US JOINT CHIEF'S CHAIRMAN SAYS:

 'Weight of evidence' that Covid-19 did not originate in a lab

Julian Borger in Washington, The Guardian•April 14, 2020

The Pentagon’s top general has said that US intelligence has looked into the possibility that the coronavirus outbreak could have started in a Chinese laboratory, but that the “weight of evidence” so far pointed towards “natural” origins.

The chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, Gen Mark Milley, was speaking on the day of a Washington Post report about state department cables in 2018 in which US diplomats raised safety concerns about the Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV) which was conducting studies of coronavirus from bats.

“During interactions with scientists at the WIV laboratory, they noted the new lab has a serious shortage of appropriately trained technicians and investigators needed to safely operate this high-containment laboratory,” a cable dated 19 January 2018 said, according to the Post.

The diplomats urged further US support for the laboratory to address the concerns, but no support was given, at a time when the Trump administration was cutting back on the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) outreach abroad.

Related: Trump scapegoating of WHO obscures its key role in tackling pandemic

Beijing’s official version of the start outbreak was the Covid-19 virus (Sars-CoV-2) was transmitted to humans from animals at Wuhan’s wild animal markets, though some Chinese officials have circulated conspiracy theories suggesting it was engineered in a US bioweapons laboratory.

The cables reported by the Washington Post have emerged at a time when the administration is seeking to focus blame for the pandemic on China and the World Health Organization. The Republican senator Tom Cotton has raised the possibility that the pandemic was a deliberate Chinese bioweapon attack, though he has argued natural transmission from animals to humans, or a lab accident, were more likely scenarios.“There’s a lot of rumour and speculation in a wide variety of media, blog sites, etc,” Milley told reporters at the Pentagon on Tuesday. “It should be no surprise to you that we’ve taken a keen interest in that, and we’ve had a lot of intelligence look at that. And I would just say at this point, it’s inconclusive, although the weight of evidence seems to indicate natural. But we don’t know for certain.”

Most scientists say that this coronavirus probably originated in bats but found its way to humans through an intermediary animal.

There is no conclusive evidence that this happened at Wuhan’s notorious “wet” markets where wild animals were sold for meat. Analysis of the first 41 Covid-19 patients in medical journal the Lancet found that 27 of them had direct exposure to the Wuhan market. But the same analysis found that the first known case did not.

Universal Denies WGA East’s “Union Busting” Accusation In Dispute Over Now-Defunct Peacock Productions – Update

David Robb,Deadline•April 15, 2020 NBC

Click here to read the full article.

UPDATED with NBCUniversal response, 1:49 PM: The WGA East today accused NBCUniversal of “union busting” in a dispute over the shuttering of its now-defunct Peacock Productions, formerly the in-house nonfiction production wing of NBC News. The guild, which had a contract with Peacock, says that many of the unit’s former writer-producers have been reassigned to the newly created NBC News Studios, which doesn’t have a contract with the guild.

The guild, which filed an unfair labor practices (ULP) complaint last month with the National Labor Relations Board, filed another one today.

“NBC News is continuing the work of Peacock Productions under a different banner, using Peacock Productions employees,” the guild claims. “There is one key difference: the company is refusing to apply the WGAE collective bargaining agreement to any of those employees.”

“This cynical maneuver is intended to bust the union, to continue the company’s years-long effort to reject its employees’ decision to be part of the WGAE, and to bargaining collectively on critical workplace issues,” said Lowell Peterson, the guild’s executive director. “Freelance employees creating nonfiction programs must be covered by the WGAE collective bargaining agreement, which was the product of years of struggle by freelance writer-producers, and which protects their interests and reflects real gains in employment terms and conditions.”

NBCUniversal denied the allegations in issued a statement Wednesday afternoon. “We have not seen the filing yet, but based on what’s in press reports, we strongly refute what’s being alleged,” a spokesperson said. “We have, in writing, requested to meet several times with the WGA East, and they have not responded. We continue to welcome the opportunity to have a meaningful conversation with them.”

Peacock Productions, which closed down on March 2, was part of NBC News operations that created nonfiction television series for NBC and other networks. “A number of years ago,” the guild said, “the writer-producers at Peacock unionized with the WGA East. Management refused to honor the employees’ decision and spent years fighting against it at the NLRB. Ultimately, the NLRB ordered the company to recognize the WGAE as the employees’ collective bargaining representative, and negotiations ensued. In January 2019, the employees ratified their first WGAE collective bargaining agreement, which included many gains unique in the nonfiction television world, like portable health care.”

