Gov. Phil Murphy at a briefing in Trenton on the COVID-19 pandemic
Murphy, lawmakers move quickly to remove requirement as New Jersey companies lay off large numbers of employees because of mandatory COVID-19 shutdowns
New Jersey’s push to become the first state to require large companies to pay their workers severance whenever there is a mass layoff has been put on hold temporarily during the coronavirus pandemic.
The effective date of a law signed by Gov. Phil Murphy earlier this year establishing the severance-pay requirement has been delayed until 90 days after New Jersey’s state of emergency has been lifted.
The severance-pay policy was due to go into effect in mid-July, but the extension was included in another law enacted by Murphy this month.
Business groups who raised concerns about the requirement earlier this year are praising Murphy and lawmakers for taking swift action to delay its effective date during the pandemic, when many companies are struggling to stay afloat. The delay means companies won’t have to factor in the extra liability of paying out severance packages as they craft strategies to make it through the COVID-19 epidemic.
‘A tremendous sigh of relief’
“It’s a tremendous, I would imagine, sigh of relief for employers,” said Kathleen Connelly, a partner at Westfield-based Lindabury, McCormick, Estabrook & Cooper, who’s practiced employment law for more than 25 years
“Thankfully the governor recognized we are dealing with a unique situation here,” she said.
The severance-pay requirement was first drafted by lawmakers in 2018, in response to mass closures that hit the Wayne-based Toys ‘R’ Us retail chain. But it took until January 2020 for the final version to be signed into law by Murphy, and its many new employer mandates were not effective immediately.
One of those requirements is that companies with more than 100 employees will have to pay severance when a mass layoff impacts 50 or more employees. Workers will also have to be given severance pay equal to one week’s compensation for every year of service with the company.
The same law also attempts to protect workers in case their employer goes bankrupt by labeling severance as “compensation” that would be “earned in full” by an employee at the time of their termination. In addition to mandating severance, the law established guidelines for “successor employers” who may take on a company, including protecting employees against future pay cuts.
Earlier warnings about mass layoffs
The law also extended the time companies must give workers prior to a mass layoff beyond the current 60 days notice. In 2007, the Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act, or WARN Act, created that requirement.
Those changes were due to go into effect 180 days after the law was enacted by Murphy, which would have been July 19.
But among a series of bills that were drafted by lawmakers and signed by Murphy this month in response to the pandemic was the bill delaying the effective date of the severance-pay requirement, and several other elements of the January 2020 law.
Now, the effective date for the new employer mandates will be 90 days after an executive order signed by Murphy last month declaring a state of emergency is lifted. An exception to WARN requirements for natural disasters and emergencies was also clarified to make sure the pandemic is covered for both closures and mass layoffs.
Bernie Sanders’ departure from the presidential race left hardcore climate change activists in mourning—and wondering where the former vice president stands.
Sen. Bernie Sanders has dropped out of the 2020 Democratic presidential contest, clearing the way for former vice president Joe Biden to take the nomination. Credit: Drew Angerer/Getty Images
Joe Biden has an ambitious plan for climate action and environmental justice, but for some of the nation’s most ardent climate voters, he has yet to fill the void left by Bernie Sanders’ withdrawal from the presidential race.
Case in point: Lori Lawrence, a grassroots environmentalist in Wichita, Kansas. She has helped organize protests against the local climate denial powerhouse, Koch Industries, as well as a push for a city-appointed task force aimed at cutting plastic bag pollution. But from all the discussion in her network of fellow-minded activists and all the news coverage she watches, she said, she has no clue where former Vice President Joe Biden stands on climate.
“All I’ve seen is the debate where he did say he was going to stop fracking, which I thought was kind of odd, since he hasn’t spoken out about that before,” she said in a telephone interview shortly before Sanders’ withdrawal from the race. “How serious is Biden? What kind of plan does he have worked out? I don’t know. It makes me wonder if there is indeed a plan. I assume it’s some little thing on his web site somewhere that’s not at the top of his agenda.”
In fact, the former vice president has offered a detailed roadmap for decarbonizing the economy that is historic by any number of yardsticks—but it lacks the size, scope, and clarity of Sanders’ vision, embodied in the Green New Deal. Biden has called the Green New Deal “a crucial framework for meeting the climate challenges we face,” and his goal of net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050 is on par with Sanders’ and far beyond President Barack Obama’s pledge (an 80 percent reduction from 2005 levels.) But Biden has not embraced the bolder elements of Sanders’ plan—especially the melding of a national Medicare-for-all system into the climate package.
