| Pedestrian |
Mar 29, 2020 8:28 PM |
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Originally Posted by CaliNative
(Post 8877589)
I think a retest of the lows is likely, so I started buying a few SPY puts last week (I had quite a few back in early March so did well with them when the market broke down a few weeks ago). But I do like many of the pharma stocks still (MRK, NVS, SNY and smaller GILD). Should hold up well. Pay good dividends as well. As far as mask makers go, 3M and Honeywell make the N95s in big demand, but the masks are just a small part of their business (larger lately). A purer play in masks and other protective gear is Canadian company Alpha ProTech (APT). I just saw a report on CNN that APT have started making a lot of N95s at a new plant in Utah. They own the Canadian market. Have some Hormel shares--people can't get enough of the canned food, including Spam. The good old standards like KO & PEP should hold up even if the market returns to the lows or even breaks below them (SPY $180-200???). But the worst of the crash was probably the day the Dow fell almost 3000. Once the market seems to bottom might buy some infrastructure plays--CAT, etc. Infrastructure spending should pick up once the covid goes away to put people to work. War on potholes. Also Ag commodities like corn & wheat do seem very cheap. Might buy some. The peak covid may disrupt normal planting, so supplies might be constrained. CORN & WEAT & DBA look like good ETFs to buy now--they also offer call options which are cheap. CORN Aug & Nov calls look like a winner.
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I'm leery of buying mask and other acute PPE suppliers because I suspect within months their products could be no longer in shortage and will eventually be in oversupply. But for those who must buy them, Owens & Minor is a US small-cap heavily into those. I agree with most of the rest of what you said and own KO calls as well as ADM (there's your corn and wheat). Thinking there may eventually be an infrastructure stimulus, I also sold puts in CAT and URI and may buy some calls.
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Question about the masks. I bought some Curad antiviral surgical masks a few months ago for the flu season. They do claim to filter out the viruses, but they have the loose edges so air can get in through the sides. I wonder if the sides can be taped with duck tape or some other tape like that? Even if the masks don't block all the viruses, they do prevent me from touching my mouth, nose and eyes (have glasses) which is the way the virus gets in. So they are useful. As far as sterilizing the masks for reuse, would a few minutes in an oven at 180-200 degrees F. do the trick? I also wear surgical gloves and carry Purel sanitizer. I am more prepared than most. Looks foolish, but who cares? It pays to be a germaphobe in these times.
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Yes, you can tape the sides of your masks--medical people do it all the time. As for sterilizing them, DON'T PUT THEM IN THE OVEN. PUT THEM IN THE MICROWAVE (assuming they don't have any metal), but not for too long. 15-20 seconds will probably do it.
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Microwave or autoclave treatments destroy the infectivity of infectious bronchitis virus and avian pneumovirus but allow detection by reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction
G. Elhafi, C. J Naylor, C. E. Savage and R. C. Jones*
Department of Veterinary Pathology, University of Liverpool, Leahurst, Neston, South Wirral, CH64 7TE, UK
A method is described for enabling safe transit of denatured virus samples for polymerase chain reaction (PCR) identification without the risk of unwanted viable viruses. Cotton swabs dipped in avian infectious bronchitis virus (IBV) or avian pneumovirus (APV) were allowed to dry. Newcastle disease virus and avian influenza viruses were used as controls. Autoclaving and microwave treatment for as little as 20 sec destroyed the infectivity of all four viruses. However, both IBV and APV could be detected by reverse transcriptase (RT)-PCR after autoclaving and as long as 5 min microwave treatment (Newcastle disease virus and avian influenza viruses were not tested). Double microwave treatment of IBV and APV with an interval of 2 to 7 days between was tested. After the second treatment, RT-PCR products were readily detected in all samples. Swabs from the tracheas and cloacas of chicks infected with IBV shown to contain infectious virus were microwaved. Swabs from both sources were positive by RT-PCR. Microwave treatment appears to be a satisfactory method of inactivating virus while preserving nucleic acid for PCR identification.
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https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/...eedAccess=true
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Can Your Microwave at Home Kill Viruses?
The short answer is YES. In fact, there is research on using the microwave in your kitchen to kill lethal viruses like HIV (1). How much for how long?
First, there’s the power of your microwave. This is measured in watts. The higher the watts, the shorter the cooking time. The above study used a wattage of 800. The average microwave oven these days has a wattage of about 1,000 (from my review of what’s being sold on Google). It seems hard to buy a microwave with less than 700 watts, so yours likely has more than enough power.
Second, for how long do you need to cook? The above study observed the destruction of the virus at 2 minutes at 800 watts. So 2 minutes in the average microwave should be more than enough time.
How About Coronaviruses?
Another study looked at the coronavirus called IBV (Avian Coronavirus) and a kitchen microwave (wattage not reported but they noted that this was a kitchen model) (2). The researchers couldn’t isolate this coronavirus (meaning it was dead) with an exposure of as little as 5 seconds!
How Does this Work?
Viruses contain plenty of hydroxyl groups that vibrate as shown in the animation above. These produce heat. Most experts believe that it’s the heat that really kills the virus. However, the one study above that shows that 5 seconds works, may mean it’s more than the heat.
My Recommendations?
We know that the coronavirus is deactivated by heat (3). 56C (132 F) reduces the alive virus by 10,000 times by 15 minutes. Hotter temps will kill more virus more quickly. Hence, I would heat your food for 2 minutes or so, getting it boiling hot. For example, I was reheating chili which I microwaved for 2 minutes until I saw it begin to boil. I then took it out and cooled it off by stirring it which took a few minutes and then jumped in!
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https://regenexx.com/blog/coronaviru...l-coronavirus/
The problem with microwaving is that some things that can catch on fire or melt (certain plastics) and metal, of course, arcs. I think that may preclude microwaving for several minutes but you can experiment a little. I'm leaning on the research that says as little as 5 seconds can do it. I've found that microwaving my newspaper 15 seconds on a side doesn't ignite it or do much harm at all. One other poster said he's doing his 20 seconds on a side.
There's research on microwaving sponges to kill viruses that concludes that minutes, not seconds are needed but germs get into the interior of sponges. With newspapers or masks, they'd all be on the surface. Like I said, do some experimenting with how long you can blast the mask without doing any damage. |
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