materials, both in the U.S. and internationally.

“In the wake of COVID-19, the need for the filtration media that makes face masks effective has increased dramatically, so much so that it is now being called the ‘golden fleece,’” Sara A. Greenstein, President and CEO of Lydall, said. “As one of the only companies in North America and Europe with the technical expertise, supplier relationships and access to the right machines to produce this filtration media, we feel great responsibility to do everything within our power to increase our output, support domestic supply chains and contribute to the global fight against COVID-19. This investment is one example of Lydall’s commitment to do just that.”

The new asset will complement Lydall’s existing global meltblown capacity and is estimated to supply the filtration media for one billion face masks per year, almost a third of the 3.5 billion that the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has projected as necessary to protect healthcare workers. Lydall expects commercial production to begin in its Rochester, New Hampshire facility in the fourth quarter of 2020 and plans to hire up to 15 additional employees to support the increase in production.

A technical market leader in the creation of specialty filtration solutions for nearly 100 years, Lydall has quickly pivoted to address the worldwide surge in demand for PPE and other products that support frontline workers and their patients. In addition to manufacturing the critical filtration efficiency layers for N95 respirator masks, ASTM 1, 2, 3 medical masks, and general-purpose masks, Lydall also supplies other support materials for face masks, including comfort layers, protective layers and ties straps.

“Being a trustworthy business partner is a top priority at Lydall. It is always our goal to provide our customers with a consistent supply of high-quality, specialty products and superior customer service,” Ashish Diwanji, incoming President of Lydall Performance Materials, added. “As the principal supplier of meltblown filtration media to many of the U.S.’s largest face mask producers, we are currently operating at full capacity, with our extraordinarily dedicated team running our existing production lines 24 hours a day, seven days a week. We are pleased that the new installation of this asset will enable us to substantially increase our output of this critically-needed product.”

The company has also ramped up production of other much-needed filtration products like needlepunch felt for hospital gowns, medical wipes and absorbent bed pads. In preparation for the U.S. economy’s reopening, Lydall’s innovation team is advancing its filtration science to develop new, high-efficiency, HEPA-rated filtration media to improve the air quality of public spaces, including office buildings, shopping centers, hospitals and airports.

Tustar Teams with Neatrition to Introduce High Efficiency Masks to the U.S. Market

With the help of Ann Arbor, Michigan-based TusStar, Chinese nanotechnology company Neatrition is introducing new KN95 safety masks to the U.S. market. These easy-to-clean, multiple-use masks will shield users from respiratory droplets and other particulate matter during the current COVID-19 crisis and beyond.

Neatrition collaborated with Tsinghua University, a major research university in Beijing, to develop and create these new nano medical masks that offer several advantages over traditional medical masks. Made in labs in China and overseen by academic researchers to ensure clean standards and a top-of-the-line product, the Neatrition KN95/NMV95 masks have a unique micro-nano sharkskin structure and bacteriostatic features that not only block aerial droplets from getting in, but also quickly kills viruses attached to the surface of the mask. U.S. Lab testing is currently underway for the anti-virus feature in which a virus will become inactive, degenerate and die within 1 minute on the surface of the material.

These advanced protection devices feature a strong droplet surface coating that allows the masks to last up to 10 times longer. The masks' soft sewn stretch knit ties and carefully crafted inner mask design provides a comfortable fit that is easy to wear for long stretches and is exceptionally breathable.

Traditional protective masks use material that can only be used once and only isolate droplets from the air," said TusStar President Frank Ni. "Unfortunately, many medical professionals and mask wearers are then still infected by the virus even after using these traditional masks because the virus is still alive on the outside surface."

A 5-mask package sells for $32, plus tax and shipping. Quantities of 500 masks are available at a discounted rate of $2,800.