Biden’s proposed $1.7 trillion climate plan includes 30 times the clean energy commitment in Hillary Clinton’s 2016 platform. But no matter how aggressive his climate goals are, there remains a widespread feeling, even among his supporters, that he has yet to make a convincing case as a champion of climate action to young and progressive voters. In the community of progressive climate activists, the overwhelming response to Sanders’ withdrawal was equal parts grief over the loss of their standard-bearer, and affirmation of their commitment to his ideals—underscoring the challenge for Biden.
“We’re not going to sugarcoat it: Our hearts are heavy,” Aracely Jimenez, a spokeswoman for the youth-led Sunrise Movement, said in a statement. “The ball’s now in Joe Biden’s court. To avoid a repeat of 2016, he needs to show young people that he’s going to stand up for them by embracing policies like an ambitious Green New Deal that led young voters to flock to Bernie. If he doesn’t do this, our work turning out our generation to defeat Trump this fall becomes a lot harder.”
Sanders’ Climate Pledge was Nearly Ten Times Biden’s
Sanders’ uncompromising platform resonated with “keep-it-in-the-ground” climate activists across the country, who have been at the front line of fighting pipelines, fracking, export terminals and the like. “If we are serious about clean air and drinking water, if we are serious about combating climate change, the only safe and sane way to move forward is to ban fracking nationwide,” Sanders said, when he introduced legislation earlier this year to phase out the practice. He said his $16.3 trillion federal climate commitment over 10 years—nearly 10 times Biden’s pledge—would help create 20 million jobs.
Sanders’ plan earned top grades on the scorecards compiled by progressive climate groups like Sunrise Movement, 350.org andGreenpeace. All gave mediocre grades to Biden’s plan, which foresees a slower transition from fossil fuels. On fracking, Biden has said he would approve no new permits on federal land or waters. But existing permits should be evaluated on a case by case basis to see “whether or not they…are dangerous, whether or not they have already done the damage,” Biden has said. He has called for “aggressive methane pollution limits” on existing oil and gas operations—a regulatory proposal that the Obama administration launched but failed to complete before Trump took office.
“We do not believe that Biden’s plan at this point really is bold enough to reduce emissions this decade at the rate that we need to,” said Thanu Yakupitiyage, U.S. communications director at 350 Action, which endorsed both Sanders and Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.). Biden “needs to do a lot of work to make his climate plan robust,” Yakupitiyage said in an interview before Sanders’ withdrawal from the race.
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At a time when readers and viewers crave reliable information, the economic crash is decimating the advertising base that kept local news outlets alive. (iStock)
Last week, the encroaching crisis took a hit on Zeltner’s own workplace — a financial one. Suffering a dramatic dip in advertising revenue amid the sudden economic downturn, the long-struggling newspaper cut 22 journalists from its payroll. Among them, Zeltner.
“It’s very difficult to watch what is going on in the world right now and be a health reporter,” she said, “and not be able to be out and about covering it.”
A tsunami of layoffs, cutbacks, furloughs and closures has washed over newsrooms across the United States over the past month — a time, ironically, when readership and viewership is surging with consumers in search of reliable information about the virus.
The Tampa Bay Times laid off 11 journalists and stopped five days of its print edition. Seattle’s Pulitzer-winning weekly the Stranger laid off 18 staffers and stopped printing altogether. There have been layoffs at the Denver Post and Boston Herald and salary cuts at the Dallas Morning News. Some smaller papers are folding altogether.
Small businesses of all kinds are hurting everywhere, of course; and this month’s cuts follow more than a decade of shrinkage for the media industry. As readers started to gravitate to online sources, news sites have struggled to claim a piece of a national Web advertising market increasingly dominated by bigger players.
But this frailty had seemed almost manageable — until recent weeks when the coronavirus turned it into an urgent existential threat, striking at local businesses that had been the last pillar of support for many news organizations.
The upshot is a void: stories that aren’t being covered and news that isn’t reaching readers and viewers because there’s no one to report them.
“There’s a huge appetite for what we do right now,” says Paul Tash, chairman and chief executive of the Tampa Bay paper, which until last week had never missed a print edition for almost 96 years. “On the other hand, the advertisers that subsidize our business are under enormous strain. . . . For many, many of our local businesses, [the lockdown] is a terrible reversal.”