But in January 2020, Peacock notified the guild that it would no longer employ writer-producers. “Instead, the company said it would continue to produce nonfiction programs at another part of the NBC News operation, which apparently will have the name ‘NBC News Studios,’” the guild said in a statement. “The WGAE asked for clarification and details. Because the company refused to provide all of the information, last month the union had to file a ULP with the NLRB – after which the company admitted that a number of former ‘Peacock’ employees would now work at ‘NBC News Studios’ producing nonfiction programs. In fact, the guild learned that all the key leadership from ‘Peacock’ will remain at the helm of ‘NBC News Studios,’ in addition to many Peacock writer-producers.

“In response to what the guild learned from last month’s ULP, the WGAE today filed another ULP against NBC at the NLRB. As that charge states, the guild contract must be applied to the freelance producers and associate producers who are hired, and who will be hired in the future, to craft nonfiction programs at ‘NBC News Studios’ – or whatever new label the company might use to cover nonfiction television production. That’s what the writer-producers struggled for so many years to achieve, and that’s what the law requires.”

As deaths mount, delivery workers say they're kept in the dark over who's sick
Lisa Riordan Seville and Adiel Kaplan and Samantha Springer,NBC News•April 14, 2020

Rumors about the manager with the virus started to spread around Worldport, UPS' sprawling air hub in Louisville, Kentucky, earlier this month. Employees texted one another to ask whether they'd heard about Roml Ellis, the well-liked 55-year-old who worked the night shift. They'd heard he was sick, that he'd been hospitalized and then that he'd died.

UPS employees said that despite asking management repeatedly about their sick co-worker, they were kept in the dark as the company cited medical privacy concerns. On April 6, in response to a question from reporters, Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear confirmed that a UPS employee had died from COVID-19, the disease associated with the coronavirus. On Friday, after rumors began to fly between workers online, UPS announced that a second employee had died.

"It was all hush-hush," said a Worldport employee, one of more than two dozen delivery workers interviewed for this story who asked that their names be withheld for fear of losing their jobs. "The only reason we got the full details was because it was reported on the local news station."

As the coronavirus spreads through the ranks of the nation's delivery workers, employees and union representatives across the country said there has been a frustrating lack of communication with front-line employees about coronavirus cases from UPS and FedEx. Employees and union officials said that has bred fear and anxiety among more than 600,000 "essential workers" at the country's two largest corporate delivery companies.

IMAGE: FedEx in Washington, D.C.

At least three delivery workers have died from COVID-19 within the past week.

FedEx confirmed the death of one of its pilots. UPS said two employees at the Worldport hub have died within the last week, although a spokesperson declined to confirm their causes of death. Beshear confirmed that the first was linked to COVID-19, and the second death was also due to the virus, according to four employees and an internal UPS document provided to NBC News.

Neither FedEx nor UPS would say how many employees had been diagnosed with or died from COVID-19. FedEx said employees had been diagnosed "across the enterprise." UPS employees and union representatives said they had heard of confirmed cases in more than a dozen states.

UPS and FedEx have been touting their roles in the federal response to the pandemic. Both are participating in Project Airbridge, a new operation run by the White House's coronavirus task force to help distribute medical supplies across the country to help fight COVID-19.

But workers said their employers' refusal to share crucial information is leaving them vulnerable in their workplaces.

"How are any of us supposed to get ahead of a virus when we don't even know who's sick?" a Worldport employee asked.

As much of the country remains shut down, delivery workers have become even more vital, delivering food, medication and cleaning supplies to medical facilities and households across the U.S.

But as with many hospitals and the federal government, the swift spread of the virus caught the delivery industry on its heels. In recent weeks, the companies have scrambled to adjust, creating leave policies, figuring out how to practice social distancing and trying to find and distribute protective equipment and cleaning supplies.

Workers at both companies said they have begun to be provided masks, gloves and cleaning supplies. However, they said many are still working in close proximity — in the bellies of planes, in delivery trucks and in warehouses — and want to know whether their co-workers are sick so they can keep themselves and their families safe.

"We don't want to know people's names, but we do want to know if we were working in direct contact with somebody who's contagious," said a longtime UPS employee who works at the Worldport facility. "All we get from the supervisors is 'the only thing we know is what management tells us.'"

