The COVID-19 pandemic has had a devastating effect on restaurants and people who depend on them for their livelihoods1.
The slower-than-expected rollout of the vaccines, the threat of virus mutations, and the general distrust that people have of the vaccines are also contributing to an expected longer timeline for normalcy.
The most recent report by the consulting firm McKinsey and Company2 says that herd immunity may peak in the US in the third or fourth quarter of 2021, assuming an accelerating vaccine rollout and no unforeseen problems highly virulent mutations of the virus. The vaccine rollout does not mean that everyone will be or feel safe, though, and it may not be until well into 2022 before life returns to some semblance of normalcy. The main factor will be when death-rates slow down significantly. At some point, the World Health Organization will declare an end to the pandemic, increasing the public’s feeling of security and travel restrictions will be lifted.
There are still unknowns. How long does the vaccine provide immunity? Can a vaccinated individual spread the virus to unvaccinated individuals? Will the current vaccines provide adequate protection for the mutated variants of the disease? We are likely to see annual outbreaks of COVID-19, and people will have a heightened awareness of future risks.
“In the last 20 years, we’ve had six significant threats – SARS, MERS, Ebola, avian influenza and swine flu,” Professor Matthew Baylis from the University of Liverpool told BBC News.3 “We dodged five bullets, but the sixth got us.
“New diseases pop-up in the human population probably three to four times per year,” Professor Fevre from the University of Liverpool and the International Livestock Research Institute in Nairobi, Kenya, said. “It’s not just in Asia or Africa, but in Europe and the US as well.”
Matthew Baylis added, “We’ve created almost a perfect storm here for the emergence of pandemics,” he told BBC News.
Professor Fevre agreed. “This kind of event is likely to happen again and again,” he said.
There will be a new normal. Even after we achieve herd immunity of COVID-19, the new normal is a heightened awareness of the general public of the dangers of all pathogens. We will likely have to be vaccinated yearly for COVID-19 as we are for influenza, and we will have to prepare for possible new viruses. Scientists agree that COVID-19 is here to stay.4
How can restaurants prepare for this new normal? New technologies are emerging to mitigate the risks to restaurant guests and thus to the business. After all, restaurants are not just in the business of delivering food. They want to provide a great hospitality experience without segregating guests behind plastic curtains that may not be that effective after all.
Today, we are reporting on a particular technology that effectively cleans pathogens from the air. Since Sars-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, is transmitted primarily through the air, this is a significant breakthrough. The product is Air Disinfection Biosecurity (ADB).
ADB continuously releases charged particles into the air saturating every nook and cranny and eliminating all pathogens upon contact in the air and on surfaces.
Third-party laboratory studies showed that ADB could eliminate all viruses in the air within one minute.
The ability to eliminate viruses, between when one person exhales and when another person inhales, is critical to halting the transmission of COVID as an airborne disease.
Mick Mullen’s Irish Bar in Englewood, Colorado, tested ABD. They chose ADB because it uses a safe, scientifically validated antimicrobial technology to inactivate and neutralize viruses, bacteria, molds, mildews, and volatile organic compounds (VOCs). It disinfects the air and surfaces.
Mick Mullen’s Irish Bar purchased two portable Model 5004 product units and had them operate 24/7 on December 12, 2020.
Before beginning operation, at different times during the first four weeks of operation, Scientific Air Solutions, an independent testing organization, tested air and surface samples for pathogens.
The test results showed that within the first six days of operation, the Bar’s air rapidly improved, reducing air pathogens by 92.5% and on surfaces by 79.7%. Over the next three weeks ending on January 9, 2021, pathogen levels reduced to 95.8% in the air and 94.4% on surfaces.
Most of the pathogens were common pathogenic forms of fungi and bacteria. However, the removal of this airborne bioburden serves to remove them as carriers of the coronavirus. If they had been present, ABD would also eliminate the pathogens of E.coli, listeria, salmonella and other common challenges to restaurant sanitation.
Mick Mullen’s Irish Bar can now claim that it has the cleanest air in a bar anywhere on the planet.
With the test results, the Bar met the ‘above and beyond’ requirements for exceeding minimum health standards and received a 5 Star Certification under the State of Colorado program.5 The 5 Star Certification places the Bar in a “special public venue” classification under the public health order. It automatically triggers authorization for a higher occupancy level than the current COVID-19 threat level. For example in Colorado where red level means “closed”, a restaurant would qualify for orange level which is 25% occupancy, etc. If the threat rises from its current orange level to red, the Bar will be allowed to remain open when other businesses must close.
The demonstration of ABD shows that any room’s indoor air quality, be it a bar, school, daycare center, retail store, or other public venues, can be managed to achieve a safety level that dramatically reduces the possibility of transmitting COVID-19.
Small-business owners facing mounting costs from operating throughout a global pandemic can tap their Paycheck Protection Program loans to pay for a host of Covid-19-related renovations, upgrades, and expenses.
The change in the forgivable loan program came as part of the stimulus bill signed into law in December and added a host of expenses that small businesses can use their loan proceeds for and still get full forgiveness. Under the first round of PPP loans, which ran from April 3 to August 8, personal protective equipment and other Covid-19 costs were not covered. The newly covered expenses include indoor or outdoor air-pressure ventilation or filtration systems.
Air disinfection products act as a ‘business vaccine’ against public health orders that arbitrarily categorize businesses as ‘essential’ or ‘non-essential’ and implement disease prevention methods involving masks and ‘social distancing’ with limited effectiveness.
While the U.S. government has spent tens of billions of dollars pursuing vaccines, the EPA has just begun a study of existing air disinfection technologies that have been used in the food processing industry for decades to determine their ability to prevent transmission of Covid-19.6
For more information on the demonstration of this equipment, the case study, and copies of the laboratory test results, please contact Karl Dakin at Dakin Capital LLC – email Kdakin@DakinCapital.com or go to https://www.dakincapital.com/Business-Vaccine.
The full value of ADB will occur when federal and state governments amend current health orders to allow 100% occupancy when a public venue can demonstrate that it can substantially, continuously, and quickly eliminate pathogens.
Please share this information with your local health officials and legislators.
Click here for a free consult on the potential return on your investment with Air Disinfection Biosecurity.
References:
3 https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-52775386
4 https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-020-02278-5
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