John Maldjian, 54, of Rumson, was charged Sunday with reckless endangerment, disorderly conduct and violating NJ Gov. Murphy’s coronavirus order prohibiting public gatherings
John Maldjian, 54, of Rumson, was charged Sunday with reckless endangerment, disorderly conduct and violating Gov. Murphy’s executive order. (Shutterstock)
RUMSON, NJ — The New Jersey Attorney General identified the Rumson man who police say hosted a gathering of about 30 people Saturday evening at his Blackpoint Road home, to listen to a live performance of Pink Floyd hits — at the height of the coronavirus epidemic, and when healthy adults are being urged to social distance and avoid large gatherings.
John Maldjian, 54, of Rumson, was charged Sunday by Rumson police with reckless endangerment, disorderly conduct and two separate charges related to violating Gov. Murphy’s emergency orders not to have social gatherings. All the charges are disorderly persons offenses. He has also been charged with violating two Rumson borough ordinances.
And that’s not all: Charges for certain members to who attended the party are forthcoming, warned the Attorney General. Several audience members were disorderly and refused to disperse when asked, said Rumson police.
As Patch initially reported, Rumson police say that at approximately 8:19 p.m. Saturday evening, April 3, they were called to Maldjian’s home for a report of a large party with a band. Police say when they arrived, they discovered the homeowner, Maldjian, together with another man, playing acoustic guitars on the front porch of the home.
There were approximately 30 people, between the ages of 40 and 50, gathered on Maldjian’s front lawn and the adjoining street watching the performance, said police. Some had lawn chairs and alcoholic beverages.Subscribe
The concert, with two guitarists with microphones and amplifiers, also was being broadcast live on Facebook, police said.
“Despite the fact that police were on scene with flashing lights attempting to disperse the crowd, the band continued playing,” said the AG’s office in a statement. “It was not until a Rumson officer directly approached Maldjian that he stopped singing and playing. Maldjian then told his Facebook Live audience (he was streaming his performance) that he had to stop playing.”
A coalition of environmentalists and community advocates is calling for Gov. Phil Murphy to stop proceedings for large development projects.
The reason, they argue, is that people are unable to easily give their input on project applications because of government limits on gatherings in response to the growing COVID-19 epidemic.
The group Empower NJ, a coalition of more than 60 environmental organizations, called for Murphy to temporarily halt all state and municipal meetings on permits and applications for projects like transportation infrastructure and gas pipeline construction.
“Some governmental actions are undermining the public’s right to participate in government decision-making on consequential projects, policies, and regulations,” Empower NJ wrote in a letter to the governor on Friday.
Representatives of the governor’s office did not immediately return emails from the Asbury Park Press for comment on Monday.
Empower NJ groups say that projects are currently being heard without easily accessible public hearings. These projects — which include a gas power plant and numerous contentious proposals — could harm New Jersey’s environment, exacerbate flooding, and be decided without public input, the organizations argue.
“In a time of a health emergency, the government at the state or local level should not use this as a way to hide projects from the public,” said Jeff Tittel, director of the New Jersey Sierra Club, an environmental advocacy group. “The government still has to function as an open government. However, there are still major projects moving forward where the public does not have access to participate in.”
Construction is one of the business activities excluded from the governor’s prohibition on gatherings, retail and most non-essential business.
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States are changing policies as an old debate gains new traction. Research shows consumers could wash reusables more, but there’s no clear proof single-use bags are less likely to spread coronavirus.
Permission granted by Kroeger
Leslie Nemo reports for WasteDive
Coronavirus upheaval has halted evictions, converted factories into ventilator and hand sanitizer producers and reshaped lives. The virus also seems to be disrupting something unexpected: Plastic bag bans.
Like most responses to the pandemic, initial steps came at the local level, with cities and states pulling back on proposed or enacted bag bans. Some of these choices are based on logistical issues: Boston reinstated their use, citing a need for stores to serve customers any way they can, for example. Massachusetts followed suit with more drastic measures: banning reusable bags and preempting local bag bans across the entire state. Maine has delayed its planned ban, which was supposed to kick-off on April 22nd. Connecticut lifted a 10-cent fee on plastic bags that just went into place last year and Hawaii County, Hawaii has also suspended its own plastic bag ban.