Workers at Worldport said that they received masks only the day after news of Ellis' death broke and that areas of the facility where about 11,000 people work are still not disinfected consistently. (Ellis' family members didn't respond to requests for comment.)

Less than a week after Ellis died, UPS announced that a second employee, who had been absent for 10 days, had passed away with COVID-19, according to four employees and a copy of the announcement provided to NBC News.

Citing its privacy policy, UPS declined to confirm the cause of death of the second employee, which was first reported by WDRB-TV of Louisville. But the company told NBC News that the health of its employees is a top priority.

"We are vigilantly taking steps to protect the health and welfare of our employees, customers, and the general public," spokesman Matt O'Connor wrote in an email.

The company said it alerts co-workers who may have come in close contact without disclosing the workers' identities and works with health officials to trace any potential spread. It also said that it makes sure to "clean and disinfect the work areas where that employee worked according to public health department recommendations before work resumes" and that it has increased disinfecting at its facilities generally.

O'Connor added that UPS informs local unions when a case is diagnosed but not all workers onsite, "as this is beyond the scope of guidance provided by public health officials."

Union officials in New York, Philadelphia and Arizona said they aren't always being told of cases, leaving their members feeling tense and vulnerable, including in areas like New York, the center of the pandemic.

"I don't know how they can say they're communicating when they are not," said Lou Barbone, a business agent with Teamsters local 804, which represents UPS workers in the New York City area. "The stewards don't know. I don't know. Members don't know."

"A lot of members are grateful to have jobs," Barbone added. "They're just genuinely concerned about their health and their families."

UPS said it has daily calls with labor representatives and informs them of cases at the facilities they represent. "We encourage union leaders who claim not to be receiving information to discuss this with their respective UPS labor relations representatives," O'Connor told NBC News.

Workers at FedEx said there's a similar lack of communication. At a Minnesota facility, for instance, two employees on different shifts said one was informed about a positive case in the building while the other wasn't.

"To be quite frank, there aren't any policies in place," said a manager for FedEx Ground in Nashville, Tennessee, who spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of retribution. "Every time any one of us brings up a concern about how to make the workers safer ... it's always a matter of 'oh, let's run this up the chain.'"

FedEx's structure poses an additional challenge. An estimated 100,000 employees who deliver around the country for FedEx Ground are employed through a network of contractors, in addition to the estimated 200,000 people the company employs directly. Those contract employees often don't get health insurance or sick leave through their jobs, and while FedEx may inform the contractor when someone comes up positive, the information may not move down the chain.

"There's no communication about what to do if you're sick," said a FedEx Ground driver in the Kansas City, Missouri, area. "No mention of if we'll still get paid if we get sick."

A FedEx spokesperson told NBC News that "the safety and well-being of our team members and customers is our top priority." The company said it has bought and distributed millions of masks and is "actively promoting social distancing on the job," including changing work processes where possible.

But package handlers who move thousands of boxes a day said it's virtually impossible to stay 6 feet apart. Some worry that it will only get worse as FedEx hires more people to keep up with growing demand sparked by the pandemic.

"We're pushing more people into the same space with no measures to protect the people we have working there now," the Nashville manager said. "It's like sardines in a can."

'Social unrest' warning as Modi looks to extend India's lockdown



Shoppers buy supplies at a market in AhmedabadShoppers buy supplies at a market in Ahmedabad (AFP Photo/SAM PANTHAKY)


Devotees light lamps on the 399th birth anniversary of the ninth Guru, Teg Bahadur, at the Golden Temple in AmritsarDevotees light lamps on the 399th birth anniversary of the ninth Guru, Teg Bahadur, at the Golden Temple in Amritsar (AFP Photo/NARINDER NANU)

April 12, 2020

Key industries are warning of social unrest unless India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi makes concessions when he announces any extension Tuesday to a three-week pandemic-lockdown for the country's 1.3 billion people.

The lockdown ends at midnight Tuesday, but several state chief ministers have already said they plan to extend it for at least two more weeks.

With time running out, the government has not laid out any national plan.

Modi, who is to make a nationwide address at 0430 GMT Tuesday, is caught between growing fears over the pandemic -- cases have surged in recent days to more than 9,150 with 308 deaths -- and the need to get the economy moving again.

Reserve Bank of India governor Shaktikanta Das called the coronavirus an "invisible assassin" that could cause havoc with the economy.

