The US Gov’t Just Did Something Strange That Kills Any Confidence In Them Handling Ebola
...trying to shield themselves and others from Ebola contamination...
Norvell Rose — October 10, 2014
Do you think that you could invent a better mousetrap? Or in this case, a better hazmat suit?
Every day, we see pictures of doctors and nurses and other health workers dressed in those familiar protective suits trying to shield themselves and others from Ebola contamination. The effectiveness and reliability of that hazmat gear, it would certainly seem, is critical to individual as well as public safety.
So, it might well strike one as rather curious that the United States government is, at this very moment, asking you and me — asking anyone and everyone, really — to design an improved hazmat suit. And the prize for the most innovative and effective design is rather impressive — a million dollars.
Question: Is this really a confidence-building move given the immediacy of the Ebola crisis?
As London’s Daily Mail reports, the government has turned to crowdsourcing for the protective solution:
The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) has sent out an appeal for internet crowdsourcing to design a radical new anti-contamination suit that will lower the risk of health workers becoming infected.
USAID wants applications submitted immediately and any successful design accepted will be awarded $1 million in funding. The USAID has set a deadline of two months on the whole process.
In addition to suits for those working on the front lines of patient protection in America and beyond, USAID indicates the new suits are to be used by airport staff, TSA staff, and those involved in burials.
Among some of the suggested suit improvements are equipping them with cooling devices and stress detectors, as well as making the suits lighter and greener — letting them be recycled and reused.
In a related development, CNN/Money reports that the stock of Lakeland Industries, a maker of hazmat suits with sealed seaming, has soared recently more than 50% due to growing Ebola fears.
The stock is up 160% so far this month. The trading volume has been, to put it mildly, insane. More than 47 million shares exchanged hands Thursday. The average daily volume for the stock over the past three months is just 616,000 shares.
So investors (or more likely traders) thinking about buying now need to be extremely careful.
Read more at
http://www.westernjournalism.com/you-wont-believe-what-the-us-govt-just-asked-for-even-as-ebola-cases-fears-spread/#8k9LVJ3hKELReTMQ.99