Another state taking a stance during the pandemic linked its choice to sanitation concerns — something the Plastics Industry Association echoed in a letter to federal health authorities. New Hampshire temporarily banned reusable bag use, which Gov. Chris Sununu tweeted was because of concerns the bags could spread the virus. In a letter to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), the Plastics Industry Association requested that the agency issue a statement on what the association calls “the health and safety benefits seen in single-use plastics.”
This claim comes despite the fact that experts Waste Dive spoke with aren’t aware of any scientific evidence that single-use plastic bags are less likely to spread SARS-CoV-2. Additionally, the American Recyclable Plastic Bag Alliance, an industry association promoting plastic bag use, declined to offer any evidence proving its product is less prone to spreading the virus. While preexisting public health research indicates shoppers could be keeping their reusable bags cleaner, emerging research on the brand-new virus shows details are still evolving about where and how long the pathogen can survive.
As preliminary as much of the coronavirus information is, it is worth nothing that major public health bodies have yet to issue a statement on risks from reusable bags, John Hocevar, the oceans campaign director of Greenpeace, told Waste Dive. “Trust the health professionals first and foremost,” he said. “This is not an alarm they’re raising.”
Epidemiologists still have a lot to learn about COVID-19. Experts believe the primary transmission mode is via respiratory droplets, which people inhale from one another if they stand too close. It’s possible those specks of moisture land on surfaces, and that people could touch virus-laden materials and then touch their faces, giving themselves the disease. Though the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention doesn’t think this is the main way SARS-CoV-2 spreads, the risk is part of why the agency recommends frequent hand-washing and disinfecting regularly-touched items in the home.
As for how long the virus survives on surfaces without a soapy or disinfectant intervention, researchers only have preliminary estimates. Initial research in the New England Journal of Medicine showed the pathogen lingers on stainless steel and plastic for two to three days, and cardboard for about 24 hours. Other new research on viruses related to SARS-CoV-2, in the Journal of Hospital Infection, shows those pathogens can persist on paper or PVC for up to five days.
No published studies have assessed SARS-CoV-2 survival on textiles or paper, however. Lab tests also hold humidity and room temperature constant for an entire week. If those conditions change — as they do in real life — survival situations can change, as noted in a March 25 webinar by the American Society of Safety Professionals.
There’s also been little investigation into whether reusable shopping bags spread disease. In 2018, a team of public health researchers sprayed reusable grocery bags with fake norovirus particles, handed them to shoppers and swabbed every surface the customer touched. The researchers picked up the fake virus with every swab and found the highest concentrations on the shopper’s hands, the checkout stand and the clerk’s hands.
With hands serving as hot-spots for this fake virus, the study backs up how important hand washing and hygiene are. “That’s really boring, probably, to hear,” said Ryan Sinclair, study co-author and public health researcher at Loma Linda University. But the sanitation measure is important.
Because their work also showed that reusable bags spread the fake virus around the store, Sinclair said he thinks it’s worth switching to disposable bags for the time being. Bags from home touch cars, grocery carts, conveyor belts and people’s hands. Sinclair thinks it’s important to minimize the amount of crossover between public and private spaces during the current health crisis.
“We need to work to minimize the wasteful use of plastics,” he said, “but while we’re in this pandemic, we definitely need to find another solution.”
His 2018 research didn’t receive any outside funding, though a PR group recently reached out to Sinclair to write about his thoughts on reusable bag use during the pandemic. The Plastics Industry Association letter to HHS also mentioned an attached affidavit from Sinclair supporting its claim that disposable bags are more sanitary. When asked if those behind the Plastics letter hired the PR group to contact Sinclair for the statement, the American Recyclable Plastic Bag Alliance declined to participate in this story.
The American Recyclable Plastic Bag Alliance also declined to comment when asked for scientific evidence indicating that single-use plastic bags are less likely to spread SARS-CoV-2 or other viruses. The lack of evidence presented has sustainability advocates skeptical of these claims.
If the pathogen lingers on plastic, disposable bags are as susceptible to hosting the virus as reusable plastic versions, said Judith Enck, founder of Beyond Plastics and a former U.S. EPA regional administrator. Plus, Enck said, “the bags have traveled the world and have been sitting in the store where a lot of people are,” and aren’t immune to being sneezed on or coughed over.