Beijing Neatrition Technology Co., Ltd. was born in Tsinghua University. It is a new material and technology company integrating R & D, production and sales (Neatrition has developed superhydrophobic technology. The series products mainly cover (super) hydrophobic nanomaterials, which are waterproof, dustproof, snowproof, oilproof, etc. Neatrition, as a frontier science and technology enterprise in Zhongguancun, is committed to solving the surface cleaning and maintenance of all related objects for industrial and other users, the efficiency of its masks are compare to traditional N95-N100 masks.

Neatrition® nano medical mask	Traditional medical mask	Filtration Efficiency		Virus survival time on the surface
Neatrition® nano medical mask	Traditional medical mask	Test with NaCl particles	Test with oil particles	Neatrition®	Traditional medical mask
Neatrition® NM95(can be reused up to 10 times)	KN95(can be reused up to 3 times)	＞90-95%	--	＜2min	＞2d
Neatrition® NMV95(can be reused up to 20 times)	N95(can be reused up to 3 times)	＞95%	--	＜2min	＞2d
Neatrition® NM100(can be reused up to 20 times)	N100(can be reused up to 3 times)	＞99.9%	--	＜2min	＞2d
Neatrition® NTV100(can be reused up to 20 times)	None	＞99.9%	＞99.9%	＜2min	＞2d

Due to the anti-bacterial qualities the masks can be stored and reused. One regimen is to rotate masks every three days to insure inactivation of the virus which was retained on the mask surface.

HEPA Filters and Anti-Microbial Coatings will Make Autos Much Safer

For several years, automakers have been developing and implementing technologies to tackle vehicle sanitation. Tesla introduced the “Bioweapon Defense Mode” in Model X, which uses a HEPA air filter system that removes most pollutants, bacteria, and viruses, the company claims.

Chinese automaker Geely Motors is installing “G-Clean Intelligent Air Purification System (IAPS)” system in all its production vehicles claiming filter efficiency similar to an N95 respiration system. There are also suppliers offering UV light devices for sanitizing vehicle interiors.

Although those initial developments are useful, many materials companies are also developing “antimicrobial” materials and coatings that may more effectively limit the spread of infectious diseases within a vehicle interior. These antimicrobial materials damage the protein, cell membrane, DNA, and internal systems of a microbe, causing it to die. An “antimicrobial” surface could have a detrimental effect against a range of organisms ranging from beneficial to harmful ones and could include mammalian cells and cell types typically associated with diseases such as bacteria, viruses, protozoans, and fungi.

Most antimicrobial material technologies are additives or coatings which contain metals known to be biocidal. For example, copper and silver are natural antimicrobial materials that have intrinsic properties to destroy a wide range of microorganisms. Some natural polymers, such as chitosan, heparin, and e-polylysine can also inhibit the growth of disease-causing microorganisms.

Research shows that graphene also offers opportunities as new antimicrobial material. Another way of creating antimicrobial properties is by embedding nano-structures in fabrics and other surfaces that inhibit microbes from living and breeding on the surface.

Most of the automotive interior parts use plastics or fabrics. Antimicrobial fabrics and textiles are fiber-based substrates to which antimicrobial agents have been applied at the surface, or incorporated into the fibers, rendering a product that kills or inhibits the growth of microorganisms. Specialty fabrics infused with metal-based nanoparticles such as silver, zinc oxide, copper, and titanium oxide have been proven effective in destroying microbes. Similarly, material producers can integrate microbial plastic additives into a wide range of thermoplastic and thermoset polymers. Coatings and paints can also be created from natural antimicrobial polymers or with special additives.

CAR research identified various suppliers working on antimicrobial technology and several currently available commercial products for the automotive market. However, vehicle manufacturers have not yet deployed antimicrobial material technologies in mass-produced vehicles. Recently, Ford CEO Jim Hackett said Ford’s future vehicles would have surfaces that can’t hold viruses.

Geely says the air-filter system is a short-term solution, but their long term plan is to develop antimicrobial materials for parts such as buttons and handles. The COVID health crisis will likely force more automakers to accelerate the research and deployment of antimicrobial technologies. If successful, these technologies can reduce consumer anxiety around cleanliness and help enable shared mobility solutions.