Missouri business owner hopes product can help with COVID-19 detection, preparation
DREXEL, Mo. (KMIZ)
A Missouri business owner says his product could help prevent the spread of the newly discovered strain of the coronavirus.
The problem, according to InnovaPrep CEO David Alburty, is getting a hold of someone within the system that might be interested.
InnovaPrep takes up several buildings in the downtown area of Drexel, a city 30 minutes south of Kansas City. The company creates a device called the Bobcat that collects an air sample that can be tested for various virus strains. Alburty said that could include the novel coronavirus, which has killed thousands of people across the world.
“It isn’t a clinical in vitro diagnostic of a person, it’s a diagnostic of an atmosphere you're in to see if it’s infectious and if it can make you sick,” Alburty said.
The government should be aware of Alburty’s product, he said. He received grants from both the federal and state government to start up his business in 2009. The Department of Defense has some of their technology for biological defense. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention used their products to identify a strain of avian flu in a 2019 study.
Alburty said he understands many decision makers may be busy. In his quest to find the right person to speak with, though, he discovered many government web pages dedicated to disaster response were broken.
“Agencies and emails and website redirects that crash and 404,” Alburty said, referring to the Internet service error. “These systems have not been maintained and its fall on fewer and fewer people in the same way its fallen on fewer and fewer resources. You know the entire reporting system is atrophied like a muscle that hasn't been used.”
Missouri has not yet seen a case of COVID-19, the deadly disease caused by the virus. State health department leader Dr. Randall Williams said on Monday that local governments would get kits to test patients that may be infected.
Department spokesperson Lisa Cox told ABC 17 News that the agency did not have any plans yet to buy air testing kits as part of its response to the coronavirus spread.
Alburty has experience in developing technology used to respond to biological threats. He was part of the team that created devices for the U.S. Postal Service to test for anthrax in 2001 following several deaths from the substance.
Alburty said that the federal response to the virus may just be starting. He cited slow test results from the CDC’s lab in Atlanta as an example of a system that has not seen attention in some time. That inattention, he said, could cause panic when diseases begin to spread.
“I think that it is hard to start it when it hasn't been an issue and it hasn't been a priority for a while,” Alburty said.