Additionally, reusable bags can get washed, a solution that public health researchers and waste reduction advocates agree on. A 2011 survey — which received support from the American Chemistry Council, an organization supported by plastics producers — found that 97% of shoppers never wash their reusable bags.
Since the research also found a sampling of reusable bags harbored potentially-harmful bacteria, Chuck Gerba, a University of Arizona researcher who wrote the paper along with Sinclair, agrees with his co-author. For now, shoppers should use disposable bags and eventually return to reusable options. When relying on reusables again, “treat them like your underwear,” Gerba said. Wash them after every use and don’t use them for anything besides groceries.
Enck points out that the bacteria Gerba found on reusable bags isn’t necessarily a stand-in for viruses, and thinks it’s worth simply advocating for better bag sanitation now.
“I am very concerned about the coronavirus, and if I saw anything to suggest that reusable bags are a problem, I would say let’s pause on them for a while,” she said. Without that evidence, Enck thinks it’s preferable to wash bags regularly and be mindful of where they go. “You know when you washed it and who else was touching it.”
Enck thinks this approach of more thoroughly and regularly cleaning reusable items can carry over into our post-pandemic life, too. Though the plastic industry paints reusables as unsanitary, the appeal of being in control of who touches and washes your mugs and bags might ultimately win over consumers, Enck said. In a sign that not every state shares long-term sanitation fears over reusable bags, Washington Gov. Jay Inslee signed legislation last week enacting a plastic bag ban starting January 2021.
In the meantime, the lack of definitive evidence for the sanitary superiority of single-use bags indicates that the single-use plastic industry is trying to capitalize on people’s fear, in Greenpeace’s view. Without that proof, Hocevarsaid, perhaps conversations should be dedicated to clearer, pressing concerns.
“I would like to see the focus of our conversation about health and safety right now focused on the threats that we know are real,” he said.
Related news stories: NJ enviro groups support 54 towns in retaining plastic bag bans NJ’s leading environmental groups are reaching out to support and help NJ’s 54 mayors and towns defend their single use plastics bag bans in response to what they call a bullying and misinformation campaign by Plastics industry and the NJ Food Council InsiderNJ
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Utility-scale wind farms can do a lot more than just feed electricity into the grid. Could unlocking their ability to provide ancillary grid services help to stimulate California’s moribund wind market?
In tests conducted at the Tule wind farm in San Diego County last year, California’s grid operator determined that the project could provide essential services to the grid. The ability to provide those ancillary services could make it easier to add variable renewable energy sources to the grid, according to the California Independent System Operator (CAISO), which published a report (PDF) on the research project this month.
The 131-megawatt Tule project, which is operated by Avangrid Renewables, is equipped with an inverter-based smart controller that sends signals to all 57 turbines in the project, allowing them to operate as a single plant.
The tests determined that ancillary services typically provided by natural-gas generators, such as voltage regulation control, active power control and frequency response, can be supplied by a commercial wind farm outfitted with a plant-level controller.
“This means wind can be another way to inject stability into the grid from renewables sources and to create commercial paths for incorporating rising amounts onto the grid,” Clyde Loutan, report co-author and renewable energy adviser at CAISO, said in a statement (PDF).
CAISO conducted the tests in partnership with Avangrid Renewables, the National Renewable Energy Laboratory and General Electric, the plant’s turbine manufacturer. Previous CAISO-led tests had already established that utility-scale solar PV plants can provide grid services
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The textile mills and dye houses that gave Paterson the nickname Silk City are almost all gone, but one that has survived the endless trade wars is now stepping up in America’snewly declared “war” on the coronavirus.
Until two weeks ago, LBU Inc. was cranking out tote bags with corporate logos at a 130-year-old factory in Paterson’s Bunker Hill section. Then the virus invaded America and shut down much of the economy, and suddenly there wasn’t much demand for the company’s products.
So heeding the calls of state and federal officials, LBU has hastily switched to more precious merchandise. Repurposed in a matter of days, the factory is now churning out 100,000 cloth face masks and gowns a week, items in desperately short supply for health care workers fighting the outbreak.
“We were very busy before this, but once the coronavirus hit here, everything just stopped,” owner Jeffrey Mayer said during a tour on Wednesday. “But we were able to repurpose quickly. I didn’t have to lay off my workers, and we’re proud to be making protective gear that hospitals, nursing homes and other medical workers will need.”