The national restaurants association, which said its members employed seven million people, warned Monday there could be "social unrest" if it did not receive financial relief.

The government is considering making people stay at home in Delhi, Mumbai and other major cities while opening up rural parts of the country that have so far been relatively untainted by coronavirus, according to some reports.

Media have predicted it would be relaxed for key sectors such as agriculture.

With thousands of trucks carrying food and other essential produce being stuck at internal borders, the home ministry has already sent out new orders to states calling for better movement of essentials.

Farms, still the bedrock of the economy, are heading into their most important harvest time of the year with massive transport of crops that earn money to finance many villages for months.

The commerce ministry has also reportedly urged the government to consider opening more activities "with reasonable safeguards" even if the lockdown is extended.

The government has a long list of sectors which want to start work again.

The car industry, already hit by the economic slowdown, has been pressing to reopen factories.

The possibility of arranging staggered shifts for different sectors is also being considered by authorities as a way of cutting down contact between workers.

Economic growth slowed to about five percent in months ahead of the coronavirus crisis.

Now some analysts say growth could slump to 1.5-2.0 percent this year -- way below the minimum needed to provide jobs for the millions coming onto India's labour market each month.

India's poor hit hardest as coronavirus spreads and lockdown is extended

Arshad R. Zargar,CBS News•April 14, 2020

New Delhi — Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced Tuesday that India's nationwide lockdown would be extended until May 3 to fight the spread of the coronavirus. The lockdown that began on March 25 was originally scheduled to end Tuesday, but Modi said all state governments and experts had agreed that it must be extended.

The country of over 1.3 billion people has started to see a sharp rise in the number of COVID-19 cases: Modi's announcement came as the number of confirmed cases in the country passed 10,000, with almost 350 deaths.

Sudhakar Kumar, (center wearing a mask) a laborer from central India's Uttar Pradesh state, is seen with family members on a sidewalk in New Delhi, India, where they've been living since the country's nationwide coronavirus lockdown put him out of work. CBS/Arshad R. Zargar

The prime minister promised, however, some relaxation of the lockdown after April 20 in areas where there is success in curbing the coronavirus. He said limited economic activity would be allowed to resume in such areas.

India, like every nation with a major outbreak, is walking a tightrope as the government weighs tough measures to save lives against the damage inflicted on a shutdown economy.

While the vast majority of businesses have been ordered to close, more than 450 million Indians work in informal sectors, and most of them have also been left jobless under the lockdown. Millions of these workers were already poor and, along with a daunting homeless population, they've been hit hard by the epidemic.

The government is running community kitchens and providing free bulk grain to the poor and homeless, but it's not reaching everyone.


Abdul Aziz sits on the rickshaw he would normally drive to earn money in New Delhi, India, on April 13, 2020, almost three weeks into a government shutdown aimed at slowing the spread of the coronavirus that has put him out of work. CBS/Arshad R. Zargar

Abdul Aziz, who pulls a rickshaw in New Delhi, has been without work since the lockdown began. He told CBS News on Monday that he's started begging to feed his family. "I haven't earned a penny since the lockdown," he said.

There are hundreds of millions of daily wage earners like Aziz across India — many of them living hand-to-mouth even before the anti-virus measures took away their livelihoods.

For Sudhakar Kumar, a 33-year-old from central India's Uttar Pradesh state, work as a daily laborer in Delhi dried up when the virus struck. Like thousands of other migrant workers in India's big cities, he had no way to get back to his hometown hundreds of miles away when the lockdown was implemented, so he decided to stay in Delhi.

Now he's living with his wife and two children on a sidewalk in the crowded capital, begging for food and money to survive.

"I am desperate to go to my hometown in Uttar Pradesh. At least we will get some food there," Kumar told CBS News, wondering aloud when public transport might be allowed to resume.


Sudhakar Kumar, a 33-year-old laborer from central India's Uttar Pradesh state who has been forced to live on the streets of Delhi, begging to survive, with his wife and two children after his work dried up amid a nationwide lockdown to curb the spread of the coronavirus, is seen on April 13, 2020. CBS/Arshad R. Zargar

Modi has acknowledged the lockdown's heavy toll, but says it's necessary to save lives. He says the measures have been successful in helping to contain the virus, and that India is doing much better than many developed nations.

"India's efforts are being lauded," he said. "If we had not acted fast, it is frightening to think what it would have been like today."

