Corona Virus Panic

Rzeppa

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I have rolls of Polypropylene fabric purported to be the stuff N95s are made of. Happy to give you as much as you want if it can work for your filter medium.

What is the genealogy of this material? How has it been stored? Do you have a spec sheet? This could be really helpful.
 

ChevyKeith

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I know some of you saw this on my business' FB page, but I'll share here direct as well. I was contacted by a surgical nurse at Denver Health (at first I thought it was UC Health) who asked if I could 3D print N95 masks, as they are rationing them, they only get 1 per day when they are supposed to use a fresh mask between each patient. I tried the design she sent me the link to and it was a horrible design, didn't work at all. I iterated in Solidworks most of that week with that approach, but it needed too much post-printing assembly. Then my nephew sent me a link to a different design that worked great, and I have been making them ever since. Turns out the Jeffco sheriffs are interested as well. I am making them in two sizes, 100% seems to work well for larger faces, and 90% mainly for women. They use a disposable filter material which is as close to N95 as you can get without actually having it certified by NIOSH. Since they're plastic, they can be sanitized and reused over and over. The user has to provide their own straps. I couldn't find any elastic anywhere (Walmart, Michaels, Hobby Lobby are all sold out, and Amazon was a month lead time). You can use shoelaces or similar though.

So far I have made about 100 masks and have been making them non stop for over a week now. I had 6 machines building them, but one is broken now and needs repair. I am donating them at no cost to the hospital. I am also purchasing the filters and donating them as well.


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Thats really great. If I could get a spool of elastic would that help?
 

FJCDan

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I just wanted to give an update on our family down in the Springs, our son-ln-law was diagnosed with Covid 19. He is now quarantined at home and feeling pretty bad. His wife 8 months pregnant and oldest son probably have it as well. He also found out that the patient he got it from had passed away. This is real and it has affected my family and he was one of those skeptics who believed the misinformation that is being spewed out there. People are getting sick and people are dying, please stay safe and follow the guidelines. Ok rant over. Dan
 

J1000

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How are these being distributed to those in need?
The Israeli team who started the project is currently jumping through all the hoops to get the machine certified to be used on humans in Israel. They just completed an animal trial with a pig and they passed so now they're moving forward to the next stage. Apparently they have great support from the Israeli government and Air Force and every Israeli ambassador around the world is aware of their project and starting to cut red tape. The Israeli Air Force is volunteering planes to transport one or more of their units for evaluation here in the USA or elsewhere.

The company I work for is looking into spooling up our manufacturing to build a couple thousand of these units and we are currently building prototypes and currently we are in contact with the FDA to try and get all the certifications we'd need. We've gone through tens of different open source designs and this is the best one we've found.

I guess the buzzword for this type of device is "compassion equipment" vs. "medical equipment" and we're counting on relaxation of regs to get the devices out there.


Based on your question I'm guessing you have watched this video but I will post it for others because Destin is awesome:

 

DouglasVB

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please stay safe and follow the guidelines.

Man that's tough, Dan. I hope your daughter and her family all have a speedy and full recovery.

I guess the buzzword for this type of device is "compassion equipment" vs. "medical equipment"

I have a friend on the east coast who has been working on something similar to run those hand-operated ventilator things automatically. It sounds like there are several projects working on automating different models of those hand operated things now. I'm glad your company is able to help out in the effort.
 

Rzeppa

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They are shipping some elastic fedex to me . Would expect I could have you whatever you need early next week.
couple hundred yards or what?

Thanks so much ChevyKeith!, Yeah I was trying to get my hands on one of those 288 yard spools. But really any length would help.
 

Rzeppa

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The lead story in the Denver Post says that the social distancing and closing everything LOCKDOWN is resulting in pushing the peak out to May. I guess that's a double edge sword. On one hand, we don't overwhelm the healthcare system, but on the other hand we have to put up with this economic and psychological pain probably well in to May I bet. I'm picking up takeout from a local restaurant on my way home tonight, last night I bought a steak to grill from a different local restaurant.
 

Stuckinthe80s

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I haven't been keeping up with this thread so forgive me if this has already been posted:

https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/films/influenza/#part01

It had to been filmed at least 20 years ago as there are interviews of people who were kids when it happened. They didn't call it social distancing but states and cities did shut down while others didn't. It's eerie to see the similarities between then and now on everything that happened during the course of the outbreak. The cities that didn't practice safety measures were hit extremely hard. Philadelphia was hit so bad that there were wagons going around every night to collect the dead. People were literally setting their dead relatives on their porches and the bodies were collected.

I know we are in a lot better situation with technology and medical infrastructure than we were back then but it doesn't mean we're not doing the right thing keeping our distance from one another. I only hope this thing doesn't do what the Spanish flu did back then and come back with a vengeance in the fall.
 

