Dear All,
My name is Scott Griffiths and I'm a scientist from the UK (Wales!). I recently founded a non-profit called Admiral Technologies. I'm seeking your support and feedback before (and after) we launch our Kickstarter campaign for Project Admiral. Hopefully we won't get sued by George Lucas ;)
Cleaning isn't working, neither is lockdown. There are too many people and too many touches. And even without touches, we all know that surfaces become dirty because microbes constantly fall from the air.
Last year I had an idea for a completely new way to protect society from infectious disease without using disinfectants, pharmaceuticals or resorting to lockdown.
I thought to myself... ok let's imagine that disinfectants and vaccines don't exist. And let's imagine that every surface is always contaminated... using only non-biological materials, how can we protect ourselves?
Trapping microbes at known sources of contagion makes a lot more sense than trying to clean every surface after every touch. A trapped germ is not a threat - so why don't we cover our most frequently touched surfaces with a thin disposable membrane like clingfilm, that's designed to permanently bind/absorb microbes, but not be sticky to our touch.
Imagine a door handle, or hand rail on a train that's covered by a trap put down at the beginning of the day: it can be touched, it can receive germs, but the germs that arrive won't pass between people. So it stays clean and sterile.
Trapping materials could also be like putty, so we can suck germs off our skin without killing them using soap and water. We can also make poster/wallpaper sized traps that will purify the air. Whatever our imagination brings really. The key is to think about trapping instead of killing to neutralise the threat!
(We can also add some Titanium dioxide to traps that generate ozone - for a killing effect).
More than protecting us from infection, a used microbe trap could be sent to a public health lab instead of going in the bin. Using very simple and cheap genetic analysis, we can monitor which germs are where - for smarter disease surveilance and epidemic control/prevention.
Please ignore the link to GoFundMe - you can find more information here www.projectadmiral.org - plus I've attached a summary of the project and Kickstarter campaign (which is under review at Kickstarter).
The project will be open-source, meaning 100% transparent and everyone online is invited to help. The knowledge will be free for personal use, but like Android and the other open-source technologies, there will be a license fee applied for commercial use (in our case, 1%).
The 1% license is how Admiral Technologies will be self-sustaining, so we can continue the R & D and related activities long term.
So in summary... this is Lockdown for germs, not humans ;) - and this sort of technology will protect us from infectious disease in general, not just COVID!
Your comments, support, donations after launch, help with networking would all be massively appreciated. Any and all help would be brilliant.
Best wishes
Scott
The thing is virus are not a living things once outside of the body. So it does not make sense to me. Covid 19 do not exist. Virus only kill when injected and it is only when injected that can also be contagious from human to human and not otherwise. So, it won't be easier stopping vaccines all together ?
Thanks!!
Yep, this is why I'm super eager to get this project started and funded by ordinary people - and to make all the science 100% open (and no patents). I am pro vaccine, but only if they are properly tested and the complete truth is told about their safety profiles.
I am also pro choice, so really want a technology to exist that will protect people who choose not to be vaccinated.
Good question, but tough to answer! I've thought about it at length over the last year. We can never know, because it all depends on the strain of pathogen and the immunotype of each potential host.
Here is my logic though:
My instinct says we should go for the maximum reduction in pathogen load possible. This will help protect the most vulnerable in society, including those that don't believe in herd immunity (including the government). It will weaken the argument for lockdown.
A bit like adding salt to a communal soup. The only way to please everyone at the table is to add no salt, but make salt available to those who prefer. The other way around can never work.
The people who are pro aquired immunity will always be able to aquire their pathogens elsewhere.
As with disinfecting and sterilising, no technology (trapping included) can achieve total sterility. And given how hyper connected our society has become, a degree of exposure is pretty inevitable no matter what.
Again acting on instinct - in the absence of further data in each scenario... if I was confronted with two door handles that are both colonised with a given pathogen, one labelled "more" and the other "less", I would be on the side of caution and choose less ;) - knowing I'll (likely) eventually reach a degree of exposure that stimulates my immune system.
I’ll check it out . One question, how do you know what is the right amount of germs to be removed ? Man has like other species a natural system for survival, when things go wrong ,like the Spanish flu ,it’s also how we then survive and get stronger immunity.
Hi Xena,
I am pro herd immunity too. The way I see it, this technology will reduce the number of germs moving around - but not eliminate it completely. Reducing the numbers will give our immune system more breathing room to raise a response - a milder or even asymptomatic outcome.
I will make this more clear in the Kickstarter - thanks for the reply
But dirt and germs is how we build up immunity. Maybe in a hospital etc that’s fine , but not in the public arena . Heard immunity has always been the way we survive . Picking up germs is how we survive It’s how we build up our immune system . So this is a bad idea for real world use but maybe a
Good idea for a operation theatre or a lab Etc .
Thats it nowhere else.