Nationwide, hospitals dealing with the outbreak face a severe shortage of masks, gloves and other “personal protective equipment” needed to keep medical staff safe. “We are in desperate need of more PPE,” Gov. Phil Murphy said Sunday, as he repeated a plea for more equipment from a federal stockpile.
LBU’s white, woven masks won’t replace the most in-demand N95 masks, the type that filter out 95% of airborne particles. But they’re still useful for local nursing homes, doctor’s offices and support staff in hospitals and can help relieve the demand those workers have put on the N95 stock, Mayer said.
The quick switch at LBU caught the attention of Paterson Mayor Andre Sayegh, who on Wednesday paid a visit to Mayer and his 100 workers with the factory in full throttle. Each mask is made by hand, so there was little time for celebration, and the workers spent most of the time hunched over sewing machines or cutting fabric.
Sayegh echoed President Donald Trump’s recent assertion that America is “at war” with the coronavirus. Paterson manufacturing once played a big role in World War II, cranking out military hardware for planes, tanks and artillery, he noted.
“We helped to win one war, and we’ll do it again,” Sayegh said.
A worker holds up a line of masks at LBU Inc., in Paterson, NJ on Wednesday March 25, 2020. Until a week ago, LBU Inc., was manufacturing backpacks and cosmetic supply cases. Now it’s churning out 100,000 protective masks a week, with plans to double that capacity by next week. (Photo: Mitsu Yasukawa/ Northjersey.com)
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By ANDREW WAGAMAN THE MORNING CALL |MAR 23, 2020 | 8:55 PM
Nat Hyman appears before Allentown City Council in October 2018.(APRIL GAMIZ / THE MORNING CALL)
Allentown (Pa) developer Nat Hyman apologized Monday for a letter his property management company sent to tenants amid the COVID-19 pandemic threatening to evict those who didn’t pay rent on time.
The Hyman Properties letter, which provoked a furor on social media, began by acknowledging that “these are difficult times,” and that many tenants in the last few weeks “may have lost your jobs and/or be on unemployment.”
“Despite these circumstances, you are required to pay your rent on time,” the letter continued. “While this may sound like we are being uncaring, please keep in mind that all of our expenses, including bank mortgages, taxes, insurance, etc. continue to be due and payable on time. Our policies to enforce the payment of rent remain exactly as they were before.”
Tenants who pay rent April 2-5 would be charged a $50 late fee, the letter stated. The company threatened to file evictions and disconnect cable for tenants who did not pay rent in full by April 6.
“If you are not able to pay your rent in full, please contact the office and we will arrange a date for you to move out of your apartment,” the letter stated.
The Pennsylvania Supreme Court ruled last week that no one can be evicted, ejected or otherwise displaced from a home because of failure to make rent or mortgage payments during a court shutdown, which will extend through at least April 3.
Reached Monday evening, Hyman apologized for the letter, which he said was written by one of his managers and was “not worded as well as it could have been.”
Hyman assured that no tenant will be evicted during the pandemic, and that the intent was to “remind people that rent isn’t a negotiable bill.” All too often, he lamented, tenants stop paying rent before they stop paying cable and utility bills.
Later Monday, Hyman issued a written apology via text, calling the letter “totally insensitive.”
“I’ve spent all week trying to negotiate with the banks, but they have shown very little movement,” he wrote. “I asked one of my managers to make sure that we get in as much rent as possible to pay the banks. In writing this letter, the manager should have been more sensitive, but I have to own this because I am the boss.”
Hyman reiterated that he will not try to evict any tenants during this crisis, and that he was wrong for allowing the letter to go out.
Ortega shared emails in which he asked Hyman directly if they could wait to pay rent until they get their first unemployment checks. Hyman didn’t budge.
“Go file tomorrow and you should have no problem having your money in time to pay the rent,” he wrote.
Ortega said he was hopeful the backlash on social media would persuade Hyman to work with tenants.
“People don’t deserve to be bullied, especially not right now,” he said.
Hyman has 15 properties in Allentown, many of which are older industrial buildings he’s redeveloped into middle-income and affordable lofts. He’s also the CEO of Landau Jewelers, a costume jewelry company.
Hyman ran for mayor in 2017 and has said he’s giving a 2021 run “serious consideration.”
Morning Call reporter Andrew Wagaman can be reached at 610-820-6764 or awagaman@mcall.com.
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Manufacturers are producing as many as they can to care for Covid-19 patients with breathing problems. Now the federal government is asking for even more.