DaveInDenver

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I know we are in a lot better situation with technology and medical infrastructure than we were back then
Well considering Alexander Fleming discovered penicillin in 1928 and that the reason the majority of people who died of Spanish Flu a decade before was due to complications from bacteria pneumonia I'd say "technology" is a pretty key difference now. If you're normally healthy and with modern medicine the Spanish Flu is an incomplete comparison of outcomes.

Written by our savior, Dr. Fauci, in 2008.

Bacterial Pneumonia Caused Most Deaths in 1918 Influenza Pandemic

https://www.nih.gov/news-events/new...ia-caused-most-deaths-1918-influenza-pandemic
The majority of deaths during the influenza pandemic of 1918-1919 were not caused by the influenza virus acting alone, report researchers from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), part of the National Institutes of Health. Instead, most victims succumbed to bacterial pneumonia following influenza virus infection. The pneumonia was caused when bacteria that normally inhabit the nose and throat invaded the lungs along a pathway created when the virus destroyed the cells that line the bronchial tubes and lungs.​
A future influenza pandemic may unfold in a similar manner, say the NIAID authors, whose paper in the Oct. 1 issue of The Journal of Infectious Diseases is now available online. Therefore, the authors conclude, comprehensive pandemic preparations should include not only efforts to produce new or improved influenza vaccines and antiviral drugs but also provisions to stockpile antibiotics and bacterial vaccines as well.​
The work presents complementary lines of evidence from the fields of pathology and history of medicine to support this conclusion. "The weight of evidence we examined from both historical and modern analyses of the 1918 influenza pandemic favors a scenario in which viral damage followed by bacterial pneumonia led to the vast majority of deaths," says co-author NIAID Director Anthony S. Fauci, M.D. "In essence, the virus landed the first blow while bacteria delivered the knockout punch."​
 

DaveInDenver

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Our fundamental systems are so screwed up. Some farmers are throwing away food since it's can't be sold to restaurants that are closed while grocery stores won't buy it because they have contracts with other farmers. If someone was eating it before won't they still need the food, just at home now or maybe at a lower cost due to their loss of income? When does this disconnect become an issue?

Coronavirus claims an unexpected victim: Florida vegetables

https://apnews.com/53b783eab84efa228fef8a4bbcf55e7e


The peach farmers here are starting to worry, too. This is probably more of an economic issue than basic nutrition.

Farmers are Staying Hopeful for The Summer Season

https://www.westernslopenow.com/news/local-news/farmers-are-staying-hopeful-for-the-summer-season
 

Stuckinthe80s

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If you're normally healthy and with modern medicine the Spanish Flu is an incomplete comparison of outcomes.

Agreed, and again, I'm not insinuating that we will see anywhere close to the outcome that happened then for a number of reasons. If nothing else, it was interesting to see the similar points in the timeline and how major cities reacted to it.
 

J1000

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Heard a podcast the other day "Coronavirus vs the Central Nervous System - Dr Kevin W McCairn, PhD and Stefan Molyneux"

Well Dr. McCarin immediately became concerned about COVID19 when he started seeing the crazy videos of people just collapsing on the street in China, apparently from COVID19. This reminded him of Rabies and how it attacks the central nervous system. https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/world-news/infected-people-seen-dead-streets-21347952

In additissssson people are losing their sense of smell and taste with COVID19 which is providing more evidence that it could be a really, really bad thing to leave alone https://www.the-scientist.com/news-...-covid-19-can-target-the-nervous-system-67312

One thing he says that's really scary is that the ventilators seem to be needed not so much because of pneumonia but because the central nervous system is being interrupted and the breathing signal isn't being sent from the brain to the lungs.

Dr. McCairn was also pointing out the similarities with Rabies where the infection causes the human or animal to salivate and spit and spread their bodily fluids which is ALSO similar to lots of crazy videos of people spitting on elevator buttons and spreading their saliva around!





I think it's fair to say there's still more we don't know than what we do.
 
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gungriffin

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I agree with people who are posting about how hard it can be to find news that seeks to be careful and without bias in it's message. Dr Peter Hotez episode 1451 on Joe Rogan is a good interview to listen to. Dr Hotez is very mindful in his message and has some interesting points that he makes. The link to the show is below.

https://jrelibrary.com/1451-dr-peter-hotez/

I am also reading (listening on Audible) the book Deadliest Enemy by Michael Osterholm. I am only about 25% of the way through, but it is proving to be worth the time to hear about how to deal with the issues that we find ourselves with today. It was published in 2017.
 