Last week the government claimed that, had the lockdown not been imposed, the number of coronavirus cases in India would have risen to 820,000 by April 15.

The government is expected to issue guidelines Wednesday night on how lockdown measures will be relaxed in areas that show sufficient improvement in the fight against the disease.

WWE fires Kurt Angle, Karl Anderson, Luke Gallows and others

 by Izer April 16, 2020 Top News

A group of WWE wrestlers received the bad news of their layoffs the same day that their former employer received the good news that they could continue broadcasting live television programming in Florida.

WWE ad On Wednesday, he concluded the release of wrestlers Kurt Angle, Drake Maverick, Curt Hawkins, Karl Anderson, Luke Gallows, Heath Slate, Eric Young, EC3, Aiden English and Lio Rush.

“We wish them the best of luck in their future endeavors,” the company said in a statement.

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis said on Wednesday that World Wrestling Entertainment qualified as a core business and is allowed to continue broadcasting events – without spectators present – from a facility near Orlando while the State is subject to a home stay order related to the coronavirus outbreak.

WWE announced a number of cost-cutting measures related to the COVID-19 pandemic on the same day. They include reducing executive and board salaries, lower operating and other expenses, and deferring construction expenses for the company’s new headquarters for at least six months.

Maverick, whose real name is James Curtin, posted an emotional video on social media right after hearing the news.

“I’m like everyone else, I probably didn’t take it as seriously as it started, but it affects people’s lives, it affects people’s jobs, it affects the way people make a living,” said Maverick, who said he would participate in another WWE event. “It’s no longer a title, it’s my life, it’s to feed my family, to pay my bills.”

Some of the other unemployed wrestlers also responded on social media.

The last time I was fired, I had a really funny tweet in response. Doesn’t seem really appropriate to me today. I will say this, many very talented people have lost their jobs today and as a result of this disaster, the PRO WRESTLING community will grow stronger than ever! 🤘🏻

– Brian Myers (@TheCurtHawkins) April 15, 2020

I wanted to thank WWE for the time I spent there, I made many new friends and I had the opportunity to work with so many talented people. For Superstars, keep the WWE universe entertained as best as possible. They are the best fans in the world. #That is true

– Kurt Angle (@RealKurtAngle) April 15, 2020

To all my colleagues, whatever happens today or the rest of the week … know that we are all going to be good. 🙏🏽 Once a family, forever a family. #Fight

– Lio (@itsLioRush) April 15, 2020

WWE wrestlers to become producers Lance Storm (real name Lance Evers), Fit Finley (Dave Finlay Jr.) and Shane Helms (Gregory Helms) said on Twitter that they were also among those who lost their jobs Wednesday.

To everyone on the green land of God. Thanks for the kind words. I’ve been doing this for 46 years (struggle) I pray that you all pass by and we can share a hug and drink again. Stay in good health. (SOUTH DAKOTA)

– Fit Finlay (@ ringfox1) April 15, 2020

To my best of all those who, like me, lost their jobs today. To those who are still at work, hold the fort for us. I have had the pleasure of working with you for the past 4 months. I hope we all have a chance to work together again. Stay strong, stay safe.

– Lance Storm (@LanceStorm) April 15, 2020

I knew I shouldn’t have answered that call. 😁🤷🏻‍♂️

– Hurricane Helms (@ShaneHelmsCom) April 15, 2020

Other members of the wrestling community also consulted Twitter to express their feelings about it.

Very difficult day for the WWE family 💔

– Lexi Kaufman (@AlexaBliss_WWE) April 15, 2020

My heart breaks for my wrestling family ..

– PAIGE (@RealPaigeWWE) April 15, 2020

the awesome wrestlers lost their jobs today, in the midst of everything that’s going on, it may not mean a lot to you and it’s okay. But it means a lot to me. If you can, root them, consult their @PWTees page & @BookCameo
If you have a favorite freelance pro who is struggling, send their information

– Nic Nemeth (@HEELZiggler) April 15, 2020

My heart is broken for all those who lost their jobs during this period. I feel sick. Send you so much love guys

– Renée Young (@ReneeYoungWWE) April 15, 2020

There should be no clever comments on this.

Many of my friends have lost their jobs. In a situation where they cannot just jump on another ship because we are all on the same boat.

I pray all to find your feet in this disaster.

