In the USA, the mantra of “personal freedom” rings loud. Combine this with a poorly-educated electorate and an obsession with the stock markets – you get a weak (deadly) pandemic response.
Nine days after the White House declared a Covid-19 national emergency, President Trump told reporter Bob Woodward: “I wanted to always play it down. I still like playing it down, because I don’t want to create a panic.”
This is like Captain of The Titanic spotting an iceberg ahead, and refusing to adjust the rudder, in case that action looked jittery.
Not one of 53 Republican Senators or 197 Republican Congresspeople saw fit to criticize or modulate the President’s “let’s-ignore-this” Covid-19 strategy.
That’s a total of 250 senior U.S. elected officials who stood by and compliantly nodded their heads while Americans died. History will not judge them kindly.
Meanwhile communist China locked the whole country down for two months, and promptly beat the virus into submission.
In a Western democracy, it is not possible to “socially engineer” a mature collective response to this pandemic, so we are destined to fight COVID-19 with an array of counter-measures.
On October 27, 2020 Sixth Wave (SIXW.C) announced that it has received a $250,000 contribution from the Nova Scotia COVID-19 Response Council (NSCRC) “for the development of its proposed AMIPs (accelerated molecularly imprinted polymer system) technology for the rapid detection of viruses such as SARS-CoV-2”.
SIXW is a nanotechnology company focusing on extraction and detection of target substances at the molecular level using highly specialized Molecularly Imprinted Polymers (MIPs).
Under the terms of the agreement, Sixth Wave will continue to develop an accelerated molecularly imprinted polymer specifically for the purpose of quickly and selectively binding to the virus.
The proposed technology contemplates the rapid delivery of a visual and/or electronic response upon the detection and verification of the virus
MIP has commercial applications for gold processing, CBD extraction and health sciences.
Right now, SIXW is going hard on COVID-19 solutions.
“A virus has a size and shape and we create an imprint in our polymer for that exact virus,” explained President, CEO and Founder Dr. Jonathan Gluckman, “We are working to integrate this into masks and breathalyzers.”
“If you think about putting a mask on,” added Gluckman, “not only will that mask provide protection, it can also, right there, be the test for COVID-19.”
Dr. Gluckman believes that the test will be cheaper, faster, less invasive, and easier to use – than competing technologies.
In the wake of the NSCRC $250,000 grant, SIXW’s intention is “to incorporate the AMIPs technology into a several rapid-detection products, including rapid virus test kits, SmartMask, as well as air and water monitoring systems”.
“The ability to have the AMIPs detection and reporting directly integrated into devices such as personal protective equipment (PPE) will seamlessly provide the detection and the ability to automatically disseminate results for use in outbreak tracking and contact tracing (as may be implemented by appropriate government agencies),” stated SIXW, “The development of the air monitoring technology is the subject of the company’s previously approved and announced (June 15, 2020) collaboration with York University and Centre Technologique des Residus Industriels, which has received support from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC).
This project represents the first outside funding in the development of the company’s proposed AMIPs virus-detection technology and expands the Sixth Wave footprint in Nova Scotia.
“Our sincere appreciation to the Province of Nova Scotia for its participation in this project,” stated Gluckman, “Sixth Wave has a substantial history of delivering similarly complex MIP-based [molecularly imprinted polymer] solutions within limited timelines, as evidenced by our explosives detection wipes and bacterial pathogen diagnostic tools.”
“We welcome this opportunity to once again prove the utility of molecular imprinting as a detection and diagnostic tool,” added Gluckman, “especially in circumstances of such importance to public health and security.”
SIXW COVID-19 MIP Core Technology Highlights:
- Captures the virus using polymer rather than relying on antibodies grown in rabbits.
- Operates in more diverse environments because the polymer is more robust and stable than antibodies.
- No supply chain issues associated with growing and transporting antibodies.
- No killing of lab bunnies.
- Multiple applications – mask can be worn several times.
- Extended time period test (users breaths/mask-wearer collects samples
- Improved effective detection threshold (you can’t keep swabbing or spitting onto a lateral flow test).
- Did we mention no bunny-killing?
- No waiting in a line to give a sample.
- synthetic nature, highly saleable and infinitely adaptable platform, because it does not require the cultivation of antigens or collection of antibodies.
- Radical reduction in costs.
This last point – cost reduction – will be an important differentiator for any future commercial product.
“MIP-based analytical technologies are known for their flexibility, durability and accuracy,” confirmed Dr. Garrett Kraft, PhD, head of the Sixth Wave project, “Polymer substrates demonstrate resilience under adverse conditions and do not require climate-controlled storage as many antibody-based tests do.”
“They can therefore be readily applied to a host of materials, fabrics and other test media,” added Kraft, “These attributes, along with low cost and production scalability, have the potential to set AMIPs apart from traditional PCR [polymerase chain reaction] and immunoassay tests.”
SIXW is not making any express or implied claims that its product has the ability to eliminate, cure or contain COVID-19 (or SARS-2 coronavirus) at this time.
AMIPs tests produced for personal use or point-of-care use will be subject to regulatory approval.
After the publication of Bob Woodward’s book “Rage”, Trump told reporters that he did not deliberately mislead the American public on how dangerous the virus was.
“I didn’t lie, what I said is we have to be calm, we can’t be panicked,” stated Trump.
He added: “I don’t want to jump up and down and start screaming, ‘death, death’.”
Some 226,000 Americans have died from Covid-19 since the beginning of the pandemic.
Even in this science-skeptical society, we believe there will be a market for an affordable re-usable mask that can detect Covid-19.
- Lukas Kane
Equity Guru’s own Chris Parry recently spoke with company CEO and founder, Jonathan Gluckman, PhD., in a two-parter interview to get a better look at the operation and what investors can expect over the next 12 months. Tune in!
Full Disclosure: Sixth Wave is an Equity Guru marketing client.
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