DaveInDenver

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Weekly initial unemployment insurance claims.

https://www.dol.gov/sites/dolgov/files/OPA/newsreleases/ui-claims/20200592.pdf

3/21/20: 3.059 million
3/28/20: 6.867 million
4/04/20: 6.606 million

That's 16.532 million new filings, which they claim represents 5.1% unemployment. That's true if you say the newly unemployed comes from a pool of potentially 330 million, which is a population of everyone man, woman and child in the U.S. (16.532/330 = 5%).

Just arbitrarily removing those under 18 (22.4% of the U.S.) and over 65 (16% of the U.S.) means the count of those truly available for work is really no higher than 203.5 million, which indicates unemployment in the last 3 weeks has gone up by more like 8.1% (16.532/203.5).

They were claiming around 3.5% unemployment back at the beginning of March. Statistically the government thinks full employment is filling around 161 million jobs.

https://www.bls.gov/news.release/ecopro.nr0.htm

So a 3.5% unemployed rate means they previously used around 166.6 million people to represent the pool of available workers (assuming every job was actually filled) and 5.635 million people were not employed prior to the lockdowns. So there's now 22.17 million unemployed. Thus current real unemployment is probably more like 13.3% (22.17/166.6) at 3 weeks into this implosion.

In that span of 3 weeks it appears 10% of the workforce has lost their job. How many more are in limbo?

https://www.cnn.com/2020/03/17/politics/steven-mnuchin-unemployment-warning-coronavirus/index.html

The president's Treasury man Mnuchin says 20% unemployment. Which probably means the real number of unemployed will be more like double the official numbers, around 55 million of 166.6 of those considered to comprise the workforce. But I suspect a change to the pool of labor is already assumed since 20% of 330 million (everyone who can work will be looking regardless of who you are) is 66 million and so the numbers start to converge.
 

Jenny Cruiser

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Weekly initial unemployment insurance claims.

https://www.dol.gov/sites/dolgov/files/OPA/newsreleases/ui-claims/20200592.pdf

3/21/20: 3.059 million
3/28/20: 6.867 million
4/04/20: 6.606 million

That's 16.532 million new filings, which they claim represents 5.1% unemployment. That's true if you say the newly unemployed comes from a pool of potentially 330 million, which is a population of everyone man, woman and child in the U.S. (16.532/330 = 5%).

Just arbitrarily removing those under 18 (22.4% of the U.S.) and over 65 (16% of the U.S.) means the count of those truly available for work is really no higher than 203.5 million, which indicates unemployment in the last 3 weeks has gone up by more like 8.1% (16.532/203.5).

They were claiming around 3.5% unemployment back at the beginning of March. Statistically the government thinks full employment is filling around 161 million jobs.

https://www.bls.gov/news.release/ecopro.nr0.htm

So a 3.5% unemployed rate means they previously used around 166.6 million people to represent the pool of available workers (assuming every job was actually filled) and 5.635 million people were not employed prior to the lockdowns. So there's now 22.17 million unemployed. Thus current real unemployment is probably more like 13.3% (22.17/166.6) at 3 weeks into this implosion.

In that span of 3 weeks it appears 10% of the workforce has lost their job. How many more are in limbo?

https://www.cnn.com/2020/03/17/politics/steven-mnuchin-unemployment-warning-coronavirus/index.html

The president's Treasury man Mnuchin says 20% unemployment. Which probably means the real number of unemployed will be more like double the official numbers, around 55 million of 166.6 of those considered to comprise the workforce. But I suspect a change to the pool of labor is already assumed since 20% of 330 million (everyone who can work will be looking regardless of who you are) is 66 million and so the numbers start to converge.
We'll find out if the government's efforts to boost liquidity fail. I think they will eventually, but I could be wrong as so many things have not made any sense for the last 15+ years. 2008 proved that. I don't get it and it bothers me a lot.
 

Rzeppa

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Well, I had a scary thought cross my mind as I was driving home from work tonight (I am working, making N95 masks and now face shield headbands to donate). Oh sh!t! Tomorrow's April 15th. I know I heard on the news that Federal Taxes have been deferred until July 15th, but do I still have to file them and then not have to pay? (The original announcement I heard), and then what about Colorado Income taxes? I last heard/read on the news that some states were following the IRS lead, but hadn't heard or read anything about Colorado, and I am huge news hound. So after I got home I was relieved to learn that indeed Colorado has deferred paying to July 15, and even filing until October 15, when you would ordinarily have to file if you filed for an extension.

https://www.colorado.gov/pacific/tax/income-tax-deadlines

And I went to the IRS web site and learned that yes, not only are payments deferred until July 15 (which was widely reported) but filing is too (not so widely reported):

https://www.irs.gov/newsroom/tax-da...ederal-tax-payments-regardless-of-amount-owed

:cheers:
 
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