Lots of love to all of you 🤍

– ᵂⁱˡˡ ᴼˢᵖʳᵉᵃʸ • ウ ィ ル ・ オ ス プ レ イ (@WillOspreay) April 15, 2020

Today it sucks. To all my former colleagues, especially those who are losing their jobs right now, I love you all.

– CASH (@CashWheelerFTR) April 15, 2020

Source —–> https://www.latimes.com/sports/story/2020-04-15/wwe-layoffs-wrestlers-coronavirus-covid-19-luke-gallows-karl-anderson

Here are the instructions for a better-fitting homemade mask that can filter particles 2x better than cotton, created by three clothing designers
Julie Bort Business Insider•April 13, 2020

Suay Sew Shop thousands of surgical masks
Suay Sew Shop making thousands of their own design of surgical masks from industrial fabric

Three fashion designers have created a new homemade, surgical-style mask and are giving the pattern away for free.

Their design includes a pocket that can be filled with a material to help the mask filter tiny particles better than a mask made only from cotton, according some testing that they did.

After testing dozens of materials with rented particle-testing equipment, they discovered that certain blue shop towels, as well as a certain white industrial cloth, can help a homemade cotton surgical mask filter particles 2-to-3x better than cotton.

Their testing also showed that the fit of the mask was crucial to having it filter particles well.

So they designed a new mask for the legions of home sewers making masks right now.

This is not an FDA-approved N95 mask but is intended to be a better-fitting alternative to some of the other patterns for surgical masks circulating on the internet.

 Three fashion designers created a homemade, surgical-style mask that can filter particles better than a typical cotton mask, according to their home particle testing, and they're now giving away the pattern and instructions for free.

Their new design uses a cotton shell and allows the sewer to add another layer into the mask to act as a filter, either by sewing the filter as a lining or by adding a pocket into the mask and putting the filter material into the pocket.

The designers spent days testing dozens of materials and found that polyester hydro-knit, found in certain brands of blue shop towels, worked best, and could filter particles twice as well as cotton. They also found that a fabric called polypropylene, used in a certain type of white, oil-absorbing shop towel, works well too.

Business Insider originally wrote about this project earlier this month and the designers — Lindsay Medoff, the CEO of boutique Los Angeles clothing manufacturer Suay Sew Shop, along with her business partner, Heather Pavlu, and her best friend from high school, Chloe Schempf — have since received an outpouring of support for their project, they say.

They have now posted instructions and the pattern as a downloadable PDF on Suay's and Schempf's GoFundMe pages (which are raising money for professional mask making in LA and Michigan respectively).

The designers created the mask after testing dozens of fabrics with particle-testing machines that check for particles as small 0.3 microns. The coronavirus that causes COVID-19 is smaller than that. However, the CDC is recommending that everyone wear some sort of mask in public, even a bandana, to help stop the spread of the disease, since any face mouth covering can block droplets that could carry the virus. The designers' goal was to find fabrics that people could buy as easily as cotton and that balanced filtration with breathability.

After testing everything from vacuum cleaning bags to commercial fabrics, Medoff, Pavlu, and Schempf discovered that stretchy blue shop towels made from polyester hydro-knit seemed to meet many of their criteria. It should be noted that this is not an FDA-approved N95 mask but is intended to be a better-fitting alternative to some of the other patterns for surgical masks circulating on the internet. (For the full details on how they went about their testing, read the original story: Using blue shop towels in homemade face masks can filter particles 2x to 3x better than cotton, 3 clothing designers discover after testing dozens of fabrics.)

A new option with a pocket

A Suay employee models the blue shop towel mask

Suay Sew Shop

Some experts are concerned that wearing unusual materials directly on your mouth as a mask could cause skin irritation or cause tiny particles of the material to be inhaled. That's why, in their latest design, Medoff, Pavlu, and Schempf created two versions of the mask.

One version sews a filter lining directly into the mask. The second version adds a separate pocket for filtering materials. That designs allows someone to use a shop towel for filtration without putting it in direct contact with their face. The masks with a pocket can also be hand-washed and line-dried, while the masks with a filter lining cannot.

By adding a pocket to the tight-woven cotton mask and putting in two layers of shop towels, their tests showed the mask consistently filtering out 82% of particles, although some of their tests showed it filtering at an even higher level. Filtering depends on many factors, including the mask's fit on the person.

