Mercedes F1 engineers help make a breathing aid for coronavirus patients
Formula One engine manufacturer, Mercedes, has partnered up with clinicians and university engineers in London to design a breathing aid for coronavirus patients that can be quickly mass produced, a development that could help reduce the need for ventilators.
The Continuous Positive Airway Pressure (CPAP) device, which has been re-engineered from an existing machine in fewer than 100 hours, has been recommended for use by the UK Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency, according to a statement from University College London (UCL), who worked on the project. Similar devices have already been used in hospitals in China and Italy to treat coronavirus infections, with reports indicating that roughly half of such patients have avoided the need for ventilators, according to the statement.
A separate consortium of businesses including Airbus, Ford and BAE Systems and several F1 teams said Monday that it received orders from the British government to produce over 10,000 ventilators. The consortium said it would start production this week.
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Coronavirus Pushes Shipping Companies into Survival Mode
Oceangoing shipping companies are keeping commerce moving around the world as governments try to keep their staggering economies propped up and supplies heading to increasingly strained communities. Yet many operators themselves are going into survival mode, as the coronavirus pandemic takes a toll on trade.
Many transportation operations, including port cargo handlers and trucking companies and railroads that move goods inland, are considered essential businesses in nations that now are locking down business. However, unlike airlines, which could be set to gain billions of dollars in bailout funds, most shipping companies can’t count on financial relief from governments. As a result, many of the world’s shipping companies are scrambling to adjust to the new world.
Bulk carriers, the operators that move coal, iron ore, wheat and other commodities, are coping with low freight rates and slipping demand but a recovery in freight rates isn’t expected until late into the second half year and that is if the virus doesn’t engulf big exporters like Brazil and Australia.
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ISM report: US manufacturing decline could persist through May
The U.S. purchasing managers index (PMI) fell 1% to 49% in March, due to disruptions from the COVID-19 outbreak, according to the latest Institute for Supply Management’s (ISM) report. In contrast as some factories come back online in China, their PMI rose 16% to 52%, according to the National Bureau of Statistics of China. While this could prove beneficial for U.S. businesses needing to restock dwindling inventories, falling consumer demand in the U.S. and Europe has led ISM to predict the worst could be yet to come for domestic manufacturing and transport.
“The big question is, how long will it really take to get back to a decent level of growth?” according to Timothy Fiore, chair of ISM’s Manufacturing Business Survey Committee, “You’re probably looking at two to three months to ramp back up to some decent levels once we get beyond [the pandemic], and I think most people are thinking it is going to carry through May.”
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Have a great and safe weekend!