Ventilators vary widely in cost and size, but their purpose is the same: They force oxygen into the patient’s lungs, usually through intubation.PHOTOGRAPH: RONALD BONSS/GETTY IMAGE
Gregory Barber reports for Wired
ERIC GJERDE, CEO of Airon Corporation, a small ventilator maker in Gainesville, Florida, has been getting far more business than he’d like in recent weeks. An Italian company asked him for 2,000 machines. His distributor in California, working with state officials there, asked for 500 more. Normally, his company sells 50 “in a good month,” Gjerde says, and they only keep so many parts on hand. He told the Italians no, and he told the Californians he’d do his best. “America has to come first,” he says.
On Monday, the California distributor came back to him: Could he send another 200? “Of course they want them today, and you just can’t do that,” Gjerde says. “Making ventilators is not a trivial process.” But again he said he’d do what he could.
As the number of Covid-19 cases surges, state governments and hospitals are clamoring for more ventilators and facing a dearth of supplies. The machines are a critical component in treating the most severe cases of the disease, in which inflammation restricts the amount of oxygen a person’s lungs can take up on their own. Ventilators vary widely in cost and size, from portable units used at home and in ambulances to much larger machines found in intensive care units, but their purpose is the same: They force oxygen into the patient’s lungs, usually through intubation.
Some estimates suggest demand for ventilators may quickly overwhelm US hospitals’ supply, which includes about 160,000 machines, plus 12,000 more in federal reserves, according to a recent tally by Johns Hopkins researchers. Not all of those machines are suited to critical care and, of course, many of them are already in use by people with other respiratory conditions.
Whether the nation will face a shortage depends on whether social distancing measures can flatten the curve, reducing the number of people who need hospitalization at the same time, says Craig Coopersmith, director of critical care at Emory University School of Medicine. “Right now we’re OK, but there will be shortages if the pandemic becomes severe enough,” he says. For a preview, doctors need only look to the hardest-hit parts of Italy and China.
Days after telling governors to fend for themselves in obtaining critical supplies like ventilators, President Donald Trump on Wednesday announced he would invoke the Defense Production Act to ramp up the manufacture of critical supplies, including ventilators. Passed in 1950 at the start of the Korean War, the act allows the federal government to step in to ensure the steady flow of goods, including military weapons but also food and health supplies.
On Tuesday, Secretary of Defense Mark Esper also announced that his agency would distribute 2,000 ventilators from their own reserve to the Department of Health and Human Services, but noted that these machines are different from ones normally used in civilian settings and would require special training from defense personnel.
It’s unclear what the immediate effect of Trump’s announcement will be, although it will allow federal agencies to order needed supplies from manufacturers. The question is whether new machines can be produced quickly enough. “The problem I have is that people have been seeing this coming for a long time and governments and hospitals just have not stockpiled,” Gjerde says. “These can sit in a box and never be touched.” For now, he’s had to say no to international orders, despite having distributors in Taiwan and Italy beg him for more.
Retooling a complex supply chain to build more machines quickly will be difficult. Airon relies on suppliers across the Midwest to make the valves and tubing, while another supplier in Washington makes each machine’s casing. A few parts come from China. Gjerde’s looking into whether he can get the circuit boards he needs produced locally.
More top-down coordination could potentially help, says Chris Brooks, chief strategy officer of Ventec, a ventilator maker based near Seattle. The company, which typically ships 100 machines per month, has seen immediate demand for thousands of machines. “Our hope is that we don’t need as many ventilators as people are saying,” he says.
In the United Kingdom, the British government is pushing for large manufacturers to switch from making cars and airplane engines to ventilator equipment. But Gjerde says that even the best engineering teams that are not used to making medical machinery will find it hard to reorient quickly. “They don’t know the nature of the beast,” says Gjerde, who’s received an offer of aid from an auto parts manufacturer in Canada. For certain components, it might be feasible, he says, but “it’s just too dangerous to be thrown into the hands of people who don’t know what they’re doing.”
In the meantime, some have taken to creative hacks, like open-sourcing schematics for the design of ventilator parts for 3D printing. In Italy, the approach was used to quickly produce much-needed valve replacements, reportedly over the objections of a ventilator manufacturer that threatened a patent lawsuit. On Twitter, ER doctors have traded tips on how to split ventilator tubes between multiple people.