To improve fit, their design includes a wire nose piece that keeps the mask snugly in place, elastic trim, and other sewing techniques. So, even those who don't want to add a filter to the mask may want to use this homemade mask design for its fit.

The materials the designers recommend for their mask design are:

Tight-woven cotton like quilter's cotton, tight woven muslin, or old twill pants to make the mask's shell.

For the optional filter, the designers had the best test results with these three brands: Wypall X80 Towel, Zep Shop Towel, Toolbox Shop Towel. It's worth noting that the makers of the shop towels have not approved their towels to be used as masks, do not warranty masks made from them, nor do they recommend that their towels be used as a mask.


They also tested the Scott Shop Towel brand and while it worked better than no filter, it didn't work as well as the other mentioned brands (it filtered out 70% of particles versus 82%)


Another option for a filter is the oil absorbent towels that Suay, a commercial clothing company, was able to buy in bulk, though it's not as easily obtained by the public.


Using blue shop towels in homemade face masks can filter particles 2x to 3x better than cotton, 3 clothing designers discover after testing dozens of fabrics
Apr 2, 2020

Lindsay Medoff, the CEO of Suay Sew Shop, a 30-employee boutique Los Angeles clothing manufacturer, wants the armies of people sewing homemade surgical masks to add a specific blue shop towel inside them. 

Medoff and two friends were appalled by the dozens of mask patterns calling for cotton, a highly breathable, permeable fabric, and became obsessed with finding a fabric better suited for the job. They built a homemade testing facility that could test particle filtration down to 0.3 microns and tested every fabric they could find, from coffee filters to industrial materials.
They discovered that by adding two blue shop towels and using a design that produces a tighter-fitting mask, they could make a mask that could block up to 95% of the particles they could test, while the cotton masks blocked 20% to 60% of the particles. 

These are not meant to replace the N95 masks worn by healthcare workers — they're designed to be an alternative to the cotton masks that many people are making and wearing for quick trips to the grocery store. 

The women are sewing about 200,000 masks (or until their own supplies run out) and giving them — and a design — away, as well as raising money to pay their workers their full wages. 

They're also raising money to get their mask tested with the actual COVID-19 pathogen to see whether their design could be validated as a safer solution during the mask shortage.
"This is ordinary people taking their power back," Medoff said. 

The US boutique clothing manufacturing industry is abuzz as sewing shops retool themselves into surgical-mask-making factories, like something out of a World War II "it's up to you"-style poster.

Lindsay Medoff, the CEO and owner of Suay Sew Shop, a 30-employee boutique manufacturer in Los Angeles, has eagerly jumped on board. But when she got a mask pattern from an ER-doctor friend of hers a couple of weeks ago, she was shocked.

"They sent me a pattern that looked like [it was] from Etsy," she told Business Insider. "I thought, 'What do I do with this?'"

Suay's fashion niche is industrial upcycling, a big fashion trend these days. The company takes unsold clothing items from major brands, such as Patagonia down vests, and crafts them into new clothing, recycling 85% or more of the materials.

But the mask instructions circulating on the internet are not geared toward professional, industrial production. Pro shops use digital instructions, not the kind of paper patterns people buy from fabric shops like JoAnn, Medoff said.

Medoff called her best friend from high school, Chloe Schempf, who also sews and previously had a career designing displays for fashion brands like Urban Outfitters and Free People. Today she's a full-time mom living in rural Michigan, where her husband's veterinary practice is. (Her husband, Dr. Ray Harp, is a cast member on the long-running National Geographic show about country vets, "The Incredible Dr. Pol.")

Schempf had dusted off her sewing machine to join the troops of homemade-mask makers, but when she looked at the instructions, she had another surprise.

No one seemed to be thinking about the fabric that the instructions called for: cotton, and cotton fill for the filter.

How could a highly breathable cotton weave be the right material to filter microscopic pathogenic particles?

Then Schempf saw that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention was telling healthcare workers unable to get proper gear to use a bandana as a last resort.

"The recommendation of a bandana made me ill," Schempf said. "I couldn't understand how we can go from a 2020 N95 mask to a 1918-era cotton mask with a variable filtration of 20% to 60%." 

3 women set up their own mask-testing shop

Clothing is all about choosing the right fabric for the right use. We don't use insulated down-filled fabric for a swimsuit or a T-shirt jersey knit for a winter coat. If a cloth mask is all that people have access to, then the CDC recommends using that and these clothing designers are not medical professionals and have no reason to contradict that advice.

Still, a few weeks ago, before the CDC recommended cloth masks, Schempf, Medoff, and Medoff's business partner, Heather Pavlu, a co-owner of Suay Sew Shop, became obsessed with finding a less permeable fabric for masks.

Suay Sew Shop's Heather Pavlu testing mask particle filtration in the lab she and her friends built. Suay Sew Shop"We spent a few days researching and brainstorming any material that could filter: coffee filters, batting, window shades, Swiffer, interfacing, etc., all the way to more technical materials that are available to specialized industrial sectors like aviation, oil refinery, medical fields," Schempf said.

They bought a $1,400 particulate-counter device from Grainger that measures filtration ability down to 0.3 microns and spent another 10 sleepless days testing all the fabrics they could find.

They wanted a material they could buy as easily as cotton but that balanced filtration with breathability — they discovered that HEPA vacuum-cleaner bags, for instance, had great filtration but were too suffocating to wear.

The ideal material turned out to be stretchy blue shop towels made from a polyester hydro knit.

Inserting two of these towels into an ordinary cotton mask brought filtration up to 93% of particles as small as 0.3 microns, the smallest their machine could test. Meanwhile, the cotton masks filtered 60% of particles at best in their tests, Schempf said.

Polyester hydro knit towels are readily available at hardware and automotive stores. The two brands they tested were ToolBox's shop towel and ZEP's industrial blue towel. Interestingly, Scott's pro shop towels, which are also made with a hydro knit fabric, didn't work as well, Schempf said.

The team is continuing to test other brands.

ToolBox shop towels. Harbor FreightHaving found the material, they worked on a design. "The fit has a lot to do with your protection," Schempf said. "You can have a great mask, but if you aren't getting a tight fit, it won't protect you."

Pavlu said she sewed "at least 15 types of the patterns that were being spread on the internet" before the team realized they were going to have to design a new mask themselves.

So Pavlu tracked down and rented a PortaCount Respirator Fit Tester 8040 machine, and the team tested things like how a wire nose clamp could help create a high-filtration, one-size-fits-all mask.

They are putting the final tweaks to their mask design and plan to release the design for free to the public next week. The instructions will be good for home sewers and pros, available on Suay's website and its GoFundMe page.

200,000 masks from an industrial material

During their tests, they discovered another material that filtered exceptionally well: cleaning towels made from a plastic called polypropylene, used to clean industrial machines.

 

Suay Sew Shop's homemade fabric-testing lab. Suay Sew ShopSuay bought a big supply of it. But the team can't recommend this fabric to the public. The supply is dwindling, Medoff said, because the industrial makers of the material are now dedicating themselves to manufacturing medical-protection supplies.

till, Suay believes it has enough to make about 200,000 masks and has already sewn thousands, Pavlu says.

The team also discovered the mask held 95% of its filtration abilities after up to three machine washes.
"We are calling them semi-disposable at this point and are continuing testing after six, seven, 10 washes," Pavlu said.
Schempf believes the next step is to test this mask and the shop-towel version to see whether they actually block the COVID-19 pathogen, which is a smaller particle than their equipment can test.

They are curious and hopeful about their masks, but they don't have any proof that they will protect healthy people from getting the virus any better than an ordinary cotton mask.

Health experts have said that while surgical-style masks like these aren't likely to protect a healthy person from getting the virus, if people with COVID-19 wear them — especially along with following social distancing — that could help minimize the spread.

Schempf said she found a lab in Kansas City making COVID-19 testing kits that was willing to test their masks, but the testing fee is $40,000. She's started a GoFundMe to raise the money and to fund mask-production efforts in her area of rural Michigan.

How masks can help

Medoff said that the shop-towel masks and the ones from polypropylene fabric that her staff is making are not foolproof safety measures. The logic is that if even cotton masks are useful, then ones made of less permeable material can only help.

Suay is in full production and giving the masks away to anyone who needs them, including medical professionals, nursing-home workers, hospice-care workers, people caring for an ill relative, and grocery-store workers — people who are "risking their lives" on the front lines, she said.

 

Suay Sew Shop's masks. Suay Sew Shop

Many of these people break down in tears when they get these masks, she said.

Because she's paying her workers their full wages to sew the free masks, and materials and labor costs are intensive, she's asking for donations via a GoFundMe.

"This is by community, for community," Medoff said. "This is ordinary people taking their power back."